Modern History, Politics and International Relations (BA)

You’ll mostly be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops.

Lectures take a range of forms, but generally provide a broad structure for each subject, introduce key concepts, and convey relevant up-to-date information.

Seminars provide an opportunity to ask questions and discuss key ideas in a small group environment. This helps you to integrate the information and ideas you receive from lectures and readings and to explore issues critically and in depth. Tutor-led and student-led discussion hones logical skills and gives you practice in applying different concepts, theories and methods to the subject matter at hand. It also exposes you to different interpretations of historical and political ideas and events.

Workshops are like seminars, but they tend to involve more structured activities and the involvement of more students and staff.

Our in-person, face-to-face teaching and learning is supported and complemented by various digital tools. Each module makes extensive use of BlackBoard Ultra, which is the university’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). On Blackboard Ultra, you’ll find discussion forums, pre-recorded videos, links to relevant web-based resources, multimedia materials and course materials.

How will I be supported?

You'll be supported by a number of different staff, some focusing on academic performance in a particular area, and some looking at learning and progress more holistically.

You’ll be allocated personal tutors in both history and politics who will guide you for the duration of your studies, help you reflect on your performance on the programme and advise you on study techniques, module selection and career planning (in conjunction with the University’s careers support). They will also provide a first point of contact if you experience any difficulties. Additionally, all teaching staff keep set office hours when you can meet with them and discuss any learning queries arising from the module or from your studies in general.  If you’re a Welsh-speaking student, you can access a Welsh-speaking Personal Tutor.

You’ll meet with your personal tutors regularly in groups and individually to reflect on your progress and development across your studies. Your personal tutors can also guide you towards appropriate support if you experience difficulties or require specific information about your time at Cardiff University.

Additional module-specific support is provided by seminar tutors, lecturers and/or module convenors while support for independent research projects is provided by an academic advisor who will meet with you regularly.

All modules within the programme make extensive use of the University’s Virtual Learning Environment, Blackboard Ultra, where you can access discussion forums and find course materials including multimedia materials, presentations, lecture handouts, bibliographies, further links, electronic exercises, discussion groups, etc. You’ll also be able to reflect on your progress and on the skills that you will develop through a section on the University’s Central Learning site called Planning Personal Development.

Within modules, the requirements and expectations of learning and assessment will be explained carefully by the module leader in the class and through supporting materials available on Blackboard Ultra. This will include a weekly ‘module map’ to provide detailed instruction of the following week’s learning activities.

Modules include forms of assessment that are designed, in part, to monitor progress and to provide feedback before more substantial assignments later in the module. You will receive written feedback on all coursework.

Our undergraduate Education Support Teams provides academic and student support and are there to provide information and guidance in response to any queries you may have.

The University offers a range of services including Student Futures to help you with your career planning, support services and events to help you manage your emotional, mental and physical health, support with financial issues and support for students with disabilities.

Additionally, the University offers a range of support services located in the Centre for Student Life, including the careers advice and guidance, money advice, counselling and wellbeing services, disability and dyslexia support, and student mentoring. You’ll also have access to a subject-specialist librarian, excellent libraries and resource centres.

Feedback

Assessments are not used solely for marking purposes. They are mainly used to provide advice and written feedback to help you to achieve the learning outcomes on each module and to help explain what is required to improve your work in future. This is known as formative feedback.

Formative feedback helps you to:

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work;
• Address problems identified with targeted strategies for improvement. This is sometimes called ‘feedforward’.

The marking dimension of assessment also has a name: summative assessment. It is summative feedback that contributes to progression and degree classification decisions. The goal of summative assessment is to indicate how well you have succeeded in meeting the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme. All feedback should link to assessment criteria that is readily available for you to consult.

Beyond comments on work submitted (which is sometimes in the form of audio feedback), feedback is also given in seminars, personal tutor meetings, and other learning environments.

How will I be assessed?

Assessments include source criticisms, research projects, reviews, presentations, policy briefings, creative-critical portfolios and blog posts, alongside more traditional forms of assessment such as essays and tests/exams. Some of our assessments allow you to work collaboratively on a project, while others include writing and creating for different audiences; for example, you might be asked to design a museum exhibition or create a policy briefing for a minister; and you may have the opportunity to create podcasts and digital texts for social media. Long-form essays in history and politics/international relations allow you to address fundamental historical and/or political questions or explore an historical and/or political issue or debate in more depth.

In all cases, our assessments are designed to support you in developing your ideas, skills and competencies. They help equip you with skills to link your knowledge to local, national and global issues, and encourage you to be innovative and creative; to find new ways to address problems or ask questions; to collaborate in solving problems and presenting findings; and to present evidence-based arguments. The skills developed and assessed throughout the programme prepare you for entry into a range of graduate careers. Individual and group feedback on assessments and other learning provides you with the opportunity to reflect on your current or recent level of attainment.

What skills will I practise and develop?

The Learning Outcomes for this Programme describe what you will achieve by the end of your programme at Cardiff University and identify the knowledge and skills that you will develop. They will also help you to understand what is expected of you.

On successful completion of your Programme, you will be able to:

Knowledge & Understanding:

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of core concepts, theories and methods used in the study of history, politics and international relations, and consider the analysis of political ideas, institutions and practices, relative to the historical and contemporary context.
• Engage critically and conceptually with different political systems and historical contexts; the nature and distribution of power in them; the social, economic, and cultural contexts within which they operate; and - in some cases - the relationships between them 
• Engage critically and conceptually with the changing assumptions and methods that historians use to explain the past and demonstrate systematic knowledge and understanding of the complexity and diversity of situations, events, and mentalities in the past in a single country or in relation to a particular theme
• Demonstrate an understanding of political and policy-making processes and their impacts both within individual states and/or the international relations between states and non-state actors.

Intellectual Skills:

• Apply the appropriate methods of analysis to examine the political systems, ideologies, and institutions across different regions of the world; formulate and justify arguments about a range of historical issues, problems, and debates using historiographical ideas and methods.
• Interpret complex global, historical and political events and trends by synthesising diverse social, political, economic, and cultural perspectives.
• Assess the impact and legacy of historical events and processes on contemporary politics and international relations and utilise knowledge and appropriate skills and methods to identify and critically evaluate historical change
• Select historical, political and international relations-related information, data and primary sources in a critical and discerning manner, and use, manage, synthesise that information and data effectively and ethically. 

Professional Practical Skills:

• Ask cogent and focused questions and pursue answers to these questions through structured enquiry, selecting and interrogating an appropriate range of evidence
• Demonstrate critical thinking, reasoning, and the ability to assimilate and summarise complex information and ideas though the independent selection and critical analysis of an appropriate range of evidence and communicate findings to both specialist and non-specialist audiences
• Summarise and critically appraise the relative merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations and evaluate their significance
• Demonstrate an awareness of the ethical considerations and challenges faced in historical, political and international relations research and practice, such as human rights and global justice.

Transferable/Key Skills:

• Present complex findings and arguments clearly, concisely, and persuasively in a variety of formats either individually or collaboratively as part of a team
• Develop intercultural awareness and communication skills by engaging with diverse political viewpoints and historical perspectives from around the world.
• Utilise appropriate digital and IT skills, including data visualisation and online collaborative tools, to support historical, political and international relations-related research projects.
• Demonstrate adaptability and resilience, using critical thinking, initiative, and creativity to propose imaginative solutions to problems.