Sociology
Goldsmiths, University of London
UCAS Code: L300 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 45 Level 3 credits including 30 Distinctions and a number of merits/passes in subject specific modules
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
With three Higher Level subjects at 655
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Advanced Higher
Scottish Higher
T Level
Each application will be considered on its individual merits. Where the T Level subject area does not directly match the degree programme being applied for, the personal statement and reference will be particularly important in demonstrating interest, enthusiasm and suitability for the subject.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
**Our innovative BA Sociology programme will equip you with the practical tools to understand the world around you, and to think about how to change it for the better.**
**Why study BA Sociology at Goldsmiths**
- You’ll be joining one of the world’s leading sociology departments. We've been rated top 10 in the UK for Sociology in the QS World University Rankings 2023.
- You’ll study contemporary local and global events to explore diverse issues, such as:
how social inequalities operate and how they might be overcome
how concepts of citizenship and human rights are contested
how social and technological practices impact health
how historical processes such as colonialism continue to shape today’s societies
how the climate crisis requires us to develop new ways of thinking and acting.
- Our staff are specialists and pioneers in their fields. They write the books that are on reading lists across the country, and you’ll be working with them directly.
**Your Personalised Learning Journey**
- We help you to discover the type of sociologist you want to be. You’ll ‘get messy’ with hands-on research methods modules in your first two years of study. In your final year, you’ll design and carry out your own research project based on your own interests. Recent projects ranged from Social Influencers as Digital Capitalists, to Conventional Beauty Standards and Black Women’s Hair Practices.
- You'll tailor your journey from your first year of study by choosing from a wide range of option modules. Our options are grouped together under three research-led pathways meaning you'll be working directly with experts on Culture, Identity & Inequalities; Law, Rights & Justice; and Health Environment & Global Change. You'll also have the opportunity to do a work placement and to take a module in another department.
**Equipping you with the Skills to Succeed**
- Diversified assessments will support you to consolidate your learning, and develop transferable skills. You’ll explore research design, data analysis, critical thinking, project management, working with others, and tackling inequalities knowledgeably and ethically, giving you an understanding of what it means to be a sociologist.
- The skills and the knowledge you gain during your degree will enable you to pursue a diverse range of careers. You’ll have transferrable skills that could allow you to work in the public and voluntary sector, the culture and media industries, marketing and corporate communications, arts administration, social research, and teaching. You’ll also be well-equipped to undertake postgraduate study in sociology, media, cultural studies, human rights, and related fields.
Modules
Year 1 (credit level 4)
You'll be assigned a personal tutor, who also acts as an academic tutor. Tutors oversee your academic work and progress over the year.
In your first year, you'll take the following compulsory modules.
Methods of Worldmaking 1
Modern Knowledge, Modern Power
Critical Readings: the Emergence of the Sociological Imagination 1A
Culture and Society
You'll also take two of the following optional modules.
Critical Readings: the Emergence of the Sociological Imagination 1B
Culture and Society B
Imaginative Criminology
Year 2 (credit level 5)
You will take the following compulsory modules:
Methods of Worldmaking 2
Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences
Governing Everyday Life
The Goldsmiths Elective
You also choose 3 Sociology options. Those recently available have included:
Law and Contemporary Society
Religion, Crime, and Law
Crimes Against Humanity
The Making of the Modern World
Explaining Crime
Criminal Justice in Context
Social Change and Political Action
Leisure, Culture and Society
London
Sociology of Culture and Communication
Central Issues in Sociological Analysis
Culture, Representation and Difference
Art and Society
Migration in Context
The Sociology of Intimacy and Personal Life
Food and Taste
Disability: Power, Embodiment and ‘Normality’
Knowledge and Subjectivity
Rationality and Its Discontents: Culture, Politics and Philosophy
Gender, ‘Race’ and Crime
Explaining Crime
Year 3 (credit level 6)
You will take the following compulsory modules:
Dissertation
Confronting climate crisis
You'll then take 5 optional modules, which can include a Sociology Work Placement (if not taken in year 2).
Optional modules change on an annual basis, and recent options have included:
Citizenship and Human Rights
Race, Racism and Social Theory
Globalisation, Crime and Justice
Crimes of the Powerful
Privacy, Surveillance and Security
Identity and Contemporary Social Theory
Analysing the Complexity of Contemporary Religious Life
Visual Explorations of The Social World
Childhood Matters: Society, Theory and Culture
Thinking Animals
Migration, Gender and Social Reproduction
Global Development and Underdevelopment
Practising Urban Ethnography
Subjectivity, Health and Medicine
Prisons, Punishment and Society
Making Data Matter
Philosophy, Politics and Alterity
Sociologies of Emerging Worlds
Work, Society and Culture
Law, Identity and Ethics
Social Theory Through Film
On Time
Thinking with Others, Philosophy and Cultural Difference
Experiment Earth Sciences Politics Disasters
Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Assessment methods
You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework, extended essays, reports, presentations, practice-based projects or essays/logs, group projects, reflective essays, and seen and unseen written examinations.
The Uni
Goldsmiths, University of London
Sociology
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.
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.
Sociology
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
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.
Top job areas of graduates
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.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
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.
£16k
£25k
£27k
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.
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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?
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