Social Policy and Social Change with Foundation Year
Entry requirements
A level
Access to HE Diploma (60 credits) of which a minimum of 45 must be at Level 3 (48 UCAS point equivalence, minimum 45 credits at pass)
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
Pearson BTEC Diploma (QCF)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
T Level
Core grade needs to be D or E.
UCAS Tariff
Equivalent experience. We can consider applicants with other qualifications or relevant experience so if you do not have 48 UCAS points, please make sure you outline this experience within your personal statement. This can also be assessed through an alternative assessment route such as an academic essay.
About this course
**This is a 4 year degree course. Please ensure that when you apply for this course you choose Point of entry 1 in your UCAS Hub.**
The Social Policy and Social Change with Foundation Year programme is built on a foundation of the University teaching social policy for a number of years. However, this exciting programme focuses on the role of social policy in bringing about social change. In society we face critical problems that pose challenges for the health and wellbeing of our society, such as persistent poverty, food insecurity and climate change. How can we create solutions that tackle these problems – and why have we not done so already?
How citizens engage – and are enabled to engage - with policy makers is critical to a healthy society. However, some citizens - namely white, wealthy and male citizens - have a disproportionate influence on the design and implementation of the policies that shape our lives. Events such as COVID 19 and climate change, and social movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter, show how citizen involvement can be crucial in highlighting social problems. However, sometimes interactions between the state and its citizens leads to social change – and shifts in policy direction - and sometimes they do not.
Social Policy and Social Change will examine how social problems are identified, talked about and responded to, by politicians, by the media and by us, as citizens. It will critically review how social policy has failed to address deep-rooted inequalities experienced by certain individuals and communities, relating to age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, locality, religion and sexuality.
Supported by a teaching team who are actively engaged in community-based research, you will join a dynamic and inclusive learning environment which will look at a range of services aimed at meeting welfare needs in our society. Through a diverse range of case studies, shaped by student and teacher expertise and interest, we will reflect on the health and wealth of our society. Through policy areas such as health and social care, education, and income benefits, we will ask why inequalities persist and what the future holds for the welfare state.
The Uni
University of Wolverhampton
School of Social, Historical and Political Studies
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)
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.
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.
£19k
£20k
£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.
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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?
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