JIE CHEN: Hello everybody, my name is Jie Chen. On behalf of Political Science
and International Relations, I'm here to introduce to you our very exciting major. Let me start with
our broad vision, which is, knowing for action, critically understanding the political world,
and leading the change. To contextualise our broad vision, our specific aim is to enable the students
to develop advanced knowledge of the nature of politics, and the functions of diverse political
ideas, theories, actors, institutions, and a range of political systems. We'll also
enable the students to critically interpret the key political and policy actions at local,
national, and international levels. We'll also train the students to apply such critical thinking
and problem solving skills to independently and collaboratively research and address
challenges, crises, and a change in the real political world of Australia and the Indo-Pacific.
We'll also endeavour to enable the students to effectively communicate
their learned political knowledge, ideas, analyses and arguments in different formats. Now,
what academic units do we teach? How do we structure them? Here the idea is that,
we start from a level of basic understanding. Then the programme evolves into
fundamental knowledge in the four sub fields of political studies. Before the more advanced the
study of major political themes, and conflicts and diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific regions and states.
You can look at this list of our very innovative units at various levels. So
at level one, these core units enable you to achieve understanding of politics and policy and
global politics. From level two, these units enable you to achieve foundational knowledge of
a number of subfields in political studies, including public policy, foreign policy,
comparative studies, and a global political economy. At the more advanced level three,
these units look more deeply at the various important socio and political themes such as:
politics of the mass media, gender, environment, and a social movements. Then we'll also teach
on the roles of religions in international politics, particularly
the role of Islam in world politics. Then there are other units focused on politics and foreign
policies of various regions and states in the broadly defined Indo-Pacific. For instance,
Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and so called Greater China. And then we'll wrap up
the major through a practically grounded capstone unit called Policy and Diplomacy in Practice.
Following from that, there are further pathways. You may take the fourth year honours programme
which includes individual research and a dissertation under the supervision
of one of our very expertly academic colleagues. And you may also consider
our professionally-oriented masters programmes in the fields of international relations,
public policy, international law, and international development.
Now, why study with us? First of all, our greatest asset is that we have a team of world -class,
and diverse academic staff. We combine our cutting edge research with strong passion for teaching.
We're here to inspire and prepare you for a range of careers in a highly competitive job market.
We engage our students directly with policymakers, practitioners, and diplomats, and link the
students with government agencies, and other kinds of organisations which our students may like to
work for one day. We offer professional workplace placements, internship programmes, and very broad
international collaboration opportunities. We also work very closely with a range of research centres
and policy think tanks, including those which have been established at the UWA, such as the Centre
for Muslim States and Societies, Africa Research and Engagement Centre, Public Policy Institute,
Perth USAsia Centre, and the WA branch of the Australian Institute for International Affairs.
I know everybody cares a lot about the future jobs. I can assure you,
the career prospects of this major are very promising indeed. Over the many years of my work
at the Political Science and International Relations discipline, I have seen many of
our graduates leading successful careers, not just in Australia, but also internationally. They work
mainly as policymakers, politicians, diplomats, policy analysts, journalists,
NGO leaders, academics, or researchers, and many more. So consider studying our major and join
our very successful graduates. I look forward see many of you in our corridors.
Thank you very much for viewing and listening.