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Human, Social, and Political Sciences at Cambridge includes politics and international relations, social anthropology and sociology.
You can specialise in one or two subjects, but you can also explore a variety of other subjects too.
Overview
Number 1 in the UK for Anthropology and Archaeology, and Sociology and Social Policy (The Guardian University Guide 2025)
Number 1 in the UK for Politics and International Relations (The Complete University Guide, 2025)
Human, Social, and Political Sciences at Cambridge
You can tailor this course from the very start and study specific subjects that interest you.
You’ll study 3 core disciplines, taught by globally respected departments:
- Politics and International Relations, where you explore politics within and between countries, covering issues from human rights and democracy to financial crises and international conflict
- Social anthropology, where you investigate ‘what it is to be human’ by studying social and cultural diversity – how people live, think and relate to each other around the world
- Sociology, where you analyse multiple forms of power and inequality, and how they impact on the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of people’s lives
You may also be able to choose other Human, Social, and Political Sciences subjects, or subjects from other courses.
Teaching and facilities
Teaching
You’ll be taught by experts with a worldwide reputation for teaching and research.
Facilities
The Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science facilities include:
- 2 faculty libraries
- Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
- computing facilities
- multimedia-equipped teaching rooms
- rare collection of ethnographic films
You'll also have access to the impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries.
Watch the video to find out what a day in the life of a Cambridge HSPS student is like:
Course costs
When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).
Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.
Find out more about general study costs.
There are no compulsory additional course costs for Human, Social, and Political Sciences. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Department.
Your future career
You’ll graduate with analytical and critical skills, intellectual versatility, multicultural sensitivity and an international outlook. These skills are widely sought after by employers.
Recent graduates have gone onto careers in:
- research, both academic and policy research
- Civil Service, including the Foreign Office
- journalism
- management consultancy
- national and international non-governmental organisations and development agencies
- law
- teaching
- publishing
- health management
- public relations
Course outline
Teaching
Teaching is provided through lectures, seminars and small-group supervisions.
You will usually have 8 hours of lectures, and one or two supervisions each week during the first year.
Assessment
Assessment is mostly through examinations. Some papers are assessed by coursework.
In the third year you can replace one paper with a 10,000 word dissertation.
You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams.
Year 1 (Part IA)
You take 4 papers.
- 3 papers must be from the core subjects – politics, international relations, social anthropology, and sociology
- one paper can be another core subject paper, or you can choose an archaeology, biological anthropology or psychology option
Years 2 and 3 (Part II)
You choose one of 3 single-subject tracks or one of 5 two-subject tracks.
The 3 single-subject tracks are:
- Politics and International Relations
- Social Anthropology
- Sociology
The 5 two-subject tracks are:
- Politics and Sociology
- Social Anthropology and Politics
- Social Anthropology and Religious Studies (Modern Religion)
- Sociology and Criminology
- Sociology and Social Anthropology
It’s not possible to change tracks unless you switch from a two-subject track to one of the subjects within it.
For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Sciences website.
Changing course
It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply.
In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.
You might also have to:
- take part in an interview
- complete an admissions test
- produce some written work
- achieve a particular grade in your current studies
- do some catch-up work
- start your new course from the beginning
For more information visit the course website.
You can also apply to change to:
You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you have completed one year or more of your original Cambridge course.
You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.
Entry requirements
The listed entry requirements relate to entry in 2026 or deferred entry in 2027.
Minimum offer level
A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.
We don't ask for any specific subjects to apply to Human, Social, and Political Sciences. We recommend these subjects for a strong application:
- English (language or literature)
- History
- Languages (ancient or modern)
College entry requirements
The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:
- Christ’s
- Clare
- Downing
- Emmanuel
- Fitzwilliam
- Girton
- Homerton
- Hughes Hall
- Jesus
- King's
- Magdalene
- Newnham
- Pembroke
- Peterhouse
- Robinson
- Sidney Sussex
- St Catharine's
- St Edmund's
- Trinity
- Trinity Hall
- Wolfson
The following Colleges set extra conditions for some or all offers. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject. For more information check the College websites:
- Churchill
- Corpus Christi
- Gonville & Caius
- Lucy Cavendish
- Murray Edwards
- Queens’
- Selwyn
- St John’s
Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.
IB offers
Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.
Admission assessment
There is an admission assessment at some Colleges for this course. You do not need to register in advance.
Check the College admission assessments page for more information.
Submitted work
You will need to submit 2 pieces of written work.
What HSPS students have studied
Most HSPS students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A (69% of entrants).
Most had studied at least one of the subjects recommended above.
The rest had usually taken at least one of:
- Classical Civilisation, Further Mathematics, Geography, Politics, Law, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religious Studies, sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) or Sociology.
- Economics
- Government & Politics
- Mathematics
The majority of students who studied IB achieved at least 43 points overall.
This information shows some of the common subjects our applicants have studied. Although these are common subject combinations, this doesn't mean they're favoured.
When you're choosing your post-16 subjects, it's most important to check whether any subjects are required for your course. You can also check our guidance on choosing your high school subjects for more information.
All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.
Next steps
Discover your department or faculty
- Visit the faculty of Human, Social, and Political Sciences website - The Faculty of Human, Social and Political Sciences website has more information about this course, facilities, people and research.
Explore our Colleges
- Find out how Colleges work - A College is where you’ll live, eat and socialise. It’s also where you’ll have teaching in a small group, known as supervisions.
- How to choose a Cambridge College that's right for you - If you think you know which course you’d like to study, it’s time to choose a College.
Visit us on an open day
- Book an open day - Get a feel for the city and the University.
- Find an event - We offer a range of events where you can find out more about Cambridge, Colleges, and your course. Many of our events have hybrid options so you can join us virtually.
Find out how to apply
- Find out how to apply and how our admissions processes work - Our admissions process is slightly different to other universities. We’ve put together a handy guide to tell you everything you need to know about applying to study at Cambridge.
- Improve your application - Supercurricular activities are a great way to engage with your chosen subject outside of school or college.
Discover Uni
Discover Uni data
Contextual information
Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.
However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.
We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.
You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.
- Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data. - Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.
- Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.
The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.