Sociology

Study mode:On campus Study type:Full-time Languages: English
Local:$ 3.85 k / Year(s) Foreign:$ 16.6 k / Year(s) Deadline: Jan 15, 2025
27 place StudyQA ranking:1730 Duration:36 months

Photos of university / #londonschoolofeconomics

Description

The degree programme has a specific rationale, with progression from a first year which aims to provide a comprehensive foundation in the discipline, through a second year which allows advanced work on theories and methods, together with a focus on specific topics, culminating in a third year which has a focus on in depth coverage of options drawing on current research and an opportunity for every student to conduct sociological research in a chosen field.

Features of LSE courses

As a student of LSE you will be taught by some of the world's leading sociologists, introduced to the classical traditions of the discipline, and brought into direct contact with the most advanced contemporary research and scholarship. LSE aims to be both a guardian of the discipline of sociology, and a leader in the development of the social sciences into new intellectual areas, addressing the social problems and ethical dilemmas that face a globalised post-modern society.

At LSE you will explore specific examples of social action, social processes and institutions; compare different types of social life and societies; examine theories about the nature of social existence and change; study different methods of social research and undertake some research of your own.

LSE Sociology embraces a theoretically and methodologically diverse range of approaches, focusing upon the following key areas:

  • Biomedicine, Bioscience, Biotechnology: the new social, political, legal and ethical challenges facing individuals and society in the era of biotechnology, biomedicine and genomics.
  • Cities and Urbanism: the relationship between social, spatial and physical forms and processes in cities: urban development and urban governance; urban environments, mobility and morphology; social and spatial exclusion; privatised control strategies and urban regeneration; urban economies, including criminal organisations, markets and cultures; crime and violence; transnational urbanism, including cities in global networks.
  • Crime Culture and Control: criminological theory, criminal cultures, organisations and markets, victimology, criminal investigation, the changing nature of crime, alcohol and public disorder, punishment and control, the relationship between privatised control strategies and urban regeneration, gender and social control, the emergence of cross border criminal activity, violence.
  • Economy Culture and Society: the nature of contemporary economic knowledges, including a critical engagement with both economics and economic sociology, the role of economic knowledges in economic life, and the reconstruction of economic categories from within social research. Secondly, transnationalism, development and globalisation, engaged through clear empirical focuses. Also substantive areas that group members in diverse ways, above all: work and employment, risk and regulation, money and value, consumption and market society, creative and cultural industries, technology and economy.
  • Human Rights, Citizenship and Social Justice: dimensions of inequality and injustice, nationally and internationally, gender and sexual divisions, the political implications of emerging 'human rights regimes', issues of human rights in a global context, human rights in transitional justice and post-conflict reconciliation, human rights in the context of biotechnology and bio-ethics, in new forms of legal regulation, and associated with security, war and terror.
  • Politics and Society: the social, economic, institutional and ideological bases of politics, the interaction of states and societies, and comparative and historical approaches. Topics of central interest are political parties and social movements, especially the study of labour movements and the left. The area encompasses the evolution and impact of political ideas, including liberalism, socialism, conservatism, populism and environmentalism, as well as political and economic democracy, ethnic violence and political repression, and fundamental social and political change.
  • Race, Racism and Ethnicity: the social, cultural and governmental aspects of colonial and postcolonial societies. Topics include nationalism, challenges and transformations in geo-politics, governance and citizenship in an era characterized by migration, flight, asylum, multiculture, cultural hybridity, cosmopolitanism and supposed 'civilisational' conflict. Comparative research, especially involving Brazil, South Africa and the United States, is well represented. Currently key themes are the optimum social, cultural and economic conditions for sustainable 'multiculturalism'; the significance of race in colonial government, particularly war, law and states of emergency; the relationship between cultural plurality and security; historical study of connections between race and ethnography; the impacts of synthetic biology and molecularisation on racial discourses and identities; the Bengali diaspora, the comparative study of diasporas; race, youth and identity.

Our teaching is informed by these commitments and by our own active research in these areas.

Detailed Course Facts

Application deadline January 15 Tuition fee
  • EUR 3847 Year (EEA)
  • EUR 16632 Year (Non-EEA)

Home UK/EU £3,375 for the first year. Non-UK/EU £14,592 for the first year.

Start date October 2015 Credits (ECTS) 180 ECTS
Duration full-time 36 months Languages Take an IELTS test
  • English
Delivery mode On Campus Educational variant Full-time

Course Content

First year:

  • Statistical Methods for Social Research
  • Key Concepts in Sociology: An Introduction to Sociological Theory
  • Key Issues in Contemporary Societies: An Introduction to Contemporary Sociology
  • One first year option in sociology or in another department
  • LSE100 (Lent Term only)

Second year:

  • Issues and Methods of Social Research
  • Sociological Analysis
  • One second or third year approved sociology option
  • A further second or third year approved sociology option or an option in another department
  • LSE100 (Michaelmas Term only)

Third year:

  • Sociological Project (10,000 word essay)
  • Two approved second or third year sociology options
  • One second or third year sociology option or one option in another department

First year

There are three compulsory courses. Key Concepts in Sociology will give you an understanding of the major sociological theories, and will introduce you to different approaches to conceptual analysis and development within our discipline. Key Issues in Contemporary Societies will provide an introduction to and overview of the most important current sociological research on contemporary societies in a comparative context. Statistical Methods for Social Research will introduce you to statistical methods and statistical reasoning, the place of statistics in the social sciences, and the nature and purpose of statistical methods.

The other course will be chosen from a selected list of courses offered by other departments at LSE.

Second and third years

There are two core courses in the second year. Issues and Methods of Social Research will teach the key issues and quantitative techniques that you need to grasp in order to design and conduct sociological research. Sociological Analysis provides students with an in-depth introduction to major alternative uses and applications of theory and methodology within sociological analysis. As the course develops, students will be introduced to a range of different conceptual approaches and qualitative methods.

In the third year you complete a Sociological Project which is an essay of about 10,000 words on a subject approved by the Department. This allows you to study a topic of interest to you in depth, usually by carrying out a piece of empirical research of your own. Your remaining courses are chosen from options offered within or outside the Department, most of which are based on current research.

Options

The following options are indicative of the range taught in the Department of Sociology.

(* half unit)

  • Political Sociology: power in liberal-democratic and socialist societies
  • Self, Others and Society: perspectives on social and applied psychology
  • Gender and Society: gender relations and inequality
  • Crime, Deviance and Control: crime and delinquency, mental illness and drug abuse as forms of deviancy
  • Sociology of Health and Medicine: health, illness and the institution of medicine
  • Evolution and Social Behaviour: socio-biology and human society, genes and behaviour
  • Work, Management and Globalisation: contemporary perspectives on employment, labour markets, globalisation
  • Sociology of Race and Ethnicity: dealing with key social divisions in the contemporary world; exploring the theory and history of racial and ethnic studies
  • Societal Psychology: Theory and Applications: applying social psychology to real world situations

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 7 CAE score : 80(Grade A) TOEFL paper-based test score : 627 TOEFL iBT® test : 107

To study at this university, you have to speak English. We advice you to

take an IELTS test. More About IELTS

Requirements

Course requirement: GCSE Mathematics, grade C or above. A level Sociology is not a requirement

Usual standard offer: A level: grades A B BInternational Baccalaureate: Diploma with 37 points including 6 6 6 at Higher level
Other qualifications are considered.

English language requirements

Although it is not necessary to have the required grade in an acceptable English Language qualification when you make your application to LSE, if you are made an offer of a place and English is not your mother tongue, it is likely that you would be asked to obtain an acceptable English Language qualification as a condition of your offer.

The following qualifications are acceptable to LSE:

  • GCSE English Language with a grade B or better.
  • International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) English as a First Language with a grade B or better including the Speaking and Listening coursework component (Edexcel) or grade 2 in the optional speaking test (CIE).
  • International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) academic test with a score of 7.0 in all four components.
  • Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a minimum score of 627 in the paper test including 5.5 in writing and 50 in TSE, or 107 in the internet based test with a minimum of 25 out of 30 in each of the four skills.
  • Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) with grade B or better.
  • Cambridge Advanced Certificate of English (CACE) with a grade A.
  • Cambridge English Language (1119) conducted overseas by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate: B4 or better.
  • O level (1120 Brunei, 1125 Mauritius A, 1127 Singapore) grade B or better.
  • Singapore Integrated Programme (IP) Secondary 4 English Language grade B or better.
  • Pearson Test of English (General) with a distinction at level 5 in both the written and the oral test.

Exceptions

If students offer the IGCSE in English as a First Language or O level (other than those specified above) and have been educated in the medium of English during their five most recent years of study (prior to 1 September 2011), then we will accept the qualification as sufficient evidence of English Language proficiency.

Please note that test scores must be achieved from one sitting of the relevant qualification. We will not accept individual component scores from multiple tests

Work Experience

No work experience is required.

Related Scholarships*

  • Academic Excellence Scholarship

    "The Academic Excellence Scholarship can provide up to a 50 % reduction in tuition per semester. These scholarships will be renewed if the student maintains superior academic performance during each semester of their 3-year Bachelor programme. The scholarship will be directly applied to the student’s tuition fees."

  • Access Bursary

    Bursary for UK students all subjects where the variable tuition fee rate is payable.

  • Alumni Bursary

    Alumni Bursary for UK Undergraduate students

* The scholarships shown on this page are suggestions first and foremost. They could be offered by other organisations than London School of Economics and Political Science.

Funding

Financial support for 2011 entry

The School recognises that the cost of living in London may be higher than in your home town or country. Government support, in the form of loans and grants, is available to UK and some EU students, while LSE provides generous financial support, in the form of bursaries and scholarships to UK, EU and overseas students.

Government support

for students from England

Student loan for maintenance

The student loan for maintenance helps students pay living costs during term times and holidays. The maximum loan available for students studying in London and living away from their parents' home is currently £6,928.

Maintenance grants

The means-tested maintenance grant (currently worth up to £2,906) also helps students with living expenses during their time at university. The amount a student is eligible to receive is assessed by Student Finance England. The grant does not have to be repaid.

Special Support Grant

The special support grant replaces the maintenance grant for some students who during the course of the academic year, meet the conditions for being a 'prescribed person' under the income support or housing benefit regulations. Students who are likely to qualify include:

  • Single parents
  • Other student parents if they have a partner who is also a student
  • Students with certain disabilities

Other students may be eligible for the Special Support Grant. You don't necessarily have to receive or even have applied for Income Support or Housing Benefit.

for students from elsewhere in the UK

Different financial support packages are available for students from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Students from these countries should refer to one of the following websites:

Student Finance Wales

www.studentfinancewales.co.uk

Student Awards Agency Scotland

www.saas.gov.uk

Student Finance Northern Ireland

www.studentfinanceni.co.uk

for EU students

Students from the EU are not usually eligible for UK Government financial support. However, EU nationals (or children of EU nationals) who have lived in the UK or islands for three years before the start of their course (ie, since 1 September 2008 for a course starting on 1 September 2011) may now qualify for a student loan and grants.

for overseas students

Students from outside the EU are not eligible to apply for UK Government funds. However, there is a range of funding available for overseas students from external agencies, bodies or your home government, details of which are available from your home government or nearest British Council office (www.britishcouncil.org/learning), or UKCISA (www.ukcisa.org.uk).

LSE financial support

for UK students

LSE Bursary

The LSE Bursary is available for students from low-income backgrounds (from England and Wales) and is worth up to £7,500 over a three-year programme. The value of the LSE Bursary is linked to students' (or their family's) income levels, which will be assessed when calculating the maintenance grant. The maximum LSE Bursary of £2,500 per year is awarded to those students with the lowest residual income. These Bursaries do not have to be repaid.

LSE Discretionary Bursary

The LSE Discretionary Bursary is available for new LSE students (from the UK and the EU) who face exceptional financial needs, including, for example, caring responsibilities, financial need related to disability or an unavoidable requirement to live at home. The value of the award may vary according to need. These Bursaries do not have to be repaid.

LSE Scholarships

Each year LSE awards a number of scholarships - funded by private or corporate donation - to UK applicants to the School. The number, value, eligibility criteria and type of awards vary from year to year. Awards are made on the basis of financial need and academic merit.

Stelios scholarships

Four Stelios scholarships, currently worth £5,444 per year, are available for UK students applying for business subjects at LSE.

Access to Learning funds

Registered UK students from low-income households can apply directly to LSE for Access to Learning funds. These funds are designed for students who may need extra financial support for their course, and are provided by the Government to assist with living expenses.

for EU students

LSE Discretionary Bursary

The LSE discretionary bursary is available to EU students. For information about this bursary and how to apply, please see the section on LSE financial support for UK students.

LSE scholarships

LSE offers a number of undergraduate scholarships of varying amounts each year to EU students.

Stelios scholarships

Six Stelios scholarships, currently worth £5,444 per year, are available for EU students applying for business subjects at LSE.

for overseas students

LSE undergraduate support scheme

The LSE undergraduate support scheme (USS) is designed to help overseas students who do not have the necessary funds to meet all their costs of study. In 2008, the School disbursed nearly £1 million in entrance awards available to self-financing students of all nationalities. This financial aid is available only for study at LSE. If you are made an offer of admission, we will advise you on how to apply to the USS online. This system is able to provide an immediate indication of an applicant's eligibility for assistance. In the first instance, you will be assessed on the basis of your financial circumstances. Awards are renewable for each year of your course. Applications will be considered between the end of February and the middle of August.

LSE scholarships

The School offers a limited number of undergraduate scholarships of varying amounts each year for overseas students.

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