Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2100: Political Conflicts in Europe

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module familiarizes you with basic approaches to understand political conflicts in Europe from the perspective of comparative politics. This includes theories on party political conflict and its dimensions as well as theoretical approaches to understand ‘post-factual’ politics and threats to the quality of democracy. It aims at providing you with the skills to apply core theories to current political conflicts in a variety of European countries, to critically evaluate the usefulness of these theories, and to equip you with the presentation skills required to describe, analyse, and explain political conflicts in Europe yourself. That is, the module seeks to improve your ability to critically analyse texts and to communicate effectively. Apart from its focus on substantive issues, the module also seeks to introduce you to the comparative method and other quantitative research designs in political science. This focus also promotes an understanding of predictive social science models. Case studies come from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Northern Europe.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. demonstrate knowledge of the major concepts and theories used in political science to understand conflicts in Europe 2. evaluate theories in the field of comparative politics based on empirical evidence
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. exercise informed judgment concerning the use of empirical evidence in support of an argument in published research 4. synthesize competing theories to analyse new problems
Personal and Key Skills	5. present complex arguments with clarity and concision 6. work independently and with peers to meet common research and assessment deadlines effectively 7. speak confidently in front of small and large audiences on a subject you have studied

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay plan	400 words, to be discussed with peers	1-6	Verbal peer feedback

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
85	0	15

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	60	2,500 words	1-6	Written feedback
Group Presentation	15	4 minutes per student (assessment based on individual presentation)	1-7	Verbal feedback
Reaction to reading	25	900 words - reaction to a reading posted online on ELE before the session (so they can inform in-class discussions)	1-6	Verbal feedback
	0
	0
	0

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay (2,500 words)	1-6	August/September reassessment period
Presentation	1,000 word report covering the topic of the presentation	1-6	August/September reassessment period
Reactions to readings	1,000 word reaction paper	1-6	August/September reassessment period