As Los Angeles burns and negotiators try again to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, our minds are focused on the twin problems of our time – climate crisis and suffering caused by war. There is no consensus about how these issues should be tackled. Now more than ever, we need to think critically and carefully about the narratives of global sustainability. This is why we are launching a revamped politics degree at CCCU: BSc Politics and Global Sustainability.

Sustainability is embedded in every subject area, in learning, teaching and assessment. Our degrees have had this theme at their core for many years; including these words in the title will help our graduates differentiate themselves in a competitive jobs market.

We understand that people are motivated to study politics because they want to make a change.  Our course has been designed to enable our students to be the change that they want to be, in a wide range of career pathways.  Wherever they build a career, they will graduate ready to apply their knowledge and skills to scrutinise political ideas and promote ethical engagement with our world and its future.

The degree focuses on topics central to sustainability debates, locally, nationally and internationally: ethics, environmental justice, exclusion, power and security. Students will hone their critical thinking skills through collaborative, interdisciplinary and always student-centred teaching approaches. Our track record in innovative pedagogies is internationally recognised and demonstrated by our consistently high NSS scores.

Our teaching team are all active in research areas with clear links to themes at the heart of global sustainability debates: labour and environmental exploitation (Professor David Bates) power-sharing and resource curse (Dr Dele Babalola) racism (Dr Laura Cashman) transport and exclusion (Dr Susan Kenyon) forced migration and conflict resolution (Dr Muzaffer Kutlay) management of resources in outer space (Dr Sarah Lieberman),  activism (Dr Tom Sharkey) and ethics in public life (Dr Demetris Tillyris).

Many people find this global uncertainty unnerving, but studying politics will help our next generation to thrive: finding different ways to analyse these problems and new approaches to tackling them.  

Find out how to apply here: BSc Politics and Global Sustainability.