Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relation)

Summary

Be informed about the big issues

Become equipped with the concepts, theories and facts you need to make sense of the world around you.

Understand the world around you

Politics is about contestations for power and how we make decisions in society – who gets what, when and how – from the local community to the nation and internationally.

Politics is concerned with the conflict of ideas and values. It has to do with who governs. It’s also to do with how and why decisions that affect all of us are made. That could vary from how much students should pay to study at university to whether the UN should sanction military interventions.

A wide range of topics

With Massey's Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations), you may study topics such as:

• how New Zealand’s system of government works
• what the rise of China means for the future of global politics
• the nature of inequality and how it is affected by public policy
• what is happening in the Palestine/Israel conflict
• the core concepts and the great thinkers of political philosophy
• the causes and consequences of key contemporary international conflicts.

Small class sizes and enthusiastic lecturers

At Massey, politics is taught in a small interdisciplinary programme where you have regular and close contact with academic staff. Your lecturers are active researchers in their respective fields. They are passionate about the subject matter they teach and bring that enthusiasm to the classroom.

Careers

Politics and international relations have two big things going for them: they are exciting and they are relevant. Study in this area can lead to a range of careers, including:

• business
• diplomacy
• finance
• journalism
• policy analysis
• public service.

Our graduates are working as researchers, policy advisers, analysts and managers and in the commercial, industrial, business, media, financial and public sectors. They also work in the:

• NZ Defence Forces
• Ministry of Social Development
• Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment
• Treasury
• Air New Zealand
• Reserve Bank
• United Nations
• TV3News
• Amnesty International, and academia.

Major

A major consists of 120 credits.