Religions, Philosophies and Ethics (Professional Placement Year)
UCAS Code: VV66
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Grades CCC preferred in a related subject
Access to HE Diploma
Typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, including 30 at merit or higher).
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
A minimum score of 26 points required
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Extended Diploma grades Merit, Merit, Merit (MMM) preferred in a related subject.
UCAS Tariff
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About this course
This is the 4 year course which includes a Professional Placement Year.
Religions, Philosophies and Ethics at Bath Spa University explores the world and the challenges it faces through different traditions of thought, belief, and values. This course is recognised for drawing together different disciplines and traditions of thought. You’ll address these individually, as well as exploring the connections between them. You’ll explore religions, philosophies and ethics from a global perspective, not just a Western one
- Global – gain an international perspective on religion, philosophy and ethics.
- Contemporary – explore current challenges, debates and different ways of thinking.
- Applied – relate your thinking to solve practical problems.
- Examine the philosophies and ethics of the Indian subcontinent and China, and a range of religious traditions, from Buddhism to Christianity to Paganism.
- Relate these systems and traditions to topical and emerging issues in the contemporary world: gender, identity, our relationship to the natural work and environmental crisis, among many others.
**More about the Professional Placement Year**
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where a student undertakes a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between the students' second and third years of undergraduate study. Students can engage in up to 3 placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) themselves with support from the Careers and Employability Team.
Modules
In Year 1 you’ll be introduced to the study of religions as an academic discipline, including the study of selected contemporary religious traditions. You’ll be introduced to the principles of philosophical and ethical enquiry, and can select from a range of option modules.
Year 2 builds on these foundations through the detailed exploration of a particular faith community and through further work on the development of philosophical thinking in a global context. There are optional modules which explore contemporary morality, environmental ethics and politics, and some of the major religious traditions.
Year 3 allows you to complete a detailed study of your own design, together with a wide range of options drawing on religious, philosophical, cultural and historical subjects.
Please see our website for more information.
Tuition fees
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Bath Spa University
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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.
Philosophy
Sorry, no information to show
This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Theology and religious studies
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This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
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.
Philosophy
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
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?Although there aren't a lot of jobs around for professional philosophers, philosophy degrees are a relatively popular option, with more than 2,000 students graduating in a philosophy-related subject in 2015 - a little down on previous years, but still healthy. Nearly a quarter of philosophy graduates take a postgraduate qualification, and it's a relatively common subject at both Masters and doctorate level — so if you think academic life might be for you, think ahead about how you might fund further study. For those who go into work, philosophy grads tend to go into teaching, accountancy, consulting, journalism, PR, housing, marketing, human resources and the arts while a few go into the computer industry every year, where their logical training is highly rated.
Theology and religious studies
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
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?Theology can actually be a very vocational subject —by far the most common move for theology graduates is to go into the clergy and at the moment we have a serious shortage of people willing to go into what is one of the oldest graduate careers. If you want to study theology but don't want to follow a religious career, then there are plenty of options available. 2015 graduates went into all sorts of jobs requiring a degree, from education and community work, to marketing, HR and financial analysis. Postgraduate study is also popular — a lot of theology graduates train as teachers, or go into Masters or even doctoral study - where philosophy and law are very popular postgraduate subjects of study.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Philosophy
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
£20k
£23k
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.
Religious studies
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
£20k
£23k
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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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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