Social Policy (BA)

This exciting and vibrant course delves into core social policy issues including: poverty, health, housing, education and crime. These are just some of the social problems you will examine as well as studying how the state seeks to address them.

On the BA Social Policy degree you'll gain an understanding of the historical, social and cultural dimensions of policy-making and examine education, housing and urban policies to learn about how states provide for people's welfare. Using examples from around the world, you'll consider the experiences of people who receive social welfare services to understand the impact social policy has on their lives.

By connecting issues facing contemporary societies to the big ideas that help to shed light on them, you'll learn about why social problems and inequalities exist and why some activities are seen as deviant or criminal. A wide range of optional modules reflecting our diverse research interests will also allow you to explore broader topics such as disability rights, terrorism or childhood.

Quantitative Research Methods (QRM) pathway

You'll have the opportunity to apply for a place on our BSc Social Policy with Quantitative Research Methods pathway which gives a quantitative skills focus to your final year of study with compulsory modules in this area. This pathway will help you develop advanced analytical skills, which are in demand across the public, private, and third sectors.

You will learn statistical analysis techniques and their application to real data (e.g. survey data or statistical data relating to poverty, crime or electoral behaviour amongst others) using statistical software. You will also write a dissertation in which you will analyse quantitative data to examine a sociology/social policy research question.

This pathway is open to all students as long as you attain a 2:1 across all modules in your second year and a 2:1 in the Sociology and Social Policy Research Methods module. You are not required to have done Mathematics at A level.