Can you provide placements?
Placement year
“Taking a placement was hugely beneficial to my time at university and dramatically enhanced my career prospects through adding invaluable business experience to academic study.”
— Charles Elson
BSc (Hons) Politics with Economics (placement with Goldman Sachs)
Our students have taken placements at:
- House of Commons
- Local UK political party offices
- Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
- NGOs
- Political think tanks
- Goldman Sachs
- IBM
All undergraduates on the BSc (Hons) Politics and International Relations and BSc (Hons) Politics with Economics programmes have the opportunity to undertake a one-year placement during the third year.
Students will receive support from the Faculty Team throughout their placement.
The placement year
View more placement videos »
Type of placement
There are placements in a wide range of organisations you can work with, including:
- Political or a business/finance organisations
- Public affairs consultancies
- Assistants to MPs/MEPs in local political parties
- Lobbying companies, London & Brussels
- Council of the European Union
- Government Affairs departments of large companies
- International Development Consultancies
- National Embassies
The majority of political placements are in London or Brussels.
It is possible to work for an international development organisation further afield as long as you are fluent in the language used by the placement provider. Students can also work in investment or retail banking and asset management, for large accounting and consulting firms or for manufacturing organisations in a variety of functions.
All placement jobs are at a junior professional level. Ideally, you will be given a project or a piece of work that will be your individual responsibility. The job will provide you with a challenge and allow you to use existing skills and develop new ones. Placements may involve an element of routine work as well.
Placement support
Our dedicated Placements Team will support and guide you through the recruitment process to gain your placement. View an overview of the placement support process.
Read our student placement blogs
Some of our students keep a blog during their placement year to share the experiences they have.
Further information
View the Study site and fee pages, or download our undergraduate programme brochure for further information about placements.
If you have any quiries then please email: hss-placements@bath.ac.uk
