Politics and International Relations

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a good Honours degree in Politics or International Relations (2:1 or equivalent) or overseas equivalent in a relevant subject.

We will consider all individual applicants on their specific merits. If you do not have the standard qualifications for the course, you may still apply. Your application will be considered if you have the following;

• Masters’ degree in Politics or International Relations (or equivalent) with an average mark of at least 65%.
• Applicants with appropriate professional experience.

Interviews (via Skype/Phone or in person) may be conducted to identify and assess the academic merit of prospective students.

Months of entry

January, April, July, October

Course content

Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University has achieved considerable success in national and global rankings and was deemed “excellent” by the Centre for Higher Education Development.

We pride ourselves on creating an engaging environment for postgraduate study with highly motivated academic supervision.

We offer supervision and/or research projects in the following areas:

• Comparative Politics, Policy and Governance
• Public Policy
• Wales, Territorial and Devolutionary Politics
• European Politics and Area Studies
• Political and International Theory
• Critical Global Politics
• Gender and International Relations
• International Law and International Relations.
• The Cold War
• Security Studies
• Critical Military Studies
• Intelligence and Security
• Nuclear Politics
• Digital Technologies, Internet Governance and Cyber-Security
• Global Environmental Politics
• Development and Post colonialism.

Distinctive features

• We play a leading role in Language-based Area Studies, and are involved in Politics & International Relations, within the Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
• All research students are entitled to call upon a personal allocation of funds which may be spent on legitimate research related activities.
• Our Research in Progress seminar series provides students with the opportunity to present papers in a non-intimidating environment. The series is designed to be preparatory to presenting papers at conferences, and also plays a vital role in the dissemination of subject-specific skills.
• We encourage our PhD students to gain teaching experience, however applicants are asked to note that the allocation of teaching is dependent on which modules are running at an Undergraduate or Postgraduate level and may not be available to everyone.