Politics and Sociology
UCAS Code: LL23
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Access to HE Diploma
60 credits overall with Distinctions in 30 Level 3 credits and Merits in 15 Level 3 credits
Extended Project
plus grades BBB
GCSE/National 4/National 5
GCSE English and Maths at grade C or grade 4
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
plus A Level grade B
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Relevant subject areas required are either Applied Law, Business, Enterprise and Entrepreneur-ship, Personal and Business Finance, Applied Psychology, Applied Science and Environmental Sustainability. No other subjects accepted.
Scottish Higher
Welsh Baccalaureate - Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate (first teaching September 2015)
plus AB at A Level
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
Our Department of Politics is one of the very best in the UK. The Times Good University Guide 2016 puts us in the top five. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 ranks us third in the UK. Staff here pioneered an undergraduate module that’s accredited and co-taught by the House of Commons. The idea has since been imitated all over the world.
You will spend roughly half your time in the Department of Sociological Studies, focusing on modern industrial societies, patterns of social change, and other topics that will enhance your understanding of politics. In the third year, you may choose to do a Work-Based Dissertation – you collaborate on a research project with, for example, a government department or NGO, and write about it.
It’s very important to us that your career gets off to the best possible start. So important, in fact, that we’ve made it part of the course with optional modules in career management skills and entrepreneurship. Our graduates work in government, the charity sector, NGOs, the media and research.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
Extra funding
The University of Sheffield Bursary is available to home students who have a household income of £40,000 or less. You may also be eligible for an additional £250 per year depending on your postcode and grades. We use the details you submit to Student Finance and UCAS to assess your eligibility for a bursary. You don’t need to apply; if you’re eligible you’ll receive an award for each year of your course. If you're a care leaver, care for an ill or disabled family member or are estranged from your parents or guardian you may be eligible for an enhanced bursary of £4,500 per year. The University also offers a number of scholarships to help you fund your studies and enhance your learning experience. Use our Student Funding Calculator to check what funding your could be eligible for - www.sheffield.ac.uk/funding/calculator. Further information - www.sheffield.ac.uk/undergraduate/fees-funding
The Uni
University of Sheffield
Politics
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.
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)
Politics
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.
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.
Politics
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
The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Sociology, social policy and anthropology
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
£22k
£26k
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.
Politics
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£21k
£27k
£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.
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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).
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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