Funding
Find out more about financing your studies and whether you may qualify for one of our bursaries and scholarships
Money MattersStudy politics and you’ll not only master the art of the possible – you’ll open yourself up to an abundance of career possibilities.
Studying politics allows you to know what is happening today, how change is enacted, and how you can be a part of it. The principal focus of the degree is power relations between individuals, social groups and nations – so it is one of the most exciting ways to understand why things are the way they are. You’ll study a broad range of social and public policy areas and explore fundamental issues that affect communities in the UK and elsewhere, including: emancipatory political thought and theory, international politics, digital politics, and ‘issue’ politics such as environmentalism and climate change.
The course is underpinned by both the research specialisms of the staff who will teach you and a wide variety of options mean you can pursue your own interests, depen...
3 years full-time
4 years with placement/overseas study
6 years part-time
Molly"I enjoy being able to study such a wide variety of different topics that I wouldn't have imagined I'd be able to study at University. I like how engaging but also challenging my course is."
BA (Hons) History and Politics
Politics is the study of power, between individuals, social groups, and nations, and one of the best places to study it is in Manchester. The staff here at Manchester Metropolitan University are leading researchers in the most critical angles on this field, and we live and work in one of the most radical cities in the UK, with a wealth of placement opportunities and political activity, from the media and arts sectors, to climate change groups and major party-political organisations.
Teaching Excellence Framework 2023-2027
National Student Survey 2024 (NSS)
Year 1 gives a core grounding to students who may not have studied Politics before, whilst extending the knowledge and skills of those who have already engaged with linked subjects at A-Level, such as history, politics, sociology, philosophy and human geography.
This unit explores contemporary political developments in Britain, Europe and the wider world. Content will vary from year to year and can include: post-war British politics, the organisation of the European Union and its impact on the member states citizens, global democratic transitions world-wide, and contemporary democratic structures.
This unit explores some of the key historical events in modern history, in relation to the key debates that have dominated the study of international relations. We will explore the political implications of which historical events are deemed relevant to international relations and how this shapes the way we look at the world. The unit will help students to identify significant continuities and changes in international relations over time.
This unit will introduce you to different political processes and institutions, and will review the key research methods appropriate to comparative politics. The course will help you to identify appropriate approaches to data interpretation and presentation, and provide an opportunity to develop your own case study.
This unit introduces you to the main contemporary political ideologies and contested concepts such as feminism, ecologism, human rights and terrorism.
This unit introduces some of the key concepts used in political theory, such as the concepts of freedom, equality, democracy, and ideology. The course aims to develop your critical and reasoning skills, so that you can more fully ascertain the flaws and assumptions contained in contemporary political debate.
This unit engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society, integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal developments. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.
This unit engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal development. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.
This unit develops your understanding of principles of social policy and concepts of social justice, social exclusion, difference and diversity, by using UK-based policy case studies and looking at future challenges for the state and its citizens.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
The second year offers option units to allow you to pursue your interests, whilst developing the core grounding built up in Year 1.
This unit will help you to develop an understanding of research methods in politics. The unit will discuss both the limitations and advantages of quantitative and qualitative analysis for political research.
This unit introduces the history of modern political thought from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Studying a series of 'classic' texts by a range of political thinkers, we will discuss different frameworks for understanding key questions in politics such as: why should I obey the state? and what is political power, and how is it used? You will learn critical skills to evaluate the thinkers, examined with a focus on the social contract tradition.
This unit develops the history of modern political thought since the late eighteenth century. We will discuss different frameworks (conservative, liberal, socialist, and others) for understanding some key questions in political theory. Questions that may be examined include: What is the role of tradition in politics? Is the personal political? Does democracy introduce the danger of a ‘tyranny of the majority’? How did the development of industrial societies transform the workings of political power? Students will reflect critically on the continuing significance of these issues in our own times.
This unit will look at a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, equipping you with a range of tools needed to critically evaluate and apply theories and methods in Politics.
After briefly covering the early Cold War, the unit will account for and critique the direction of US Foreign Policy up to the present day, exploring how US policy has addressed post-Cold War conflict and 'rogue states', terrorism, the environment and increased global economic competition.
This unit introduces students to the US political system and to key aspects of contemporary US politics. It combines an introduction to the main institutions and processes of the US federal government with an overview of key developments in American politics.
An innovative unit that applies interdisciplinary methods, approaches and perspectives of humanities and social science disciplines to contemporary socio-economic challenges, complementing Engaging the Humanities 1. Each year the unit will address a different contemporary issue or theme. The unit will give you the opportunity to develop and apply your academic skills in an applied, practical setting by undertaking an individual engagement project. This can include a work placement, volunteering, social/community enterprise, RAH! Project, awareness-raising campaign, multimedia piece, blog, creative writing, poetry or artwork performance/exhibition. Each project will be supervised and mentored by one of the unit tutors. Finding external partners to work with will be supported by the Engagement and Outreach team.
The unit will take students through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs, using platforms such as LinkedIn, and interview practice. Students will build up a portfolio of tasks related to employability, for instance, CV, video interview, assessment centre and reflect on their learning across the unit.
The unit will look at key methodological frameworks for the study of media and communication, with a particular focus on researching on-line and social media environments. The unit will examine a range of methods including the analysis of textual and visual data; quantifiable analysis (of 'big data' and 'small data'); and on-line ethnography and sociological perspectives on social media behaviour and strategies.
This unit will analyse the threat of climate change, and critically evaluate international efforts in dealing with climate change.
This unit will explore links between art and politics in a thematic way focusing on the artist as witness to, activist in or victim of, political events. It will make reference to a wide range of international art, design and cinematic movements.
This unit introduces the main theories of policy change and provides a systematic examination of the policy process.
This unit will explore key social policy areas and discuss ways to resolve prevalent issues such as inequality, poverty, homelessness, and social care crisis.
This unit evaluates the changing character of politics and society in Britain during the 1980s. It adopts a broad perspective and examines a wide variety of themes: the dynamics of issues and ideology, the transformation of the political parties, the process of government itself and aspects of foreign policy. It considers debates surrounding the role of the state, the economy, organisation of industry and defence policy.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
In the third year, we ask you as a student to engage with the latest research in political science, with the opportunity to take part in this work. The third year also places focus on preparing you for what comes next.
This unit will teach you how to design and propose a research project, evaluating questions of ethics, funding, impact, research relevance and methodologies. The unit also has integrated placement and work experience opportunities.
The unit consists of a series of case studies informed by current research interests and findings of the politics and public policy teams. The case studies have a special focus on questions related to theory and/or methods in politics, international relations, and public policy.
This unit examines the contested nature of security through a critical lens, and engages with the politics and power relations of security construction. It analyses the various theoretical approaches that challenge conventional conceptualisations of ‘security’ in what is often called ‘the critical turn’ in Security Studies, and studies their methodological implications.
This unit gives you the opportunity to examine games and gaming as important ways of making sense of a range of contemporary cultural and social issues. Over the course of the unit, you will use a range of interdisciplinary frameworks infused with historical, political, and philosophical concepts and perspectives to confront and tackle key questions and subjects about games and gaming.
An examination of the politics inherent in major professional sport.
The unit explores the dominant paradigms in political science and is designed to equip students with the tools to study the key ways in which analysts construct understandings and explanations of political phenomena. The unit combines conceptual analysis with direct application to contemporary examples.
This unit focuses upon Britain's changing role and influence in world politics. It examines the major events and issues by which foreign policy has been defined. Chronology is modulated by key foreign policy concepts.
This module aims to introduce you to the politics, government and foreign policy of Russia as it has developed since 1991, in order to allow you to analyse and assess the challenges Russia faces today and its complex role in contemporary geopolitics.
Using case studies from particular moments in the history of capitalism, this unit explores the evolving challenges to liberal political thought, as industrialism and post-industrialism have transformed global politics. You will develop your capacity for critical thought by exploring a series of key themes to interpret diverse forms of modernity.
This unit will require that students research and produce an in-depth, research based, piece of scholarly work based on a specific topic of study relevant to their degree programme.
This unit will examine the role of housing in developing sustainable communities and how social housing providers are working to improve the opportunities of tenants and residents and impact positively on individual and collective wellbeing.
This unit introduces students to key issues and major thinkers in modern Italian political thought. It provides an opportunity to explore the political tradition and culture of a bellwether European nation.
The unit provides an understanding of the ethical dimensions of politics through an examination of persistent moral problems and dilemmas concerning war, violence and political obligation. The course adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, combining elements of political theory, moral philosophy and twentieth century British and European political history.
This unit aims to give students a broad understanding of the welfare state, what factors determine its evolution and how we can explain the differences we observe across countries. It provides an introduction to the comparative study of welfare state regimes with a particular focus on the effect of welfare state regimes on social inequality.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
Whether you’ve already made your decision about what you want to study, or you’re just considering your options, there are lots of ways you can meet us and find out more about student life at Manchester Met.
We offer:
Your studies are supported by a department of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field.
We often link up with external professionals too, helping to enhance your learning and build valuable connections to the working world.
These typical entry requirements may be subject to change for the 2025/26 academic year. Please check back for further details.
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course.
GCSE grade C/4 in English Language or equivalent, e.g. Pass in Level 2 Functional Skills English
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course.
There’s further information for international students on our international website if you’re applying with non-UK qualifications.
Tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are still being finalised for all courses. You can find information on 2024/25 standard undergraduate fees for UK/Channel Islands and EU/Non-EU international students. All fees stated may be subject to change for the 2025/26 academic year.
Optional estimate: £200
Books and learning materials costs are approximately £200 per year.
The department sometimes offers optional opportunities for short study trips abroad of one week or less as part of our curriculum enrichment efforts. If you choose to participate in such trips, you will be expected to cover the full costs of travel and maintenance.
Optional estimate: £2000
Manchester Metropolitan University is committed to engaging with the Turing programme, the newly announced UK government scheme to support students to study and work abroad. All study abroad opportunities are subject to application, international travel restrictions and availability.
Find out more about financing your studies and whether you may qualify for one of our bursaries and scholarships
Money MattersGraduates of politics possess a number of transferable skills that are highly valued in a wide range of employment sectors.
Previous graduates have gone into a variety of careers in the fast-track civil service, the armed forces intelligence corps, publishing, recruitment, journalism, media, charities, academic research and company management.
There is also the opportunity to engage in further study and professional training, for example some of our graduates go on to study MA International Relations and Global Communications and MSc Digital Society (with specialisms in Digital Sociology and Digital Politics), where we have a growing, innovative research cluster focusing on digital society and culture.
You can apply for this course for 2025/26 entry once UCAS applications open in autumn.
Visit UCAS for further details, including deadlines.
Get advice and support on making a successful application.
You can review our current terms and conditions before you make your application. If you are successful with your application, we will send you up to date information alongside your offer letter.
Programme review
Our programmes undergo an annual review and major review (normally
at 6 year intervals) to ensure an up-to-date curriculum supported by the
latest online learning technology. For further information on when we
may make changes to our programmes, please see the changes section of our
terms and conditions.
Important notice
This online prospectus provides an overview of our programmes of study
and the University. We regularly update our online prospectus so that
our published course information is accurate. Please check back to the
online prospectus before making an application to us to access the most
up to date information for your chosen course of study.
Confirmation of regulator
The Manchester Metropolitan University is regulated by the Office for
Students (OfS). The OfS is the independent regulator of higher education
in England. More information on the role of the OfS and its regulatory
framework can be found at
officeforstudents.org.uk.
All higher education providers registered with the OfS must have a student protection plan in place. The student protection plan sets out what students can expect to happen should a course, campus, or institution close. Access our current student protection plan.