BA Politics and Russian A

Year 4

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:
- understand and demonstrate a coherent knowledge of the main issues in the contemporary scholarship of the disciplines;
- understand and use the main conceptual ideas in the disciplines;
- analyse and evaluate political issues;
- appreciate the uncertainty of knowledge within the academic disciplines;
- evaluate and make appropriate use of the scholarly literature;
- write, present and support arguments in a scholarly way;
- initiate and undertake an extended project;
- in the dissertation students should be able to demonstrate conceptual grasp and an ability to make a sustained argument;
- show an understanding of scholarship and recent research in Sociology;
- have the knowledge and ability to deploy various techniques of analysis and enquiry within Sociology, and develop a conceptual understanding of Sociological debates and describe and comment on particular aspects of scholarship and recent research in Sociology;
- demonstrate proficiency in the application of Sociological concepts and techniques;
- demonstrate a familiarity with the concepts, information, practical competencies and techniques of Sociology;
- demonstrate an ability to evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches within the discipline of Sociology; and appreciate their strengths and weaknesses as learners;
- demonstrate an awareness of the boundaries between Sociology and other disciplines;
- be able to apply generic and sociological qualities to standard situations outside the context in which they were originally studied;
- be furnished with a historically informed and theoretically aware academic understanding of the dynamics of political phenomena and an in depth understanding of political processes, both at the domestic and international levels;
- have a broad and balanced knowledge and understanding of key political theories, concepts, institutions and processes;
- have an up to date knowledge of the main political theories that structure our political systems, and the wider social forces that shape political life;
- have the ability to critically analyse British politics and international issues.

The programme will:
- provide students with an opportunity to study the engagement between Sociology and Politics;
- allow the study of the two disciplines to the same depth as any single honours student but with less the breadth in each discipline;
- provide a basis for further advanced study in either of the disciplines or in a cognate interdisciplinary area.

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of:
- being able to communicate fluently and appropriately, maintaining a high degree of grammatical accuracy, in Russian with native or other competent speakers;
- being able to effectively communicate information, arguments and analysis in a variety of forms;
- having consolidated and extended knowledge and understanding of complex structures and registers of Russian;
- being able to demonstrate sophisticated receptive and productive language skills, and having had some practice in mediation language skills, in a variety of contexts;
- being able to demonstrate an ability critically to evaluate one or more aspects of the literatures, cultures, linguistic contexts, history, politics, geography, social and economic structures of the societies of the country or countries of the target language;
- continuing to develop an awareness and understanding of Russian culture and society, that will have been significantly enhanced by the compulsory period of residence in Moscow;
- work autonomously within a structured environment.

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- demonstrate transferable skills necessary for employment such as initiative, analysis of information, problem-solving, finding information;
- the skills of communication of concepts, facts and issues in a variety of ways;
- demonstrate an ability to apply a broad range of disciplinary aspects;
- draw on the scholarly material;
- evaluate the scholarly arguments;
- conduct independent work within the discipline;
- use critical ability.

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- qualities and transferable skills related to Russian and Slavonic Studies, valuable for employment, eg. be able to gather and critically evaluate information from a variety of paper, audio-visual and electronic sources, be able to use IT effectively both as a means of communication and as an aid to learning;
- word-processing in Cyrillic; proficiency in a range of standard software, e.g. Microsoft Word and Powerpoint; familiarity with specialist software, e.g. online corpora, library databases;
- the ability to appreciate their strengths and weaknesses as learners;
- the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility;
- the deployment of decision making skills in complex and unpredictable situations;
- the communication of information, ideas, problems and solutions in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences;
- the ability to undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature.

Assessment

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:
- dissertation;
- oral assessment;
- written reports and log books;
- assessment essays;
- examinations.

These will demonstrate the ability to
- use the scholarly literature;
- analyse and evaluate arguments;
- show self-discipline and self-direction;
- conduct independent work.

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:
- demonstrating the ability to apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline;
- work that draws on a wide variety of material;
- the ability to evaluate and criticise received opinion;
- evidence of an ability to conduct independent, in depth enquiry within the discipline;
- work that is typically both evaluative and creative.
Assessment methods include, where appropriate for each module:
- written examinations
- oral language examinations
- dissertation
- assessed language coursework
- assessed non-language coursework.