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Human, Social, and Political Sciences

Entry requirements


A level

A*,A,A

Typical A Level offer: A*AA All Colleges require: No specific subjects required by any College Some Colleges require: A Level in at least one essay-based subject

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

40-42

776 at Higher Level All Colleges require: No specific subjects required by any College Some Colleges require: IB Higher Level in at least one essay-based subject

UCAS Tariff

152

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About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Social anthropology

Politics

Sociology

Human, Social, and Political Sciences (HSPS) includes politics and international relations, social anthropology and sociology. You can specialise in one or two of these, but the flexibility of the course also enables exploration of a variety of subjects in the first year. This means it’s suited both to those with specific subject interests, and to those looking for a multidisciplinary degree.

The Uni


Course locations:

Trinity Hall

Christ's

Pembroke

Hughes Hall

St Catharine's

Sidney Sussex

Robinson

Magdalene

Homerton

Wolfson

Clare

Emmanuel

Newnham

Lucy Cavendish

Downing

Selwyn

Queens'

Trinity

St John's

Girton

Gonville & Caius

Jesus

Open application

Murray Edwards

Corpus Christi

Fitzwilliam

St Edmund's

Churchill

Peterhouse

King's

Department:

Interdepartmental

Read full university profile

What students say


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 anthropology

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?

77%
UK students
23%
International students
32%
Male students
68%
Female students
97%
2:1 or above
2%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A*
A*
A*

Politics

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?

83%
UK students
17%
International students
40%
Male students
60%
Female students
97%
2:1 or above
3%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A*
A*
A*

Sociology

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?

77%
UK students
23%
International students
32%
Male students
68%
Female students
97%
2:1 or above
2%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A*
A*
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.

Anthropology

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.

£23,000
high
Average annual salary
90%
low
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

23%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
21%
Business, research and administrative professionals
13%
Natural and social science professionals

This is a pretty flexible degree and a good one if you want to keep your options open. Just over 1,250 graduates completed anthropology degrees last year, and they were well spread out across a whole range of jobs — many industries have jobs that can be done by anthropology graduates and unlike a lot of degrees, there aren't many jobs we can point to and say ‘graduates from this degree do that job’. Management, marketing, housing and recruitment jobs are the most popular, though, and many graduates go into the education or social care sectors. Graduates are also rather more likely than average to work in London, or to go overseas to work. This is quite a popular subject at postgraduate level, and if you want to go into research, you'll need to think about postgrad study - and it's one of the few where numbers are on the up at the moment.

Politics

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.

£23,000
high
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
76%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

23%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
21%
Business, research and administrative professionals
13%
Natural and social science professionals

The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.

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.

£23,000
high
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
76%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

23%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
21%
Business, research and administrative professionals
13%
Natural and social science professionals

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.

Anthropology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£27k

£27k

£34k

£34k

£35k

£35k

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.

Politics

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£27k

£27k

£34k

£34k

£37k

£37k

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.

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.

£27k

£27k

£34k

£34k

£35k

£35k

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Lower entry requirements
University of Lincoln | Lincoln
Politics and Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 112
Nearby University
University of Essex | Colchester
Sociology and Politics
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 128
Higher entry requirements
University of Exeter | Exeter
Politics and Sociology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 136-160

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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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).

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