Funding
Find out more about financing your studies and whether you may qualify for one of our bursaries and scholarships
Money MattersUnderstanding the world of international relations gives you the opportunity to step out onto the global stage.
An international relations degree will help you to gain appreciation of how states, international organisations, and non-state actors interact on the global stage. This course is about using theories and models to best explain and understand power in the world, why the world is the way it is, and how we can change it. This takes place at all levels, from individuals to whole global systems, and understanding this allows us to question what we think we know, what we think matters, and how we can develop a better world. Supported by knowledgeable and passionate staff, you’ll start by looking at the core critical and emancipatory theories of international relations and their underlying methods.
You’ll get a broad grounding in the key issues of today’s world and the conteste...
3 years full-time
4 years full-time with placement/overseas study
6 years part-time
If international relations is about using theories and models to best explain and understand power in the world, then one of the best places to study it is in Manchester. The staff at Manchester Metropolitan University are leading researchers in the most critical angles on this field, and we live and work in one of the most radical cities in the UK, with a wealth of placement opportunities and political activity, from the media and arts sector, to climate change groups and the major party-political organisations.
National Student Survey 2023 (NSS)
Teaching Excellence Framework 2023-2027
Year 1 gives a core grounding to students who may not have studied International Relations before, whilst extending the knowledge and skills of those who have already engaged with linked subjects at A-Level, such as history, politics, sociology, philosophy and human geography.
This unit introduces you to some of the foundational concepts and theoretical approaches that are employed in the discipline of international relations. Applying concepts and theories to the world around us is something we do all the time, but quite often we are not even aware that we're doing it. Among other things, this unit will encourage you to reflect on your own use of theory and give you the tools to critically unpick and unpack the underlying assumptions of dominant approaches in the study of international relations.
This course explores key contemporary issues in the world today and the debates within international relations about how to address these global political challenges. Issues explored can include: global inequality, human rights, humanitarian intervention, the changing role of state, postcolonialism, modern warfare and terrorism.
This unit explores some of the key historical events in modern history, in relation to the key debates that have dominated the study of international relations. We will explore the political implications of which historical events are deemed relevant to international relations and how this shapes the way we look at the world. The unit will help students to identify significant continuities and changes in international relations over time.
Global inequality is one of the largest challenges facing our world today. Approaches to understanding the roots of inequality and how to address inequality are both varied and controversial. We’ll explore these approaches in depth and talk about movements aimed at addressing some of the greatest challenges facing our world today.
This unit will introduce you to different political processes and institutions, and will review the key research methods appropriate to comparative politics. The course will help you to identify appropriate approaches to data interpretation and presentation, and provide an opportunity to develop your own case study.
This unit engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society, integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal developments. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.
This unit engages you with 'Big Question' debates confronting human society integrating key interdisciplinary concepts and debates essential to critically understanding and exploring our world. Along with this, you will apply disciplinary specific learning approaches to examine various aspects of past, present and future global societal development. Topics and questions examined can vary year to year.
The unit examines specific theoretical perspectives and practical challenges to global security, including the changing role of state, postcolonial perspective on poverty and humanitarian interventions, modern warfare and terrorism.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
The second year offers optional units to allow you to pursue your interests, whilst developing the core grounding built up in Year 1.
This unit will help you to develop an understanding of research methods in politics. The unit will discuss both the limitations and advantages of quantitative and qualitative analysis for political research.
This unit will examine the development of international relations theory throughout the twentieth century. The unit will look at the historically dominant traditions of realism, liberalism and Marxism and then explore contemporary critical theories such as feminism, postcolonialism, poststructuralism and social constructivism. The unit will focus on key debates between theories and connections, to the historical development of the field of international relations.
In this unit we'll explore key assumptions underlying theories and talk about the political implications of choosing one theory over another. We will explore contemporary deployments of IR theory to gain an in-depth understanding of what the various theoretical traditions are producing in the field of research now. This unit will culminate with a discussion about the purpose and relevance of theory with you encouraged to develop your own theoretical position.
The unit will analyse the processes and factors that shape public perception of security. In this unit, we will discuss why our understanding of security and insecurity varies through time and space. The unit will look at the role of media, propaganda, and ideology in the social construction of security.
After briefly covering the early Cold War, the unit will account for and critique the direction of US Foreign Policy up to the present day, exploring how US policy has addressed post-Cold War conflict and 'rogue states', terrorism, the environment and increased global economic competition.
This unit introduces students to the US political system and to key aspects of contemporary US politics. It combines an introduction to the main institutions and processes of the US federal government with an overview of key developments in American politics.
An innovative unit that applies interdisciplinary methods, approaches and perspectives of humanities and social science disciplines to contemporary socio-economic challenges, complementing Engaging the Humanities 1. Each year the unit will address a different contemporary issue or theme. The unit will give you the opportunity to develop and apply your academic skills in an applied, practical setting by undertaking an individual engagement project. This can include a work placement, volunteering, social/community enterprise, RAH! Project, awareness-raising campaign, multimedia piece, blog, creative writing, poetry or artwork performance/exhibition. Each project will be supervised and mentored by one of the unit tutors. Finding external partners to work with will be supported by the Engagement and Outreach team.
The unit will take students through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs, using platforms such as LinkedIn, and interview practice. Students will build up a portfolio of tasks related to employability, for instance, CV, video interview, assessment centre and reflect on their learning across the unit.
This unit will analyse the threat of climate change, and critically evaluate international efforts in dealing with climate change.
This unit will explore links between art and politics in a thematic way focusing on the artist as witness to, activist in or victim of, political events. It will make reference to a wide range of international art, design and cinematic movements.
The unit will explore key postcolonial thinkers and perspectives. Students will gain familiarity with these thinkers and their work. They will learn to engage in reflexive writing and discussions about how these perspectives challenge other theories.
The unit will engage with authors such as Fanon, Said, De Bois, Spivak, Bhabha and Hall as an introduction to postcolonial work. Students will engage with questions about identity, nations/nationalism, decolonization projects, hybridities and questions of narrative and critique. A broader range of texts, including literary works will be used to complement more theoretical work.
This unit introduces the main theories of policy change and provides a systematic examination of the policy process.
This unit will explore key social policy areas and discuss ways to resolve prevalent issues such as inequality, poverty, homelessness, and social care crisis.
This unit evaluates the changing character of politics and society in Britain during the 1980s. It adopts a broad perspective and examines a wide variety of themes: the dynamics of issues and ideology, the transformation of the political parties, the process of government itself and aspects of foreign policy. It considers debates surrounding the role of the state, the economy, organisation of industry and defence policy.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
In the third year, we ask you as a student to engage with the latest research in International Relations, with the opportunity to take part in this work. The third year also places focus on preparing you for what comes next.
This course may offer a placement year option which can be taken up in Year 3. Where a placement is not undertaken you will study the following final year units.
This unit will teach you how to design and propose a research project, evaluating questions of ethics, funding, impact, research relevance and methodologies. The unit also has integrated placement and work experience opportunities. The unit has a bespoke structure designed to incorporate tailored bracketed awards linked to politics, international relations, political communication, and public policy.
The unit consists of a series of case studies informed by current research interests and findings of the politics and public policy teams. The case studies have a special focus on questions related to theory and/or methods in politics, international relations, and public policy.
This unit examines the contested nature of security through a critical lens, and engages with the politics and power relations of security construction. It analyses the various theoretical approaches that challenge conventional conceptualisations of ‘security’ in what is often called ‘the critical turn’ in Security Studies, and studies their methodological implications.
This unit gives you the opportunity to examine games and gaming as important ways of making sense of a range of contemporary cultural and social issues. Over the course of the unit, you will use a range of interdisciplinary frameworks infused with historical, political, and philosophical concepts and perspectives to confront and tackle key questions and subjects about games and gaming.
An examination of the politics inherent in major professional sport.
The unit explores the dominant paradigms in political science and is designed to equip students with the tools to study the key ways in which analysts construct understandings and explanations of political phenomena. The unit combines conceptual analysis with direct application to contemporary examples.
This unit focuses upon Britain's changing role and influence in world politics. It examines the major events and issues by which foreign policy has been defined. Chronology is modulated by key foreign policy concepts.
This module aims to introduce you to the politics, government and foreign policy of Russia as it has developed since 1991, in order to allow you to analyse and assess the challenges Russia faces today and its complex role in contemporary geopolitics.
Using case studies from particular moments in the history of capitalism, this unit explores the evolving challenges to liberal political thought, as industrialism and post-industrialism have transformed global politics. You will develop your capacity for critical thought by exploring a series of key themes to interpret diverse forms of modernity.
This unit will require that students research and produce an in-depth, research based, piece of scholarly work based on a specific topic of study relevant to their degree programme.
This unit will examine the role of housing in developing sustainable communities and how social housing providers are working to improve the opportunities of tenants and residents and impact positively on individual and collective wellbeing.
This unit introduces students to key issues and major thinkers in modern Italian political thought. It provides an opportunity to explore the political tradition and culture of a bellwether European nation.
The unit provides an understanding of the ethical dimensions of politics through an examination of persistent moral problems and dilemmas concerning war, violence and political obligation. The course adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, combining elements of political theory, moral philosophy and twentieth century British and European political history.
This unit aims to give students a broad understanding of the welfare state, what factors determine its evolution and how we can explain the differences we observe across countries. It provides an introduction to the comparative study of welfare state regimes with a particular focus on the effect of welfare state regimes on social inequality.
Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world. You can also build your skills and work experience through assessments based on briefs provided by employers and a range of other curricular and extra-curricular activities, that allow you to apply your knowledge to real-world problems.
Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist programme of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.
Whether you’ve already made your decision about what you want to study, or you’re just considering your options, there are lots of ways you can meet us and find out more about student life at Manchester Met.
We offer:
Your studies are supported by a department of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field.
We often link up with external professionals too, helping to enhance your learning and build valuable connections to the working world.
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course.
GCSE grade C/4 in English Language or equivalent, e.g. Pass in Level 2 Functional Skills English
GCE A levels - grades BCC or equivalent
Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
Access to HE Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum 106 UCAS Tariff points
UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
T level - We welcome applications from students undertaking T level qualifications. Eligible applicants will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of Merit as a condition of offer
IB Diploma - Pass overall with a minimum overall score of 26 or minimum 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
Other Level 3 qualifications equivalent to GCE A level are also considered.
A maximum of three A level-equivalent qualifications will be accepted towards meeting the UCAS tariff requirement.
AS levels, or qualifications equivalent to AS level, are not accepted. The Extended Project qualification (EPQ) may be accepted towards entry, in conjunction with two A-level equivalent qualifications.
Please contact the University directly if you are unsure whether you meet the minimum entry requirements for the course.
There’s further information for international students on our international website if you’re applying with non-UK qualifications.
UK and Channel Islands full-time foundation year fee: £9,250 per year for the foundation year. This tuition fee is agreed subject to UK government policy and parliamentary regulation and may increase each academic year in line with inflation or UK government policy for both new and continuing students.
EU and Non-EU international full-time foundation year fee: £18,500 per year. When progressing from the pre-degree foundation year to the linked degree. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study)
Full-time fee: £9,250 per year. This tuition fee is agreed subject to UK government policy and parliamentary regulation and may increase each academic year in line with inflation or UK government policy for both new and continuing students.
Part-time fee: £2312.50 per 30 credits studied per year. This tuition fee is agreed subject to UK government policy and parliamentary regulation and may increase each academic year in line with inflation or UK government policy for both new and continuing students.
Full-time fee: £18,500 per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).
Part-time fee: £4625 per 30 credits studied per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).
A degree typically comprises 360 credits, a DipHE 240 credits, a CertHE 120 credits, and an integrated masters 480 credits. The tuition fee for the placement year for those courses that offer this option is £1,850, subject to inflationary increases based on government policy and providing you progress through the course in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study). The tuition fee for the study year abroad for those courses that offer this option is £1,385, subject to inflationary increases based on government policy and providing you progress through the course in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).
Part-time students may take a maximum of 90 credits each academic year.
Optional estimate: £600
All of the books required for the course are available from the library. The University also has PC labs and a laptop loan service. However, many students choose to buy some of the core textbooks for the course and/or a laptop. Students may also need to print their assignments and other documents. Campus printing costs start from 5p per page. Estimated costs are £300 for a laptop and up to £100 each year for books and printing.
Optional estimate: £2000
Students normally do not incur additional core costs for field or Erasmus trips. These are optional depending on unit choice. Students on placement may need to provide travel costs dependent on choice of placement.
Manchester Metropolitan University is committed to engaging with the Turing programme, the newly announced UK government scheme to support students to study and work abroad. All study abroad opportunities are subject to application, international travel restrictions and availability.
Find out more about financing your studies and whether you may qualify for one of our bursaries and scholarships
Money MattersMost international relations graduates go straight into employment and/or further study. Previous graduates have gone into a variety of careers in the fast-track civil service, the armed forces intelligence corps, publishing, recruitment, journalism, media, charities, academic research and company management.
There is also the opportunity to engage in further study and professional training, for example some of our graduates go on to study MA International Relations and Global Communications and MSc Digital Society (with specialisms in Digital Politics and Digital Sociology), where we have a growing, innovative research cluster focusing on digital society and culture.
You can apply for the full-time option of this course through UCAS.
UCAS code(s)L250
Institution code: M40
Apply for other study options:
Please contact our course enquiries team.
Get advice and support on making a successful application.
You can review our current Terms and Conditions before you make your application. If you are successful with your application, we will send you up to date information alongside your offer letter.
Programme Review
Our programmes undergo an annual review and major review (normally
at 6 year intervals) to ensure an up-to-date curriculum supported by the
latest online learning technology. For further information on when we
may make changes to our programmes, please see the
changes section of our Terms and Conditions.
Important Notice
This online prospectus provides an overview of our programmes of study
and the University. We regularly update our online prospectus so that
our published course information is accurate. Please check back to the
online prospectus before making an application to us to access the most
up to date information for your chosen course of study.
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in England. More information on the role of the OfS and its regulatory
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