Sociology and Social Policy with a Year in Industry

Our Sociology and Social Policy degree explores how societies work and how their futures can be shaped. From the local to the global, the personal to the structural, it examines key current challenges, critical debates, and real-life solutions.

You will explore the key factors that shape our everyday experience of social life, as well as how society identifies needs, promotes wellbeing and allocates resources. You will examine major issues such as social justice, inequality, health, education and social movements, always connecting them to today’s trends and tomorrow’s possibilities.

Our flexible degree structure with a wide range of specialist modules gives you the scope to tailor your course to your particular interests, career ambitions, or plans for further study.

To enrich your learning, we offer a wide range of activities such as field trips to places of social and political interest, including the Senedd, Big Pit, the Swansea Copperjack Boat, South Wales Police HQ and Swansea Prison. We also regularly welcome guest speakers to share their specialist knowledge in workshops and seminars, giving you the chance to hear directly from professionals across the sector.

You will have the opportunity to undertake either a Year Abroad or a Year in Industry, allowing you to choose the pathway that best suits your interests and future ambitions. The Year in Industry can be spent in the UK or overseas, enabling you to gain valuable workplace experience. The University advocates for paid-only placements, which on average have a salary of over £20,000. Unpaid placements are considered on a case-by-case basis.

In Year 1, you will typically study areas including: Introducing Social Policy; Individuals and Society; Sociology: The Classics; Economics, Politics and Society; The History of Social Policy; and Sociology: Contemporary Controversies.

In Year 2, you will typically study areas including: Social Problems I; Using Evidence for Research, Policy and Practice; Health Policy; Investigating Gender; Devolution, Policy Making and Social Change; Poverty and Social Justice; and Education, Policy and Society.

The third year of this 4-year course with a Year in Industry will be spent on placement. You will have the opportunity to gain real-world industry experience and develop your employability skill set. We have a strong network of industry contacts, and you will receive dedicated support from our employability team, ranging from CV advice through to mock interviews.

In Year 4, you will typically study areas including Principles of Social Policy; The Family and Children: Ethics and Policy; Society, Science and Technology; Risk in Modern Society; Understanding the sex industry: Theory, policy and practice; Understanding the sex industry: Theory, policy and practice; Illegal Economies; Probation and Community Justice: Policy, Practice and Partnerships; Bodies in Society; and Race and Nation. You will also undertake a dissertation.

We are proud to provide an outstanding educational experience, using the most effective learning and teaching approaches, carefully tailored to suit the specific needs of your course. Apart from a small number of online-only courses, most of our courses consist of in-person, on-campus teaching, enabling full engagement with your lecturers and fellow students. Practical skills sessions, lab work seminars, and workshops predominantly take place in person, allowing for group working and demonstrations. We also operate virtual labs and Simulated Learning Environments which will facilitate greater access to training opportunities in the future. However, our approach also includes the use of some online learning to support and enhance traditional face-to-face teaching. Online learning may take place ‘live’ using software such as Zoom, allowing you to interact with the lecturer and other students and to ask questions. Lecture recordings also allow for more flexibility to revisit material, to revise for assessments and to enhance learning outside of the classroom. Some modules have extra resources in Canvas, such as videos, slides and quizzes enabling further flexible study. This course may offer some modules taught through the medium of Welsh or bilingually for students who consider themselves to be fluent Welsh speakers. For more details on the provision available see the Welsh Provision expander below.