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Social Policy and Sociology

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B

A-level General Studies and Critical Thinking are normally excluded from offers. However, the grade achieved may be taken into account when results are published in August and may be used in a tie-break situation.

Access to HE Diploma

D:15,M:30

Successful completion of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 60 credits is required, including 45 credits at Level 3 and 15 at Level 2.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

Successful completion of the International Baccalaureate Diploma with 32 points overall including 6,5,5 at Higher Level

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

H3,H3,H3,H3,H4,H4-H3,H3,H3,H3,H3

Successful completion of QCF BTEC Extended Diploma (180 credits at Level 3) with overall grades of DDD

Successful completion of QCF BTEC Extended Diploma (180 credits at Level 3) with overall grades of DDD

Scottish Advanced Higher

B,B,B

Separate targets are shown for Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers but offers are normally made on the basis of a combination of the two.

Scottish Higher

B,B,B,B,B

Separate targets are shown for Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers but offers are normally made on the basis of a combination of the two.

UCAS Tariff

120-144

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

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Social policy

Sociology

Social Policy is about understanding how we can improve human well-being through tackling intractable social problems and delivering better-quality public services. As an applied social science, Social Policy provides a useful and relevant bridge between politics, sociology and economics and it draws on insights from these disciplines to analyse current policy and consider how we can achieve improvements. Social Policy asks questions such as: How much responsibility falls to the individual or to society and the state when an individual is homeless, unemployed, poor or ill? Should the welfare state offer care and protection to everyone 'from the cradle to the grave' or should society help those who help themselves? Do people have a right to a basic income, a home, a job and education, or are obligations and duties more important than rights? Against a backdrop of social and economic upheaval it is more important than ever to understand the effects of government policies on individuals, families and communities, and the practical, political and ideological reasons underlying the formation of specific social policies. Our degrees concentrate overall on policy in the UK and Ireland, but also take a comparative perspective that explores, where appropriate, how other nations provide public services.

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
£20,800
per year
International
£20,800
per year
Northern Ireland
£4,750
per year
Republic of Ireland
£4,750
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Queen's University Belfast

Department:

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work

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.

71%
Sociology

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 policy

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

93%
UK students
7%
International students
18%
Male students
82%
Female students
85%
2:1 or above
11%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
B

Sociology

Teaching and learning

80%
Staff make the subject interesting
84%
Staff are good at explaining things
84%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
65%
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

71%
Library resources
92%
IT resources
82%
Course specific equipment and facilities
53%
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?

94%
UK students
6%
International students
18%
Male students
82%
Female students
84%
2:1 or above
15%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
B
B

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 policy

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.

£17,500
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

15%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
10%
Other administrative occupations
9%
Customer service occupations

Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.

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.

£15,080
low
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
42%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

19%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
11%
Business, research and administrative professionals
11%
Childcare and related personal services

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
University of York | York
Social and Political Sciences
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 136-147
Lower entry requirements
Liverpool Hope University | Liverpool
Social Policy and Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 112
Nearby University
Ulster University | Coleraine
Social Policy with Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 104-111

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Course location and department:

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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?

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