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Public Sociology

Entry requirements


A level

C,C,D

English required and Maths preferred GCSE grade C or 4.

Various Access courses considered, such as: Access to Community, Education & Humanities Access to University Study Access to Arts, Social Sciences & Primary Teaching Access to Languages, Arts and Social Sciences Access to Humanities/Primary Education Access to Degree Studies Access to Arts & Social Science Access to Humanities Access to Social Sciences Access to Teaching

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

26

English required and Maths preferred at Standard level

Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)

H3,H3,H3,H3

English required and Maths preferred at Ordinary level grade O4 or Higher level grade H5

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

MMM

In Social Sciences subjects.

Scottish HNC

Pass

HNC Social Science HNC Social Services HNC Counselling HNC in Child Care (Early Education and Child Care) Pass at grade C required in the graded unit.

Scottish HND

Pass

HND Social Services with CB in the graded units or similar.

Scottish Higher

B,B,C,C

English required and Maths preferred at National 5 grade C or above.

UCAS Tariff

88-96

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Sociology

You will embrace new ideas and schools of thought on this intellectually stimulating and personally empowering BSc/BSc (Hons) Public Sociology course. It encourages rigorous critical thinking on complex and challenging social issues, opening the door to a wide range of careers.

Why QMU?
- This was the first undergraduate public sociology degree in Scotland.

- Many of our staff are actively involved in social justice, and so you will see first-hand how we can bring what we study to life.

- We offer a stimulating environment in which students can develop the intellectual and professional edge needed for working with 21st century society, and in which our staff work on outward-facing, innovative and cross-disciplinary research.

- Our course is student-focused and research-informed. It offers students the opportunity to work closely with staff on current, real-world projects and collaborations.

- Our class sizes are smaller compared with some universities, so you have closer and more personal support and guidance from our staff.

- We came top amongst UK universities for 'overall student satisfaction in social sciences' in the National Student Survey 2021.

On this course you will:
- Engage with diverse communities and develop a sense of the ways in which a public sociological imagination can meaningfully intervene in real-world political and social events.

- Ask, and be able to answer, critical questions such as 'What is the nature of society and how can we change it for the better? What are the root causes of social injustice and inequality? How could we change society’s perception of them, and make the actual changes themselves?

- Reflect upon the ways in which sociological knowledge can affect real change in people’s everyday lives.

- Learn how to critique preconceptions about social equality and justice.

- Learn how to make sense of complex and challenging social issues, and how to provoke change.

- Understand how the public sociologist and sociological knowledge can create radical approaches to solving social problems.

If you have an enquiring, questioning mind and you want to understand more about human societies, social problems, interactions and experiences, you will thrive on this course. It is Scotland’s first public sociology course and we continue to be pioneering in the way we think. Our students have chosen fascinating and original topics to research for their dissertations, from women’s body image on social media to a community campaign on gentrification.

Modules

Year One
•Introduction to Academia and the Sociological Imagination
•Foundations of Psychology
•Introduction to Psychology
•Diversity, Identity and Wellbeing
•Methods of Investigation

Year Two
•Social Inquiry – Philosophy and Design
•Social and Developmental Psychology
•Psychological Literacy
•Production and Consumption of Culture
•Engaged Sociology

Year Three
•Current Debates in Sociology
•Sociology of Liberation
•Interaction and Social Order
•Poverty and Social Exclusion
•Social Research – Theory and Practice
•Changing World: Social Movement and Global Change

Year Four
•Dissertation
•European Social Policy and Politics
•Options may include: Gender Justice and Violence: Feminist Approaches/ Queer Theory, Gender and Sexual Politics; Sociology of Scotland/ Public Sociology Education

The modules listed here are correct at time of posting (Feb 2022) but may differ slightly to those offered in 2023. Please check back here for any updates.

Assessment methods

You will be taught in lectures, seminars and practical workshops. Outside these timetabled sessions you will be expected to continue learning through self-study. You will be assessed by essays and a variety of other ways including written reports, presentations and groupwork.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
International
£8,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£1,820
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Queen Margaret University

Department:

School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management

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.

82%
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

86%
Staff make the subject interesting
82%
Staff are good at explaining things
86%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
63%
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

69%
Library resources
80%
IT resources
81%
Course specific equipment and facilities
40%
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?

93%
UK students
7%
International students
22%
Male students
78%
Female students
66%
2:1 or above
12%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

D
B
A

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.

91%
low
Employed or in further education
23%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

18%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
11%
Welfare professionals
8%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

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.

£16k

£16k

£18k

£18k

£26k

£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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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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