Politics and International Business BA (Hons)

Program Overview

The Politics and International Business degree at the University of Liverpool combines politics and business to provide students with a global perspective on international affairs. The program equips students with critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills, preparing them for careers in fields such as government, NGOs, and the private sector. Students benefit from research-connected teaching, internships, and study abroad opportunities, enhancing their employability in a competitive global market.

Program Outline

Politics and International Business BA (Hons) - University of Liverpool

Degree Overview:

Politics and International Business equips students with a critical understanding of the different ways in which politics and business interact, converge and conflict in local, national and international contexts.

Objectives:

• Gain a broad introduction to key theoretical and analytical approaches to understanding the relationship between politics and international business.
• Apply these approaches to everyday settings.
• Develop a unique and distinct international perspective.
• Gain access to cutting-edge research in both Politics and the University of Liverpool Management School.
• Develop key features of international politics and international business.
• Investigate and analyze questions of political, social and economic concern.
• Develop transferable skills for non-academic work.
• Master principles of academic writing and speaking.
• Critically evaluate political and economic events, ideas and institutions using a variety of methodologies and approaches.
• Construct independently researched, supervised analysis of international politics and business.

Outline:

Year One:

• Compulsory Modules:
• STUDYING POLITICS SUCCESSFULLY: SKILLS AND METHODS (POLI103):
This module equips students with core skills needed for success in a politics degree, including critical thinking, public speaking, choosing sources, making a convincing argument, academic essay writing, qualitative and quantitative research, and referencing.
• FOUNDATIONS IN POLITICS (POLI109): This module provides a critical introduction to political concepts such as power, the state, legitimacy of sovereignty, and gender through engaging with political thinkers.
It also establishes a grounding in essay writing, debating in seminars, and an introduction to academic research.
• FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING (MKIB153): This module introduces the fundamental principles of marketing with a contemporary perspective and emphasis on application.
It then applies and compares different theories to contemporary issues.
• COMPARATIVE POLITICS (POLI107): This module introduces Comparative Politics by focusing on key concepts and contemporary issues affecting democracies and authoritarian regimes across the world.
It introduces students to debates around regime types, their causes and consequences, institutional configurations, political parties, and political behavior. Students will be introduced to key theories used to explain how and why internationalization occurs. Students will learn how firms measure and report their financial position and performance, and engage in analysis and visualization of real data using financial ratios.

Year Two:

• Compulsory Modules:
It examines the social underpinnings of economic transactions, the political frameworks that shape economic activity, and the economic imperatives that impinge upon political decision-makers.
• Optional Modules:
• EUROPEAN UNION AND BUSINESS (MKIB250):
This module develops awareness of the distinctive nature of the business environment within and around the European Union (EU).
• INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ULMS259): This module deals with the principles underpinning innovation and entrepreneurship in the context of a global business environment.
• SECURITY IN A GLOBALISED WORLD (POLI231): This module examines security in international relations and how it is challenged by contemporary globalization.
• UK GENERAL ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUMS SINCE 1945 (POLI204): This module introduces students to the study of elections and voting behaviour, using post-war British elections and referendums as the focal point for introducing key political science debates.
• AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY (POLI205): This module examines the governing institutions and processes associated with the US federal government, and how these interact with core linking institutions and structures of society.
• COMPARATIVE POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA (POLI215): This module provides students with the tools to analyze the region’s politics in its richness, critically engaging with key concepts and debates in the study of Middle East comparative politics.
• DEVOLUTION IN THE UK (POLI227): This module examines devolution in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and within England.
• BRITISH PARTY POLITICS (POLI239): This module aims to develop students’ knowledge of British political parties and the party system within which they operate.
• POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC SPEAKING (POLI252): This module examines the process of political speech and its impact upon the quality of democratic discourse.
• GENDER AND FEMINIST POLITICS: CORE CONCEPTS AND THEORIES (POLI257): This module will introduce core concepts in contemporary gender politics, including feminist theoretical understandings of nation, state, family, and the market.
• POLITICS OF THE PAST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (CLAH200): This module examines politics in the ancient world via narratives about the past, and at the same time evaluates the role of history in politics.
• GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS (ULMS205): This module identifies and evaluates the core roles of government in relation to business, exploring the nature of the relationship between government and business.
• Identity, Culture and Wellbeing in Organisations (ULMS268): This module investigates culture and identity in relation to wellbeing in contemporary films, fictional narratives, and social media, as well as in the academic literature.
• POLITICS IN ACTION (POLI200): This module provides an opportunity for students to gain credit from experience acquired in a placement, usually off campus, in a setting that matches their academic and possible career/industry interests.
• ASPECTS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS (POLI208): This module covers the media’s relationship to politics, with a particular focus on Britain.
• BRITISH POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES (POLI237): This module analyzes the major ideologies in British politics and explores how ideas have brought about change in British politics and society since 1945.
• PUBLIC ETHICS (POLI260): This module explores the ethical dilemmas that arise in some of the most controversial public policy debates.
• DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVES ON ITALY, AFRICA AND THE MEDITERRANEAN (ITAL225): This module develops a decolonial approach to the history of Italy, Africa, and the Mediterranean, focusing on trajectories of colonialism and migration.
• Global News, Media and War (COMM213): This module explores the interplay between global news, media, and war in the context of rapidly evolving communication technologies and journalistic practices.
• Political Economies of Globalisation (ENVS264): This module introduces students to the study of globalization in the early 21st century.
• ROME IN THE LATE REPUBLIC (CLAH268): This module is about politics, policies, political institutions, and the political culture of Rome in the Late Republic.
• THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC: POLITICS, CULTURE, MEMORY (GRMN220): This module offers an in-depth examination of key themes in the cultural, social, and political history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Year Three:

• Compulsory Modules:
• Optional Modules:
• Innovation in a Global Perspective: Challenges and Opportunity (MKIB308): This module considers the globalization of innovation, factors that enhance and detract from it, and how ‘grand’ innovation challenges could be tackled through global collaborative action.
• CONTEMPORARY PARLIAMENTARY STUDIES (POLI304): This module aims to provide students with an overall introduction to the UK Parliament and, in particular, to how its role has changed over time.
• THE MEDIA, THE INTERNET AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (POLI319): This module covers a range of contemporary mass media and their role in the power structures of British society.
• COMPARATIVE ELECTORAL BEHAVIOUR (POLI322): This is an empirical-based module that discusses classic and current topics of electoral politics from a comparative perspective.
• FROM THE IRA TO ISIS: UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD (POLI324): This module aims to acquaint students with terrorism and counter-terrorism in today’s world.
• LABOUR THINKERS (POLI326): This module analyzes the ideology of the Labour Party historically through discussions of the ideas of key thinkers.
• CONSERVATIVE THINKERS (POLI327): This module analyzes the ideology of the Conservative Party historically through discussions of the ideas of key thinkers.
• STRATEGIC STUDIES IN CONFLICTS AND TERRORISM (POLI347): This course examines a number of theoretical and empirical debates in the study of conflict and terrorism.
• THE PUZZLE OF CIVIL WAR (POLI353): This module introduces students to the body of research on civil conflict, exploring onset, duration, strategies, outcomes, and termination.
• POLITICS OF PARTICIPATION AND CIVIC SPACE (POLI354): This module will begin with theories of social movement and collective action and then examine different types of collective action as well as their nature, role, and impact.
• Postcolonial Geographies (ENVS334): This module explores the social, political, and cultural effects and legacies of colonialism.
• Building Better Worlds (ENVS387): This course surveys how geographers and others have theorised protest, resistance, and other strategies for change.
• Politics of the Environment (ENVS325): This module explores the extent to which environmental concerns are taken into account in various decision-making processes.
• CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS (LATI307): This module will introduce students to debates about democracy in Latin America during and after the Cold War.
• FRONTIERS OF ETHICS (PHIL302): This module familiarises students with some of the main theories and arguments in debates about issues that raise problems for traditional ethics.
• Media and Human Rights (COMM317): This module studies human rights through the lens of the media in order to critically understand the changing nature of human rights’ representation.
• BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS (MKIB369): This is an optional module focusing on the business environment in emerging markets.
• IMMIGRATION AND THE STATE (POLI302): This module unravels why and how immigration, and the ‘crisis’ that surrounds it, has become ever more central to political debates.
• PUBLIC POLICY: AN ADVANCED INTRODUCTION (POLI310): This module explores the theories, ideas, and concepts that underpin the development of contemporary public policies.
• POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT (POLI314): This module critically engages with the concept of "good governance" by juxtaposing it with various historical institutionalist accounts of the state.
• THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RHETORIC IN BRITISH POLITICS (POLI323): This module roots its theories and methods in the classical schools of rhetorical analysis, alongside developing a more contemporary understanding of discourse analysis.
• COMPARATIVE PEACE PROCESSES (POLI336): This module begins with an analysis of the validity of comparative approaches to the study of the politics of peace, before moving to a series of individual case studies.
• MEDIA, POLITICS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (POLI345): This module will look at the manner in which a range of media engage with climate change and energy security, and the political and social implications that follow.
• POLITICS AND THE BRAIN (POLI346): This is an interdisciplinary module in political psychology that combines basic statistical concepts and data analysis with substantive content on biological, physiological, psychological, communication related, and health-related aspects of political behaviour.
• GENDER AND GLOBAL POLITICS (POLI349): This module provides alternative perspectives on global politics, drawing on feminist theory and gender analysis, with a focus on conflict and peace.
• RACE, RACISM AND CIVILISATION IN WORLD POLITICS (POLI348): This module explores how the ideas of race and civilisation have enabled a variety of practices of violence, exploitation, and domination in global politics.
• PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO CONFLICT (PHIL365): This module gives students the opportunity to explore selected areas of conflict in social, political, and legal domains.
• POLITICAL BROADCASTING (RADIO) (POLI339): This module involves students producing and presenting a weekly politics and current affairs programme.
• DISSERTATION (POLI401): This module involves students researching and producing an 8,000 to 10,000 word dissertation.

Assessment:

• Year One:
• Assessment Methods:
Essays, exams, presentations, blog posts, reflective logs, group projects, podcasts, radio broadcasts, and speeches.
• Year Two:
• Assessment Methods:
Essays, exams, presentations, blog posts, reflective logs, group projects, podcasts, radio broadcasts, and speeches.
• Year Three:
• Assessment Methods:
Essays, exams, presentations, blog posts, reflective logs, group projects, podcasts, radio broadcasts, and speeches.

Teaching:

• Teaching Methods: Interactive lectures, seminars, workshops, computer lab sessions, dissertations, and placements.
• Faculty: The Department of Politics is part of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures and is based in 8-14 Abercromby Square.
Students will be taught across campus, and also have access to facilities within the Management School.
• Unique Approaches: Research-connected teaching is initiated in the first year with introductions to quantitative, qualitative, theoretical, and critical methodologies, which are then embedded in second- and third-year modules.

Careers:

• Potential Career Paths: Local government, political parties, NGOs, charities and human rights organisations, civil and diplomatic services, market research, media and communications, and public relations.
• Opportunities: The program offers the chance to develop a variety of transferrable skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, written and verbal communication, teamwork, and digital fluency.
• Outcomes: 80% of politics students are in work and/or further study 15 months after graduation.

Other:

• Global Opportunities: Students can choose from a range of study placements at partner universities worldwide, including a year at XJTLU in China, a year or semester abroad, and summer abroad opportunities.
• Language Study: Students can combine this course with language modules or short courses.
• Liverpool Hallmarks: The University has a distinctive approach to education, the Liverpool Curriculum Framework, which focuses on research-connected teaching, active learning, and authentic assessment.
• The Original Red Brick: The University of Liverpool is a member of the Russell Group.

| Category | Fees | |--------------|-----------| | UK fees (applies to Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland) | £9,250 | | Full-time place, per year | | | Year in industry fee | £1,850 | | Year abroad fee | £1,385 | | International fees | £22,400 | | Full-time place, per year | | | Year abroad fee | £11,200 |