Social Work (including foundation year)
Entry requirements
at least one A level (or a minimum of 32 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC Subsidiary/National/BTEC Extended Diploma)
GCSE/National 4/National 5
You will be required to have GCSE English Language at grade C/4 or above (or equivalent such as Functional Skills Level 2).
UCAS Tariff
About this course
**Why study this course?**
Our Social Work (including foundation year) BSc (Hons) is an alternative route into social work studies if you don’t meet the necessary requirements to enter the standard undergraduate degree.
This four-year course has a built-in preparatory year, designed to equip you with confidence and vital study skills, such as essay writing, research and critical thinking. You’ll benefit from an extra year that will help you succeed at undergraduate level, but you’ll graduate with the same award and title as students on the standard three-year course.
**More about this course**
Our social work bachelor's degree with a foundation year will provide you with knowledge, skills and experience to enter or progress your career within the health and social care sector.
The foundation year will equip you with valuable transferable skills that will help you succeed in any workplace – you’ll learn how to manage your workload, critically analyse information and improve your academic writing skills. During the foundation year, you’ll also complete a taster module in social work, so that you can prepare for more in-depth study of the subject in the subsequent three years of your course.
Your foundation year will be shared with students from other specialisms studying a foundation year in the School of Social Professions. This will be the perfect opportunity to learn about other disciplines and exchange different perspectives on the topics you study.
During your foundation year you’ll also complete a module in social work. This module will help you develop the necessary knowledge and skills that will give you an introduction to studying social work at undergraduate level. This module will also prepare you for the application process for the Social Work BSc (Hons) course. Upon successful completion of assessed group and written tests you will be put forward to the individual interview stage. If you pass this stage, you’ll join students on our Social Work BSc (Hons) course and study the same content and modules as them. If you are unsuccessful but pass all your modules, you can choose another course at the University, subject to meeting entry requirements.
You are encouraged to attend an Open Day event if you have any queries and would like to speak to an academic member of staff.
Modules
Example Year 0 modules include:
Critical Thinking
Interventions for Change
Media, Crime and 'Race'
Reflecting on Self and Society
Researching Discrimination
Researching Inequality
Social Issues in Context: Text to Essay
Example Year 1 modules include:
Assessing, Planning and Professional Ethics
Communication, Skills and Values in Social Work
Human Growth and Development: A Life Course Perspective
Social Cotext for Social Work
Example Year 2 modules include:
Inter-Professional Practice
Law for Social Work Practice
Safeguarding Children and Adults
Social Work Practice Learning 1
Theoretical Perspectives in Social Work
Example Year 3 modules include:
Effective Social Work Practice with Children and Adults
Research Project
Social Work Practice Learning 2
Assessment methods
Your foundation year will be assessed via group work, coursework, presentations, class tests and portfolios.
Assessments in the subsequent three years of your studies will consist of essays, exams and assessed practice placements. The assessed practice element will require you to work supervised within at least two different practice settings over a minimum of 170 days.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Holloway
School of Social Sciences and Professions
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.
Social work
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.
Social work
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're short of social workers - so if you want a degree that is in demand, then this could be the one for you! There's a shortage of social workers all over the UK, and graduates can specialise in specific fields such as mental health or children's social work. If you decide social work is not for you, then social work graduates also often go into management, education, youth and community work and even nursing. Starting salaries for this degree can reflect the high proportion of graduates who choose a social work career - social work graduates get paid, on average, more than graduates overall, but not all options pay as well as social work. This is also an unusual subject in that London isn't one of the more common places to find jobs - so if you want to get a job near to your home or your university this might be worth thinking about.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Social work
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
£29k
£30k
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...
This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Course location and department:
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
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