Spanish & Politics Degree

[Calmmumnot]

My DS is considering to apply for a degree in this discipline. Can anybody recommend universities, any tips and advice? Thanks

Edinburgh (DD does another joint Politics degree). Look carefully at the modules offered which are compulsory and which optional. Can you easily switch to single honours in one after a year or two. Look at the exchange partners (unis and work placements) and whether year abroad counts in degree class or whether you just have to pass (DDs flatmate wanted to concentrate on work placement and not have to hand in uni assigments so preferred the latter).

Thank you @PearlStork. Where else did DD apply? My DS’s GCSE’s aren’t great but is doing well with his A Levels. What grades were offered to your DD? Thanks

Very few jobs in this field.
Best unis are the standard Russell group ones plus St Andrews and SOAS.

We are Scottish so apply with AS equivalent grades. My DD only applied to StA (rejected), Edinburgh and Glasgow. Edinburgh grades are less if widening access (and I suspect international and are paying £££).

DD is in last year and has had 3 decent job offers related to her degree so far so agree not the same opportunities as engineers for example but not impossible.

Bath! Without being too outing, my DD does a very very similar degree here, and is having the time of her life

DD is doing French and International Relations at Aberystwyth - they offer Spanish as well.

The modules listed are the same as for their Politics degrees - the difference is in which are compulsory and which optional. So you can actually end up doing the same modules for a Politics or an IR degree if you choose particular combinations.

She seems very happy there - has a warm relationship with her French tutor, has made lots of friends, accommodation is good and cheap.

My impression when searching for courses with her is that many more places were offering IR with a language than were offering Politics and a language. So it would be worth checking this combo out - but making sure that the modules would interest your DS. Generally for this subject it's worth looking very closely at the actual modules - what's on offer at Swansea for instance is quite different from what's on offer at Aber.

Aber is not Russell Groupi but does rank very highly for teaching quality and student satisfaction. Similar to Essex, Swansea, Reading, East Anglia - all offering IR and Spanish. Personally I'm not convinced that there's a massive gap between these unis (non-RGs that aren't ex polys) and the lower ranking of the RG unis now that places like Liverpool and Nottingham are hoovering up BCC students in Clearing to help their finances. And they might well offer a better experience.

@HPFA You make a very good point about peer group. Some courses, at some RG universities, are far less selective than people's perception would lead them to believe. It's definitely worth taking a good hard look at information about average A-level grades of students.

I wasn't really aware of the whole Russell Group thing until DD reached sixth form and I find it intensely irritating that schools have allowed themselves to be seduced by this marketing campaign, to be honest.

Of course there's a handful of elite institutions and then maybe a small group just below them. But what is it that supposedly sets Southampton and Cardiff above Leicester and Swansea? Other than hanging on the coattails of Oxbridge and Imperial in some mysterious "grouping"?

To try not to derail the thread too much, I'm not sure that peer groups matters as much in a subject like Politics as in some others. I can see if you're so good at Maths that you qualify for Cambridge or Imperial you probably need people around you who can understand Maths at that level. But Politics you're going to learn a lot from students who come from a different country, from a different social class, from people who've done a lot of door-knocking. They don't have to all be on some elevated IQ level to bring interesting perspectives.

As well as looking at the different politics modules on offer, look closely at the Spanish part too. Is it purely language or does it include literature, film, art, politics and so on. Is Spanish taught at an appropriate level for your DS. My DS studies a subject with French - he needed an A in French and is taught with students studying single honours French with no allowance for the fact that it's only 1/3 of his degree. He studies the same language modules but fewer optional modules.

Thank you all for your comments. Modules definitely need to be looked at closely. Will get him to start looking now. Hoping his GCSE grades which weren’t great don’t hold him back. Anyone with comments on Exeter?

Exeter offer IR and languages. Lovely, v supportive Dept and beautiful campus.

Good range of optional modules in Exeter.

I did French and Politics at Bath and loved it. It was quite a while ago now, but I don't think it has changed all that much. I loved how much variety I got with international relations modules, economics modules, French language, history and cultural studies (literature and art). The only thing I'd say is that you don't get a lot of time off. I also did an erasmus year, but this was pre brexit, so I don't know if they still do that. But Bath had links with great universities.

@Calmmumnot My DD did a MFL degree at Bristol and they offer politics and Spanish with IR. It’s a very good MFL dept. and they usually have a great choice for uni study abroad. He might well be able to study politics in his chosen uni abroad. Ignore the jobs jibe above - it’s not necessarily a vocational degree! Bristol do look at GCSEs but, like many unis, they want MFL students. Doing two subjects is hard work but absolutely worth it.,

I do think many RG unis are better than Leicester or Swansea. Southampton and Nottingham definitely, especially Southampton for engineering. So few sc take MFLs now, you need to avoid potential departmental restructuring and dumbing down of the modules for MFLs.

Re jobs; my job is not directly linked to French or politics! But it has definitely helped get me into interviews. I've never had a problem finding work.

Leicester is ahead of Nottingham in both the Guardian and the Times rankings and only a few places behind in the CUG.

I don't see any objective measure to say Nottingham is a better university.

It certainly is for some subjects. It’s favoured by London students who get London jobs afterwards. So it’s different - shall we say. Some of these students would not consider Leicester or Swansea. It’s not all about league tables! CUG also places Edinburgh at 15 and Glasgow at 28. However many would disagree with these. Especially dc who find Edinburgh so difficult to get into. The main objective should be to find an academic Spanish course. This is a better prep for work.

I think you're rather proving my point here.

If students do favour Nottingham over Leicester it's probably more because they're told that RG must be "better" than any objective criteria.

They're not higher ranked and judging by the offers they were making in clearing last year, their students likely don't have better entry grades.

So nothing, other than being in a "group" with genuinely elite universities and marketing that, distinguishes them from Leicester.

@HPFA No. They work out people like them are at Nottingham. Eg the catered halls, and general reputation is higher in some areas of work. The work they want. It’s got a higher private school intake than Leicester and has a very different vibe in some quite noticeable ways. It’s not league tables or RG that make a difference. Rather than go to Leicester or Swansea many from SE would choose Surrey over Leicester or Royal Holloway.

Proximity to employers is something that is insufficiently considered IME when choosing a university.

@Ceramiq Unfortunately too many politics grads seem to think a political or policy job is just waiting for them to step into. A job in politics is very hard to get unless you make a real effort to get involved. A DS we know has a politics post grad from Maastricht university. After 1 year he got a basic salary job constructing surveys. That wasn’t what he had in mind but no relevant work experience, political activity or anything else to make him a great candidate. Civil service was a No so I think building up a cv is vital.

Sure, but tbh it's the same for many subjects. Half of one's time at university needs to be spent on career building activities and that is greatly helped by proximity to employers and, indeed, being a target university/course if that is relevant.

It’s more prevalent in degrees that have a possible area of work in the title. English and History don’t have an end goal as working in politics, policy or a think tank in quite the same way.

Quite a lot of History undergraduates are pretty career focused - the analytical skills that UK history degrees confer are exceptional (very different to history degrees in many countries). English I agree is less vocational.

@Ceramiq I don’t think many history undergrads rock up at university wanting to be professional historians. Of course their skills are useful. However politics undergrads seem to think this degree leads to a job in politics. What it’s really about is skill acquisition. They join a long list of undergrads wanting the same jobs.