Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
International Studies
BA Politics
BA Politics and
BA Politics and International
Relations
Certificate in Political Studies
2016/17
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QUICK START UP:
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your personal account. It is therefore vital that you check your SOAS account
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email helpdesk@soas.ac.uk
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All courses taught within the department have a specific BLE page where you will be
able to find information about staff, an overview of the course, weekly readings,
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Open Options
Your programme of study may permit you to take one or more open option
courses taught by other departments at SOAS. You can access an up-to-date list of
open options on the SOAS website at
http://www.soas.ac.uk/languagecultures/reg/oo/.
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HELP, ADVICE AND SOURCES OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION
There are many different sources of help and advice available to students: it is very
important that you make use of the support systems if you need to do so. Small,
easily solved problems may grow rapidly into big, difficult ones if nothing is done
about them. Such difficulties are particularly common in the first year.
Personal Advisors
All students within the Department are allocated a Personal Advisor: an academic
member of staff who should be the first port of call for academic and pastoral issues
affecting your studies. You will be informed who your Personal Advisor is at the start
of your studies at SOAS. If you need to check who your Personal Advisor is, please
feel free to contact your Department Officer, who will be able to supply this
information.
Timetable
Students should check the up-to-date undergraduate timetable by referring
to www.soas.ac.uk/timetable. If you find that your core courses clash you should
consult the Faculty Office (R201) for advice.
Term Dates
The SOAS term dates can be found on the SOAS website
at http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/keydates/
Each year student representatives are elected for the BSc, MSc and PhD
programmes. Representatives are invited to attend departmental meetings of the
academic staff and to raise matters of concern. The forum is the means by which
students representatives and staff can discuss issues relating to specific courses
and teaches, whereas the department meeting deals with more general issues.
There are separate staff-student forums for BSc, MSc and PhD representatives.
They meet at least once a term. The BSc staff-student forum is made up of student
representatives, Undergraduate Tutors and the Head of Department. You will be
given more information on the election of student representatives at the beginning of
the first term.
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Student Information Desk (SID)
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password.
By studying Politics at SOAS, you will gain detailed knowledge and a thorough
understanding of some of the most important power shifts and conflicts of ideas
unfolding in the world today. You will also learn to critically engage with and explore
the relevance of social science concepts for understanding contemporary geopolitics,
regional politics of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as gain the ability to
undertake analyses and comparisons of political developments in specific countries.
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BA DEGREE STRUCTURES
1) BA Politics
2) BA Politics and
3) BA Politics and International Relations
4) Certificate in Political Studies
These are described in the Structure Diagrams on pages 7-17 of this guide.
For information on the individual courses offered as part of these degrees, please
see page 14 of this guide. Courses marked with an asterisk (*) below can only be
taken if you have taken prerequisite courses in preceding years see page 23 for
further information. Further details and precise requirements are available in the
School's Undergraduate Prospectus, the Degree Regulations and Guide to the
scheme for the classification for Honours. Students may also consult their personal
tutors for further guidance.
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BA POLITICS
FIRST YEAR
A
153400086 Introduction to Political Analysis
AND
B
153400079 Introduction to Comparative Politics
AND
C
153400001 Introduction to Political Theory
AND
D
153400056 States, People and Power in Asia and Africa
153400084 Introduction to Global History
153400085 Introduction to International Relations
OR
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BA POLITICS
SECOND YEAR
FOUR units required: TWO from section A, ONE to TWO from section B and up to
ONE from section C
A
TWO of the following DISCIPLINARY units:
AND
B
ONE to TWO of the following REGIONAL units:
OR
C
Any other unit available in another Department of SOAS (an 'open option')
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BA POLITICS
THIRD YEAR
FOUR units required: ONE to THREE from section A and ONE to TWO from
section B
ONE to THREE of the following DISCIPLINARY or REGIONAL units:
AND
OR
AND/OR
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BA POLITICS AND
FIRST YEAR
TWO units required, ONE from section A and ONE from section B
A
153400079 Introduction to Comparative Politics
AND
B
153400001 Introduction to Political Theory
OR
Students taking Joint Honours with a language which requires the second
year to be spent overseas will normally be required to take three course units
in the language, plus Introduction to Comparative Politics, in their first year.
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BA POLITICS AND
SECOND YEAR
TWO units required, ONE from section A and ONE from section B
A
ONE of the following DISCIPLINARY units:
AND
B
ONE of the following REGIONAL units:
Students taking Joint Honours with a language which requires taking three
course units in the language in their first year will need to take either
Introduction to Political Theory OR Introduction to Political Analysis in their
second year.
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BA POLITICS AND
THIRD YEAR
Students can take up to FOUR units: ONE to THREE from section A and up to ONE
from section B
A
ONE to THREE units from the following:
AND / OR
B
Any other unit available in BA International Relations Year 2 or 3, or another
Department of SOAS
(an 'open option')
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BA POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
FIRST YEAR
A
153400085 Introduction to International Relations
AND
B
153400086 Introduction to Political Analysis
AND
C
153400079 Introduction to Comparative Politics
AND
D
153400084 Introduction to Global History
OR
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BA POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SECOND YEAR
A
ONE of the following DISCIPLINARY units:
AND
B
ONE of the following REGIONAL units:
AND
C
ONE of the following DISCIPLINARY units:
AND
D
ONE of the following REGIONAL units:
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BA POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THIRD YEAR
A
At least ONE unit from the following:
OR
AND
B
At least ONE unit from the following (please note these are 0.5 unit modules and
therefore at least two are required):
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AND
C
Remaining units from the following:
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CERTIFICATE IN POLITICAL STUDIES
4 Units required: Two from Section A, ONE from Section B, and ONE from Section C
A
BOTH of the following INTRODUCTORY Units:
AND
B
ONE of the following DISCIPLINARY units:
AND
C
ONE of the following REGIONAL units:
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UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
Courses in the Department are valued as one or half a course unit: those courses
which are full year count as one course unit, those courses which run for one term
only count as half course units. You can access a list of courses - including convenor
details, course descriptions, and scheduling information from the SOAS website,
at http://www.soas.ac.uk/politics/programmes/ugcourses/.
Prerequisites
Some advanced final year courses can only be taken if you have done prerequisite
courses in preceding years. They are indicated in the structure diagrams above with
asterisks (*). See the table below for pre-requisite requirements:
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STUDENT REGULATIONS
Definitive regulations governing the award of undergraduate degrees can be found
online at
http://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/degreeregulations/.
Ensure you allow sufficient time for your work to upload onto Turnitin. Any work
submitted after the 23:59 deadline will automatically receive a late submission
penalty.
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Coursework Word Limits: Coursework assignments which exceed the set word
limit will be penalised as described in this section. Individual assignment word limits
can be found on the relevant course pages on the BLE (http://ble.soas.ac.uk/).
Plagiarism: You should note that plagiarism i.e. the presentation of another
person's thoughts or words as though they were your own is an examination and/or
assessment offence, and is dealt with under the Schools Regulations for
proceedings in respect of assessment and examination offences.
MARKING CRITERIA
Please see below for the marking criteria (competence standards) for coursework
assignments. These criteria for all SOAS undergraduate programmes draw upon the
following minimum core criteria, which are applicable to the assessment of most or
all assignments:
These minimum core criteria form a part of the Schools core academic standards,
applied to all coursework and as such they would not usually be subject to any
modification, even as a reasonable adjustment to the needs of a specific disabled
person.
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70-79 (First Class Honours)
A mark in the range 70-79 will fulfil the following criteria:
engages closely with the question;
shows some evidence of wide and relevant reading and an engagement with
the conceptual issues;
shows some sophistication of argument;
shows an intelligent use and a good understanding of relevant source
materials.
20-39 (Fail)
A Fail will be awarded in cases which:
fail to answer the question or develop an argument;
fail to demonstrate knowledge of the key issues or arguments;
contain clear conceptual or factual errors or misunderstandings;
are poorly organised and/or poorly written.
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0-19 (Fail)
A Fail will be awarded in cases which:
fail to answer the question even in part;
show no knowledge of the question or topic;
contain blatant conceptual or factual errors;
are very poorly organised and/or very poorly written.
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
Courses in the Department are valued as one or half a course unit: those courses
which are full year count as one course unit, those courses which run for one term
only count as half course units. You can access a list of courses including
convenor details, course descriptions, and scheduling information from the SOAS
website, at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/politics/programmes/ugcourses/
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KEY CONTACTS
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TIMETABLE
Fill out your weekly timetable here:
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Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
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