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Criminology and Social Policy with a Year in Industry

Entry requirements


A level

A,B,B-B,B,B

GCSE/National 4/National 5

GCSE Grade C or 4 in Mathematics and English or Welsh (first language) is required.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

International students must achieve 4 at Higher Level English Language and/or Literature, or 5 at Standard Level English Language and/or Literature.

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

DDM

UCAS Tariff

120-128

Swansea University accepts the Welsh Baccalaureate - Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate as fully equivalent to x1 A-Level.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time with year in industry | 2024

Subjects

Criminology

Social policy

Criminology is one of the most diverse, stimulating and challenging subjects offered at university. It draws on disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social policy, law and even biology to investigate pressing social problems. Social Policy explores issues such as social citizenship rights, questions of justice and fairness, what we should consider as basic human needs and how these should be met.

**Key Features**

• Criminology at Swansea is ranked: Top 5 in the UK Overall (Guardian University Guide 2021), 2nd in the UK for Course Satisfaction (Guardian University Guide 2021) and Top 10 in the UK for Career Prospects (Guardian University Guide 2021)

• Social Policy at Swansea is ranked 1st in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2021)

• Sector-leading facilities, including dedicated student study and social spaces

• Teaching is research-led, meaning you'll learn about the most cutting-edge topics

• Be part of a vibrant community dedicated to making a difference to society

• Equip yourself with skills that are highly transferable and in-demand with a range of employers

• Choose your own modules in the 2nd and 3rd years of your degree

• Learn through lectures (recorded for your revision and catch up), seminars and tutorials

**We guarantee that you will be made a conditional offer for a course at Swansea University. Subject requirements will apply. Please come along to our next Open Day or get in touch for further information.**

Modules

Year 1 consists of a set of compulsory core modules, covering elements of both criminology and social policy.
Years 2 and 3 will comprise of mostly of compulsory modules, but will also give you the opportunity to study several modules of your own choice, allowing you to shape your own learning.

Assessment methods

The Criminology Department offers a broad range of assessment types. These range from traditional assessments such as examinations, to group-based tasks, and more contemporary and innovative assessment methods such as blog and poster writing, meaning you’ll have to take less exams.

The Uni


Course location:

Singleton Park Campus

Department:

Interdepartmental

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.

89%
Criminology
85%
Social policy

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

83%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
88%
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

74%
Library resources
86%
IT resources
81%
Course specific equipment and facilities
66%
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?

92%
UK students
8%
International students
23%
Male students
77%
Female students
75%
2:1 or above
9%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
B
C

Social policy

Teaching and learning

77%
Staff make the subject interesting
85%
Staff are good at explaining things
88%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
88%
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

67%
Library resources
79%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
88%
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?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
19%
Male students
81%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
10%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
C
C

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.

£17,000
med
Average annual salary
100%
high
Employed or in further education
33%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

19%
Protective service occupations
13%
Business, research and administrative professionals
13%
Other administrative occupations

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.

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.

£17,472
med
Average annual salary
91%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

17%
Protective service occupations
14%
Business, research and administrative professionals
11%
Other administrative 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.

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.

£17k

£17k

£20k

£20k

£27k

£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.

Social policy

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

£17k

£17k

£20k

£20k

£27k

£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.

Explore these similar courses...

Nearby University
Cardiff University | Cardiff
Criminology and Social Policy
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 120-128
Same University
Swansea University | Swansea
Criminology and Social Policy with a Year Abroad
BSc (Hons) 4 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 120-128
Higher entry requirements
Queen's University Belfast | Belfast
Criminology and Social Policy
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 128-152
Lower entry requirements
Ulster University | Coleraine
Social Policy with Criminology
BSc (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 104-111

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Teaching Excellence Framework (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