About Politics And International Relations With Foundation BA Honours in University of Westminster, London

Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster. Whether you do not feel ready for degree-level study, don’t have the right qualifications, want to change your subject specialism or return to study after an absence from education, we aim to encourage a broad range of students to undertake our Foundation year in order to progress onto their full honours degree with us.

The Foundation year is designed to give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, opening up new perspectives on the key debates within your chosen field. Core modules accelerate your academic and professional development and you will also take modules from areas closely related to your chosen field, giving you the chance to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on your course.

On successful completion of the Foundation year (Year 0), you will be able to move on to study for the Politics and International Relations BA Honours degree.

Our Politics and International Relations BA Honours provides an integrated approach for understanding the comparative dimensions of politics at the local, regional, national and global level. Your political studies will encompass philosophical, theoretical, institutional and issue-based concerns relating to governance. While international relations shares these interests, it focuses on the regional and global levels of political activity.

You will also concentrate on areas such as globalisation, patterns of conflict and co-operation between states, and the shift from 'anarchy' in the global sphere to co-ordination through intergovernmental organisations and non-state actors (such as corporations and groups based in civil society).

The course enables you to develop specialist knowledge of important political actors and key trends in international politics, and your critical and analytical skills in the understanding of political problems at both the national and international levels. You will also gain the transferable and cognitive skills necessary for lifelong personal and professional development. We make full use of our unique location, and many of our students gain placements through our successful internship programme with members of Parliament, governmental and non-governmental organisations.

We also enjoy excellent links with employers, and our graduates go on to develop careers in various sectors, including the Civil Service, NGOs, international organisations such as the EU or UN, policy and research, teaching, journalism, and politics.

Our teaching programme is structured to support students' transition to higher education and progression through each academic year.

The first-year programme provides an introduction to key concepts and structures of government, and how these impact on political behaviour and decision-making. It also embeds the study of politics and international relations in a wider context by providing a grounding in development studies.

In the second year, you will deepen your understanding of theoretical approaches, and your critical awareness of conflicting narratives of the state and of governance, particularly since the Cold War, in relation to society and to the international community.

In the final year, you can tailor your degree to a more 'academic' pathway or a more 'professional' pathway, completing either a traditional academic dissertation or a professionally-oriented research report. The third-year programme revolves around linked studies of postcolonial theory and practice, ethics and morality in international relations, and the contestation of sovereignty.

Teaching and learning includes small group work, problem-based tutorials, review sessions, workshops, symposia, debates, Q&A sessions, document analysis sessions, and structured role-plays. A wide range of assessments includes essays, exams, policy reports, project work, individual and group presentations, blogs, posters, and debates.

The teaching is offered within the School of Social Sciences, which brings together Criminology, Politics and International Relations, Psychology and Sociology. What binds us together is our shared commitment to making education a transformative experience for our students, to conducting research that makes a difference to the social world, and to enhancing the diversity of ideas and identities within and beyond the University.

We are in the centre of one of the world’s greatest cities and we use this vibrant, multicultural setting to ensure that our students discover innovative solutions to the problems facing our world. In 2018 the University of Westminster was named the most diverse university in the UK, representing 170 nationalities (Hotcourses Diversity Index). As a School we also host the world-renowned Centre for the Study of Democracy. The Centre undertakes research across a range of critical challenges to the theory and practice of politics, international relations, sociology and criminology. We have an innovative initiative called the Democratic Education Network that facilitates dialogue and the sharing of knowledge between our students, international universities and diasporic communities in London.

​​​Academic qualification equivalents

• HSC XII: CBSE, ICSE, Kolkata, or Tamil Nadu boards with an overall average of 70% or above*
• HSC XII: West Bengal board with an overall average of 58% or above*
• HSC XII: Maharashtra or Gujarat boards with an overall average of 75% or above*
• HSC XII: All other state boards with an overall average of 80%+ or above*
• a recognised International Foundation course from a UK institution or an Indian institution following a validated UK syllabus. Entry requirements vary but we normally ask for between 60% and 65%

English language requirements (one of the below):

•  IELTS: 6.0 overall with a minimum 5.5 in each component
• TOEFL iBT : 78 overall with a minimum of 17 in Listening, and Writing, 18 in Reading and 20 in Speaking 
• PTE:54 average with 51 in each component

University of Westminster, London Highlights

University of Westminster Cost of Attendance

The average estimated annual cost for 2020/2021 session is presented on the table below: