@NotDonna I think the difference is whet a student thinks they should be able to get for a job and reality. The difficulty with IR is the international bit? There’s not many jobs and often some are poorly paid. No MFL is a hindrance and for international jobs grads compete against international highly skilled grads. When universities list jobs, the question should always be “how many!” Probably a handful of international students for some areas of work.
As part of her MFL degree, DD went to the university of Geneva. Every flatmate spoke French, German and English as a minimum. They were heading for NGOs in Geneva. They were very different grads from the IR grad here with no MFLs.
The civil service and general grad jobs are of course open but I’d steer away from thinking this is a vocational degree. Like many degrees, it’s a means to an indeterminate end that any History, MFL, law, politics, philology, sociology, English etc etc etc grad could do. Therefore this precise degree won’t matter. It’s your cv. Work experience, university, leadership roles and additional skills all need to be honed because every single job is competitive now.
Grads don’t get a good job because of a IR degree. They get one because they stand out in the selection process and many degrees are equivalent in the civil service, nhs, NGOs etc.