After more than a half century of development the European Union (EU) has become a significant political system, embracing nearly half a billion people and playing an influential role in the world. But the last few years have been difficult and full of challenges for the Union.
This course explores the issues that confront the EU and puts them into the context of its historical and institutional development, offering an understanding of the EU as both a political system and a source of political contention. It looks also at the wide range of actors - states, institutions, citizens - that play a key role in the construction and development of the Union.For anyone living in Europe, it is difficult to ignore the European Union. But it is also difficult to study it effectively and understand it fully as it is, in many ways, unique. Since its foundation the European Union has emerged as the most developed regional association.
For much of its existence it has been treated by scholars as an international organisation but as European integration has widened in scope and deepened in terms of competences, it has made much more sense to treat the EU as a political system. This course treats the EU as a system of governance and examines it on that basis - looking at the nature of executive, legislative and judicial politics as well as looking at the nature of interest representation and examining the nature of democracy in the EU and the impact of the EU on European states. To gain a fuller understand the development and functioning of the EU, we begin the course looking at the different theoretical accounts
Period
01-08-2011 - 26-08-2011 (4 weeks)
Target group
The University of Sussex International Summer School welcomes applicants from a wide range of educational backgrounds. Although most of you will be currently enrolled at a university or college, we also welcome applicants who have been away from education for some years, as well as highly committed senior high school students - for some courses a good general education, an open mind and lots of enthusiasm are the main qualifications. For some other courses you will see that prerequisites are listed - applicants for these courses are expected to submit transcripts to demonstrate that they have taken, or are currently taking, the necessary precursors.
Course aim
This is a great opportunity for secondary school students to prepare for college and acquire college credit, which you will usually be able to transfer to a future undergraduate degree. The International Summer School provides an opportunity to meet and study with people from different countries and cultures, on a cosmopolitan campus. The large range of courses on offer allows you to get ahead with credit in core courses, or simply to experiment with something new.
Credits
9.0 ECTS creditsSummer School courses carry 18 credits and last for four weeks. Since the standard annual load for a Sussex student is 120 credits, this means that each course is equivalent to four and a half semester hours or nine ECTS credits. Students can take only one course per session, as the courses are intensive. You can expect to spend 25 to 35 hours each week on your course between attending classes, labs and workshops, as well as time spent outside class preparing the readings and assignments. You can find information about the courses offered by the International Summer School through our course directory or courses by subject pages of our website.
Course fee
GBP 1250: Tuition only (one four week session).
GBP 2350: Tuition only (BOTH four week ISS sessions).
Course leader
Ariadna Ripoll-Servent
Scholarships
The University of Sussex offers a limited number of scholarships for participation in the ISS in the form of partial fee waivers to students from developing countries who have high potential for future leadership in their field of study or career.
University of Sussex
Address: University of Sussex Brighton
Postal code: BN1 9RF
City: Brighton
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/iss/
E-mail: issoffice@sussex.ac.uk
Phone: 00441273678406
The Politics of the European Union
