Politics, Philosophy and Economics

Course Content (including module information)

Level 1

Students take:

• two Economics modules
• one Politics module
• one Philosophy module

and have two choices.

Levels 2 and 3

Students take two core interdisciplinary modules:

• Democracy and Ethics and Economics
• Politics and Economics of the Devolved UK

They also take two other core modules:

• Macroeconomic Policy and Performance
• Moral Theories

and have two choices from the list below:

Level 2 optional modules:

• American Politics
• History of Philosophy
• Industrial Organisation
• International Organisations
• International Relations
• Knowledge and Reality
• Managerial Economics
• Modern Political Thought
• Mind and Language
• Politics and Policies of the European Union
• Scholastic Ethics
• Security and Terrorism
• Studying Politics
• The Politics of Deeply Divided Societies

Level 3
Students take six modules: either a double-weighted dissertation, or double-weighted internship; and modules from at least two of the three subject areas of Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Students can also spend a semester abroad at Level 3.

Level 3 modules:

• Applied Ethics
• Asylum and Migration in Global Politics
• Contemporary Critical Theory
• Contemporary Epistemology
• Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Economic consulting
  
• Economic History
• Ethics, Power and International Politics
• Global Resource Politics
  
• International Trade
  
• Issues in Philosophy of Science
  
• Labour Economics
• Middle Eastern Politics
  
• Philosophical Theology
• Philosophy for Children
  
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Science
• Political Parties, Representation and Democracy
• Politics, Public Administration and Policy Making
• Public Economics
• Scholastic Metaphysics
• Security and Technology
  
• The Far Right in Western Europe and North America
  
• The Politics of Sustainable Development
• US Foreign Policy
  
• Women and Politics

Assessment (general): The way in which students are assessed will vary according to the Learning objectives of each module. Some modules are assessed solely through project work or written assignments. Others are assessed through a combination of coursework and end of semester examinations. Details of how each module is assessed are shown in the Student Handbook which is provided to all students during their first year induction.

Feedback (general): As students progress through their course at Queen’s they will receive general and specific feedback about their work from a variety of sources including lecturers, module co-ordinators, placement supervisors, personal tutors, advisers of study and your peers. University students are expected to engage with reflective practice and to use this approach to improve the quality of their work. Feedback may be provided in a variety of forms including:

• Feedback provided via formal written comments and marks relating to work that students, as individuals or as part of a group, have submitted.
• Face to face comment. This may include occasions when students make use of the lecturers’ advertised “office hours” to help address a specific query.
• Placement employer comments or references.
• Online or emailed comment.
• General comments or question and answer opportunities at the end of a lecture, seminar or tutorial.
• Pre-submission advice regarding the standards you should aim for and common pitfalls to avoid. In some instances, this may be provided in the form of model answers or exemplars which students can review in their own time.
• Feedback and outcomes from practical classes.
• Comment and guidance provided by staff from specialist support services such as, Careers, Employability and Skills or the Learning Development Service.

Once students have reviewed their feedback, they are encouraged to identify and implement further improvements to the quality of their work.

Queen’s PPE stands out for its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, linking moral philosophy to political economy. It provides a number of modules in political philosophy and political economy. Students are encouraged to make links between politics, philosophy and economics and to think about how these areas relate to and complement one another. This gives students a rounded and integrated intellectual training, which combines the versatility of an understanding of all three subject areas, with the dexterity to move between and supplement the different modes of thinking that the three disciplines involve.

Student choice is a feature of the programme as students are able to design and structure the programme to suit their interests, within a tightly defined structure, that provides a training in all three areas.

The School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy’s well established and highly successful internship programme gives students the opportunity to develop vocational skills and build up workplace based experience, in areas such as public policy analysis, formation and delivery, private sector consultancy and analysis, political broadcasting and journalism.

Examples of the opportunities provided for learning on this course are:

• Lectures: introduce basic information about new topics as a starting point for further self-directed private study/reading. Lectures also provide opportunities to ask questions, gain some feedback and advice on assessments (normally delivered in large groups to all year group peers).
• Seminars/tutorials: Significant amounts of teaching are carried out in small groups (typically 10-20 students). These provide significant opportunity for students to engage with academic staff who have specialist knowledge of the topic, to ask questions of them and to assess your own progress and understanding with the support of peers. Students should also expect to make presentations and other contributions to these groups.
• Self-directed study: This is an important part of life as a Queen’s student when important private reading, engagement with e-learning resources, reflection on feedback to date and assignment research and preparation work is carried out.
• E-Learning technologies: Information associated with lectures and assignments is often communicated via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Queen’s Online. A range of e-learning experiences are also embedded in the degree through, for example, online discussion forums, research methods modules involving statistics, additional learning resources, online readings, and opportunities to use IT programmes in project- based work.
• Supervised research: In final year, students will be expected to carry out a significant piece of research. This may be a project directly related to their internship, which draws on academic literatures and applies it to an issue or question relevant to the organization to which they have been seconded, and ties in with the role they have played in that organization. Alternatively, students may produce a piece of academic research on a topic of their choosing, carried out over the entire academic year. Students will receive support to guide them in terms of how to carry out their research and will be provided with feedback in person and via email.
• Personal Tutor: Undergraduates are allocated a Personal Tutor from their first day at the university. The Personal Tutor is available to meet with them and to give advice throughout their time at Queen’s, in support of their academic development and to act as an important point of contact with the School.
• Study abroad opportunities: Students have the opportunity to spend some time studying in one of our linked universities through Socrates/ Erasmus and Study Abroad schemes. For example, this can take the form of a semester’s study in Sweden (Lünd) (for which credits are transferred back to your degree here in Queen’s), in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), (teaching in English) and in the United States or Canada
• Prizes: The highest achieving students in Politics, Philosophy and Economics are given year and graduating awards, we also support our students entering essays to the annual Undergraduate Awards, for which one of our students received a prize in the Social Science category in 2011.