Politics and International Relations provision in UK higher education

Report cover
Year
2025
Publisher
The British Academy
Number of pages
72

Introduction

‘Politics and International Relations Provision in UK Higher Education’ provides insight into the health of these disciplines over the last decade.

Politics and International Relations is a broad and complex subject area that includes multiple overlapping sub-disciplines. There continues to be strong demand for this disciplinary area in the UK, with a particularly notable increase in postgraduate taught student numbers over the past decade. The subject area enjoys a strong global reputation, attracting students and scholars from across the world. The expansion of the discipline has also resulted in various forms of diversification of both students and staff. Evidence suggests a thriving research sector for the discipline, with funding streams increasing and diversifying over recent years. The discipline also demonstrates significant impact beyond academia, reinforcing its relevance and importance. This report serves as a resource for the Politics and International Relations community to better understand the trends experienced across UK from a higher education policy perspective. It serves as an evidence base for future activity related to the health and sustainability of the discipline.

Key findings

Aggregate demand for taught programmes in Politics and International Relations is strong, and more people are studying at undergraduate and postgraduate levels than a decade ago. But growth has been highly uneven across institutions, and Politics and International Relations has decreased as a share of all students over the past 4-5 years.

Between 2011/12 and 2022/23, first degree student numbers and postgraduate taught student numbers for Politics and International Relations have increased by 20 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. However, despite this growth in absolute numbers, the share of Politics and International Relations students relative to all students has decreased to below 2 per cent for first degree entries and below 1.5 per cent for postgraduate taught entries.

The growth in student recruitment has been highly uneven across different UK universities, with a noticeable difference between Russell Group and non-Russell Group institutions at the undergraduate level. While Russell Group universities have seen an average increase of 320 first degree Politics and International Relations students since 2011/12, the average change in students for the rest of the sector has been negative.

There have been notable changes in the international domiciles of students taking the discipline, shaped by a significant rise in non-EU international students.

In 2022/23, there were 1885 more non-EU international first degree students studying Politics and International Relations in the UK compared to a decade earlier. For postgraduate taught students, the growth was even more pronounced with an increase of 2800 non-EU internationals. Conversely, EU student numbers have declined by 36 per cent since 2020/21, when changes to home fee eligibility following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union came into effect. While it is a good indicator that UK Politics and International Relations is in high demand internationally, it also highlights a potential vulnerability. Parts of the sector heavily reliant on international recruitment may face risks, as growing geopolitical instability poses a risk to international recruitment.

The makeup of the domestic intake of Politics and International Relations is changing, with the characteristics of cohorts of first degree students diversifying.

Over the past decade, the student body of Politics and International Relations has undergone notable diversification. Between 2011/12 and 2022/23, the proportion of domestic undergraduate students from non-white ethnic backgrounds studying Politics and International Relations increased by 8 percentage points. Additionally, 2018/19 was the first year in which a majority of first degree students were female. The trend of increasing female participation in the discipline has continued since, in what was traditionally a male-dominated subject.

Politics and International Relations graduates have strong outcomes after completing their studies.

Politics and International Relations graduates are shown to have strong outcomes post-study, with 85 per cent of first-degree graduates in work or further study shortly after completing their studies. Additionally, median earnings for Politics and International Relations graduates are higher than the average salary for all graduates. A decade after graduation, the average salary for Politics and International Relations first degree graduates is £5000 above the average graduate salary. For postgraduate taught graduates in the discipline, the average salary is £9000 higher than for all subjects.

Research funding has increased for Politics and International Relations over recent years.

Since 2015/16, Politics and International Relations in the UK has secured £423 million in research grants and contracts, with funding from all major sources increasing during this period. Research Council income has more than doubled, with the discipline increasingly attracting funding from councils beyond the Economic and Social Research Council. Income from international and other UK sources has also grown in recent years. The ability of Politics and International Relations to draw on diverse and expanding funding sources is an important strength. This diversification of revenue streams not only creates new opportunities for scholars but also enhances the resilience of the discipline. This is particularly important in an era of growing geopolitical instability, which has the potential to stymie international collaboration for UK researchers in Politics and International Relations.

Politics and International Relations has widespread impact and is well-placed to respond to pressing global challenges.

Politics and International Relations in the UK has demonstrable impact beyond academia, with 92 per cent of the discipline's REF2021 impact case studies rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. Research shows that impact in Politics and International Relations is spread across a wide range of themes, including governance and policy, family and social policy, environmental issues and the health and wellbeing of citizens. This demonstrates the ability of the discipline to help respond to some of the most pressing national and global challenges. Research also demonstrates the remarkably broad geographic spread of impact for the discipline, with impact being located across all regions and continents of the world.

SHAPE Observatory

As the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, it is the British Academy’s role to support, strengthen and champion these disciplines. This report has been produced as part of the Academy’s wider SHAPE Observatory function, which seeks to monitor the health and sustainability of SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy) disciplines.

It follows previous Academy studies on its constituent disciplines. This includes a report on the provision of Theology and Religious Studies (2019) in UK higher education, a report on Business and Management Studies (2021), and one on English Studies (2023). The most recent report in this series is on the provision of Media, Screen, Journalism and Communication Studies (2024).

The Academy is committed to providing its community of constituent disciplines with the evidence required to understand and reflect on their health and sustainability. Doing so not only highlights the value of the discipline to society but equips its academic community with a clearer understanding of how it might respond in order to support the development of teaching and research in a changing landscape.

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