BSc Politics with Data Science

Program Overview

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BSc Politics with Data Science will allow you to study topics such as distributional justice and questions of power alongside thinking critically about a wide range of political phenomena. You’ll gain an understanding of important social science questions, with the latest tools and data sources to analyse them. You will make use of data to understand the political world whilst becoming a social scientist that can both understand and shape the data revolution. Our BSc Politics with Data Science offers a wide range of topics from the political world, ranging from individual voting decisions to international cooperation between states along with hands-on training in the basics of programming and data analysis. Areas that you can expect to explore include, but are not limited to:

• Concepts in political science: the state, laws, wars and political parties
• Programming with Python, Java, and R
• Data collection, visualisation and natural language engineering
• International relations
• Democratic systems and political power
• Statistical analysis and machine learning

Why we're great.

• Ranked 9th in the UK for Politics and International Studies in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023
• 13th for politics (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021)
• You’ll join a community of scholars leading the way in technological research and development

Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. If you spend a full year abroad you'll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won't pay any tuition fees to your host university.

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Placement year

Alternatively, on a placement year you gain relevant work experience within an external business, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry. You will be responsible for finding your placement, but with support and guidance provided by both your department and our Employability and Careers Centre. A Placement-Linked Project module is also available as an alternative to the dissertation module in your third year. You attend shorter placements (a minimum of 150 hours in total), and use your learning on placement to inform a research project; fantastic work experience for your CV. If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.

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Our expert staff

Some of the biggest names in the field work at Essex, giving you unparalleled access to some of the best minds in politics. Our staff are advising the CIA on counter-terrorism, training politicians and civil servants in democratising countries, and commentating on political events in national and international media. Our academic staff work on topics ranging from international conflict and violence to British elections, and from the obligations of the younger generation to why authoritarian leaders welcome natural disasters. You join an active and prolific research team, with the opportunity to work alongside a member of staff on their research instead of completing a dissertation; some of these projects have even resulted in joint staff/student publications.

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Specialist facilities

• Laboratories of networked computers featuring extensive software for political analysis
• ESSEXLab provides opportunities for experimental lab research
• Student societies for politics, debating, and Model UN
• A dedicated study skills advisor in your first year for one-to-one advice
• A personal tutor and peer mentor for every student
• We organise the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis
• A programme of seminars and events run by the department

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Your future

All Essex politics graduates have the distinction of a qualification from one of the world’s leading politics departments. Our students are in demand from a host of employers, in politics, the civil service fast stream, management, journalism, police, armed forces, commerce, business, finance, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), teaching and graduate research. Our notable alumni include the Former Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, and our recent graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of high-profile companies including:

• Qatar Financial Authority
• NATO
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Houses of Parliament Research Unit
• United Nations Development Program
• Department of Health
• IMG Media

We also work with the University’s Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

Program Outline

Course structure

Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field. The following modules are based on the current course structure and may change in response to new curriculum developments and innovation. We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, or in response to COVID-19, we’ll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.

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Components

Components are the blocks of study that make up your course. A component may have a set module which you must study, or a number of modules from which you can choose. Each component has a status and carries a certain number of credits towards your qualification.

Status	What this means
Core	You must take the set module for this component and you must pass. No failure can be permitted.
Core with Options	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component but you must pass. No failure can be permitted.
Compulsory	You must take the set module for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.
Compulsory with Options	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.
Optional	You can choose which module to study from the available options for this component. There may be limited opportunities to continue on the course/be eligible for the qualification if you fail.

The modules that are available for you to choose for each component will depend on several factors, including which modules you have chosen for other components, which modules you have completed in previous years of your course, and which term the module is taught in.

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Modules

Modules are the individual units of study for your course. Each module has its own set of learning outcomes and assessment criteria and also carries a certain number of credits. In most cases you will study one module per component, but in some cases you may need to study more than one module. For example, a 30-credit component may comprise of either one 30-credit module, or two 15-credit modules, depending on the options available. Modules may be taught at different times of the year and by a different department or school to the one your course is primarily based in. You can find this information from the module code . For example, the module code HR100-4-FY means:

HR	100	4	FY
The department or school the module will be taught by. In this example, the module would be taught by the Department of History.	The module number.	The UK academic level of the module. A standard undergraduate course will comprise of level 4, 5 and 6 modules - increasing as you progress through the course. A standard postgraduate taught course will comprise of level 7 modules. A postgraduate research degree is a level 8 qualification.	The term the module will be taught in. AU : Autumn term SP : Spring term SU : Summer term FY : Full year AP : Autumn and Spring terms PS: Spring and Summer terms AS: Autumn and Summer terms

Year 1 Year 2 Final Year What is “Politics”? How have people conceived of political analysis, the state, laws, wars and political parties, across cultures and over time? Gain an understanding of essential concepts in the study of politics and explore the economic, social and intellectual trends that have made democracy possible. View Introduction to Politics on our Module Directory What constitutes a good piece of research? You consider the basics of scientific work and procedures in the social sciences in order to understand the philosophy and theory of social scientific investigations, and to improve your research throughout your degree. View Thinking Like a Social Scientist on our Module Directory Study some fundamental texts in the “Western” philosophical tradition. We examine the assumptions underlying these texts, as well as the implications they have for us today. We explore profound themes of justice, equality, freedom, democracy, liberalism, republicanism, the meanings of gender and labour, and mass society and the individual. View Politics and Power on our Module Directory The aim of this module is to provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of computer programming. After completing this module, students will be expected to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles and concepts that underlie the procedural programming model, explain and make use of high-level programming language features that support control, data and procedural abstraction. Also, they will be able to analyse and explain the behaviour of simple programs that incorporate standard control structures, parameterised functions, arrays, structures and I/O. View Introduction to Programming on our Module Directory Want to become a Java programmer? Topics covered in this module include control structures, classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, interfaces, file I/O, event handling, graphical components, and more. You will develop your programming skills in supervised lab sessions where help will be at hand should you require it. View Object-Oriented Programming on our Module Directory COMPONENT 06: OPTIOL Option(s) from list (30 CREDITS) Develop the employability, citizenship, and life skills to successfully compete in the graduate job market after graduation. You complete a portfolio of employability skills and develop a critical understanding of the world of work. View Career Portfolio on our Module Directory Through this module you will learn how scholars in political science and international relations formulate research questions, develop theories to answer those questions, and use critical and empirical techniques to test the validity of those theories. More specifically, you will learn how to craft and refine a research question, define and measure concepts, formulate a theory and hypotheses, create a research design in order to collect data, and test theoretically-driven hypotheses with empirical evidence. The ultimate goal of this undertaking is to start you down a path to creating knowledge about the world of politics and global studies using the scientific process. View Doing Political Research on our Module Directory How should we approach relationships between different countries? Explore different theoretical lenses through which the world can be viewed, including bargaining theory, liberal institutional approaches, and emotion-based, psychological models of the behavior of international political actions. View International Relations: Theories and Approaches on our Module Directory How can we answer political questions using statistical data? Learn how to find relevant research designs and questions in order to use quantitative methods in political research, assisting you in your other modules and improving your job prospects. View Quantitative Political Analysis on our Module Directory View Fundamentals of Social Data Science on our Module Directory View Methods of Social Data Science on our Module Directory This module extends the students' knowledge and skills in object-oriented application programming by a treatment of further Java language principles and of important Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The Java Collections API is explored in some more detail with emphasis on how to utilise these classes to best effect. A particular focus will be on the interaction with databases (e.g. via JDBC) and on writing secure applications. View Application Programming on our Module Directory COMPONENT 06: COMPULSORY WITH OPTIONS CE212-5-SP or CE218-5-SP (15 CREDITS) COMPONENT 07: OPTIOL Option(s) from list (30 CREDITS) Develop the employability, citizenship, and life skills to successfully compete in the graduate job market after graduation. You complete a portfolio of employability skills and develop a critical understanding of the world of work. View Career Portfolio on our Module Directory This module will develop your critical thinking capacity and develop your investigative skills required for independent research projects of different forms. The module will also provide important preparation for you to choose what type of final year project you wish to complete, as well as improving your research skills and hone basic writing skills. The modules aims to help you think critically while also developing insights into a variety of current topics that interconnect with politics. View Issues in Politics: Final Year Project preparation on our Module Directory Understand how different statistical and experimental methods can be used to answer questions about political phenomena. You evaluate the assumptions of standard statistical tests and the linear regression model, consider alternatives to those, and learn about causal inference. View Advanced Quantitative Political Analysis on our Module Directory COMPONENT 02: COMPULSORY WITH OPTIONS Capstone Project (30 CREDITS) As humans we are adept in understanding the meaning of texts and conversations. We can also perform tasks such as summarize a set of documents to focus on key information, answer questions based on a text, and when bilingual, translate a text from one language into fluent text in another language. Natural Language Engineering (NLE) aims to create computer programs that perform language tasks with similar proficiency. This course provides a strong foundation to understand the fundamental problems in NLE and also equips students with the practical skills to build small-scale NLE systems. Students are introduced to three core ideas of NLE: a) gaining an understanding the core elements of language--- the structure and grammar of words, sentences and full documents, and how NLE problems are related to defining and learning such structures, b) identify the computational complexity that naturally exists in language tasks and the unique problems that humans easily solve but are incredibly hard for computers to do, and c) gain expertise in developing intelligent computing techniques which can overcome these challenges. View Natural Language Engineering on our Module Directory This module offers you an understanding of standard IR models, of their merits and limitations, and teaches you how to design and implement a standard information retrieval system. Discover the essential foundations of information retrieval and gain solid, applicable knowledge of state-of-the-art search technology. Explore advanced concepts of search applications such as personalisation, profiling and contextual search. View Information Retrieval on our Module Directory COMPONENT 05: OPTIOL Option(s) for list (30 CREDITS) Develop the employability, citizenship, and life skills to successfully compete in the graduate job market after graduation. You complete a portfolio of employability skills and develop a critical understanding of the world of work. View Career Portfolio on our Module Directory

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Placement

On a placement year you gain relevant work experience within an external business or organisation, giving you a competitive edge in the graduate job market and providing you with key contacts within the industry. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.

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Year abroad

On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.

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Teaching

• Teaching is arranged to allow a lot of freedom in how you organise your learning experience
• Lab sessions allow you to improve your technical research skills
• Opportunities to gain work experience on placements and internships

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Assessment

• Assessed through a combination of written coursework, presentations, class participation, and end-of-year examinations
• If you undertake a placement, you will prepare an assessed report on this experience