Why should we obey the law? Why don’t democratic countries go to war with each other? Why don’t young people vote? Why do oil-rich countries have worse human rights records? These are the kinds of questions addressed in our BA Politics course, which provides a thorough training in all major areas of political science, and is based in the top politics department in the country.
Always seeking political cause and effect, our course casts light on aspects of life you might never ordinarily connect to politics and government. You investigate the scope of political science as a field of inquiry, and the methods used by political scientists, in order to explore questions concerning both what does occur in politics, and what should occur in politics.
You study topics including:
Concepts in political science: state, laws, wars and political parties
International relations
Democratic systems
Political power
Obligations, freedom, rights and equality
Politics at Essex is all about moving from opinions to evidence. You will quickly learn to ask – and how to answer – the “how do you know?” question. We train our students to be fearless and independent, to question everything and to draw on the broadest possible range of facts and ideas.
Many of our courses offer a choice of optional modules to tailor your learning experience. More information about these can be found on the University of Essex website.
This course is available in Clearing. If you have submitted an application, you can add this course. If you haven’t sent us an application yet, you can do this until 24th September 2026.
This is the equal consideration deadline. You can still apply after this date, but your application may not receive guaranteed consideration.
University of Essex has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.
See why these ratings were awarded
What does this TEF outcome mean?
The following entry points are available for this course:
Discover what it's like to study Politics (Including Placement Year) at University of Essex: insights on the course, making friends, personal statement tips, uni prep, and recommended books, podcasts, and videos.
Find out more about qualification requirements for this course.
We are committed to ensuring that all students with the merit and potential to benefit from an Essex education are supported to do so. We make Contextual Offers, of up to two A-level grades (or equivalent) below our standard conditional offer, to applicants from underrepresented groups residing in the UK.
This section shows the range of grades that students who received offers were previously accepted on to this course with (learn more).
It is designed to support your research but does not guarantee whether you will or won't get a place.
Admissions teams consider various factors, including interviews, subject requirements, and entrance tests. Check all course entry requirements for eligibility.
We are unable to show previous accepted grades for this course. This could be because the course is new, it's a postgraduate course, there isn't enough historical data, or the provider has opted out of sharing their entry grades data for this course - learn more.
This report uses your grades to show how students with similar results have done when applying to this course in the past. Sometimes, there isn’t data for every possible set of grades. When that happens, universities and colleges occasionally fill in the gaps for sets of grades that are typically accepted.
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Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website.
Fees displayed are for the 2026-27 academic year. Fees may increase for each academic intake and each academic year of study.
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Email:admit@essex.ac.uk
Phone:01206 873666
Email:admit@essex.ac.uk
Phone:01206 873666
Fax: 01206 872808
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
CO4 3SQ
At University of Essex
