Philosophy and Politics

Philosophy and politics is a pairing with deep intellectual roots. Philosophy provides the conceptual tools for examining foundational questions about knowledge, justice, rights, and the nature of political authority, while politics grounds those questions in the real world of states, governments, institutions, and social movements. Together they develop the analytical capacity to think carefully about power and the rigour to question the assumptions that underlie political life.

Students who choose this combination typically want to engage both with the hardest questions that philosophy raises and with the concrete realities that politics addresses.

At the University of the Highlands and Islands this four-year full-time programme makes philosophy and politics accessible in a context that has its own distinctive intellectual and political character. The region's relationship to devolution, land reform, Gaelic culture, and the politics of peripherality gives a particular texture to political questions that the programme can engage with directly. You will study the major traditions of political philosophy alongside the empirical and institutional study of politics, developing both the theoretical frameworks and the analytical skills needed to engage seriously with political life.

The typical entry tariff of 104 points reflects the accessible and broadly inclusive character of the programme.

You will develop analytical reasoning, the ability to construct and evaluate political and philosophical arguments, research skills, and the capacity to write clearly and persuasively about complex ideas.

Graduates pursue careers in government, the civil service, policy research, journalism, advocacy, education, the third sector, and law. Postgraduate study in political philosophy, politics, public policy, or related social sciences is a natural continuation.