The University of East Anglia (UEA) is one of just twenty-three universities to have been awarded, by Parliament, the right to deliver the unique and highly regarded Parliamentary Studies Module from the academic year 2024/25. It is the second time UEA has been honoured in this way.

Parliamentary Studies is the only higher education module formally approved by the Houses of Parliament. It is taught by Professors and Lecturers from the Department of Political, Social and International Studies, and from the School of Law, alongside officials from the Houses of Parliament as a third year Undergraduate module. The aim of the module is to provide students with a detailed knowledge of how Parliament works. UEA provides academic content, and the Houses of Parliament provides practical teaching about the work, processes and business of Parliament.

Eitan Tzelgov, a Lecturer in Politics at UEA who uses Data Science to understand Parliamentary politics, said: “We are very proud to be able to offer this module to our students. Throughout their studies we help them to acquire knowledge and to understand theories and methods that will help them make sense of Politics and of International Relations, and guide their evaluations of its quality. With this module we add learning from the first-hand experience of the staff who help our legislative and political institutions work.”

On the module, students will learn about topics such as the nature of Parliamentary sovereignty, the legislative process, how Parliament scrutinises the work of government, how it interacts with other Parliaments and legislatures, and how the media report on it.

Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political & Social Theory at UEA brings an additional, unique, topic to the module. He is an expert in political speech, rhetoric and speechwriting and teaches students how to write their own Parliamentary-style speech which they deliver at the end of the module when the class visits Westminster. “It’s great opportunity for students to do something different” he said. “What people first think of when they think of Parliament is noisy debates in the House of Commons. On our module students get to understand the background to that and to experience it from the inside. And after this module, maybe one day they can deliver a Parliamentary speech for real’.

UEA will deliver the module from the academic year 2024/25 to end of academic year 2029/30.

For more on the Parliamentary
Studies Module visit parliament.uk

For more information about UEA's 
BA Politics course, visit the course page