Law with Politics with a Year in Industry

Law with politics is a combination that makes natural intellectual sense, because law and politics are deeply interconnected: law shapes the exercise of political power, while political decisions produce the laws that govern societies. Studying them together allows you to understand the legal system not just as a set of rules but as a political institution shaped by history, ideology, and power, and to understand politics not just as the competition for power but as constrained and structured by legal frameworks and constitutional norms.

This four-year, full-time programme at Royal Holloway includes a year in industry, giving you direct professional experience in a legal, political, or related context as part of the degree itself. The programme also includes a year abroad, broadening your academic and personal experience and giving you the opportunity to study law and politics in a different national setting. Both the Department of Law and Criminology and the Department of Politics at Royal Holloway have strong reputations for research and engagement with policymakers, legal professionals, government, and public bodies, which informs the academic content and the professional connections available to students.

Graduates pursue careers across law, government, public policy, and political institutions. Those who wish to qualify as solicitors or barristers will need to complete further professional training after graduation, and the law element of the degree provides the academic foundation for those routes. The politics element also opens career paths in the civil service, parliament, public affairs, journalism, international organisations, and policy research.

Further postgraduate study in law, politics, or public policy is a common route for those who wish to develop specialist expertise or pursue academic careers.