BA International Relations

Year 2

(Award available for year: Diploma of Higher Education)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:

- demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the origins and evolution of the international political system, including major international institutions and some contemporary changes underway;
- demonstrate familiarity with the International Relations scholarship and an ability to productively engage with it;
- demonstrate understanding of the threshold International Relations concepts and appreciation of the disciplinary boundaries;
- demonstrate a good knowledge of the key theoretical approaches and main methods of enquiry and some ability to evaluate their appropriateness;
- apply concepts, theories and methods used in the study of International Relations to the analysis of standard situations outside the context in which they were originally studied; and
- some ability to evaluate different interpretations of world political events and issues.

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme, the following skills:

- gather, organise and deploy evidence, data and information from a variety of sources;
- identify and analyse solutions to problems;
- construct a reasoned argument and present it in a scholarly manner;
- indentify their strengths and weaknesses as independent learners and seek and make use of constructive feedback;
- communicate effectively in speech and writing;
- use communication and information technology for the retrieval and presentation of information;
- demonstrate personal responsibility, initiative, self-organisation and time-management; and
- collaborate with others to achieve common goals.

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:

- reports, projects, log books, annotated bibliographies and short essays;
- individual and group presentations;
- assessment essays; and
- examinations.

These assessments will include a demonstration of:
- an ability to locate and use a range of sources;
- an ability to use relevant knowledge acquired in a variety of settings;
- a solid grasp of threshold concepts;
- an ability to understand and engage with scholarly judgements;
- some ability to apply theory to practice; and
- an ability to construct a reasoned argument, draw conclusions and communicate those effectively in speech and writing.