Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Politics with Economics with Placement Year

at University of Bath United Kingdom

Develop the skills and understanding to tackle the global challenges of development, social justice and sustainability.

Whether you are a graduate aiming to make a difference in the world, or a professional wishing to deepen your knowledge and critical thinking, this course is for you.

You will explore the political, economic and social forces that promote and prevent social and environmental justice around the world. These include people’s struggles for wellbeing and sustainability and the visions that inspire them; and the roles of state, society and market actors. Transcending geographical binaries of Global North and South, you will consider areas of complementarity and trade-off between economic development, human wellbeing and environmental sustainability.

This specialist master’s combines skills and knowledge of international development with an in-depth focus on social justice, wellbeing and sustainability. Innovative learning approaches promote investigation of particular cases and issues drawing out connections and contradictions between different actors, analytical perspectives and across global, regional, national, and local scales.

Make sense of issues underpinning contemporary global challenges such as the impact of climate change and international inequalities.

On this degree you’ll combine the study of politics with an engagement in economic theory and practice. It will appeal if you’re interested in issues of global power, decision-making, democracy and inequality.

You’ll cover topics such as international politics, political ideologies and economic thought. You will explore a range of contemporary economic and political challenges facing national and international society, such as terrorism and climate change.

In your first year you'll focus on concepts and theories relating to both politics and international relations. You'll study economic theory and methodology, and explore contemporary political and economic systems.

In your second year you'll advance your knowledge in political and economic theory. You can focus your studies through optional units covering areas from global responses to international environmental crises, to the nature of UK Parliamentary politics. You'll also develop your skills in research design and methods.

You’ll carry out a year-long dissertation and select optional units relating to your interests in politics and economics, with themes such as financialisation, inter-state relations, and gender politics.

Delve into the exciting field of health psychology on our BPS-accredited course, one of the only master's of this kind to include a compulsory 16-week placement.

Our MSc Health Psychology course is designed to give you a solid grounding in all the main areas of health psychology.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, we look at how psychology can be used to help us better understand health and health behaviours. You'll study everything from preventing ill health to managing long-term conditions and developing effective healthcare provision.

You will gain hands-on experience of methods for conducting research in diverse research and healthcare settings before going on to apply those skills during the placement.

Placement Year

Choose Bath for one of the only BPS-accredited courses to offer a 16-week placement as an integral part of its master's. You'll be based in an academic, public health or health-related setting and will work on a piece of empirical research, using your knowledge of health psychology theories, models and approaches to tackle a particular issue in your placement setting.

As well as gaining invaluable experience, you'll see first-hand how health psychology can be applied in diverse contexts and ways. For example, you might be using research to inform policy around health promotion or disease prevention; or helping a service to use evidence-based models and approaches to develop more effective health interventions.

Learn practical and theoretical skills across all areas of chemistry, ready to tackle major challenges in a range of careers.

From addressing climate change, to developing new pharmaceuticals or tackling food security, chemistry is vital in modern day society.

This course has the broadest range of subjects of all our chemistry courses. In the first two years, you’ll study an introduction to all areas of chemistry, gaining the practical and theoretical skills needed to design experiments and test hypotheses. This includes understanding the theories of chemical behaviour and how they're applied.

Explore new and creative ways to tackle key social challenges. Learn theory and methods to understand, critically examine, and influence organisations.

This course will appeal if you want to combine an understanding of the social world from different perspectives with a rigorous analysis of policy responses to social problems. You will examine theory and techniques from sociology alongside the analytical focus of social policy.

You’ll explore areas such as health, welfare and poverty, race and discrimination, inequality and exclusion. You’ll be able to take a range of optional units on topics such as the sociology of death, lobbying, justice and conflict. By the end of the degree you’ll have an understanding of how social institutions develop, operate and how they might be improved.

Placement Year

The placement year will give you valuable practical experience and is an excellent opportunity to try different careers. It enables you to leave university with a strong CV and may set you apart from other graduates entering the job market. You can take placements in commercial, voluntary or government organisations, or in a research setting.

Gain conceptual, analytical and practical insights into effective operations management. You’ll graduate with the expertise in production and delivery management that employers look for.

This course is for graduates who want to work in the managerial or consulting areas of operations, logistics or supply chain management.

Key benefits

• Accredited by CIPS and CILT. This gives you the chance to enjoy the benefits of CIPS and CILT membership and ensures top quality standards
• Work with clients from day one. With our unique feature, The Practicum, you’ll take on a live consulting project with a client throughout the year. Gain valuable hands-on experience
• Our small, carefully selected class sizes gives you a lot of contact with academics, and more individual coaching.

Develop sought-after skills in quantitative economics and business, on this innovative, cross-disciplinary master’s.

As businesses seek to innovate and develop in the 21st century, there is a growing need for economists with broader knowledge and skills, who can effectively input into new products and policies.

This is borne out in The UK Government’s ‘Industrial Strategy – Building a Britain fit for the future', which calls for a new type of university graduate and manager: one who can operate successfully at the interface of economics, business, mathematics and computer science.

Drawing on the extensive expertise from across the Departments of Economics, Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences, and the School of Management, this MSc sets out to educate and prepare economically literate scientists, and scientifically confident economists, for the future.

The course has a strong quantitative focus, while also covering other relevant areas such as computer programming, software development and econometrics. You will learn to apply economic and mathematical units and programs to real business problems, while building a compelling set of skills in areas such as data analysis, data mining, software applications and statistics.

The cross-disciplinary nature of the course makes it noticeably different from other economics master’s course. You will be taught by subject specialists in each field, allowing you to study each topic in greater depth. Developed with close input from well-known employers, and the relevant departments from across the University in combination, the course offers a coherent, and mutually complementary, mix of technical and soft skills.

Prepare yourself for a career in specialist language work including translation, editing and précis-writing.

If you're interested in working as a professional linguist or working with the written word to provide translations and specialised language services, this course is an excellent option.

With a growing demand for highly trained speakers of English in the UK and abroad, this specialist master's will equip you to set up your own freelance business or work in-house for an international organisation or language service provider.

Unlike other courses of its kind, ours covers a wide variety of skills, including editing, revision, précis-writing and proofreading. Employers and agencies have told us they’re looking for these services, so having the right skills will place you in a strong position for securing work. You'll have the opportunity to gain skills in public service and commercial interpreting, and you will learn about setting up your own translation business.

In some cases, we can arrange external translation training. This may be in international organisations, such as the EU and UN, or an independent translation agency, and will give you first-hand experience of the workplace and valuable contacts for building your career.

The course is taught by qualified tutors. While some have worked for international organisations, others have developed their careers as freelance linguists. All bring extensive experience to the classroom to give students invaluable advice.

Become an innovative computing professional with the skills needed for a career in the fast-growing field of AI.

This course is for you if you’re keen to learn about current Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, specialising in this field from the start of your degree whilst still gaining a broad grounding in computer science. AI is becoming an ever more important part of a wide range of sectors from medicine to marketing, so this course will help prepare you for continued demand in the job market.

You'll gain the skills and knowledge to apply the latest AI technologies and methods to a wide range of problems, studying topics such as machine learning, algorithms and complexity, and visual computing.

Tailor to your interests

In the first year, you’ll learn the basics of computer science, including mathematics and programming skills, along with an introduction to the theory and practice of AI. In the second year, you’ll continue to develop your AI skills, with a focus on machine learning. In the final year, you’ll choose optional units alongside an individual project in a specific area of AI. You can specialise in areas such as robotics, natural language processing, intelligent agents or computer vision. You’ll regularly meet with an academic who’s an expert in your chosen field.

Year abroad

Broaden your horizons with a year studying at a university abroad. You’ll experience another culture while studying a course that complements your studies at Bath.

We have links with universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, currently including Binghamton University, University of Nebraska, University of Canterbury, TU Vienna and National University Singapore.

The modern world needs thoughtful, politically-conscious, questioning economists. Become a professional who understands how economics and politics intertwine.

In this course, you’ll examine the challenges facing individuals, countries and the international community. You will develop an understanding of government and society through core concepts such as power, justice, conflict, accountability, obligation, sovereignty and decision making. You will develop strong analytical skills which will aid your understanding of the institutional, UK and global context within which economic decisions and policy formation takes place.

In your first year you'll study key concepts in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory. You'll explore political theory and analysis, introducing central subjects such as power and the state, democracy and the climate crisis.

In your second year you'll continue with more advanced study of political and economic theory. You'll study the exercise of power in societies and economies through an engagement with themes such as democratic theory, populist and nationalist politics, and the politics of race and gender.

In your final year you'll explore your interests through a range of optional units in both economics and politics.

By the end of the course, you will have an appreciation of the interface between economics and political science.

Placement Year

Taking a placement in your third year enables you to use the theory you have learned in a practical context. You will learn about an organisation and its area of work in the UK or overseas. This is an excellent opportunity to test potential career paths. Sometimes permanent jobs are offered to our students. You’ll develop skills such as teamwork, planning, problem-solving, decision making and project management.

Employers value a year of professional work and you’ll gain an advantage in the job market. Sometimes it is possible for you to acquire additional professional qualifications, particularly in accountancy, whilst on placement.

Placement opportunities can’t be guaranteed but you will receive tailored support from our specialist team to help you secure a placement.

Year abroad

On this course you'll combine a work placement with studying at a university overseas. Broaden your horizons and experience another culture whilst studying a course that complements your studies at Bath.

Study abroad locations include the National University of Singapore and Stellenbosch University (South Africa), as well as others. We seek to further expand on these. Study abroad opportunities are limited and are subject to availability at our partner institutions.