10.10 Politics

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:

• International Relations BA
• Politics BA
• Politics, Philosophy and Economics BA
• Politics and International Relations BSc
• International Relations and Modern Languages BA
• Politics and Sociology BA
• Politics and Modern Languages BA
• Philosophy and Politics BA
• Economics and Politics BSc
• Arabic and Politics BA

We also teach students on Flexible Combined Honours (FCH) degree programmes.

We are part of a Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology (SPSPA for short), which is itself part of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS).

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 Politics Staff profiles webpage.

Key contacts

You will each be assigned a pastoral mentor and an academic personal tutor whom you will meet as part of your academic induction during the first weeks of the academic year. These two people will be your first port of call for any questions you might have. Other key contacts include: 

• Head of Department: Professor Robert Lamb
• Director of Education and Student Experience (DESE) for Politics and International Relations: Dr Irene Fernández-Molina 
  
• Senior Tutor: Dr Paul O'Connor

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 Amory Hub. 

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, we’ve put together some suggestions to whet your appetite for things to come. You are not expected to read all of these works – just pick and choose the titles that appeal most. 

• Michael Walzer (1981) Philosophy and Democracy, Political Theory 9(3), pp. 379-399. 
• Bill Jones, Philip Norton, and Isabelle Hertner (2022) Politics UK (10th ed.) (Routledge). 
• John Baylis, Steve Smith, and Patricia Owens (eds.) (2022) The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (9th ed.) (Oxford University Press). 
• Susan Baker (2016) Sustainable Development (2nd ed.) (Routledge). 

Our community

You will have a student representative for Politics who you will meet in Welcome Week. You 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, International Relations Society and Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society advertising their events in Welcome Week and throughout the year. They are friendly subject societies who run social events and other activities. There are also various course-related societies for political parties, human rights and campaign groups and debating. Find a full list of societies on the Guild website. 

  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, 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 end of this section rather than clicking next and reading through all department pages.