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Sociology and Criminology with a Foundation Year

Entry requirements


A level

C,D,D

Can include AS Levels and/or tariff point qualifications. Maximum of 3.

Must include A Levels, BTEC QCF and/or OCR Cambridge Technical, to total 80 points minimum.

60 credits overall. Minimum of 45 credits at level 3. Must already hold GCSE English Language Grade C/4 or higher or the equivalent at application point.

Combined with other level 3 qualifications. Must include A Levels, BTEC QCF and/or OCR Cambridge Technical, to total 80 points minimum.

GCSE/National 4/National 5

GCSE English Language or English Literature and GCSE Maths at grade C/4 or above. If you do not have these or are not undertaking them, we accept other Level 2 equivalents, or we may ask you to pass BCU's GCSE equivalency tests.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

24

Obtain a minimum of 24 points overall. Students who do not complete the IB Diploma and who achieve the minimum of 11 points from two High Level subjects, will be considered on the basis of their IB Certificates and alongside other acceptable level 3 qualifications to meet 80 UCAS Tariff Points Students who do not already hold a GCSE in English Language at Grade C/4 or above Standard Level English Language (not literature) Group A English Group A - Grade 4 or above or English Group B - Grade 5 from the IB will be accepted

Pass the Irish Leaving Certificate with a minimum of 80 tariff points, achieved in three level subjects.  This must include English Language taken at either Ordinary level (minimum grade O1-O4 (or A-C/A1-C3)) or Higher level (minimum H3/D1 taken from three subjects).

See Level 3 Entry under Irish Leaving Certificate for full details.

Combined with other level 3 qualifications to achieve 80 tariff points minimum. Must include A Levels, BTEC QCF and/or OCR Cambridge Technical,

OCR Cambridge Technical Diploma

DM

OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma

MMP

Combined with other level 3 qualifications to achieve 80 tariff points minimum. Must include A Levels, BTEC QCF and/or OCR Cambridge Technical,

OCR Cambridge Technical Subsidiary Diploma

DD

Combined with other level 3 qualifications to achieve 80 tariff points minimum.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DM

80 UCAS tariff points. Combined with other level 3 qualifications.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

MMP

Achieve a minimum of 80 tariff points achieved in either three Advanced Highers or from a combination of two Advanced Highers plus two Highers. Where three Advanced Highers have been taken achieve a minimum of grades DDD. Where a combination of Highers and Advanced Highers have been taken you must achieve (grades of DD in two Advanced Highers plus grades of DC in two Highers).

UCAS Tariff

80

Please visit: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/offer-making-strategy for more information about contextual offers.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Criminology

Sociology

Looking for a foundation course in sociology or criminology in Birmingham? Our BA (Hons) Sociology and Criminology with a Foundation Year degree has lower entry requirements and can lead to a full undergraduate qualification.

This course has been specifically designed to allow home and EU students, who do not initially meet the Birmingham City University entry requirements for our standard Sociology or Criminology degrees, to undertake additional level 3 study designed to ensure they are successful on their chosen degree course.

The foundation year itself will equip you with the required knowledge and skills to proceed on to any of our undergraduate Sociology or Criminology degree courses offered within the School of Social Sciences.

**Foundation Year**
The foundation year is designed to give you the opportunity to develop your academic and interpersonal skills while developing your subject knowledge further to support you to success on your academic path. By studying a foundation year, your first year will be spent learning a wide range of broad subject areas which then open up opportunities for you to specialise further in your next year – which would be the first year of a full degree programme.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

England
£9,250
per year
EU
£16,085
per year
International
£16,085
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Curzon Building Campus

Department:

School of Social Sciences

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.

78%
Criminology
78%
Sociology

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

77%
Staff make the subject interesting
84%
Staff are good at explaining things
85%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
76%
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

72%
Library resources
80%
IT resources
78%
Course specific equipment and facilities
79%
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?

98%
UK students
2%
International students
18%
Male students
82%
Female students
59%
2:1 or above
17%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

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.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
92%
low
Employed or in further education
45%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

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.

What about your long term prospects?

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

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

£22k

£22k

£25k

£25k

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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Course location and department:

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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.

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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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here