Human, Social, and Political Sciences

UCAS Code L000. Around 168 admitted per year at Cambridge. Pembroke seeks to admit around 9 per year. No assessment required. Two pieces of written work required. No specific subject requirements. A Level typical offer A star A A. Scottish advanced highers typical offer A1 A2 A2. International baccalaureate typical offer: 42 points, with 776 at HL.

Human Social and Political Sciences (HSPS) at Pembroke

HSPS is a versatile course that allows you to tailor it to your interests. Studying it gives you access to the most crucial and up-to-date works in politics, sociology and anthropology which is both stimulating and eye opening. Supervisors and director of studies at Pembroke are supportive and available for providing help at anytime. HSPS students are close and friendly which creates a small HSPS community within Pembroke college. My experience so far has been fun and rewarding.

Pembroke has an established track record in supporting interdisciplinary as well as disciplinary studies in the social sciences. This includes our permanent fellowship (which currently includes specialists in Criminology, Experimental Psychology, International Relations, Politics and Social Anthropology), our visiting Fellows (who we encourage to interact with undergraduates), and our Junior Research Fellows as well as our graduate students, all of whom are encouraged to interact with the students through the supervision system as well as in the broader College initiatives.

Admissions

No particular A Level (or equivalent) subjects are stipulated or deemed inappropriate, and some applicants apply with a mixture of arts and science subjects. We are looking for evidence that students are capable of taking on new information and thinking about it logically and analytically. Those skills may be learned from, for instance, Mathematics, History, Philosophy, or English Literature as well as from more science oriented subjects.

Pembroke College Teaching Staff

Dr Hildegard Diemberger - Director of Studies

I am the Research Director of Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU) at University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College. I trained as a social anthropologist and Tibetologist at Vienna University, and have published numerous books and articles on the anthropology and the history of Tibet and the Himalaya as well as on the Tibetan-Mongolian interface, including the monograph When a Woman becomes a Religious Dynasty: the Samding Dorje Phagmo of Tibet (Columbia University Press 2007), the edited volume Tibetan Printing – Comparisons, Continuities and Change (Brill 2016) and the edited volume “Cosmopolitical Ecologies across Asia. Places of Power in Changing Environments (Routledge 2021).

Should you have any questions, please contact the Admissions Office in the first instance. Questions about the specifics of the course can be addressed to our Director of Studies, Dr Hildegard Diemberger.

Go to Human, Social, and Political Sciences faculty website

Human, Social, and Political Sciences