A very warm welcome to Politics and International Relations at the University of Exeter and congratulations on gaining a place to study here! You are joining a friendly and lively discipline and we look forward to getting to know you and welcoming you into our community.
We are a discipline that teaches several Single Honours degree programmes, including BA Politics and International Relations, BA Global Politics, BA Politics and Geography, and BSc Politics and Management. We also teach students on BA History and Politics, BA History and International Relations and Flexible Combined Honours (FCH) degree programmes. We are part of HaSS Cornwall, which is itself part of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS).
As a relatively small discipline and you will soon get to know us, especially those staff who will be teaching you. In the meantime, you can find out a bit more about us and our specialisms through our staff profiles.
Key contacts
You will each be assigned a personal tutor whom you will meet as part of your academic induction in Welcome Week. This person will be your first port of call for any questions you might have. Other key contacts include:
- Director of Education and Student Experience (DESE): Dr Deborah Johnson
- Head of Department: Professor Clare Saunders
- Director of Education: Dr Catherine Owen
Expectations for attendance and engagement
We expect you to attend all your timetabled classes. If you are unable to attend a class because you are ill, you should report your absence via the iExeter absence reporting tool. You should also email your lecturer directly to let them know that you will not be able to attend, and to find out what work you will need to do to make up for your absence. If you have a longer illness and are absent for more than 7 days in a row, you will need to get a doctor’s certificate and lodge this with the Peter Lanyon Hub.
Language learning
Lots of you will be taking a language module as part of your degree, especially if you are on a Single Honours programme. We offer French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Cornish at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and it is important that you choose the right level according to your prior experience, using the language ladder below as a guide:
- No prior experience: Beginner
- GCSE or equivalent: Intermediate
- A Level or equivalent: Advanced
If your prior experience does not fit into any of the above categories and you are unsure of the appropriate level to select, please email politicspenryn@exeter.ac.uk for advice. If you are feeling at all anxious about language learning, please rest assured that you will receive lots of support from both the academic staff who will be teaching you and your fellow students through our peer-mentoring scheme.
What can I do to prepare for my degree?
We don’t expect you to complete any preparatory work before you get here, but if you’re keen to acclimatise yourself to your course and do a little reading before term starts, you can find the reading lists for our Term 1 modules below. You are not expected to read all of these works – just pick and choose the titles that appeal most.
- British Government and Politics
- Participating in Politics
- Power, Inequality and Global Justice
- Political Communication
Our community
Your student representatives for Politics are Megan Aley and Munira Devey. You will meet them in Welcome Week and can contact them if you would like to provide feedback on any aspect of your teaching, learning or wider student experience.
We would also encourage you to look out for the Politics Society advertising their events in Welcome Week and throughout the year. They are a friendly subject society who run social events and other activities. There are various course related societies for political parties, human rights and campaign groups and debating. There are also many other societies you can join.
Activity: Introduce yourself!
In the meantime, we would love it if you could start getting to know one another by posting a brief introduction in the Forum below, telling us who you are, what programme you are on, and what you are most looking forward to about starting your degree with us.
To post, simply click 'REPLY.'
Please be aware that any comments and contributions in this forum are open to the general public and NOT just other students in the cohort.
Once you have finished reading about your department(s), you can skip to the end of this section rather than clicking next and reading through all department pages.