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Sociology and Politics

BA (Hons)

Undergraduate degree - combined honours

Award
BA (Hons) Sociology and Politics
School/s
School of Sciences, School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Campus or location
Newton Park
Course length
Three years full time, or four years full time with professional placement year. Part time available.
UCAS codes
Institution Code: B20
Course Code: HH28 or HH29
Campus Code: A,BSU

Entry requirements

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed under 'Typical offers' in the main column below. For combined courses, please check both subjects. If your qualification is not listed, please email admissions@bathspa.ac.uk with your specific details.

Fascinated by social issues? Want to help make the world a better place? Our Sociology degree could be for you.

  • In our fast-changing world, Sociology is exciting, relevant and provides essential skills.
  • Learn to tackle problems creatively and make better decisions, applying your knowledge to specific issues.
  • Choose to specialise in specific areas of the subject, such as education and crime.

Do you want to know more about the world we live in? Do you care, and want to make a difference? If so, you’re well-suited to a Sociology degree at Bath Spa.

Sociology is the study of societies, cultures, and groups. We live in complex societies, with laws and informal rules that govern how we interact. Sociology helps you understand more about yourself, others and how society is organised.


Open Days

Get a taste of life at Bath Spa – come to one of our Open Days.

Book your place


What you'll learn

Overview

You’re taught about society, social groups and social organisation. You’ll learn about social problems and social policies.

Learn how to make sense of social change and conflict, and gain a good understanding of social differences, inequalities and social divisions.

Apply your knowledge and skills to specific problems and issues to help you become a good decision-maker.

Course structure

Year one
You’ll be introduced to sociology, and the techniques and philosophies of the social sciences. You'll focus on identities – beginning with thinking about your own identity, and building your knowledge and understanding so that you're more familiar with social divisions, structures, and the influence of culture. You’ll also learn how to visualise the most important components of society.

Year two
The second year builds on the first and teaches you about the history of and key ideas within sociology. You can also specialise in more specific areas of the subject, such as education and crime. You’ll undertake practical training in research skills. This will enable you to complete your final year project, and prepare you for the kind of employment that you’ll typically undertake as a sociology graduate.

Year three
You’ll concentrate on an aspect of sociology that most interests you in your final dissertation, undertaken with the support of a member of staff as a supervisor. You can also focus on more detailed subjects, such as globalisation, environment, ethnicity and gender.

How will I be assessed?

Assessments vary and may include essays, reports, book and article reviews, seen and unseen examinations, portfolios, projects, learning journals, individual and group work, videos and screencasts, and research projects.

How will I be taught?

You’ll be taught in lectures, seminars, individual and group tutorials, and through our extensive online learning support environment.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Course modules

This course offers or includes the following modules. The modules you take will depend on your pathway or course combination (if applicable) as well as any optional or open modules chosen. Please check the programme document for more information.

Year one (Level 4) modules
  • Questioning Society
  • Introduction to Social Science Research
  • Power/Resistance
  • Crime: Representation and Reality
  • Sociology of Deviance and Social Control
  • Cities and Environment
Year two (Level 5) modules
  • Sociological Debates
  • Social Science Research Methods
  • Migration: Identity, Belonging, Citizenship and Security
  • The Life Course: Ageing and Generation
  • Crime, Law and Society
  • Sociology of Education
  • Climate and Society
  • Health: Mind, Body, Society
  • Social Problems, Social Divisions, Social Justice
  • Work Placement
  • Exploring Violence
  • Professional Placement Year
Year three (Level 6) modules
  • Dissertation in Sociology
  • Punishment and Penology in Global Context
  • Gender in Society: Critical Perspectives
  • Culture, Risk and Environmental Justice
  • Community Engagement
  • Sociological Fieldwork: Society, Culture and Enviroment
  • Ethnicity and Society
  • Media, Sociality and Everyday Life
  • Critical Approaches to World Politics

“Sociology helps me piece things together and see the world how it really is. The campus at Bath Spa is beautiful! It’s a really peaceful place to think and the lecturers are passionate about what they teach.”

Kirsty Taylor, Sociology student

Opportunities

Study abroad

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

Fieldwork

We run optional visits to places such as criminal justice institutions and religious places of worship. You can take a dedicated fieldwork module.

Work placements, industry links and internships

We provide support in obtaining placements and making links with professionals, and we invite our Sociology graduates back to meet with you. Optional modules have links with professionals and visiting speakers built into the teaching and learning. This means you’ll learn about the real-world application of what you're learning and be able to make more informed decisions about your future career.

Careers

A Sociology degree is useful for any career that involves working with people, either in the private, public or third sectors, typically:

  • Management or administration in the public or private sector
  • Human resource management
  • Marketing and public relations
  • Media or journalism
  • Social work
  • Youth and community work
  • Health education or nursing
  • Law
  • Policing
  • Offender management and interventions
  • Work in the voluntary sector and fundraising
  • Social research and analytics.

Employers such as the National Osteoporosis Society, the Ministry of Defence, Wiltshire Council and Truro College have recruited graduates from this course. Students have also gone into roles including Assistant Education Officer, Student Services Assistant and Relocation Advisor.

Global Citizenship

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Certificate in Global Citizenship, which you’ll study alongside your degree.

You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience, and funding is available. On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

Professional placement year

Overview

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Preparation

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

How will I be assessed?

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

Facilities and resources

Resources

All modules can be found on our Virtual Learning Environment, Ultra, providing unlimited online access to learning materials such as handbooks, lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards and other resources.

Our library gives you access to books, academic journals and DVDs and an extensive range of electronic services. It also provides a place for individual study and collaborative work.

Fees

2024 entry
Student Annual tuition fee
UK full time £9,250
UK part time £4,625
International full time £15,750

Professional Placement Year

During the placement year, the fee is reduced to 20% of the full time fee. This applies to UK and EU/International students.

  • UK: £1,850
  • International: £3,150

Interested in applying?

What we look for in potential students

We're looking for applicants who are concerned about social issues and social problems – maybe you’ve been part of a project group and taken a lead or tried to make a difference. You'll have a sense of social justice and fairness, and you'll be able to see things from different points of view.

Typical offers

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed below:

  • A Level - grades BBB-BCC preferred.
  • BTEC – Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) accepted in any subject.
  • T Levels – grade Merit preferred.
  • International Baccalaureate - a minimum of 32 points are required.
  • Access to HE courses – typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, at Merit or higher).

If you don’t meet the entry requirements above, we may be able to accept your prior learning or experience from outside of formal education. See our Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) page to learn more.

English Language Requirements for International and EU Applicants

IELTS 6.0 - for visa nationals, with a minimum score of IELTS 5.5 in each element.

Course enquiries

For further information about the programme or entry requirements, please email us at admissions@bathspa.ac.uk.

How do I apply?

Ready to apply? Click the 'apply now' button in the centre of this page.

Need more guidance? Head to our how to apply pages.

Get ahead

We recommend the following publications:

Course leader: Dr Scott Kerpen
Email: s.kerpen@bathspa.ac.uk

If not now, then when?

  • Combine professional skills and opportunities with subject knowledge in an innovative Politics degree.
  • Develop practical and professional skills. Apply both to contemporary challenges, issues and debates.
  • Explore the next stage in your career. Our graduates have gone on to work with leading employers.

Our innovative Politics degree has been designed to enable you to acquire specialised subject knowledge while developing practical and professional skills that you can apply to contemporary challenges, issues and debates.

What do people really mean when they say they’re not 'interested in politics'?

Political action or inaction shapes our lives every day, in ways which are often invisible, or which seem remote or impenetrable. We know that it matters, but we can also feel removed from it: the vast sums of money spent on elections and then nothing seems to change, the narrowness of so much debate and the pointlessness of point scoring, getting power in order to keep it.

We want to try to get under the surface of all these assumptions and ask if it really has to be this way. We want to try to understand the politics of everyday life, as well as the major challenges of climate change, poverty and inequality, the imbalances of wealth and power nationally and internationally, and between elected governments and unelected corporations. Who decides: the local councillor, the member of parliament, or the chairman of the board?

Develop practical and professional skills

Our course draws on a wider range of disciplines, and places the study of politics in historical, cultural and philosophical contexts. You’ll work collaboratively with students in other subjects in your first two years, in order to deepen your understanding and to sharpen your analysis of political ideas, processes and structures.

Explore the next stage in your career

You’ll be able to develop the skills you’ll need in the next stage in your career: how to plan a project, how to measure and evaluate outcomes, how to communicate effectively with different audiences, for different purposes. 


Open Days

Get a taste of life at Bath Spa – come to one of our Open Days.

Book your place


What you'll learn

Overview

Our Politics course takes a creative and collaborative approach to global political issues. Our Politics modules have been carefully designed to encourage you to look across the boundaries between different disciplines.

You'll focus on contemporary change, movements and action. You’ll also explore the historical and philosophical contexts in which political ideas develop, and investigate the social, environmental and cultural impacts of these.

Our perspectives are local and global, and our approach is applied. Understand how the world works, and then take your place in it. You may not become ‘A Politician’ but work in education, the third sector, financial services, health or social care has a political dimension, and demands the skills you’ll develop through your degree.

Course structure

Year one
Introductions and foundations: develop your skills in political thinking, and follow a broad curriculum which allows you to ask questions, challenge your own assumptions, interrogate evidence, data and opinions.

Year two
Practical, applied, relevant: this year combines the academic study of Politics with the acquisition of professional skills and the application of your knowledge and understanding to a defined problem or idea.

Year three
Achievement, consolidation, creativity: your final project in the third year brings all this together. You’ll identify your own area of study, develop your proposal and put it into practice. This might be an extended piece of academic writing, but it might also be a pitch to a local employer, a community project or the creation of digital resources.

How will I be assessed?

We use a mix of traditional and contemporary assessments, including essays, group and individual presentations, online reports, surveys, projects, practical tasks and exams. You’ll also learn to communicate key messages visually, as well as in words.

How will I be taught?

You’ll participate in a variety of activities including lectures, seminars, workshops, practical sessions, masterclasses and field trips.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Course modules

This course offers or includes the following modules. The modules you take will depend on your pathway or course combination (if applicable) as well as any optional or open modules chosen. Please check the programme document for more information.

Year one (Level 4) modules
  • Introduction to the Study of Politics
  • Protest and Persuasion
  • Worlds of Ideas
  • Thinking Together: Humanities in the 21st Century
Year two (Level 5) modules
  • The Art of the Possible: Political Analysis and Policy Making
  • The Art of Persuasion: Advocacy for Change
  • British Politics
  • Political Ideologies: Thinking in Action
  • Political Institutions and Social Change
  • Digital Humanities
  • Diaspora, Migration and Race
  • Working Together
  • Transformative Communities
  • Professional Placement Year
Year three (Level 6) modules
  • Politics Project
  • Utopia and Dystopia
  • Conservation Politics in Africa
  • Critical Approaches to World Politics
  • The Cold War on the Periphery
  • Environmental Politics
  • Identities and Inequalities
  • Propaganda, Censorship and Intelligence
  • Conflict and Community – The Politics of Heritage
  • Political Journalism
  • Gender in Society – Critical Perspectives

Professional placement year

Overview

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Preparation

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

How will I be assessed?

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

Facilities and resources

Resources

All modules can be found on our Virtual Learning Environment, Ultra, providing unlimited online access to learning materials such as handbooks, lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards and other resources.

Our library gives you access to books, academic journals and DVDs and an extensive range of electronic services. It also provides a place for individual study and collaborative work.

Fees

2024 entry
Student Annual tuition fee
UK full time £9,250
UK part time £4,625
International full time £15,750

Professional Placement Year

During the placement year, the fee is reduced to 20% of the full time fee. This applies to UK and EU/International students.

  • UK: £1,850
  • International: £3,150

Interested in applying?

What we look for in potential students

We're looking for imaginative, critical and independent people who want to understand the world in order to change it.

You'll be inventive, thoughtful and aware of fresh narratives. You'll also be connected, socially engaged, and keen to challenge the status quo.

Digitally literate, you'll question your sources, and contest received opinion.

Typical offers

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed below:

  • A Level – grades BBB-BCC preferred.
  • BTEC – Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) accepted in any subject.
  • T Levels – grade Merit preferred.
  • International Baccalaureate – a minimum of 32 points are required.
  • Access to HE courses – typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, at Merit or higher).

If you don’t meet the entry requirements above, we may be able to accept your prior learning or experience from outside of formal education. See our Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) page to learn more.

English Language Requirements for International and EU Applicants

  • IELTS 6.0 – for visa nationals, with a minimum score of IELTS 5.5 in each element.
How do I apply?

Ready to apply? Click the 'apply now' button in the centre of this page. Need more guidance? Head to our how to apply pages.

International applications

If you’re an international student or based overseas, web-based interviews may be offered. Please contact International Admissions for more information: internationaladmissions@bathspa.ac.uk.

International students should visit our international pages for more information about our entry requirements, fees and scholarships, and student support.

Get ahead

Keep up with the news, but always with healthy scepticism. Never take a story at face value. Read widely and critically around issues that concern you.

Find out more about the people and organisations making changes in the world – changes you want to see, and those you don’t!

Programme Leader: Dr Alison Hems
Email: a.hems@bathspa.ac.uk

Website feedback to web@bathspa.ac.uk