Bachelor's Degree in Political Sciences

 Daytime Programme    180 credits   3 years
 European Qualifications Framework (EQF): Level 6 
 Internship: no  Final assignment: no   Exchange Programmes: yes

The Bachelor of Political Sciences degree consists primarily of learning to decode the power mechanisms that rule the world in which we live:

• How are decisions made and at which levels of power?
• Who genuinely exerts influence on a decision and in the interest of whom?
• What are the main systems of political power both historically and throughout the world?
• How can we explain their emergence, their evolution, their successes, their difficulties?
• Today what are the stakes on the national, European and global levels? Whom do they oppose? In what balance of power? With what possible outcomes?

Political Sciences provide answers to these and other questions through various specialised fields: political parties and interest groups, electoral analyses, international relations, political regimes…

The programme also includes courses in human sciences, law and economics that give insight into human relationships, their functioning and their development. It also involves training students to data collection and its statistical treatment in order to understand human phenomena from a quantitative standpoint.

The bachelor in Political Sciences is a first cycle programme (a so-called "transition" bachelor), which comprises 180 credits and is spread over three years. It provides a preparation for several second cycle programmes (Master’s degrees) that our students can follow at another university (for further information, see the “Access to further studies” page).

The 1st year of the degree is entirely common to all three Political Science study courses organised by the Faculty of Economics, Social and Political Sciences and Communication: political science, information and communication, sociology and anthropology, and therefore includes an introduction to each specific discipline. Besides the will to build the programme around a solid multidisciplinary base, which is one of the trademarks of Saint-Louis, this common first year facilitates reorientations early on in the programme: a student can change his orientation in the second year to one of the other two Political Science study courses without having to catch up any courses. After the second year, the difference is limited to three courses.

Disciplinary affiliation is designed to grow throughout the programme: In the third year, 19 credits are of political character. These can rise to 25 if the workshop is based on a political analysis, and to 40 by grouping the 15 credits of optional courses in the Political Science specialisation minor. (For details on the programme, refer to the "Programme" page).

The structure of the programme consists of "classic" lectures in an auditorium, an introduction to the disciplines of human and social sciences (philosophy, law, history, economics, psychology, sociology, political science, information and communication), methodological lessons accompanied by tutorials (for example: approaches and research methods in social sciences). As for the reading seminars in one of the specialised disciplines (for example: Thinking social, Thinking political, Thinking the human being, Thinking communication) and the thematic workshop in the third year, they allow a personalised work in smaller groups. (For more details on the originality and uniqueness of the third year multidisciplinary workshop, refer to the "Workshop" page).