Social Sciences with Foundation Year

Foundation Year
Our Foundation Year provides an excellent alternative route to Keele, providing a unique opportunity to better prepare for your chosen degree, and with guaranteed entry onto your undergraduate course once you successfully complete your Foundation Year. This extra year of study can improve your academic skills, expand your subject knowledge, give you a better understanding of higher education and, perhaps most importantly of all, build your confidence. On the Keele Foundation Year, you'll study on campus, joining our undergraduate community from the outset, with access to all the facilities and support that you'd get as an undergraduate student at Keele.

International Students
For International Students, Foundation Years are delivered through our dedicated on-campus provider, Keele University International College. Applications for International Foundation Years are also handled by KUIC; please do not apply via UCAS as the University will not be able to process your application and you may still be charged the UCAS application fee. To find out more and to apply for an International Foundation Year, visit https://kuic.keele.ac.uk/

Social Sciences BSc
Embark on an exciting journey to critically explore the structures, institutions, and forces shaping contemporary society with a Social Sciences BSc at Keele. Engage with key debates on power, inequality and governance, developing critical skills to navigate complex social, political and ethical challenges. Our programme will equip you to apply social science to real-word issues such as crime, climate justice and political decision making, preparing you for a wide range of careers in education, government and beyond.

Why choose this course?

• Global Top 300 for Social Sciences (Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings, 2022)

• Benefit from an interdisciplinary degree, bringing together elements of criminology, politics and sociology

• Opportunity to gain hands-on experience in UK Parliamentary Studies in Year 3

• A chance to broaden your horizons and study abroad at a partner university

• Option to take a work placement year, preparing you for employment after university

Examine social issues and learn to understand our society better through our interdisciplinary Social Sciences degree, exploring areas of criminology, politics and sociology. Investigate how social change is driven by policy, activism, and global interconnections, and explore how digital transformations and emerging technologies influence justice, democracy, and everyday life. You will gain an understanding of contemporary social issues and build research skills to evaluate theories and concepts.

Our programme introduces you to core theories, case studies, and methodological approaches, equipping you with the foundational knowledge to critically engage with social issues. This is further enhanced by focusing on advanced research methods, including digital data analysis and policy evaluation, while also expanding your understanding of social change in a global context.

About Keele
Keele University was established in 1949 by the former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Founded to meet the needs of a changing world, Keele has always had a pioneering vision to be a different kind of university.

We excel in both teaching and research, with some of the most satisfied students in England, and research that is changing lives for the better at a regional, national and global level.

Our beautiful 600-acre campus is one of the biggest in Britain – but all the most important services and facilities are on your doorstep, with accommodation, teaching spaces, facilities including a medical centre, sports centre and pharmacy, and a range of shops, eateries and entertainment venues – including the Students’ Union – clustered around the centre.

For a list of indicative modules please visit the course page on the Keele University website.