Information for the student – Political and Administrative Sciences

The objective of the bachelor's degree in Political and Administration Sciences is to analyse power, the political system, the state and the administration.

It is designed to train people as professionals in a range of activities relating to the political world (analysis, consultancy and support of political activities and decisions), so that they have opportunities in the job market.

In addition, it provides empirical and practical knowledge of politics, together with classical training focused on political theory and thought.

Generic Competences

• Commitment to ethical practice (critical and self-critical capabilities/capacity to demonstrate attitudes consistent with accepted notions of ethical practice).
• Capacity for learning and responsibility (capacity for analysis and synthesis, to adopt global perspectives and to apply the knowledge acquired/capacity to take decisions and adapt to new situations).
• Ability to work in a team (capacity to collaborate with others and contribute to a common project/capacity to work in cross-disciplinary and multicultural teams).
• Creative and entrepreneurial skills (capacity to conceive, design and manage projects/capacity to research and integrate new knowledge and approaches).
• Concern for sustainability (capacity to assess the social and environmental impact of actions taken in a particular setting/capacity to adopt integrated and systemic approaches).
• Communication skills (capacity to understand and produce spoken and written Catalan, Spanish and a third language, including the comprehension and use of specialized terminology/capacity to research and integrate information in these languages).

Specific competences

• Understanding of the historical, social, economic and legal context in which political action is produced.
• Understanding of the concepts of power and state as specific political phenomena, their relationship with other aspects of social function, and the distinctions and relationships between politics and government.
• Capacity to distinguish between the normative and empirical areas of political science and apply them in the analysis of specific problems.
• Understanding of the principal political theories and ideologies, the main figures involved and their influence on society.
• Comparative understanding of the structure and operation of different political systems and institutions and specific knowledge of the Spanish case.
• Understanding of the Spanish Constitution, the general political and governmental structures in Spain, and the administrative procedures of the central state and the autonomous communities.
• Knowledge of the theoretical and empirical explanations for political actions carried out by the general public and organized groups (interest groups, etc.) and the different schools and methods of political science research.
• Knowledge of the methodologies of public policy analysis and the phases of public policy creation.
• Understanding of the structural mechanisms of international politics and the legal framework governing the operation of supranational organizations.
• Acquisition of methodological techniques (documentation, statistics, IT, etc.) for the analysis and study of political science, and capacity to produce applied research assignments, reports and appraisals.
• Ability to apply quantitative and qualitative methods and adopt the appropriate multi-disciplinary approach to specific problems (in research, academic study, political decision-making, management, etc).
• Understanding of the systems for the organization, planning and management of human resources in public administrations.
• Understanding of the structure and function of public finances.
• Understanding of the basic dynamics of the Spanish economy and the global economy and ability to relate these dynamics to political conflicts.