Admission Requirements
The admission requirements for 2024-2025 are applicable for students who started their study 1-9-2022:
2024-2025:
- (a) propedeuse, (b) 40 ECTS from year 2, incl. (c) Statistiek II, (d) Kwalitatieve Onderzoeksmethoden and (e) Academische Vaardigheden: Onderzoeksontwerp.
Students that started their study earlier have to apply to the admission requirements from 2023-2024:
2023-2024:
- (a) propedeuse, (b) 40 ECTS from year 2, incl. (c) Methoden en Technieken van Politicologisch Onderzoek (10 EC) and (d) Academische Vaardigheden: Onderzoeksontwerp.
Transitory rules
If a student did not complete Methoden en Technieken van Politicologisch Onderzoek (10 EC) in 2022-2023 or earlier, they should complete Methoden en Technieken van Politicologisch Onderzoek (5 EC, year 1) and Kwalitatieve Onderzoeksmethoden (5 EC, year 2).
Bachelor Project Information meeting
Semester I: The information meeting takes place on Friday 31 May 2024. Students will receive the invitation per mail from the SSC.
Registration for Bachelor Project
Semester I: Students can register between Tuesday 9 July 2024, 13:00h and Sunday 4 August 2024, 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.
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. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is not a necessary condition for passing the course.
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. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is a necessary condition for passing the course. This means that a (sufficiently high) partial grade for the second part of the BAP can compensate an insufficient partial grade for the first part of the BAP.
The final grade is the weighted average of both partial grades. In order to pass the entire BAP (20 ECTS), the final grade must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) and, as stated above, the grade for the full thesis must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) as well.
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 full thesis written in 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 their thesis do have the right to a retake.
Students who obtain a sufficient partial grade for the full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP also have the right to a retake, unless they passed the entire BAP on their first attempt (which means both the final grade and the partial grade for the thesis obtained by them are sufficient).
Students failing the course but having received a sufficient grade for one of the two parts of the course are allowed to take the same BAP next academic year – provided that it is still offered and has not been changed fundamentally (no guarantees or rights here!) – but may skip that part of the course for which they received the sufficient grade. They can, so to speak, “take their sufficient partial grade to next academic year”.
Students failing the course and having received an insufficient grade for both parts of the course have to start all over again next academic year.
Students can follow only 1 BAP per academic year.
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 December 20, 2024, 17:00 hrs.
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 deadline for the second chance is:
BAP semester I: Wednesday February 12, 2025, no later than 17:00 hrs.
There are two important caveats to this:
Students do not have the right to resubmit their thesis if they passed the entire BAP on their first attempt (which means both the final grade and the partial grade for the thesis obtained by them are sufficient).
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.
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.