Social Policy with professional placement
University of Bath
UCAS Code: U101 | Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Typical offer: AAB in three A levels. Contextual offer: ABB in three A levels. Alternative offer: ABB in three A levels plus additional study - please see the course pages on our website.
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.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Typical offer: 35 points overall and 6, 6, 5 in three Higher Level subjects. Contextual offer: 35 points overall and 6, 5, 5 in three Higher Level subjects.
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
D*DD in the Cambridge Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma. We prefer the above qualifications to be in a relevant subject area and we prefer you to have taken optional units in Sociology and Public Health.
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, Uniformed Protective Services, Travel and Tourism and other less relevant disciplines.
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.
Scottish Higher
AB in Advanced Highers 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 social justice and welfare issues to understand the key questions and challenges society faces around rights, equality and distribution of resources.
On this course, you’ll learn about the social and political foundations of policies that affect people’s lives. You’ll study the impact social policy has on identity, political organisations, social justice and human rights.
You'll explore the origins and evolution of state-run institutions, and their relationship with the economy and third sector in the UK and beyond. This will increase your understanding of contemporary social welfare issues at local, national and international levels.
Year 1 is your introduction to becoming a social scientist. You’ll explore social change and how social issues become constructed as policy problems. You’ll also learn about the major social, political and economic factors shaping equality and welfare in modern Britain.
In Year 2, you will focus on key policy areas such as the family, poverty, social inequality, and analysis of the policy process. You’ll learn how to evaluate data and information to develop your own arguments for different audiences. You'll also choose from a range of social science optional units.
In your final year, you will do your dissertation, and study the relationship between social research, policy making and governance. You'll also choose from a range of optional units from across the social sciences. These will allow you to build upon the theoretical understanding you’ll gain during Years 1 and 2 and apply it to contemporary sociological issues.
The flexibility of this course will allow you to create a degree that’s tailored to your interests and potential future career.
Informed teaching to advance your learning
You’ll learn from teaching staff with diverse backgrounds and expertise in social policy. Their passion, knowledge and research shape their teaching to give you the foundation to become a critical-minded social scientist.
Develop your professional skills
We work to provide you with the skills and support to prepare you for employment and further study. These include:
data analysis
using a range of methods to produce data
communication and presentation skills.
Prepare for your future career
Many of our social sciences graduates have gone on to work as social and policy researchers, civil servants, international consultants, journalists, and accountants.
They've gone on to work in:
government departments
social enterprises and charities
European and international agencies and organisations
Social care and family services
international development
public policy consultancy
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
University of Bath
Social and Policy Sciences
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.
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.
Social policy
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.
Social policy
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
Just over 1,600 students graduated in social policy in 2015, which makes it one of the smaller social studies subjects. This is a popular subject at Masters level — 750 Masters in social policy were awarded last year - and so a lot of the more sought-after jobs in management and research tend to go to social policy graduates with postgraduate degrees. For those who leave university after their first degree, then jobs in social care (especially community and youth work) and education, the police, marketing and human resources and recruitment are popular — along with local government, although there are fewer of those jobs around than in the past. This degree is a bit less reliant on London for jobs than other similar subjects, so if you'd like to work outside the capital, it might be worth considering - although the jobs still tend to be in big cities.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Social policy
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£23k
£32k
£32k
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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Higher entry requirements
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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).
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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