International Relations and Climate Change (with integrated year in industry)

Why should you study International Relations and Climate Change (with an integrated year in industry) at Aberystwyth University?

What are the obstacles to such cooperation? What possibilities are there to overcome them? These questions are at the heart of this innovative, incisive and intellectually stimulating degree scheme. The course provides a thorough and critical understanding of the interconnectedness of politics and international relations, climate change, the environment and natural resources, inequality and development, and cooperation and conflict. In particular this programme focuses on evaluating the nature of the climate emergency, its political, economic, social and ecological impacts, and the political, social, economic and human responses to it.

Students studying International Relations and Climate Change at Aberystwyth will:

• Engage with and develop a distinct multidisciplinary approach to the international politics of climate change.
• Analyse the causes and consequence of climate change and environmental degradation, especially from the perspective of international politics.
• Reflect on ways that states and societies struggle with managing the planet’s resources and ecological systems and to develop effective political and societal solutions.
• Examine links between climate change and other global challenges such as conflict, migration, inequality and governance.
• Explore through simulations the experience of decision-making processes, negotiations and the politics surrounding contemporary climate governance.
• Your year in industry is normally undertaken during the third year. Students are required to find their placements independently, but support is available within the Department and also from colleagues in the Careers Services.

Our Staff

Lecturers in the Department of International Politics are all research active and qualified to PhD level, and most also have a PGCHE.

Graduates in this degree will be well-placed to pursue a career in climate change management, adaptation and mitigation, both in the UK and abroad. Additionally, they will be suited to careers in related areas, such as environmental education and consultancy or conservation. Many are likely to undertake further postgraduate study, either at Masters or Doctoral level.

The breakdown below will provide you with an illustration of what you may study during the four year degree scheme.

What will I learn?

First Year:

• Exploring the International: Central concepts and core skills
• Globalisation and Global Development
• Climate Change: Impacts, Perceptions, Adaptations
• The Science of Climate.

Second year

• The Governance of Climate Change: Simulation Module
• International relations: Perspectives and debates.

During your third year, you will undertake your work experience placement.

Final Year:

• Dissertation

On each year of the degree, and especially in your second and final years, you will study several optional modules. These may include:

• International Politics in the Anthropocene
• People, Progress, Environment: Theories and Histories of Environmental Politics
• Refugee simulation
• International Politics and Global Development
• Global Inequality and World Politics
• Global Politics and the Refugee Regime.