Students praise this degree for its flexibility, as it allows you to pick and choose modules to suit your own interests, allowing you to specialize in politics, cultural studies, and social dynamics respectively. The university’s unique access to library resources, museums, computing technology, and ethnographic films makes it the perfect place to study.
In first year, you take three papers in each of the core subjects – politics, international relations, social anthropology, sociology – and a fourth (either from another core subject or from parallel courses – i.e. archaeology, biological anthropology, psychology).
The year after that, you will specialise and choose a particular pathway, either single-subject or double-subject. You must maintain this choice throughout both your second and third years. Usually, you will be required to take four papers in year 2 (one of these might be substituted with a dissertation, depending on your pathway), and three in your final year, as well as a 10,000-word dissertation.
The three single-study pathways you may choose from include: Politics and International Relations (examining issues regarding worldwide politics); Social Anthropology (exploring anthropological ideas and methods with relation to a particular ethnographic area); and Sociology (social theories, dynamics, and methods of study). These can also be sat in various double-subject combinations in conjunction with subjects such as religious studies and criminology.
HSPS is one of the biggest faculties at Cambridge; the course receives over 1000 applications per year, with an approximate offer rate of 20%. It is also a female-dominated subject, with only 25% of offer acceptances in 2020 being male.
No particular A-Levels (or equivalent) are needed, but it would probably be a good idea to take at least one essay subject. This degree proves that you have the evaluative skills, intelligence, and international awareness to suit important roles in politics, journalism, public relations, media, and law. Other options include further study and teaching.
