About Us

The School is an inter-disciplinary centre of excellence and one of the largest and most dynamic Schools of its type in the UK. The School enjoys an international reputation in research and appears in the first quartile on all major indicators in the Research Assessment Exercise, including 2nd out of 27 for Research Power.

Political Science at Cardiff achieved the ranking of excellent in the most recent Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) Excellence Ranking which rates the School among 'the most interesting places in Europe for doing your master’s or doctoral degree.' Cardiff was one of only twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom to be ranked excellent on the basis of publications, citations and mobility.

Since 2001 the School has attracted over £650,000 in research funds. Our research projects range from the study of the European Union, public policy, devolution and political change, politics, poetry and protest in the songs of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen to European Cinema, the work of Samuel Beckett and Cultural memory and Terrorism.

The research and teaching interests of the School reflect each of our main subject areas of the language, literature, history and society of France, Germany, Italy and Spain,Translation Politics and International Relations. We have over 1400 students and 80 staff and teach a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses, as well as offering specialised PhD supervision in a wide variety of areas.

Many of our students spend time in other European Universities as part of their studies, and we have close links with universities in Europe including Bordeaux, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Granada. A leading example of this collaboration is our path-breaking double-degree scheme taught with the internationally-renowned Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Sciences Po, in Bordeaux. We are international in outlook, but we have strong links with our local community and recognise the advantages we have, belonging to and living and working in the capital city of Wales.

Professor Claire Gorrara, Acting Head of School