Department of Politics
Postgraduate Programme Handbook
MRes Programmes
2015-2016
Contents
Introduction to the Department of Politics
Introduction to your Programme of Study
Questions about your programme
Core modules
Option modules
The dissertation
Reading Week and Workshop Week
Break in Studies Policy and Withdrawal from a Module or Programme
Pass requirements and degree classifications
Results
Repeating modules and intermediate awards
From MRes to PhD
Further Information about the Department of Politics
Full-time academic staff
Emeritus and visiting staff
Professorial Fellows
Administrative Staff
Aims and objectives
The Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life
Location
Access
Department website
Departmental blog and twitter
eRegisters
Keeping in touch
Student Support and Disability Advice
Student Support
Study Support
The Learning Development Tutor
English language support for non-native speakers
Disability & Dyslexia Service
The Disability & Dyslexia Service and Mental Health Service
Access at Birkbeck
The Disabled Students Allowance
Support in your Department
Support in IT Services and Library Services
Examinations and Assessments
Specific Learning Difficulties (e.g. Dyslexia, Dyspraxia)
Examinations
Further information
Annex
Useful contacts
Disclaimer and useful links
Introduction to the Department of Politics
Politics has been part of our teaching provision at Birkbeck for nearly two centuries. Although George Birkbeck argued against ‘interference with political questions’ at the inaugural meeting of the London Mechanics Institute – founded in 1823 and renamed Birkbeck College in 1907 – the political reformer and archivist, Francis Place, ensured that the working men and women who came to this new institution had an opportunity to learn about politics. Political economy was covered in the College’s early curriculum by eminent lecturers such as William Ellis, Robert Wilmot Horton and Thomas Hodgskin alongside specialist provision for civil servants. Notable students in this foundational period included Karl Marx, who attended Hodgskin’s lectures on workers in the capitalist system, Sidney Webb, co-founder of the London School of Economics and Ramsey MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister. Building on this legacy, Birkbeck’s School of Sociology and Politics was founded in 1972 by Bernard Crick, a celebrated scholar of political liberalism, Paul Hirst, a social theorist who did ground breaking work on globalisation among many other topics, and Sami Zubaida, a pioneer in the study of Middle East politics and an expert on, among other things, the political sociology of food and culture.
The Department of Politics – as it was renamed in 2009 – has grown considerably over the last forty years. Birkbeck launched its flagship BA Politics, Philosophy & History (PPH) in 1988 and steadily increased the scope of its undergraduate and postgraduate provision in the 1990s. Today, the Department offers two certificate courses, three undergraduate degrees, 14 taught postgraduate programmes and a vibrant MPhil/PhD programme. Located in 10 Gower Street and situated within the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, we are a community of over 500 students, 18 full-time faculty members, 18 visiting or sessional staff and five administrators. In keeping with our history, the Department’s approach to teaching combines the practical and the provocative. We still teach political economy, social and political theory and public policy alongside cutting edge issues in comparative, European and international politics. Our students continue to excel in the study and practice of politics and can be found in Parliament, the Shadow Cabinet, the senior civil service, non-governmental and international organizations and leading European universities.
While much has changed at Birkbeck over the last two hundred years, its mission to provide high-quality, research-led teaching to busy mature students in the evening has not. Our teaching in the field of politics has always been innovative and interactive and it remains so. This is due to the challenges of teaching students at the end of their working day and also because of the high-levels of enthusiasm they bring to the classroom. On any given evening, lecturers in the Department of Politics teach some students who have little prior knowledge of the subject under discussion and others who have direct and sometimes very personal experience of such issues. Both groups share a deep determination to learn, which is matched by Birkbeck’sreputation for world-class research-led teaching.
Introduction to your Programme of Study
Questions about your programme
If you have questions about your degree programme, please do not hesitate to contact the Politics Office and/or your Programme Director.
You can contact the Department Office by telephone(+44 [0] 20 7631 6780 / 6789)
or email ().
The Programme Director for all MRes programmes is Dr Rosie Campbell(). Your Programme Director serves as your personal tutor so please do see her if you are having any difficulties with your studies. She will also act as the supervisor for your dissertation or arrange for supervision by another member of the Department who has particular expertise in your proposed area of research.
Core modules
Yourdegree is divided into fourmodules that each count for 30 credits and the dissertation which counts forfor 60 credits to make up the 180 credits required for your degree. The structure of your programme is as follows.
MRes Programme Title / Full-time students and first year-part time students / Full-time students and second year-part time studentsGlobal Politics / International Political Economy
Qualitative Social Research / Global Governance
Introductory or Intermediate Quantitative Social Research[*]
Public Policy and Management / Public Policy: Ideas, Institutions, Interests
Qualitative Social Research / Public Management: Theories and Innovations
Introductory or Intermediate Quantitative Social Research
Social and Political Theory / Political Theory
Qualitative Social Research / Political Sociology
Introductory or Intermediate Quantitative Social Research
MRes Politics / Qualitative Social Research
Option from list below / Introductory or Intermediate Quantitative Social Research
Option from list below
Optional modules for MRes Politics students can normally be chosen from any of the postgraduate modules offered by the Department of Politics. The following is an indicative list of options.
Comparative Government and Policy in Europe
Emerging Powers in World Politics
Global Conflict, Security and Humanitarianism
Global Governance
Intermediate Quantitative Social Research
International Political Economy
Islamist Movements
Middle East Politics
Modern British Politics
Nationalism and Ethno-Religious Conflict
Political Sociology
Political Theory
Population and Environmental Politics
Public Management: Theories and Innovations
Public Policy: Interests, Ideas and Institutions
The European Union: Integration, Politics and Policy
The Government and Politics of the United States
The Politics Of Population Change: Immigration, Aging And Conflict
War, Politics and Society
For an up to date list and details about how to select choices, please see:
Subject to the approval of their Programme Director, students can take one of their optional modules (i.e. 30 credits) from another department at Birkbeck.
The Dissertation
The dissertation counts for one-third of the entire degree i.e. 60 credits. It is a long written piece of research with a minimum length of 12,000 words and a maximum length of 15,000 words including all footnotes, references and appendices. This research is conducted independently but you will be assigned a supervisor by your Programme Director to offer advice and guidance via workshops and one-on-one supervision meetings. All dissertations must be submitted by Thursday 15 September 2015. To submit the dissertation you must upload an electronic version to the Moodle site for your dissertation (see and submit one hard copy (spiral bound) to the Department Office at 10 Gower Street.
The topic for your dissertation, which must be relevant to your degree programme, must be approved in advance by your Programme Director. To have your topic approved you must submit a dissertation proposal form and await confirmation from your Programme Director. The deadline for submitting the dissertation and ethics proposal forms varies from programme to programme. Your Programme Director will be in touch to confirm the deadline but it is expected that all dissertation and ethics proposal forms are submitting by the end of spring term at the very latest.
All research that is carried out by Birkbeck students that involves intervention or interaction with human participants, or the collection and / or study of data derived from living human participants (e.g. conducting research interviews), requires ethical approval. Dissertation proposal forms and ethical approval forms along with more detailed guidance on writing dissertations are available from the Department website:
Reading and Workshop Weeks
Reading Week
Reading Week is held in both the autumn and spring terms. Lectures and seminars do not run in Reading Week, the purpose of which is to give you an opportunity to revise the material covered in the first half of the module and to prepare for the second half. This is also an excellent opportunity for you to make a start on essays and other coursework.
Workshop Week
In Workshop Week, which is held in both the autumn and spring terms, lectures and seminars for specific modules are replaced by general study skills sessions and other events. These sessions cover topics such as essay writing, exam preparation and how to go about researching and writing your dissertation. Other events include outside speakers from the world of research and/or politics. The Departmental Office will provide you with details in due course.
Break in Studies Policy and Withdrawal from a Module or Programme
Withdrawing from a module
Students who wish to withdraw from the examination for a module should inform their Programme Director in advance of the examination. Students who do so without claiming mitigating circumstances that are then accepted by the Politics Exam Board will fail the module and be given one additional attempt to pass the module via re-take or reassessment (see section of repeating modules below). Students who withdraw from a module and claim mitigating circumstances that are approved by the Politics Exam Board will be offered either alternative assessment (see section of repeating modules below) or two additional chances to pass the module at the discretion of the Politics Exam Board. Please note that where a first-year, part-time student withdraws from a module, it falls to the Politics Exam Board to decide whether this module must first be passed before the student can proceed to the second year of study. For further details on mitigating circumstances, please see:
Withdrawing from your dissertation
Students who wish to withdraw from their dissertation must inform their Programme Director before the dissertation is due. Students who do so without claiming mitigating circumstances that are then accepted by their Programme Director will be given one additional attempt to pass. Students who claim mitigating circumstances that are approved by their Programme Director will be offered two remaining chances to pass the dissertation. Deferred dissertations can be submitted by 15 May (or the Friday before if 15 May is a Saturday or Sunday) or September 15 (or the Friday before if 15 September is a Saturday or Sunday) in the year following deferral.
For further details on mitigating circumstances, please see:
Break in Studies
College regulations permit a student to suspend studies for a maximum of two years in total during their programme of study. Please see your Programme Director and the Department Office if you are considering a break in studies. Further details on relevant College regulations can be found here:
Withdrawing from your programme
If for any reason you decide to withdraw from your degree on a permanent basis, we hope you will talk to us first. Students choose to withdraw for a wide range of reasons and it may be that we will be able to make arrangements to help you complete your course.
For further information, please see:
Please note that if you are requesting a refund, a medical certificate is required, where applicable.
If you withdraw after the start of term, you may be liable for fees. For further details, please see:
Results
When you submit coursework during the year you can usually expect to receive a mark and feedback within three weeks. All marks are provisional until they are approved by the Politics Exam Board, which meets in July and November of each year. Exam results are released after the July meeting of the Politics Exam Board and dissertation results are released after the November meetings. These results will be made available to you via your My Birkbeck Profile ( but please note that it can take up to several weeks after the Exam Board meets until marks for all students are entered on this system.
Pass requirements and degree classification
Assessment usually involves a combination of coursework and exams but it varies from one module to the next. Full details concerning assessment are provided in the relevant module book; this module book will usually be distributed in the opening class for the module and an electronic copy can be found on the Moodle site for the module in question (
The final grade for each module is classified according to the scheme below. Modules and the dissertation must be taken and passed with a mark of at least 50 to complete the degree.
Grade / Classification00-49 / Fail
50-59 / Pass
60-69 / Merit
70-100 / Distinction
The final grade for your degree is based on the average mark for your modules weighted according to credits i.e. the grade for the 60 credit dissertation counts for double the grade for 30 credit core and option modules.
Where a student’s average result is within 2% of the next (higher) degree classification, the Politics Exam Board will consider the number of modules and credit for which the assessment falls within a particular class. If a candidate has a preponderance of module results in a higher class than that determined by the average result, the higher class of degree may be awarded.
Repeating modules and intermediate awards
If you fail a module you will be offered a second and final attempt to pass the module. This second attempt will take the form of a ‘re-take’, ‘re-assessment’ or ‘alternative assessment’ at the discretion of the Politics Exam Board. A re-take requires attendance at the module’s lectures and seminars as well as another attempt at the assessment, whereas “re-assessment” is where a student attempts only the failed element(s) of a failed module. Please note that students who retake the module will be liable to pay fees for this course. Alternative assessment allows a student to submit additional coursework in lieu of a second attempt at an exam and can be offered only in those cases where a student has applied for mitigating circumstances and this claim has been accepted by the Politics Exam Board. For further details on mitigating circumstances, please see:
Intermediate awards can be offered by the Examinations Board when a student fails to complete the full requirements for the degree.
Qualification / Credits neededPostgraduate diploma / 120
Postgraduate certificate / 60
From MRes to PhD
Students on the MRes programme learn the basics of research design and analysis, conduct their own small research projects and learn how to evaluate quantitative and qualitative methods used in published research. This is excellent training for PhD study and we welcome applications to our PhD programme from students who excel in their postgraduate studies at Birkbeck. Our MResprogrammes are recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as appropriate postgraduate research training and meet the requirements of applying for an ESRC funded PhD in politics in +3 mode i.e. to cover the cost of completing doctoral studies in three years. Applications for ESRC funding must be received by the Department of Politics by 31 January of the year in which you plan to commence a PhD. A limited number of full-time and part-time College Research Studentships (fees-only) are available. If you are interested in applying for such funding, please get in touch with the MRes Director well in advance of this deadline. For more detail about applying to the PhD Programme including on funding opportunities, please see this link:
Further Information about the Department of Politics
Full-time academic staff
Samantha Ashenden, BA (Kingston), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Lond.)
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Edwin Bacon, BA (Sheffield), MSocSc (Birmingham),MBA(London) PhD (Birmingham)
Reader in Comparative Politics
Antoine Bousquet, BSc (UCL), MSc (LSE), PhD (LSE)