Students Under the 2021-2022 and Subsequent Catalogs
To earn the Bachelor of Arts in Political Science online or on campus, students majoring in political science are required to complete 36 hours in the major, including the following:
Political Science Foundation Courses (9 hours)
- POLS 1310 American National Government
- POLS 2303 Introduction to International Politics
- POLS 2304 – Introduction to Political Science
American Politics (6 hours)
- POLS 3300 American Political Parties
- POLS 3303 American State and Local Government
- POLS 3305 Elections and Public Opinion
- POLS 3310 Policy Process
- POLS 3320 The American Presidency
- POLS 3325 Legislative Processes and Behavior
- POLS 3350 Arkansas Government and Politics
- POLS 4350 Constitutional Law: Governmental Powers
- POLS 4351 Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
International Politics (6 hours)
- POLS 3360 Comparative Governments: Western
- POLS 3365 European Union
- POLS 3370 Comparative Politics: Developing Areas
- POLS 4320 American Foreign Policy
- POLS 4331 International Organizations
- POLS 4340 International Relations
Normative and Empirical Analysis (3 hours)
- POLS 3302 Methods of Political Inquiry
- POLS 3304 Qualitative Methods in Political Science
- POLS 3390 American Political Thought
- POLS 4380 Classical Political Theory
- POLS 4390 Modern Political Theory
- POLS 4395 Research-Intensive Seminar
Field Experience
Students must complete one of the following. Coursework taken to satisfy this requirement may also be used to satisfy a subfield or elective requirement for the major.
- POLS 3338 Cooperative Education in Political Science I
- POLS 3339 Cooperative Education in Political Science II
- POLS 3348 Internship I
- POLS 4348 Internship II
- Any POLS course with a service learning component
- Any travel course or study abroad program
- A paid or volunteer position of at least 15 weeks with a government agency, elected official, campaign, interest group, or other politically-oriented organization. (Students taking this option will not receive course credit, but will have the requirement waived.) In order to use this option to satisfy the requirement, students must provide evidence of the position and submit a paper describing the work that they did to the internship coordinator for approval.
Electives (12 hours)
- Four upper-level political science courses
In addition to completing the POLS coursework, all students must also meet the following requirements to graduate:
- University Core Requirements (35 hours)
- Second Language Proficiency (see the undergraduate handbook for specifics)
- Completion of 12 hours of upper level courses outside of the program
- Completion of a minimum of 120 hours total (45 upper-level hours, and at least 30 hours taken from UA Little Rock)
- Students must have a GPA of at least 2.0 to graduate
