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Religion, Society and Culture

Entry requirements


A level

A,A,B

To include a social science or humanities subject. Specific subjects excluded for entry: General Studies and Critical Thinking.

Access to HE Diploma

D:30,M:15

We require 60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at level 3 (or equivalent). Applicants may be required to meet additional subject-specific requirements for particular courses at Durham. Please contact departments for further information.

Cambridge International Pre-U Certificate - Principal

D3,D3,M2

To include a social science or humanities subject.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

36

To include 665 in higher level subjects.

Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)

H2,H2,H2,H2,H3

To include a social science or humanities subject.

OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma

DDD

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDD

Scottish Advanced Higher

A,A,B

To include a social science or humanities subject.

Scottish Higher

A,A,A,B,B

Departments will normally make offers based on Advanced Highers. In the absence of 3 Advanced Highers, where these are not offered by the applicant’s school, offers comprising of Advanced Highers and Highers or a number of Highers may be made on a case by case basis.

At Durham we welcome applications from students of outstanding achievement and potential from all educational backgrounds.  We will consider applicants studying T level qualifications for entry to many of our courses. Where a course requires subject specific knowledge and this is not covered within the T level being studied, you may need to supplement your T level studies with a suitable qualification to meet this requirement, for example at A level.  Where this is needed this will be clearly stated in our entry requirements. Detailed entry requirements can be found on individual course entries on our courses database. https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/courses/v617/#entry-requirements-1237525

UCAS Tariff

136-160

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Social anthropology

Sociology

Theology and religious studies

This degree will equip you with the skills to understand religion and its power to shape the human condition. You will engage with the role of religion in a wide range of contexts, including politics, literature, bioethics and war.

Theoretical perspectives are applied to a variety of specialist topics – from fundamentalism in the USA to sacred landscapes in northern India; the role of Islam in modern Britain; Pentecostalism in sub-Saharan Africa; and death rites across the globe. Urgent current ethical questions are studied, and you will be encouraged to arrive at well-informed and reflective positions on topics such as the environmental crisis, end-of-life issues, poverty and warfare.

The course enables you to better understand the world we live in, and to explore the forces that shape our own attitudes, hopes and fears. In turn, it will empower you to go out into the world to make a difference for the common good. You can also apply to add a placement year or a year abroad to your degree, increasing the course from three years to four.

In the first year, modules are intended to provide the foundational understanding and skills necessary for work in theology and the study of religion.

In the second year, there is a much greater choice of modules to allow you to pursue your own interests within theology and religion by building on the understanding and abilities you have begun to develop in the first year.

The third year includes a dissertation that allows a deep, independently driven, exploration of a topic of your choice.

Modules

Year 1
Core modules:
Islam Observed: Ethnographic Accounts of Muslim Practice introduces the study of Islam from an anthropological perspective. The module aims to develop an understanding of the diverse forms of Muslim religious life in the contemporary world and to foster an appreciation of the complex relationship between the local and the global in Islam.

Worldview, Faith and Identity outlines established approaches to the study of religion. The module introduces ideas of identity, faith and worldview as foundations for religious thought and practice.

Introduction to the History of Christianity looks at the history of Christianity and to its relationships with its social and cultural contexts including the representation of different periods, different regions, different social groups such as historically marginalised groups, and different methodologies.

Examples of optional modules:
People and Cultures
Societies in Transition
Classical Sociology Theory
Biblical Hebrew
New Testament Greek
Introduction to Christian Theology
God and Evil
God and the Good: Philosophy of Religion and Ethics
Introduction to Bible: Texts, History, Culture.
Year 2
Examples of optional modules:
Death, Ritual and Belief
Science and Theology: Exploring the Interface
Religion in Contemporary Britain
Atheism, Belief, and the Edge of Reason
Myth and Meaning: The Structural Analysis of Mythology
Research Project and Colloquium in Theology and Religion
God and the Universe of Faiths
Sacred India: Land, Politics and Identity
Sects, Prophets and Gurus.
Year 3 (Year 4 if undertaking a placement year or year abroad)
In your final year, you will submit a dissertation on a related topic of your choice, approved by an academic advisor. The dissertation allows you to explore in depth a topic of special interest to you.

Examples of optional modules:
Religion and Film
Emotion and Identity in Religion
Christian Fundamentalism and the Modern World
The Historical Jesus
Christian Tradition and the Practice of Politics
Jesus Christ in the Twentieth Century
Religious Diversity in African Contexts
Religion, Media and Popular Culture.

Assessment methods

Modules are assessed by essays and end-of-year examinations, some by a combination of the two. Forty per cent of your degree will be assessed by coursework. In your final year, you will submit a dissertation, which allows you to explore in depth a topic of your choice.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£25,000
per year
International
£25,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course locations:

Durham City

College allocation pending

Department:

Theology and Religion

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

75%
Social anthropology
84%
Sociology
84%
Theology and religious studies

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Anthropology

Teaching and learning

92%
Staff make the subject interesting
86%
Staff are good at explaining things
83%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
74%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

82%
Library resources
92%
IT resources
74%
Course specific equipment and facilities
59%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

85%
UK students
15%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
77%
2:1 or above
5%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
A
B

Sociology

Teaching and learning

90%
Staff make the subject interesting
94%
Staff are good at explaining things
89%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
76%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

79%
Library resources
85%
IT resources
86%
Course specific equipment and facilities
80%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

69%
UK students
31%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
84%
2:1 or above
11%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
A

Theology and religious studies

Teaching and learning

87%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
96%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
77%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

90%
Library resources
95%
IT resources
87%
Course specific equipment and facilities
74%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

95%
UK students
5%
International students
41%
Male students
59%
Female students
94%
2:1 or above
5%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
A

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Anthropology

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£19,450
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
60%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

27%
Business, research and administrative professionals
9%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
8%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals

This is a pretty flexible degree and a good one if you want to keep your options open. Just over 1,250 graduates completed anthropology degrees last year, and they were well spread out across a whole range of jobs — many industries have jobs that can be done by anthropology graduates and unlike a lot of degrees, there aren't many jobs we can point to and say ‘graduates from this degree do that job’. Management, marketing, housing and recruitment jobs are the most popular, though, and many graduates go into the education or social care sectors. Graduates are also rather more likely than average to work in London, or to go overseas to work. This is quite a popular subject at postgraduate level, and if you want to go into research, you'll need to think about postgrad study - and it's one of the few where numbers are on the up at the moment.

Sociology

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£17,000
med
Average annual salary
89%
low
Employed or in further education
43%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

16%
Business, research and administrative professionals
15%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
15%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.

Theology and religious studies

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£22,000
med
Average annual salary
98%
high
Employed or in further education
69%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

32%
Welfare professionals
13%
Teaching and educational professionals
10%
Business, research and administrative professionals

Theology can actually be a very vocational subject —by far the most common move for theology graduates is to go into the clergy and at the moment we have a serious shortage of people willing to go into what is one of the oldest graduate careers. If you want to study theology but don't want to follow a religious career, then there are plenty of options available. 2015 graduates went into all sorts of jobs requiring a degree, from education and community work, to marketing, HR and financial analysis. Postgraduate study is also popular — a lot of theology graduates train as teachers, or go into Masters or even doctoral study - where philosophy and law are very popular postgraduate subjects of study.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Anthropology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£22k

£22k

£27k

£27k

£31k

£31k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Sociology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£22k

£22k

£27k

£27k

£31k

£31k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Theology and religious studies

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£24k

£24k

£31k

£31k

£34k

£34k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
Durham University | Durham
Philosophy and Theology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 144-168
Same University
Durham University | Durham
Anthropology and Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 136-160
Lower entry requirements
University of Leeds | Leeds
Religion, Politics and Society
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 128
Nearby University
Newcastle University | Newcastle upon Tyne
Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 128-147

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here