Sociology and Social Policy with professional placement
University of Bath
UCAS Code: U121 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Typical offer: AAB in three A levels. Contextual offer: ABB in three A levels. Alternative offer: ABB plus additional study - please see the course pages on our website.
Access to HE Diploma
Typical offer: Pass the Access to HE Diploma, with at least 33 credits achieved at Distinction and 6 credits achieved at Merit or above. This must include at least 9 credits achieved at Distinction in an essay-based subject.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Typical offer: 35 points overall and 6, 6, 5 in three Higher Level subjects. Contextual offer: 35 points overall and 6, 5, 5 in three Higher Level subjects.
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
D*DD in the Cambridge Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma. We prefer the above qualifications to be in a relevant subject area and we prefer you to have taken optional units in Sociology and Public Health.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Typical offer: DDD in a BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (RQF) We prefer the above qualifications to be in a relevant subject area and are unable to consider qualifications in Public Services, Uniformed Protective Services, Travel and Tourism and other less relevant disciplines.
Scottish Advanced Higher
AB in two Advanced Highers. We make offers based on Advanced Highers. You will typically be expected to have completed five Scottish Highers and your grades in these will be considered as part of your application. We prefer applicants who have achieved at least AAABB in their Highers.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
Explore new and creative ways to tackle key social challenges. Learn theory and methods to understand, critically examine, and influence organisations.
This course will appeal if you want to combine an understanding of the social world from different perspectives with a rigorous analysis of policy responses to social problems. You will examine theory and techniques from sociology alongside the analytical focus of social policy.
You’ll explore areas such as health, welfare and poverty, race and discrimination, inequality and exclusion. By the end of the course, you’ll have an understanding of how social institutions develop and operate and how they might be improved.
In Year 1, you'll be introduced to social theory, ideas about the state and social change, and the central traditions of social research. You’ll select an option in either criminology or international development.
In Year 2, you'll expand and deepen your understanding of contemporary social theory. You will explore the political processes that underpin policy-making practices and develop data analysis techniques. You’ll choose from a range of options in sociology, social policy, criminology and international development.
In your final year, you'll do your dissertation. This will demonstrate the knowledge and skills you’ll develop. You'll also choose from a range of optional units from across the social sciences. These will allow you to build upon the theoretical understanding you’ll gain during Years 1 and 2 and apply it to contemporary sociological issues.
The flexibility of this course will allow you to create a degree that’s tailored to your interests and potential future career.
Informed teaching to advance your learning
You’ll learn from teaching staff with diverse backgrounds and expertise in different areas of sociology and social policy. Their passion, knowledge and research activities shape their teaching. This combination aims to enhance your learning experience.
Develop your professional skills
We work to provide you with the tools and support to prepare you for employment and further study. These include:
critical and analytical thinking
research skills
skills related to generating and analysing sociological data ranging from ethnography to computational techniques
presentation and communication skills
project management
team working
You will also benefit from expert guest speakers from the public, commercial or third sector.
Prepare for your future career
Many of our social sciences graduates have gone on to work as social and policy researchers, civil servants, international consultants, journalists, and accountants.
They've gone on to work in:
government departments
social enterprises and charities
European and international agencies and organisations
Social care and family services
international development
public policy consultancy
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
University of Bath
Social and Policy Sciences
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 policy
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)
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.
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.
Top job areas of graduates
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.
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.
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.
£23k
£32k
£32k
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.
£23k
£32k
£32k
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...
Lower entry requirements
Nearby University
Higher entry requirementsSame UniversityThis 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
