Admission Requirements
Participation in the Bachelor's Project is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed and at least 40 EC of the second year have been obtained, including Academische Vaardigheden: Onderzoeksonderwerp (5 EC) and Methoden en Technieken van Politicologisch Onderzoek (10 EC).
Note: as of 2024-25, participation in the Bachelor's Project is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed and at least 40 EC of the second year have been obtained, including Academische Vaardigheden: Onderzoeksontwerp (5 EC), Statistiek II (5 EC) and Kwalitatieve Onderzoeksmethoden (5 EC).
Bachelor Project Information meetings Leiden
Semester I: The information meeting takes place on Tuesday 30 May 2023, 13.45 - 15.00. Students will receive the invitation per mail from the SSC. Only students who registered for this session will be able to register for a Bachelor Project in Semester I. Register for the BAP information meeting in MyStudymap, the course appears automatically in year 3.
Registration for Bachelor Project
Semester I: Students can register between Tuesday 11 July 2023, 13:00h and Sunday 30 July 2023, 23.59h via MyStudymap, for the Bachelor Project of their choice. Registration is on first come, first serve base.
Should you have questions regarding the registration, please email the SSC via ssc@leiden.edu.
Language
The thesis of the Bachelor Project Internationale Politiek will be written in English.
If you want to write your thesis in Dutch please consult your BAP teacher in advance.
Description
Goal 1: Learning to apply concepts, theories and methods in a research project that fits within a framework that has been formulated by the teacher in advance;
Goal 2: Conducting, and reporting on, a limited empirical or literature study.
Content: The bachelor project is a course that offers substantive instruction, followed by a research part within which students carry out an individual study. Various projects are offered that are structured around different themes. Students first follow substantive instruction for a number of weeks in which they deepen their knowledge of a specific subject within a subfield of political science. After that, students learn to formulate a research question, to design research to answer that question, to conduct their own research, and to report correctly and clearly on that research.
The final report - the Bachelor's thesis - completes the Bachelor's degree in Political Science. The thesis is an individual final paper based on at least partly on the student’s own, original research.
Mode of Instruction
Workgroup meetings, walk-in meetings, library instruction, and above all self-study.
Library Instruction
On Brightspace you will find more information on the digital module 'Library instruction'.
Study materials
Halperin, S. & Heath, O. (2017) 'Political research: Methods and practical skills' - Oxford University Press, is assumed to be known. The core literature can be found on the Brightspace page of the Bachelor's Project. Further information about the bachelor project and the subprojects will also be available there.
Assessment Method
Students either pass or fail the entire BAP (16 weeks) worth 20 ECTS. In addition, students need to pass both parts of the BAP in order to receive the ECTS.
The assignments made in the first, substantive part of the BAP will jointly generate a first partial grade. This grade counts for 40% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to one decimal and passed with a 5,5 or higher.
The full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP will generate a second partial grade. This counts for 60% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to whole and half numbers and passed with a 5,5 or higher.
Concerning retakes:
Since the first, substantive part of the BAP counts for less than 50% towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for that part do not have the right to a retake.
Since the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP counts for 50% or more towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for that part do have the right to a retake. See appendix B for more specifics.
Final product:
The thesis. It should be between 7,000-8,000 words. Note that this is the actual required length of the thesis and not 7,000-8,000 plus/minus 10%. Regarding the word count: Everything from introduction to conclusion counts (as picked up by the count in MS Word). The following elements do not count: front page, abstract, table of contents and list of references. Concerning the abstract and table of contents: these are optional.
Deadlines:
BAP semester I: Friday 22 December 2023, 17:00h.
Students who get an insufficient grade for their bachelor thesis – and so fail the entire BAP – have the right to improve their thesis and submit it for a second time. They do so on the basis of the feedback given by the supervisor during a feedback meeting. Note, however, that students are not entitled to any further supervision. The submission deadlines for the second chance are:
BAP semester I: Monday 12 February 2024, 17:00h.
There are two important caveats to this:
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis for a second time if their first attempt resulted in a sufficient grade.
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis as part of the second chance if they did not submit a completed version of their thesis during the first chance (See Rules and Regulations of Board of Examiners, art. 4.8.2).
Bachelor Project theme:
Semester I:
101. International Collective Action: It's Problems and Solutions - (R. Hagen)
When a problem affects people across borders national solutions are oft ineffective or inefficient. Space, oceans or the arctic are areas where resources are shared between actors and cooperation is necessary to avoid degradation. Climate change, global security or COVID-19 are examples whereby actors across the globe have to cooperate to reach successful solutions. We see that sometimes collective action works, but in a lot of other instances it does not. This Bachelor Project will delve deeper into why collective action poses such a problem and how these issues can be overcome.
Global Public Goods and Commons literature are two of the main schools that look into the how and why of collective action. Whereas Commons literature focuses on the exploitation of resources, provision lies central in public good reasoning. This different focus leads to different explanations and thus to different solutions. Can collective action only work when it is carried by (local) participants, or is a higher authority needed to implement viable solutions? The answer to these questions are oft influenced by political considerations that you will explore.
In this Bachelor Project you will each focus on an individual topic or problem whereby collective action on an international level plays, or can play, an important role. You will use either a public goods or commons framework to understand the issue. In your empirical research you are free to use quantitative or qualitative measures.
In Block I you will (re)acquaint yourself with the relevant literature and with several individual writing exercises you will create your literature review, theoretical framework and methodological section. We will mostly work in class room settings where you will be able to discuss your work with your peers as well as with your instructor. You will also be asked to present on your progress in class.
In Block II you will execute your empirical research trying to answer your research question either by using quantitative measures or by focusing on a single case or small-n design.