BA in Politics and Data Analytics
University of Manchester
Key Information
Campus location
Manchester, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
3 - 4 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
GEL 23,000 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Request info
* home students: £9,250 per annum | international students: £23,000 per annum
Introduction
Examine today's fundamental questions using applied statistical and data-analytic methods.
Course overview
- Learn theories about politics and international relations, and how to contrast these theories in real life, using data analytic and data science techniques.
- Learn how to use data and data analytic methods to evaluate policies, understand political trends, predict and classify political phenomena and map and analyse complex network relationships between political agents and organisations.
- Learn to use a variety of statistical software used in government, industry, and academia, including R, SPSS and other popular packages.
- Enjoy the opportunity to study abroad or complete a professional placement on a four-year optional course.
Open days
We are carefully reviewing all our recruitment events considering the developing coronavirus outbreak.
As we're unable to host on-campus visits, or attend events like UCAS and overseas recruitment fairs now, look at our virtual open day content to learn more about the University.
You will be able to watch videos about the university, including accommodation, student finance and course-specific sessions.
Admissions
Curriculum
You will learn theories about politics and international relations, but they also learn how to translate these theories into empirical questions that can be studied using real-life data.
Specifically, you learn data analytic and data science techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of policies, understand political behaviour, predict and classify political phenomena and describe and analyse networks of relationships between individuals, political agents or organisations.
By completing the core and optional units, you can gain sought-after skills, including:
- how to collect, describe and visualise data;
- how to build quantitative models to explain phenomena;
- how to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of policies;
- how to map and analyse complex social networks;
- how to implement key machine learning algorithms;
- how to implement data analytic techniques and data science algorithms using statistical software including R, as well as proprietary packages such as SPSS.
The pathway emphasises the application of modern data analytic methods to real-life problems, although you will have the opportunity to learn some of the underlying theory, to progress further in your career to more advanced postgraduate courses and to more challenging scenarios in policy and industry.
Course content for year 1
Year 1 of the course gives you a broad introduction to the Social Sciences.
Students on the Data Analytics pathway must take the core unit SOST10021 Measuring Inequalities.
Course content for year 2
In Year 2 you begin to specialise.
Students in the Data Analytics pathway take two core units:
- SOST20022 Essentials of Survey Design and Analysis;
- SOST20142 Applied Statistics for Social Science.
Course content for year 3
In Year 3 you pick your final areas of specialisation.
Students in the Data Analytics pathway take the core unit SOST30031 Answering Social Research questions with Statistical Models.
In addition to this, students are encouraged to take:
- SOST30172 Quantitative Evaluation (of Policies, Interventions and Experiments);
- SOST30036 Data Science Modelling;
and at least one of:
- SOST30022 Advanced Social Network Analysis;
- SOST30012 Theory and Method in Demography.
Course content for year 4
If completing a year professional placement, you will take the Year 3 course content in Year 4.
Career Opportunities
We have an excellent reputation for employability and are currently the joint-most targeted university by top graduate recruiters in the UK.
Graduates pursue a variety of careers including journalism and the media, charities, consultancy, civil service, finance, marketing, social work, teaching, the law and postgraduate study. Recent examples include:
- AXA;
- Barclays;
- the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the Houses of Parliament, the Ministry of Justice;
- the United Nations;
- the Centre for Social Justice;
- Google;
- the Foreign and Commonwealth Office;
- Teach First.
We work with students and the Careers Service to embed employability into our courses through specific careers and networking events.
You can also boost your employability by choosing course units in Year 2 from the University College for Interdisciplinary Learning.