At IRP Northumbria students use a range of opportunities to learn, in addition to their reading and independent study. Active and experiential learning encourages students to think through scenarios or use and develop professional skills, such as presenting and debating, project development and negotiating.

Workplace / experiential learning

We have a number of highly applied modules, including those in partnership with the Civil Service and Newcastle Council, in which students can develop professional skills inside professional environments or with partner organisations, such as…

  • Develop a project to improve a local green space in collaboration with Newcastle Council (IR5003 Theories and Practice of Democracy)
  • Develop a policy in collaboration with the Civil Service (IR5013 Government in Action: Inside the Civil Service)
  • Complete a short work experience/internship programme in a relevant sector (IR5010 Workplace Experience)

Active Learning

We use a range of activities to make conceptual-theoretical learning come alive as part of students’ seminars, and sometimes as their assessment.

The most comprehensive activity in which all seminars and lectures are focussed on the core activity is the third year module IR6010 War Games in which students

  • Negotiate a change to the Brexit treaty and its security / policing cooperation (IR6010 War Games)
    • Negotiate a NATO crisis challenge at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in London with students from around the UK and beyond – the three best performing students of IR6010 War Games’s negotiation are invited to take part in this event

Elsewhere students engage in a variety of learning activities

  • Understand conflict/war and cooperation through the River Basin simulation (IR4003 International Conflict and Cooperation)
  • Respond to a geopolitical threat by simulating the US National Security Council (IR4003 International Conflict and Cooperation)
  • Debate the UK’s nuclear status (IR4005 Thinking Politically)
  • Develop a podcasts on IR Theory (IR5008 Theories of International Relations)
  • Draft a constitution for a new democratic regime (IR4002 Democrats and Dictators)
  • De-securitise a societal problem, such as the migration ‘threat’ (IR6010 Critical Security)

Complementary / extra-curricular activities

We involve students in extra-curricular activities, such as Model UN, from which students have set up a Student Society at the Students Union

Model United Nations See how first and second year students became diplomats in our Model United Nations devoted to the Rohingya crisis!