The Workplace Relevance of the Liberal Arts Political Science BA and How It Might Be Enhanced: Reflections on an Exploratory Survey of the NGO Sector

Robinson, Andrew

doi:10.1017/s1049096512001308

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Student responses to the National Student Survey in 2012 showed a higher level of confidence that their communication skills had been improved by the programme, than students claimed on other related programmes. The Newcastle experience confirms Robinson's (2013) assertion that skills training is only useful if students understand what skills they are developing through innovative assessment.…”

Section: Newcastlementioning

confidence: 64%

Students’ Skills, Employability and the Teaching of European Studies: Challenges and Opportunities

Maurer

Mawdsley

2013

Eur Polit Sci

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Skills and employability are increasingly viewed as crucial issues in curriculum design and teaching, while simultaneously perceived as potentially detrimental to academic standards. This article comparatively analyses the current European employability agenda and how it was implemented in Britain and the Netherlands. In addition, this article critically reflects on the challenges and opportunities of integrating such an agenda into an EU study curriculum, by drawing on practical examples from the universities of Maastricht and Newcastle.

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Section: Newcastlementioning

confidence: 64%

Students’ Skills, Employability and the Teaching of European Studies: Challenges and Opportunities

Maurer

Mawdsley

2013

Eur Polit Sci

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“…The structures and goals of political science programs vary considerably (Wahlke 1991), and a curriculum review must consider these characteristics. Consequently, we join others (e.g., Robinson 2013;Schomburg and Teichler 2005) in arguing that alumni experiences and reflections also constitute a valuable source of information for a program. Alumni are relatively proximal to the program, which is important given program diversity.…”

Section: Curriculum Review In Theory and Practicementioning

confidence: 80%

Using Alumni Views to Connect the Past, Present, and Future in Political Science

Raile

Shanahan

Wallner

et al. 2017

APSC

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This article describes the collection of views from political science alumni via a web-based survey as a central part of efforts to review and improve the curriculum and the broader political science program at a public university. Based on the literature and on interviews with faculty members and former students, we iteratively constructed a questionnaire containing five categories of items: program structure, content/knowledge, skills, outcomes, and learning environment. These categories were intended to capture curricular elements and outcomes that include but extend beyond employment and professional-skill attainment. Graduate students contributed in meaningful ways to the effort through a research-methods course. The article discusses how results of the survey fed into the curriculum-revision process specifically and program review and assessment considerations more generally. D espite much initial (and some ongoing) pushback against externally mandated assessment in recent decades, political science has a history of evaluating program quality and student learning and engagement (Deardorff 2016b;Young 2016). More recent overviews of these assessment efforts include the Wahlke Report (Wahlke 1991), Assessment in Political Science (Deardorff, Hamann, and Ishiyama 2009), and the January 2016 Profession Symposium in this journal. As broadly construed, assessment has become a common part of the landscape in political science departments and has assumed a variety of different forms including but extending beyond assessment of student learning (Deardorff 2016b;Young 2016). Within this context, we developed curriculum-review procedures that contribute to a more general program review, which is itself a form of assessment (Deardorff 2016a). Whereas others discuss models for organizing a political science curriculum (e.g., McClellan 2015), this article describes procedures for collecting data from program alumni to inform a curriculum review and for feeding this information into broader, ongoing assessment activities.We designed a questionnaire (see the online appendix) and data-collection procedure that allow for systematically gathering relatively low-cost information while also serving pedagogical goals by engaging students in a service-learning project. The questionnaire balances professional skills and outcomes (recognizing pressures to consider employment outcomes) against other benefits of higher education. This article describes the process of developing and administering the instrument as well as applying the results. This survey was only one input-albeit a vital one-in the curriculumreview process. Though others may want to modify the instrument and procedure for their own particular contexts, we hope that our discussion provides an advanced launching point for such efforts. ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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“…Given that political science and IR are 'diverse disciplines' that do not 'train students for a certain profession' means that 'students often feel uncertain of the career paths available to them and how their expertise can be used in a future career' (Broms and Licht 2019). There is also a feeling that political science/IR degrees do not provide students with the skills requested by employers-what can be called the workplace relevance of a BA (Robinson 2013;Biswas and Haufler 2018). There is therefore a need to more explicitly link student and employer expectations along with governance pressures in this field to respond to this agenda without damaging academic standards.…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Policy Briefs as Assessment to Integrating Research-Led Employability in Foreign Policy Courses

Lightfoot¹

2020

JCER

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The aims of this paper are to highlight the way policy briefs were employed as an assessment tool on a final year foreign policy orientated Politics/IR module in a UK university. It explores the skill/employability rationale behind the use of the tool alongside wider concerns about diversity of assessment before moving onto some practical aspects of its introduction within the module and the evolution of the task. Finally, it reflects on student opinion of the assessment, it highlights some of the expected and unexpected challenges in using policy briefs as an assessment tool and proposes some future modifications. Overall, this paper argues that policy briefs can be utilised on more "traditional" modules and that they have a range of benefits for both students and staff, confirming the general findings of Chagas-Bastos and Burges (2018) and others, whilst making a more explicit case for their use in relation to the fact that the tool allows students to demonstrate research-based employability skills.

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The Workplace Relevance of the Liberal Arts Political Science BA and How It Might Be Enhanced: Reflections on an Exploratory Survey of the NGO Sector

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Students’ Skills, Employability and the Teaching of European Studies: Challenges and Opportunities

Students’ Skills, Employability and the Teaching of European Studies: Challenges and Opportunities

Using Alumni Views to Connect the Past, Present, and Future in Political Science

Using Policy Briefs as Assessment to Integrating Research-Led Employability in Foreign Policy Courses

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