Philosophy and Politics
Durham University
UCAS Code: LV25 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
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About this course
Studying BA Philosophy and Politics will allow you to develop critical capacities and gain insight into how political theories, organisations and communities work. You will learn skills from both subjects that employers value, including how to analyse evidence, assess experts’ arguments, work collaboratively to solve difficult problems, and write with clarity and precision.
Rather than learning a body of work, the philosophical element of your degree will equip you with the reasoning skills needed to formulate, present, defend and criticise philosophical and political positions.
The political element is structured around three main streams: Political Thought, Political Institutions and International Relations. As well as developing your research skills, you have the opportunity to study the politics and international relations of specific regions. You will undertake theoretical examinations that help to understand how to make sense of a complex and interconnected world. You can also apply to add a placement year or a year abroad to the course, increasing the course from three years to four.
Philosophy is a new subject for many students, so in your first year you will follow a range of introductory courses, introducing the fundamental philosophical subject areas.
In your second year, you will further increase your knowledge by taking two core modules, Moral Theory and Political Philosophy, and you also have a wide selection of optional modules to choose from across both disciplines.
The third year includes a dissertation that allows a deep, independently driven, exploration of a topic of your choice.
Modules
Year 1
Core modules:
Ethics and Values provides a structured introduction to moral philosophy, including applied ethics, by exploring key moral concepts and showing how they influence moral practices and theories.
Knowledge and Reality introduces philosophical problems in epistemology (the study of knowledge), and metaphysics (the study of reality and ourselves).
Reading Philosophy allows you to acquire an understanding of the issues of interpretation and comprehension in reading primary authors, through a detailed study of four thematically related texts.
Democratic Political Systems provides you with detailed knowledge of two democratic political systems and their context. The module encourages you to critically assess key aspects of these systems and to apply the knowledge gained in order to investigate theories of democratic politics at greater depth.
Political Theory lays the basis for a systematic understanding of the role that key political ideals, values and theories play in shaping modern political thought: justifying and critiquing political institutions and public policy, and influencing political behaviour and change. You will be introduced to the contested nature and boundaries of political theories and ideas, offering initial insight into the significance of this contestation for wider human activity.
Examples of optional modules:
International Security, Interdependence and Organisation;
Global Regions in International Relations;
Introduction to International Relations;
Introduction to Comparative Politics;
Being Human: An Introduction to Post-Kantian Philosophy.
Year 2
Core modules:
Moral Theory develops an understanding of important moral theories past and present and is also intended to provide a background to applied ethics.
Political and Social Philosophy examines how philosophical perspectives can aid understanding of social and political issues, and how social and political issues can have relevance to philosophical theories.
Examples of optional modules:
Philosophy of Mind;
Language, Logic and Reality;
Fundamentals of Logic;
Early Modern Philosophy;
Philosophy of Religion;
Philosophy of Science;
History, Science and Medicine;
The Philosophy of Economics and Politics: Theory, Methods and Values.
Year 3 (Year 4 if undertaking a placement year or year abroad)
Core module:
The final year includes a philosophy or politics-focused Dissertation in which you research a topic in depth and present your findings and conclusions.
Examples of optional modules:
Issues in Contemporary Ethics;
Metaphysics;
Twentieth Century European Philosophy;
Applied Ethics;
The Ethics of Violence in International Relations;
Culture and Conflict in American Politics;
The New Germany;
Nations and Nationalism.
Assessment methods
Assessment varies by module but may include essays, end-of-year examinations or a combination of the two. In your final year, you will conduct your own independent research and submit a dissertation, which allows you to explore in-depth a topic of your choice. Your dissertation will make up one-third of your final-year marks.
The Uni
College allocation pending
Durham City
Philosophy
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Philosophy
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Politics
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Philosophy
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Although there aren't a lot of jobs around for professional philosophers, philosophy degrees are a relatively popular option, with more than 2,000 students graduating in a philosophy-related subject in 2015 - a little down on previous years, but still healthy. Nearly a quarter of philosophy graduates take a postgraduate qualification, and it's a relatively common subject at both Masters and doctorate level — so if you think academic life might be for you, think ahead about how you might fund further study. For those who go into work, philosophy grads tend to go into teaching, accountancy, consulting, journalism, PR, housing, marketing, human resources and the arts while a few go into the computer industry every year, where their logical training is highly rated.
Politics
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Philosophy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£24k
£31k
£34k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Politics
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£26k
£34k
£47k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
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It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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