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Home » Faculties of Humanities » Departments » Politics and International Relations »| Politics and International Relations | |
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| Why study Politics and International Relations? | Politics colours everything that happens around you every day: at home; in your social life; in your community; in your work; in your country and in the world at large. Politics is about who gets what, where and when but are you aware of how much it affects you? This major offers you the best of both domestic politics and international relations issues and affords you the necessary critical skills to understand and meet these challenges, all in an effort to improve the human condition. |
| Possible Careers include:
| The diplomatic service and other government positions Research (for think tanks and other organisations) Working for the World Bank, SADC, the UN and other regional and International organisations Journalism (political or otherwise) Analysts and researchers (SAIRR; Consultancy Africa, CCR etc) Marketing Policymakers; Gender activists; Banking sector; Political risk assessors The tourism industry Multinational Corporations Development agencies/banks Non-Governmental Organisations Military and/or intelligence Professor; Associate Professor; Senior lecturer; Lecturer; Junior lecturer, Adjunct Senior Lecturer |
| Majors and elective modules to combine with Politics and International Relations as major include: | Communication and Media; Development Studies; Economics; History; Philosophy; Public Management and Governance; Psychology and/or Sociology. |
Background
The vision of the Department of Politics is to advance critical and professional scholarship in politics and international relations through research, teaching and community service.
The Department of Politics has a long tradition of teaching and research in the fields of politics and international relations at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The Department boasts specialists in both politics and international relations.
At undergraduate level we offer degrees in BA Politics, BA Politics Philosophy and Economics (PPE) and BA International Studies.
The undergraduate Politics curriculum includes courses in Introduction to Politics; South African Politics; Political Risk; Policy Analysis and Political Philosophy and Thought.
The undergraduate International Relations curriculum covers courses in Introduction to International Relations; Foreign Policy Analysis; South African Foreign Policy; Conflict and Cooperation and International Political Economy.
At postgraduate level we offer degrees at Honours, Masters and Doctoral levels.
Our Honours degree offers both Politics and International Relations subjects and includes a compulsory module in Research Methodology. This module involves theoretical coursework as well as a compulsory mini-dissertation (or long essay). The compulsory research module is taken with four auxiliary modules, chosen from International Organisations; Key Issues in International Relations; South African Politics; International Political Economy; International Conflict; Politics and Gender; Thought Systems and Theories in Politics; and Key Issues in Comparative Politics.
Our graduates have entered a wide range of careers in the public service at national, provincial and local levels, the private sector, the media and academia, among others. Some have opted for politics, serving in elected bodies at various levels of government.
Since graduate studies form a critical part of our teaching programme, we also offer an MA as well as a D Litt et Phil degree. Both of these degrees are dissertation/thesis based.