A-Level Results Day - Thinking About Doing a Politics Degree?

Congratulations if you have now received your exam results. We hope you have achieved the grades you need to continue your studies at university!

If you didn’t get the grades you hoped for (or indeed did better than expected), we encourage you to both contact your chosen universities to discuss your options, and to check out the wide range of courses available to you through the UCAS clearing system. And it won’t surprise you to learn that we hope you will consider opting to study Politics and International Relations at university, this year or in the future!

Did you know...

You don’t need to have studied politics at A level (or equivalent qualifications) to study politics at university as a standalone degree or in combination with other subjects such as international relations, history, or law.

Having a politics degree will make you attractive to future employers who will value the many skills you have developed during your time at university including communication, constructing coherent arguments, and thinking creatively, and a wide range of job opportunities will be open to you.

Professor Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool shares his thoughts on taking a Politics degree:

• First, if you’re reading this, you are presumably interested in Politics. To study a subject for three years or more, you ideally need to enjoy it, so being interested is a great start!
• Second, Politics matters. It affects all our lives, every day, in ways great and small. I can’t promise that studying Politics will enable you to change the world, but I can promise that you’ll end up understanding it a lot better.
• Third, and don’t underestimate this one, if you study Politics, your family and friends will always ask you to explain things to them. When there’s an election or some big political event, almost everyone suddenly gets at least a bit curious about Politics. If you can help others, make sense of it all, you’ll be contributing to the greater democratic good.
• Fourth, studying Politics qualifies you to do a lot of things in later life. Very few Politics graduates become politicians - rather more become journalists, civil servants, campaigners, regulators or, even, teachers of politics. What you learn on a Politics degree will be transferable to all manner of other contexts and professions.
• Finally, there are lots of options for studying Politics. There are over 90 universities where you can study Politics in the UK, and within each of those degrees you will be able to specialise in the aspects of Politics that inspire you most, whether that’s Plato’s political thought, proportional representation, or the study of war and peace (not the book). Whatever it is that draws you to Politics, you'll find it somewhere in a degree course - and a lot more besides.

You can find more helpful pointers and useful information in our recent blog on Why not Choose a Politics Degree? We wish you all the best with what comes next!

What you can do now:

• Follow the PSA on social media like BlueSky or LinkedIn
• Join the PSA as a Student Member for just £10
• Read this short guide: Studying Politics at University

• Watch this space for more content about studying politics at university
• Consult the UCAS website