Bachelor of Arts - International Relations (Honours) (with placement year)

This placement-year route through International Relations — the export lists the specialism in this sandwich form — combines three taught years of IR theory, security studies, global political economy, foreign policy analysis and regional studies with a working year in an internationally-oriented organisation, from risk consultancies and NGOs to trade bodies and the international functions of corporates.

The course reads the world system analytically — wars, trade regimes, institutions, diplomacy — and its assessment builds the professional genres of the field: intelligence-style briefings, policy options papers, negotiation simulations and a dissertation with genuine research design. The placement year then tests those genres against employer reality, and returning students bring both sharpened writing and the professional referees this network-driven sector quietly requires.

Language strategy multiplies this degree’s value at negligible cost: DMU’s language provision lets IR students add credited or extracurricular language study, and the combination of the placement year plus a working second language is precisely the profile international-facing employers describe as scarce — and one that costs almost nothing extra to assemble during the degree. The four-year structure runs on the £16,800 taught-year fee with September and January windows recorded across the export’s cycles.

Career counselling should temper romance with mechanics: entry roles pay £21,000–£25,000, cluster in London with Midlands pockets, and reward languages, writing samples and demonstrated international exposure — assets the placement and study-abroad options exist to build. The four-year honours award carries Graduate Route rights at the 18-month post-2026 term, and dependants cannot accompany students on taught study.