Politics With Foundation Year (Ba): 4-Year, Full-Time

The BA Politics with Foundation Year will help you to understand and analyse major political issues that affect the lives of millions in the UK and beyond, such as populism, terrorism, austerity and war.

Politics can be understood as decisions about who gets what, when and how, but complex issues are rarely the result of a single factor or process. This means that students need access to a broad range of expertise. This is what our Department of Politics - one of the best known in London and beyond - offers.

Our academics are experts in a variety of geographical areas, including Britain, America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. They publish books and articles in major academic journals on the full range of sub-fields in political studies, including:

public policy (when faced with an economic crisis, why do some governments opt for ‘austerity’ measures but others do not?)
international political economy (how do emerging powers such as Brazil and India seek to affect major international political and economic decisions?)
voting behaviour (what factors underpin the electoral success of European radical right parties?)
political theory (what is the fundamental nature of democracy?)
You will be taught on the basis of new knowledge generated by the people teaching you. We seek to engage not only with the wider public by publishing articles in newspapers and journals, but also with politicians and policy-makers who make crucial political decisions. The Department of Politics hosts the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life which brings together political practitioners, activists and elected political actors to debate the big democratic questions about contemporary British politics.

Special features of the BA Politics include:

an option module on Parliamentary Studies taught in conjunction with the House of Commons outreach service