Politics & Data Science

Politics and data science is a combination that reflects one of the most significant developments in the contemporary study of society and governance: the increasing availability of large data sets and the computational tools to analyse them, and the transformative effect this is having on how political phenomena are studied and understood. Politics provides the substantive questions, about power, elections, public opinion, policy, conflict, and institutional behaviour, while data science provides the methods to examine those questions empirically and at scale. Together, the two disciplines equip you to engage with politics in a way that is both analytically rigorous and methodologically current.

At Northeastern University London, this three-year, full-time programme develops your political knowledge and data science capabilities in an integrated curriculum. You will engage with the major areas of political science, including political theory, comparative politics, international relations, and policy analysis, while also developing the quantitative and computational skills that data science requires. You will learn to collect and clean data, to apply statistical models and machine learning methods, to work with large data sets, and to visualise and communicate your findings effectively.

Northeastern's emphasis on experiential learning and its transatlantic connections bring both practical orientation and an international dimension to the programme.

Graduates are well placed for careers in political data analysis, electoral consulting, policy research, government analytics, think-tanks, journalism, and international organisations. The combination of political understanding and data competence is increasingly in demand across the public and private sectors, particularly in organisations that use data to understand political behaviour, evaluate policy, or communicate with citizens. Further postgraduate study in political science, data science, or public policy is also a natural progression for graduates who want to deepen their expertise.