BA Elections, Public Opinions and Parties

University of Essex

Bachelor's degree

In Colchester

£ 9,250 + VAT

The best Politics courses

See all

See all

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Colchester

  • Duration

    3 Years

About the course
How important is a political leader? Should people vote for policies or personalities? How much sway should public opinion hold over complex issues such as human rights, economic approaches, and immigration? How significant is gender to voting systems?
Based in the top politics department in the country, this course provides a thorough training in political science

You discuss the most important concepts in the study of democracy and political representation: political parties and their policies, political participation and elections, voters and public opinion


Study topics including:
Electoral and democratic systems
Concepts in political science: state, laws, wars and political parties
Effective participation in politics
Designing and managing surveys
Modern techniques of political research
While our course offers flexible pathways through which you can best meet your academic needs, we also supply a more specialized training in survey research and polling, which includes the possibility of valuable employment experience as an intern for one of Britain's top polling companies


Politics at Essex is all about moving from opinions to evidence

You will quickly learn to ask – and how to answer – the “how do you know?” question

We train our students to be fearless and independent, to question everything and to draw on the broadest possible range of facts and ideas


Our Department of Government is one of the most prestigious in Europe, with an outstanding record of teaching, research and publication

Facilities

Location

Start date

Colchester (Essex)
See map
Wivenhoe Park, CO4 3SQ

Start date

On request

Questions & Answers

Add your question

Our advisors and other users will be able to reply to you

Who would you like to address this question to?

Fill in your details to get a reply

We will only publish your name and question

Reviews

Subjects

  • Political Science
  • Systems
  • Politics
  • Teaching
  • Public
  • Democracy
  • Political Parties

Course programme

Example structure
Studying at Essex is about discovering yourself, so your course combines compulsory and optional modules to make sure you gain key knowledge in the discipline, while having as much freedom as possible to explore your own interests. Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
For many of our courses you’ll have a wide range of optional modules to choose from – those listed in this example structure are just a selection of those available. The opportunity to take optional modules will depend on the number of core modules within any year of the course. In many instances, the flexibility to take optional modules increases as you progress through the course.
Our Programme Specification gives more detail about the structure available to our current first-year students, including details of all optional modules.
Year 1
Introduction to Politics
Democracy: Forms and Futures
Scientific Reasoning for the Social Sciences
Comparative Political Analysis
Career Portfolio
Politics and Economic Policies (optional)
Institutions of Democracy (optional)
Truth, Justice, and the Nature of Politics (optional)
Politics and Power (optional)
Year 2
Political Behaviour
Parties and Elections
Measuring Public Opinion
Political Analysis: Introduction to OLS
Career Portfolio
The New British Politics (optional)
Development, N.G.Os and Foreign Aid (optional)
Conflict Analysis
Ethics and Public Policy (optional)
Final year
Electoral Behaviour
Ethics and Public Policy
Political Parties in Britain and Europe (optional)
Environmental Politics (optional)
International Security Studies (optional)
Placement
On a placement year you gain relevant work experience within an external business or organisation, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Year abroad
On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Teaching
Teaching is arranged to allow a lot of freedom in how you organise your learning experience
Lab sessions allow you to improve your technical research skills
Opportunities to gain work experience on placements and internships
Assessment
Assessed through a combination of written coursework, presentations, class participation, and end-of-year examinations
If you undertake a placement, you will prepare an assessed report on this experience
Previous
Next

Additional information

We are rated top in the UK for research (REF 2014), and have consistently been the highest-rated politics department in the country since national assessments began Study abroad Your education extends beyond the classroom You may also study a four-year variant of this course, the third year of which is spent studying abroad at a partner institution, or on a placement year This additional year abroad is at no extra cost The module structure for your first two years and your final year are the same as our three-year versions We offer many opportunities for you to spend a term or a full year studying in another country and have exchange partners in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan Training social scientists of the future We offer you the opportunity to follow a specialised pathway that embeds quantitative methods in your degree Successful completion of specified modules entitles you to receive the qualifier ‘(Applied Quantitative Methods)’ at the end of your degree title, for example BA Elections, Public Opinions and Parties (Applied Quantitative Methods) and this will appear on your transcript You can also apply for student bursaries to go on work placements, helping you stand out when applying for jobs Placement year Alternatively, on a placement year you gain relevant work experience within an external business, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry A Placement-Linked Project module is also available as an alternative to the dissertation module in your third year You attend shorter placements (a minimum of 150 hours in total), and use your learning on placement to inform a research project; fantastic work experience for your CV Our expert staff Some of the biggest names in the field work at Essex, giving you unparalleled access to some of the best minds in politics Our staff...

See related categories

BA Elections, Public Opinions and Parties

£ 9,250 + VAT

The best Politics courses

See all

See all