Bachelor of Arts - Political Science and International Relations

Program Goals

• Key Learning Goals

1. Understand the basic concepts and theoretical approaches in the discipline.
2. Possess a thorough knowledge of the content, issues, concerns and debates within the sub-fields of the discipline.
3. Use their mastery of concepts and content to relate the historical to the present nature of politics and governance.
4. Apply theories and research methods to understand new and complex phenomena.
5. Relate theoretical approaches with practice through internships.

• Additional Learning Goals

6. Develop writing skills, including the ability to develop an internally coherent and structured argument as part of their research papers.
7. Possess oral communication skills that allow them to engage in discussion and a verbal exchange of ideas and concepts.
8. Computer literacy, including the use of electronic resources pertaining to research.
9. Possess critical thinking skills that allow them to retain, manage and synthesize complex information and ideas.
10. Possess a sense of the responsibilities of citizenship and a sense of personal political efficacy/engagement.

1. Students must demonstrate proficiency in written communication.
2. Students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language through the intermediate level.
3. Students must become informed global citizens and gain intercultural awareness through a study abroad experience.
4. Students must become acquainted with different ages, societies, and cultures and learn how to use a variety of historical sources.
5. Students must be able to reason abstractly and appreciate the elegance of abstract structure.
6. Students must understand the methods of scientific discovery and experimental design.
7. Students must acquire problem-solving and research capability by identifying, locating, evaluating, and effectively using information.
8. Students must be able to analyze and understand the creative process, assimilate experience, and communicate it.
9. Students must be able to interpret words, images, objects, and/or actions that are expressions of human culture.
10. Students must understand the complex nature of social structures and/or human relationships that involve issues of inequality and difference.
11. Students must explore ecological, policy, social, cultural, and/or historical dimensions of human relationship to the environment.