Political Studies Association: Applying to Study Politics at a British University

The PSA is holding a series of events for students thinking about studying politics and/ or international relations at University.  The notes on my talk on 'Selecting the right course and institution' (at the University of Edinburgh, 20th June) are copy and pasted below.  Note the potentially interesting difference in the advice given to students in Scotland:

"Paul Cairney, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Aberdeen paul.cairney@abdn.ac.uk


Political Studies Association Workshop on Applying to Study Politics at a British University

Things to think about when selecting a University course in Politics and/ or International Relations

How far should I go?

• Most calculations might be in this order: how much will it cost? Should I stay at home? Will I make new friends? How will it affect my grades? How will it affect my learning?

• Beyond Scotland – to the rest of the UK? Most students in Scotland will not go to the rest of the UK because it will cost them an extra £27000 in fees. This is a reasonable calculation to make, although it would be worth being sure that you know how such fees would be paid back. Some of you may be in the position to see this as an investment in your future rather than a weight around your neck.

• Beyond Scotland – to the rest of Europe? Since the UK is an EU member state, its citizens can go to another EU university and pay the same fees as domestic students. The main obstacle is the language barrier. Few universities will teach undergraduate students in English (postgraduate studies are different) and it is not a good idea to learn a new language when learning a new subject (in my opinion, it is better to have this experience as part of an exchange programme where they teach courses in English).

• Beyond home? There may be a basic trade-off between the costs and benefits of moving away. The costs of living away from home are generally financial and occasionally social. The cost of staying at home can (but may not necessarily) be a relative inability to adapt to University life, since local students often have less of an incentive to form new social networks at University (since they always have the option of their friends and family at home). This may often be a factor in University performance – being engaged and content generally helps people learn.

What is the right institution?

• What are the practical implications of University snobbery? People will always have their own biases about the general quality of particular institutions. Perhaps the main bias to consider is that of employers – will they rate every degree in the same way? The answer is ‘probably not’ but individual employers (and their employees) are difficult to predict.

• What are the key sources of University selection snobbery? The obvious distinction is between Oxford/ Cambridge and the rest, followed by the ‘Russell Group’ (which includes Edinburgh and Glasgow) and the distinction between ‘pre-1992’ (such as Napier, Heriott Watt, GCU, RGU) and ‘post-1992’ universities (such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen).

• Note the (often large) difference between the status of the University as a whole and the status of individual departments. For example, the University of Essex has one of the highest status political science departments. Strathclyde was once the highest status department in Scotland.

• Note the difference between a department noted for its research excellence and its teaching excellence.

How can we analyse the ‘league tables’?

• Rule of thumb for academics: we don’t rate the tables but we use them if they make us look good

• Rule of thumb overall: Universities are now chasing these tables – are they getting better scores and becoming better Universities?

• Most important league table for academics: the Research Excellence Framework (as a source of prestige and funding)

• Most important league table for students: National Student Survey?

• What do the composite league tables measure?

• Complete University Guide – ‘entry standards’, ‘student satisfaction’, ‘research assessment’, ‘graduate prospects’

• Guardian – NSS, ‘Expenditure per student’, ‘Staff student ratio’, ‘value added score’, ‘entry tariff’

• Times – also includes completion rates and grades achieved

• Times Higher Education (THE) – (1) reputation (2) ‘teaching’, ‘research’, ‘citations’, ‘industry income’, ‘international outlook’ (3) factors such as sports facilities and student unions

• Note 1: handle with care

• Note 2: find subject specific scores

• Note 3: what do you care about most?

What other sources of information are there?

• Prospectus

• Website (University and department)

• Staff pages, blogs and other social media?

• Open days and applicant days

• Liaison visits

• PSA guide?

• Student associations


The important details

• 3 or 4 years?

• Liberal arts or specialise from the start? Or breadth versus depth?

• Mix of compulsory options and course choices?

• What course options interest you?

• Can you be confident that they will exist by the time you get there?

• Research led teaching? What does it mean?

• Do the Professors teach the undergraduates? If so, how much and when? How can you find out? Should you want the Professors?!

• How do they assess your work?

• How do they encourage learning? How do you learn?

• Campus or not?

• City or town?

• Easy to get around or easy to get back? Compare Aberystwyth with (say) Edinburgh."

Private Eye Independence Question

Can anyone tell me the date/ issue that this joke ran in the Private Eye?

‘Alex Salmond Reveals The Scottish Independence Question:


A. Do you, my fellow Bravehearts, want Scotland finally to throw off the yoke of our brutal English overlords who have raped and pillaged our proud land for centuries, as we reclaim our stolen heritage and restore pride to this great land? Och Aye

B. Would you prefer to bow and scrape at the feet of spineless Old Etonian Sassenachs who wreak poverty and despair across this proud Scottish land? The Noo’

Devolved taxes

I'm trying to work out (very roughly) the balance between reserved and devolved taxes for the second edition of Scottish Politics.  Here is a rough and ready calculation based on the last (UK) Treasury budget estimates of receipts, which can be found here and here. 

£bn
Income tax 155, 26%
National Insurance 106, 18%
Excise duties 48, 8%
Corporation tax 45, 8%
VAT 102, 17%
Business rates 26, 4%
Council tax 26, 4%
Other 84, 14%
Total 592

The ones to watch are: the devolved business rates/ council taxes (only 8%); the difficult-to-devolve corporation and VAT (25%); the quite-low income tax (26%, or 25% if we include tax credits); and, National Insurance (18%) which helps keep the appearance of income tax low (it is a tax on employment income, and an indicator of entitlement to certain benefits, but goes into the same pot).

Death of ideology, rise of idiocy

The latest attention to David Cameron's leisure activities (this just in - he sort of plays tennis) surely marks, for sure, this time, the end of attention to ideology and the rise to complete centrality of valence politics in the UK. Valence usually refers to things like an image of governing competence and the positive vision of its leader. Now, we will have to add in the amount of hours they fill in their worksheets and the amount of crap pies that they eat while working. No doubt, we will now see various MPs accidentally leaking pictures of themselves in their offices, tie off, sleeves rolled up and looking incredibly pasty faced (see what I did there?) to show that they work hard. Or, they will go on the BBC or tweet on a Sunday to show how great they are. Time will tell what the British media wants - not quite Gordon Brown (who had the reputation for never leaving his office - prompting many to allege that he was going mad) but a lot more than David Cameron (maybe they want Margaret Thatcher, who allegedly rose to work at 4am, as if opening the doors for early deliveries at the local shop). I will only say two things. First, people are living in the past if they think that the actions of a UK Prime Minister are so crucial to British politics that they can never be away from the desk or the red button. Second, people who work very long hours with no breaks will make very bad decisions. People who get obsessed with the detail, and try to solve every problem and pay attention to everything, will burn out very quickly and/ or lose their ability to step back from situations and think about them before acting. So, for me, the image of David Cameron talking to his tennis machine (ooh, tough one Cleggy) is quite reassuring. I wrote this on Sunday morning.

"Shut him up"

I am going through old newspaper coverage (last 10 years) of the Scottish independence referendum.  Here is my favourite so far, from the Scottish Sun (presumably before all the cosying up we have been hearing about during the Leveson inquiry):

"Shut him up

The Scottish Sun knows the Scottish people would NOT vote for independence. So this would be a simple way of shutting him [Alex Salmond] up (The Sun (England), February 26, 2010)"

2nd favourite:

Independence referendum: Salmond warns opposition as he launches vote plans

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond today warned his political opponents they would face the consequences at the ballot box after they dismissed his plans for an independence referendum (Scotsman, November 30, 2009).

3rd place:

REFERENDUMB; Nats plan £9m indy poll..but haven't got the cash FINANCE Secretary John Swinney admitted yesterday he has NO CASH to pay for the planned referendum on independence. Mr Swinney told MSPs the £9million poll has not been pencilled into next year's budget - despite the SNP pressing ahead with its controversial policy.  And rival politicians last night warned cuts would have to be made to public services if the public vote goes ahead (ANDREW NICOLL, The Sun (England), November 10, 2009)

New contender:

TV JOHN SAYS NO TO UK SPLIT TORCHWOOD star John Barrowman has spoken out against SNP government plans to break up the UK.  The Glasgow-born actor is uneasy with the prospect of an independent Scotland - but added that a "yes" vote in a referendum backing independence would have to be respected  (Daily Record, September 19, 2011)

Understanding Public Policy, as read by Hillary Clinton

As a stereotypical Scotsman, I paid my ten dollars for this software, so I want to get my money's worth.  Here is part of my book Understanding Public Policy read by an animation of (what I took to be) Hillary Clinton.  I'll find something more useful to do later.

'Global Tobacco Control' book as read by Abraham Lincoln

I wonder if anyone would be more likely to read this book if they heard the first 1500 words read by a slightly animated Abraham Lincoln in front of the White House .  If so, you can read along here ('click to look inside').  I also put it on youtube and it currently has 0 views.