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University of Bedfordshire

UCAS Code: L3FY | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)

Entry requirements

A level

C-B

Successfully completed Access Diploma course

32 - 48 UCAS Tariff Points

UCAS Tariff

32-48

About this course

Course option

4years

Full-time | 2025

Subjects

Social sciences

Criminology

Delivering the most up-to-date theory and practice, this course reflects both national and international developments in these ever-changing fields. It gives you the critical thinking skills and confidence to develop your own position on such important issues as individual and social responsibility; crime and punishment; and global social dilemmas. Your second and third years give you the opportunity to take optional units in areas of interest such as youth and crime; the politics of migration; and crime and the media.

**Foundation Year**
In the Foundation year you will study three days per week. The focus will be on academic writing skills and numeracy, plus subject-specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree. It provides a balance between content related to your chosen subject and the range of wider skills required for undergraduate study. This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will be required to pass the foundation year in order to progress to the first year of your degree. This course is ideal for those who do not meet our standard entry requirements or those with a non-standard educational background. It will allow you to graduate with a full undergraduate degree in your chosen subject in four years.

**Facilities and Specialist Equipment**
- Four-storey library with an extensive range of physical and digital resources.

- Specialist labs, lecture theatres and bespoke group study spaces.

**Your Student Experience**
- Study with expert staff from a variety of social science backgrounds including forensic psychiatry; policing; offender management; social work; and youth justice.

- All staff are actively involved in research in areas such as human rights; safeguarding; policing; social justice; public policy; youth crime and violence; and offender management.

- Gain specialist knowledge thanks to subject-relevant field trips, most recently including a visit to The Old Bailey and Royal Courts of Justice.

- See theory in action through voluntary work and simulated crime scenarios embedded into the course units.

- Personalise your degree with optional units and the choice of a final-year dissertation that is based on either research or community work experience.

- Interact with local charities, policymakers and community influencers with our #SASS Change Maker initiative, which aims to increase awareness of and response to topical societal issues.

Modules

Areas of study may include:
- Introduction to criminology
- Understanding society, identity and structures
- Introduction to research and political enquiry
- Cybercrime
- Refugees, displacement, and the politics of migration
- Urban Crime
- Forensic mental health
- Terrorism
- Sociology of Health and Illness

Every effort is made to ensure this information is accurate at the point of publication on the UCAS website. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to our website.

The Uni

Course location:

Bedford Campus

Department:

School of Applied Social Science

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.

85%
Social sciences
79%
Criminology

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 sciences (non-specific)

Teaching and learning

85%
Staff make the subject interesting
85%
Staff are good at explaining things
100%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
95%
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

93%
Library resources
88%
IT resources
88%
Course specific equipment and facilities
73%
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
17%
Male students
83%
Female students
73%
2:1 or above
37%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

Sociology

Teaching and learning

75%
Staff make the subject interesting
84%
Staff are good at explaining things
83%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
79%
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

78%
Library resources
89%
IT resources
84%
Course specific equipment and facilities
65%
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?

74%
UK students
26%
International students
20%
Male students
80%
Female students
62%
2:1 or above
46%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
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 sciences (non-specific)

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
low
Average annual salary
90%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

17%
Caring personal services
15%
Childcare and related personal services
15%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

This section covers a range of subjects that are often very different, so if you have a particular course in mind, the data here might not fully reflect the possible outcomes from your particular choice. Graduates from these subjects tend to do similar sorts of things to graduates from other social studies courses, so welfare and community roles are common, as are education, whilst graduates also often go into management, marketing and HR jobs and jobs in the police, and employment rates are good in general — but talk to course tutors and attend open days and try to get stats for the course you’re interested in.

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.

£16,500
low
Average annual salary
90%
low
Employed or in further education
44%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

21%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
11%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
10%
Caring 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.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Social sciences (non-specific)

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

£21k

£21k

£24k

£24k

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.

£17k

£17k

£21k

£21k

£24k

£24k

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.

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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