Your course
The Department’s ethos is one of community, a community created by engagement between academics, students and the wider world.
The Department’s approach to learning is grounded on integrating staff scholarship with teaching and encourages you to take possession of your learning.
Politics students are taught using a mix of one-to-one supervision, lectures, seminars, workshops, group-work, projects, and dissertations.
These teaching methods are united by an underlying philosophy of inquiry based learning (what's this?). This is realised through a range of teaching methods designed to develop skills for critical thinking, information gathering and analysis, and then communicating your conclusions effectively to diverse audiences.
You will be taught by research active scholars who publish widely and are often major figures in their specialist fields. Some seminars, especially at Level 1, are led by our Teaching Associates. These are Ph.D. candidates who have undertaken training in teaching methods, closely supervised and monitored by the module leader.
At Level 3, students research and write dissertations and/or projects in which they deploy their analytical skills under the one-to-one supervision of an academic. The Department awards prizes to students who demonstrate an exceptional performance in their work.
All Politics students, irrespective of their specific degree, follow a common skills ‘spine’ through dedicated modules in each year. These develop the skills needed to study and analyse politics.
Central to teaching in Politics is fostering the development of your transferable skills. These are academic skills directly relevant to your future employability, such as research, communication, evaluation, analysis, and teamwork. These are developed further in individual modules.
The Department expects its students to engage fully with the teaching and learning process by attending classes and engaging with the wider intellectual life of the Department and University.
Feedback on your work is vital. It is available in many forms. All staff hold dedicated weekly consultation hours, and extensive written and oral feedback is available to students on all their work, including exams.