BA (Hons) Politics (with Foundation Year option)

Core units

• Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practice them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources. 
• Collaborative Communication Project: The unit focuses on the centrality of communicaiton, both as a process and as a project. Through the collaborative development of a communication solution to a specific communication problem, the unit aims to promote the principles and practices of team-based iterative project work. 
• Understanding Contemporary Britain: During this unit you will be introduced to key aspects of culture and society in Britain today. You will develop an understanding of the relationship between developments in culture, politics and society in the making of modern Britain and be able to identify a number of different critical perspectives on those developments. 
• Law & Government: You will trace a case study through the United Kingdom's political and legal system, following the case study from its inception in a political party's election manifesto, through the legislative process, to how the judiciary interprets its provisions within a court of law. Building out from this case study you will develop an understanding of practical and theoretical underpinnings of politics and law. 

Core units

• Critical Debates in Contemporary Politics: This unit explores contemporary politics to understand the context of debates that underpin ‘being woke’, culture wars, and the politics of Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Extinction Rebellion etc.
• Political Sociology: The unit explores how our identities, be they of race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, or sexuality, influence the distribution of political power and so the sense of belonging which determines political engagement and behaviour.
• History of Political Thought: What have been the big ideas that have impacted our thinking about revolutions, democracy and the role of the state from Antiquity until today? You’ll be introduced to classical texts from Plato to Karl Marx linked to debates about equality, liberty, gender, and many more issues, and you will examine their relevance for contemporary politics.
• Global Governance & International Relations: This unit introduces you to the interplay between states, corporations, the various non-state actors from Greenpeace to the United Nations, and global movements from Black Lives Matter to Occupy. We explore how all these actors influence the global and national political agenda around poverty, inequality, education and the rest of the UN Sustainable development goals.
• Researching Politics: This unit introduces you to the methods of acquiring data and building knowledge, plus skills required throughout the course and for your future employability, such as doing secondary research, conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, content and discourse analysis.
• Public Opinion and Persuasion: You'll learn core theory about the art and science of persuasion, questioning what this means in an era of climate breakdown, or even imminent "civilisational collapse"? How will publics respond to the unfolding ecological crises? We imagine persuasive futures, both utopian and dystopian.

Core units

• Digital Politics: This unit explores all impacts of digital communication from fake news and echo chambers to community solidarity and widening participation in civic life. Through exploring the impact of digital technologies on politics we develop practical skills in designing, implementing and critically evaluating the way digital communications are utilised in politics.
• Political Psychology: This unit takes a deep dive into the psychology of all things political. Why do we vote for certain parties? What attracts us to political leaders? Why might we join a protest? How do we respond to terrorist attacks? Why people believe conspiracy theories or reject scientific evidence? We investigate contemporary political events using key theories and methods from political psychology.
• Political Journalism: The unit analyses the role of news media for civic education, democratic accountability, and political engagement. As well as understanding the extent news media fulfil these normative roles, you will also have the opportunity to develop core journalistic skills, contributing to citizen journalist outlets.
• Civil Society and Social Movements: What are social movements? How do they form? What do they do? The unit explores contentious forms of political activity and protest that challenge institutionalised politics, including the evolution of the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matter, the democratic revolutions of the Arab World, and populist movements of the far right.
• Political Marketing & Campaigning: The unit explores how political organisations sell their ideas to citizens, how they gain a following, mobilise their supporters and how they succeed. The unit applies techniques from psychology, communication studies and marketing to investigate how campaigns are designed and executed, enabling you to develop critical and practical skills.

Option units (choose one)

• Global Current Affairs: You will engage with current debates in international and multimedia journalism, and be introduced to major global developments and their impact on news reporting. The aim is to develop your judgment and ability to link developments from different localities, periods and spheres of human activity, while dealing with issues of, and challenges to, professional practice.
• Globalisation & Marginalisation: You’ll explore how a series of global processes, institutions, and flows (of people, capital and commodities, for example) generate complex forms of inequality and marginalisation in the contemporary world, as well as some of the ways in which these developments are challenged and opposed.
• Strikes, Riots & Blackouts - Britain in the 1970s: You will explore the intense political and ideological social divisions of the time, often expressed in cultural forms including Punk and alternative and community media.
• Youth Culture & Politics 1945 - present: You will be introduced to the dynamics of youth-led and youth-majority political movements, exploring how campaigns can travel and spread across cities and nations
• The Cold War 1945 - 1991: You will examine key events such as the Berlin blockade, the Korean War, the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Soviet Union, as well as the ideological struggle behind the Eastern and Western blocs.
• Migration Histories 1800 - 1989: You will explore histories of migration and will examine different historical and geographical examples such as the Swedish, German, Italian and Eastern European emigration from Europe to North America in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Caribbean and Asian immigration to Britain in the post-war period, and East-West migration in the Cold War.
• Women & Equal Rights 1850 - 2000: This unit traces the campaigns and changes in British society that led to women being granted equal rights. It explores the background to significant events such as the 1866 suffrage petition, the 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act and 1970 Equal Pay legislation as well as evaluating the part played by key individuals for example Millicent Fawcett, Viscountess Rhondda and Barbara Castle.
• Trafficking, Migration & Criminality: You will consider the relationship between trafficking, migration and criminality. The unit looks at different forms of trafficking (including human trafficking, the drug trade, the global sex industry, organ trafficking and the smuggling of commodities) across a number of countries in Europe, North Africa, South East Asia and the United States and considers the trafficking industry in relation to South to North migration flows.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Choose either a 4-week or optional 30-week (minimum) placement, giving you the chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.

Core units

• International Relations, State Power & Public Diplomacy: How do states yield their soft power and manage their images in an era of uncertainty? This unit delves into the current challenges for diplomacy and diplomats, looking at both state and non-state actors and how they interact through diplomatic as well as public channels. You will critically evaluate current debates in the field such as strategic disinformation, narratives and memes, emotions in IR, immigration, protests and vaccine diplomacy.
• The Philosophy of Politics: The unit invites you to debate political philosophies and theories, from populism to anarchism, socialism to eco-feminism, utilitarianism to critical race theory. We journey from Jeremy Bentham's "greatest happiness of the greatest number" to Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness", to Vandana Shiva's "earth democracy".
• Academic Dissertation or Consultancy Dissertation: The dissertation offers you an opportunity to become an expert on the topic that is of particular personal interest and passion. You will develop a study that connects your learning with real-world insights enabling you to develop and demonstrate your critical, analytical and research skills.

Option units (choose two)

• Aesthetics & Politics: This unit will examine the interaction between the creative arts and institutional and contentious politics. We analyse a range of creative work, such as portraits, popular culture, graffiti and music, to explore how both commissioned work and grassroots activism can communicate and challenge political power.
• Promotion, Power & Democracy: The unit explores the impact of promotional culture on politics, with an emphasis on the role of discourse in reproducing power, inequality, class or gender. You will analyse how ideas become popular and dominant, as well as suppressed or challenged within the information ecosystem of the digital age.
• Social & Intercultural Communication: This unit will provide you with an understanding of pertinent social and intercultural issues (both in the UK and internationally) and their impact upon contemporary professional communication practices. ‘Communication practices’ can include any form of interaction between individuals, groups, ‘communities’ and / or organisations that take place within an increasingly complex, diverse and interconnected world.
• Race, Media and Inequality: You will develop critical understandings of historical and contemporary issues and debates on the dynamics of race, ethnicity and culture in media and communication practice and political discourse. You will also develop the cultural competencies required to articulate the key issues and advance solutions for a specific industry.
• Persuasion & Influence: In this unit, we deepen our understanding of core concepts such as social influence, communicator credibility and the ethics of persuasion in the context of contemporary debates and examples, from the representation of HIV/Aids, to shock tactics and animal rights.
• The Shaping of the Middle East by Colonial Britain: This unit explores the post-First World War origins of today’s Middle East countries, and how and why they were created by the Allied victors.
• History & Political Struggle: International Perspectives through Film: You'll explore how key political events, ideas and conflicts in history are represented in fiction and non-fiction film.
• Terrorism, Protection & Society: The aim of this unit is to introduce you to many of the complex issues involved in conceptualising and responding to terrorism and protection in contemporary societies. You will be introduced to protection and counter-terrorism as a form of social regulation and control of individuals and ‘deviant’ groups (micro and meso issues) and prescribing ways in which society is ordered in an age of terrorist threat (macro-political issues). You will develop a deep critical understanding of the ways in which meanings are constructed and how these impact on social life. 
• Seekers, Believers & Iconoclasts: Sociology of Thought: This unit explores belief systems as a sociological phenomenon contextualised within a cultural and social analysis, as well as a philosophical and historical one.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Programme specification

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

A placement should be a highly rewarding experience for you and the employing company and we do our best to ensure that everyone involved feels that they have got the most that they can from the experience.

On your placement, you’ll get to:

• Put the theory learnt throughout the course into professional practice
• Enhance your study and help you decide on subject options (where appropriate)
• Learn a wide range of skills such as time management, problem solving and team work (all of these are important to succeed in any career)
• Make contacts, as it is not uncommon for our students to be offered permanent positions to return to after graduating
• Gain a real insight into how the industry operates in roles that would be almost impossible to achieve for an outsider.

Many of our students, during their placement, are given responsibilities normally associated with graduate trainees.

You will begin your placement after completion of your second year of study and you can choose to complete four weeks (on the three-year option of the course) or a minimum 30-week placement (on the four-year option).

The faculty running your course will offer the support of a Placement Co-ordinator. 

They’ll help you plan your placement to make sure you get the right experience for you. That includes offering help and support if you need to move to another part of the UK – and even another country – to get the most out of your time.

We’ve also built close industry links over the years – so our network of employers that are keen to work with placement students is always growing. Or if you’d prefer to arrange your placement independently, we can offer advice on how to do that too.

There are many contexts in which you could put what you learn to use in a professional environment on your placement – from media positions to working with politicians. Examples of our placement students’ employers include

• Office of Education and Quality
• Herts Mind Network
• Bournemouth West Conservative Association
• Citizens Advice
• Apollo Private Wealth

AccessBU: AccessBU provides you with the opportunity to tell us about your circumstances that are not always evident in your UCAS application. This widening access initiative also considers relevant criteria such as being in care or if you live in an area with a low participation rate in Higher Education - if you are eligible, your offer could be up to 16 UCAS tariff points below the published tariff.

Apprenticeships: We recognise the transferable knowledge and skills gained through apprenticeships and welcome applications from students with a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship recognised by the Institute for Apprenticeships. Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Deferred entry: We are happy to consider eligible applicants for deferred entry. If you have already submitted your application, please submit your deferral request through our website.

Direct entry: We welcome applications from students who have previously studied at degree level at other institutions and wish to transfer onto a BU course. Our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) procedure enables credit awarded from one institution to contribute to a BU award, subject to an application process. Please visit our RPL webpage for more information.

Mature applicants: We recognise that mature applicants may have a wealth of experience rather than formal qualifications, so we’ll consider your application on these merits if included in your application. You’ll need to apply to BU in the usual way through UCAS and you may be invited to an interview to discuss your suitability for the course based on the experience you tell us about in your application.

We select candidates for this course by looking at your application; there are usually no interviews or selection activities needed. For that reason, make sure your application really stands out from the crowd, and leave us in no doubt as to why you should be joining BU. You can find some handy hints about filling in your UCAS form on our how to apply web pages.

We look at individual applications and make a tailored offer based on your potential to succeed on the course considering a range of factors, including your academic achievements, work and other experience, reference and personal statement, and in some cases, your performance at an interview or a portfolio review. Typically, we make an offer at the bottom of the tariff range.

AccessBU gives you the chance to tell us more about you and your life experiences if you haven’t had the same educational opportunities as other applicants. If you are eligible for AccessBU, your offer could be up to 16 UCAS Tariff Points below the published tariff.

Our offer-making will typically be based on your most recent qualifications, including any required subjects where applicable. We'll consider all qualifications when assessing your application, although these may not be part of our offer.

If you do not meet the criteria of your original offer, we may still offer you a place. We will review your whole application and consider all academic qualifications (including those not in the offer) to see if you have the academic potential to succeed on the course. If we feel the answer is yes, we will confirm your place.

This course will prepare you for working in various roles within this fascinating area, including in local and national government, non-government organisations, think-tanks, lobbying groups and emerging political industries such as soft diplomacy and nation branding.

Among the positions you will be prepared for are:

• Political Press Officer/Spokesperson
• Campaign Strategist
• Digital Communication Strategist
• Political Project Manager
• Journalist.

Your placement and option units will also help you establish the career path you want to follow – and to take control of your career development after you graduate.

• Politics
• Diplomacy
• PR
• Marketing
• Journalism

Once you have completed an undergraduate Honours degree, you can further develop your education by studying for a postgraduate degree. Please visit our postgraduate section for further details about our range of Master’s degrees.

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Materials for laboratory and mandatory field-based teaching activity
• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement if this is part of your course of study.
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme
• Disability and additional learning support, according to individual circumstances
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds
• Accommodation and living costs. Our accommodation price guide can be found on our website
• Travel costs for optional field trips, outdoor wear and footwear for mandatory and optional field trips (if applicable)
• Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of textbooks and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses
• Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass can be purchased alongside your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or may be purchased separately
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas) if this is part of your course of study. Placement year funding information can be found on our website.
• Clothing or equipment costs required for your placement if this is part of your course of study
• Sport BU membership.

If you need to repeat one or more units during your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full-time fee.

Once you are have enrolled as a student at BU, there is a wide range of help and support available, depending on your particular needs.

• Library & Learning support
• Additional Learning support
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)
• Transport and travel.

Dr Ian Gwinn teaches politics and history at undergraduate level. He is a historian of late-twentieth century Britain and Germany, who specialises in the study of social movements, cultural politics and the history of the social sciences. His current research concerns the formation and development of a feminist intellectual culture in the 1970s and 80s in Britain, West Germany and the Netherlands. Ian has previously studied at Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Birmingham, and received his PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2015 on the topic of the History Workshop movement in Britain and West Germany. He is currently working on turning his thesis into a monograph entitled A Different Kind of History is Possible due for publication in 2020.

Dr Elena-Alina Dolea joined Bournemouth University on September 1, 2017. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and her research themes include public diplomacy and strategic communication of organisations (public relations, nation branding), migration, public issues, political communication. She is interested in supervising PhD students in any of these areas.

Alina was Fulbright Senior Scholar 2015-2016 and visited USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism between November 2015 and March 2016. She was also Visiting Scholar at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), during May-October 2015, researching public diplomacy in Switzerland (through the Swiss Scientific exchange program for new member states as part of Swiss Contribution to EU)

Described by one BBC journalist as 'a man who watches Westminster', Prof. Lilleker is a lecturer and researcher in political communication with particular interests in political party and candidate communication and the link to citizen and voter engagement.

His teaching covers topics relating to political communication, communication theory and reception theory. Through the delivery of his units, he prioritises maximising student engagement: his work in this area was recognised with the award of a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

In addition, Prof. Lilleker leads the Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research and plays a leading role in developing research strategy as Deputy Head of the Humanities and Law Department. He is also Chair of the Political Communication Research Committee of the International Political Studies Association, a member of the UK Political Studies Association and the European Communication Research and Education Association.

Dr Anastasia Veneti joined Bournemouth University in September 2014. Prior to this, she was teaching at the University of Leicester and in several educational institutions in Greece (Akmi Metropolitan College, University of Athens, Technological Educational Institution of Ionian Islands). Moreover, she also worked as a research analyst in Greek market research companies (MRB S.A. and QED Hellas) and as communication consultant in various political campaigns, an NGO (‘ANIXI’) and the Hellenic Parliament. She is a HEA Fellow.

Her research lays at the intersection of media and politics. So far, she did research on political communication including political advertising, political campaigns, the use of SNS and digital applications (Twitter and selfies) by politicians and political parties. Her research also includes projects on protests and social movements: the most recent work in this area involves the examination of the media framing of protests and social movements from the Indignados to the Hong Kong Umbrella movement, as well as the exploration of the broader relationship between protesters and activists and the different forms of art that are used as outlets for political expression.

Dr Jenny Alexander is a Senior Lecturer in Politics, Media and Communication in the School of Humanities and Law. Her primary research, teaching and publishing interests are in environmental politics and environmental communication, and in gender, sexuality and politics/ gender, sexuality and communication.

Her PhD (University of Sussex) was on nineteenth century anarchist autobiographies. She has published on gender, sexuality, disability and representation (including on fan-fiction, anarchism and sexuality, and the semiotics of the 2012 Paralympics) and on environmental politics and communication (including on "eco-celebrity" and eco-fascism). Her most recent journal article, "Green White Nationalism: Eco-Fascism and the Alt-Right in the Era of Climate Breakdown" is forthcoming (2020). She is also currently writing a book for Routledge on Environmental Advertising: New Forms of Transnational Persuasion, about the global politics of promotional communication on the subject of the environment. Another book is at the planning stage; on the ethics of contemporary homoerotic subtext, titled Queercoding or Queerbaiting: The Homoerotic Subtext of Supernatural (A Study in Reading Subtext on Screen).

Dr David McQueen is a lecturer at Bournemouth University and his research interests include questions of media & power, conflict coverage and PR. He has been teaching on media courses at different levels since 1991 and is author of a popular undergraduate textbook Television: a Media Student's Guide. In 2010 he successfully completed his PhD research entitled BBC TV's Panorama, Conflict Coverage and the Westminster Consensus.

As a full time member of staff he has developed and taught on a number of BA and MA units within the Media School and is an active researcher with an interest in issues around media and power, conflict coverage, film and television history and public relations.

Dr Savvas Voutyras holds a PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex. His research interests include the relation between discourse and affect, the use of psychoanalysis for political analysis, nationalism, and alternative community economies. He has published on the discourses of austerity in Greece and the emergence of new social and political movements in this context.