Entry requirements
A level
Desirable A level subjects Preference for at least one humanities subject such as History, Religious Studies, Geography, Sociology, Politics, Government and Politics, Philosophy or Psychology. Alternative A level offer ABB plus one of the following: grade A in an EPQ grade B in the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate grade M1 in Cambridge Pre-U Global Perspectives grade B in a Core Mathematics qualification grade B in AS level Mathematics or Statistics
Access to HE Diploma
Typical offer: Pass the Access to HE Diploma, with at least 33 credits achieved at Distinction and 6 credits achieved at Merit or above. This must include at least 9 credits achieved at Distinction in an essay-based subject.
Cambridge International Pre-U Certificate - Principal
Cambridge Pre-U alternative offer D3, M1, M1 plus one of the following: grade A in an EPQ grade B in the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge grade M1 in Cambridge Pre-U Global Perspectives grade B in a Core Mathematics qualification
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
35 points overall and 6, 6, 5 in three Higher Level subjects.
Pearson BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF)
D*DD in the BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma (QCF). We prefer the above qualifications to be in a relevant subject area and are unable to consider qualifications in Public Services.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
DDD in a BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (RQF) We prefer the above qualifications to be in a relevant subject area and are unable to consider qualifications in Public Services.
Scottish Advanced Higher
AB in two Advanced Highers. We make offers based on Advanced Highers. You will typically be expected to have completed five Scottish Highers and your grades in these will be considered as part of your application. We prefer applicants who have achieved at least AAABB in their Highers.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
**Explore issues facing us in the 21st century relating to crime and criminal justice. Develop research and data handling skills relevant to a range of careers.**
Criminology gives you a deep insight into the theories of crime, justice and punishment, by drawing on multiple perspectives and disciplines.
With a strong global focus, you’ll explore crime and related topics from around the world, looking at everything from human rights and terrorism, to social justice, contemporary social problems, and the globalisation of crime.
You’ll gain knowledge of how criminal justice agencies work and interact, how criminal justice policy is created, and how policing, courts and prisons present new and pressing challenges for today’s world.
As well as a strong theoretical grounding, the course equips you with solid practical skills in critical enquiry, research and data generation. Studying at Bath means you’ll get to work with a leading team of criminal justice researchers and criminologists, with significant global expertise. There’s also the chance to hone your skills further by doing a placement year in a relevant setting.
This course will particularly appeal if you’re strong on critical thinking. The skills and broad-based understanding you go away with will set you up well for diverse careers, whether you decide to go into the criminal justice sector, a third sector organisation or another field.
**Teaching**
You’ll learn from academics with expertise across the social sciences. Their international collaborations and research activities feed into undergraduate teaching and contribute to your learning experience.
Our researchers have specialisms in:
children and families
health
international development
justice and rights
migration
policy design and analysis
poverty
violence and crime
**Careers**
Those who study our social sciences degrees have excellent career options. Our graduates have worked as social and policy researchers, civil servants, international consultants, journalists, accountants and in a variety of government, charity sector and business-related roles.
Our recent graduates have gone on to work for:
Amazon
Guide Dogs
Parliamentary Research Service
Goldman Sachs
BBC Worldwide
The Uni
University of Bath
Social and Policy Sciences

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See your living costsWhat 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.
Sociology
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.
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.
Top job areas of graduates
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?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.
Criminology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£22k
£28k
£30k
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):
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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).
We calculate a mean rating of all responses to indicate whether this is high, medium or low compared to the same subject area at other universities.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
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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