Course details
On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
Contact hours and assessment
Details of the assessment methods and contact hours for each unit of the course can be found in the programme specification.
Foundation Year
Core units
Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practice them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources.
Collaborative Communication Project: The unit focuses on the centrality of communicaiton, both as a process and as a project. Through the collaborative development of a communication solution to a specific communication problem, the unit aims to promote the principles and practices of team-based iterative project work.
Understanding Contemporary Britain: During this unit you will be introduced to key aspects of culture and society in Britain today. You will develop an understanding of the relationship between developments in culture, politics and society in the making of modern Britain and be able to identify a number of different critical perspectives on those developments.
Law & Government: You will trace a case study through the United Kingdom's political and legal system, following the case study from its inception in a political party's election manifesto, through the legislative process, to how the judiciary interprets its provisions within a court of law. Building out from this case study you will develop an understanding of practical and theoretical underpinnings of politics and law.
Year 1
Core units
Political Economy: You'll be introduced to fundamental questions about the relationship between politics and economics, and about how politics, governance, and power influence how wealth is generated and distributed. Beginning with the classics of Smith, Ricardo, and Marx, this unit explores these questions in a wide range of areas, from funding welfare states and higher education to the role of tax havens and the drugs trade. Fundamentally, you'll explore how politics, government, and power influence how wealth is generated and distributed.
Principles of Microeconomics: This unit builds upon core theories of microeconomics (consumer demand, theory of the firm, pricing and output in competitive and uncompetitive markets) and aims to enhance your understanding of micro economic models and their applications in a variety of contexts. It will provide you with rigorous analytical skills that will help you in the analysis of contemporary economic issues and problems.
Political Sociology: The unit explores how our identities, be they of race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, or sexuality, influence the distribution of political power and so the sense of belonging which determines political engagement and behaviour.
Global Governance & International Relations: The unit introduces you to the interplay between states, corporations, the various non-state actors from Greenpeace to the United Nations, and global movements from Black Lives Matter to Occupy. We explore how all these actors influence the global and national political agenda around poverty, inequality, education, and the rest of the UN Sustainable development goals.
Basic Statistical Techniques: By the end of this unit, you'll be able to calculate a range of basic statistical techniques and interpret the results and perform various significance tests.
Principles of Macroeconomics: You will develop an understanding of Macroeconomic theory, enabling you to apply macroeconomic principles in the analysis of contemporary issues and problems. You will be given in-depth knowledge of Keynesian and Classical Macroeconomics, IS-LM model, Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply, Phillips curve, unemployment and inflation, growth and business cycle.
Year 2
Core units
Political Psychology: This unit takes a deep dive into the psychology of all things political. Why do we vote for certain parties? What attracts us to political leaders? Why might we join a protest? How do we respond to terrorist attacks? Why do people believe conspiracy theories or reject scientific evidence? We investigate contemporary political events using key theories and methods from political psychology.
Intermediate Microeconomics: You will gain further understanding of the theory of demand, factors’ markets, general equilibrium analysis and welfare economics, as well as the tools needed to analyse the effects of imperfect competition, externalities, and environmental issues.
Civil Society & Social Movements: This unit aims to develop knowledge and the ability to critically analyse macroeconomic problems and issues in the context of the global economy. It seeks to provide you with the theoretical and empirical foundations to understand macroeconomic activity and policy in a global context.
Option units (choose one economics unit and one politics unit)
Economics option units
Industry, Region & Environment: The focus of this unit is on three inter-related specialist areas of economics: industrial organisation, regional development, and the environment.
Econometric Techniques: This unit will extend your knowledge of the fundamental statistical processes, techniques, and ideas used in the analysis and interpretation of economic data.
Politics option units
Political Journalism: You will analyse the news media’s role in civic education, democratic accountability, and political engagement, as well as the extent to which news media fulfill these normative roles. You will also have the opportunity to develop core journalistic skills.
Digital Politics: This unit explores all impacts of digital communication from fake news and echo chambers to community solidarity and widening participation in civic life. Through exploring the impact of digital technologies on politics we develop practical skills in designing, implementing, and critically evaluating the way digital communications are utilised in politics.
Political Marketing & Campaigning: The unit explores how political organisations sell their ideas to citizens, how they gain a following, mobilise their supporters, and how they succeed. The unit applies techniques from psychology, communication studies, and marketing to investigate how campaigns are designed and executed, enabling you to develop critical and practical skills.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester-by-semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Optional Placement Year
At BU, we recognise that placements are extremely valuable and can give you a head start when it comes to your future career. That’s why you’ll spend your third year on a professional work placement, lasting a minimum of 30 weeks, with public or private sector tourism-related organisations.
This includes the option to undertake your placement abroad – giving you the opportunity to develop yourself personally, academically, and professionally while you gain skills to help you stand out in the job market. Our students have completed placements in countries such as Spain, Greece, China, USA, Kenya and New Zealand.
Final Year
Core units (choose two)
International Relations, State Power & Public Diplomacy: How do states yield their soft power and manage their images in an era of uncertainty? This unit delves into the current challenges for diplomacy and diplomats, looking at both state and non-state actors and how they interact through diplomatic as well as public channels. You will critically evaluate current debates in the field such as strategic disinformation, narratives, and memes, emotions in IR, immigration, protests, and vaccine diplomacy.
Global Markets, Development & Labour: The unit aims to develop your knowledge of economic theory and your ability to apply it to an inter-related set of specialist areas of economics: global markets, national labour markets, and economic development.
International Economics: This unit will provide you with a basic understanding of international trade economics and rules, as well as the politics and institutions that go behind the economics. You'll spend the unit underlining the theories and basic models of international trade, finance, and exchange rates, with an emphasis on how the economics of international trade and finance plays out in the real world.
Academic Dissertation or Consultancy Dissertation: The dissertation offers you an opportunity to become an expert on a topic of particular interest. You can develop a study that connects your learning with real-world observations enabling you to develop and demonstrate your critical, analytical, and research skills.
Option units (choose one economics unit and one politics unit)
Economics option units
Global Markets, Development & Labour: The unit aims to develop you knowledge of economic theory and your ability to apply it to an inter-related set of specialist areas of economics: global markets, national labour markets and economic development.
Microeconomics and the Digital Economy: You'll develop your understanding of the theory of game received in year 2 and will also be exposed to the microtechniques utilised in developing many web and internet based approaches. Overall the unit aims to generate sufficient quantitative techniques enabling further independent learning of microeconomics and digital economy.
International Economics: This unit will provide you with a basic understanding of international trade economics and rules, as well as the politics and institutions that go behind the economics. You'll spend the unit underlining the theories and basic models of international trade, finance, and exchange rates, with an emphasis on how the economics of international trade and finance plays out in the real world.
Politics option units
Social and Intercultural Communication: This unit will provide you with an understanding of pertinent social and intercultural issues (both in the UK and internationally) and their impact upon contemporary professional communication practices. “Communication practices” can include any form of interaction between individuals, groups, ‘communities’, and/or organisations that take place within an increasingly complex, diverse, and interconnected world.
Promotion, Power & Democracy: The unit explores the impact of promotional culture on politics, with an emphasis on the role of discourse in reproducing power, inequality, class, or gender. You will analyse how ideas become popular and dominant, as well as suppressed or challenged within the information ecosystem of the digital age.
Race, Media and Inequality: You will develop critical understandings of historical and contemporary issues and debates on the dynamics of race, ethnicity, and culture in media and communication practice and political discourse. You will also develop the cultural competencies required to articulate the key issues and advance solutions for a specific industry.
Persuasion & Influence: In this unit, we deepen our understanding of core concepts such as social influence, communicator credibility, and the ethics of persuasion in the context of contemporary debates and examples, from the representation of HIV/Aids, to shock tactics and animal rights.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester-by-semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
