Social Policy and Sociology

Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Kent offers a comprehensive multidisciplinary programme designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of social issues, policies, and societal structures. This degree explores the complex interactions between individuals, communities, and institutions, equipping students with the analytical skills necessary to critically evaluate social policies and their impact on different groups within society. The programme covers key areas such as social inequality, welfare systems, social justice, and community development, blending theoretical knowledge with practical application through research projects and internships. Students will examine contemporary social challenges, including poverty, discrimination, and migration, while gaining insights into governmental and non-governmental responses to these issues. Taught by expert staff with extensive research backgrounds, the course encourages critical thinking and active engagement with real-world societal problems. The curriculum includes core modules in sociology, alongside specialized modules in social policy, ensuring a well-rounded education that prepares graduates for careers in public sector organizations, non-profits, advocacy groups, and further academic study. The programme fosters transferable skills such as qualitative and quantitative research methods, policy analysis, and effective communication. Opportunities for fieldwork and placement are integrated into the course, allowing students to gain practical experience and professional networks. Graduates of the programme are well-equipped to pursue roles in policy analysis, community development, social research, and consultancy, contributing meaningfully to societal betterment and social justice initiatives. With a vibrant academic environment and strong links to local and national social organizations, the University of Kent’s Social Policy and Sociology degree offers a dynamic learning experience that prepares students for diverse and impactful careers in the social sector.

Detailed Course Facts

Application deadline January 15 Tuition fee

• GBP 9000 Year (EEA)
• GBP 12450 Year (Non-EEA)

Start date September 2015 Credits (ECTS) 180 ECTS
Credits Total Kent credits: 360
Duration full-time 36 months Partnership Joint Languages Take an IELTS test

• English

Delivery mode On Campus Educational variant Part-time, Full-time Intensity Flexible More information Go To The Course Website

Course Content

The course structure below gives a flavour of the modules that will be available to you and provides details of the content of this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation. Most programmes will require you to study a combination of compulsory and optional modules, you may also have the option to take ‘wild’ modules from other programmes offered by the University in order that you may customise your programme and explore other subject areas of interest to you or that may further enhance your employability.

Stage 1

Possible modules may include:

EN333 - Romanticism

HI426 - Making History: Theory and Practice

EN302 - Early Drama

EN331 - Readings in the Twentieth Century

EN332 - Writing America

HI430 - Modern British History (Part Two)

HI431 - The English Renaissance: Society, Politics and Culture 1400-1600

HI433 - Early Modern History: The Age of Enlightenment c. 1600-1750

HI436 - A Global History of Empires: 1850-1960

HI353 - Britain and the Second World War: The Home Front

HI359 - Empire and Africa

HI366 - Britain in the Age of Industrialisation 1700-1830

HI385 - Introduction to the History of Medicine

HI391 - The Rise of the United States Since 1880

HI397 - Cinema and Society, 1930 - 1960

HI411 - Later Medieval Europe

HI419 - England in the Age of Chivalry: c1200-1400

HI425 - Revolutionary Europe 1700-1850

Stage 2

Possible modules may include:

EN681 - Novelty, Enlightenment and Emancipation: 18th Century Literature

EN692 - Early Modern Literature 1500-1700

EN694 - Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama

EN697 - Chaucer and Late Medieval English Literature

EN695 - Empire, New Nations and Migration

EN677 - The Contemporary

EN689 - Modernism

EN672 - Reading Victorian Literature

EN675 - Declaring Independence: 19th Century US Literature

HI5031 - African History since 1800

HI5035 - History of Modern Medicine and Medical Ethics,1800-2000

HI5041 - Gothic Art: Image and Imagination in Europe, c.1140-1500

HI5055 - Russia: 1855-1945 Reform, Revolution and War

HI5065 - British History c. 1480-1620

HI5013 - Popular Religion and Heresy, 1100-1300

HI5023 - The American Civil War Era 1848-1877

HI5075 - Marvels, Monsters and Freaks 1780-1920

HI5092 - Armies at War 1914-1918

HI566 - History Dissertation

HI6002 - The British Army and Empire c1750-1920

HI6009 - Europe and the Islamic World, c 1450-1750

HI5094 - Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies: The British and French Experienc

HI6018 - Victorian Science

HI6025 - Everyday Life in Early Modern Europe

HI6032 - Persecution, Repression and Resistance

HI6034 - Anglo-French Relations 1904 - 1945

HI6036 - Science Satirised

HI6042 - The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset

HI613 - Conflict in Seventeenth Century Britain

HI632 - The Tools of Empire 1760-1920

HI707 - Britain and The Falklands War

HI742 - The Cold War, 1941-1991

HI6047 - Communist Eastern Europe, 1945-89

HI763 - How the West was Won (or lost): The American West in the Nineteenth Cen

HI783 - Anglo-Saxon England

HI789 - The Art of Death

HI795 - Inviting Doomsday: US Environmental

You have the opportunity to select wild modules in this stage

Stage 3

Possible modules may include:

EN676 - Cross-Cultural Coming-of-Age Narratives

EN684 - Clouds, Waves & Crows: Writing the Natural, 1800 to the Present

EN687 - Poetry and Crisis, from the First World War to Occupy

EN580 - Charles Dickens and Victorian England

EN583 - Postcolonial Writing

EN586 - Language and Place in Colonial and Postcolonial Poetry

EN588 - Innovation and Experiment in New York, 1945- 1995

EN604 - The Unknown: Reading and Writing

EN623 - Native American Literature

EN633 - Bodies of Evidence: Reading The Body In Eighteenth Century Literature

EN637 - Unruly Women and Other Insubordinates: the dramatic repertoire of the Q

EN646 - Image, Vision and Dream: Medieval Texts and Visual Culture

EN655 - Places and Journeys

EN656 - Heroes and Exiles: An Introduction to Old English Poetry

EN657 - The Brontes in Context

EN658 - American Crime Fiction

EN659 - Contemporary Irish Writing

EN660 - Writing Lives in Early Modern England: Diaries, Letters and Secret Selv

EN661 - The Stranger

EN666 - From Book to Blog: Geoffrey Chaucer and his Afterlives

EN667 - Harlem to Hogan's Alley: Black Writing in North America

EN668 - Discovery Space: New Theatres in Early Modern England

EN669 - Marriage, Desire and Divorce in Early Modern Literature

EN670 - Lyric, Ballad and Popular Song

EN701 - The Global Eighteenth Century

EN702 - Thomas Hardy

EN703 - The 'Real' America: Class and Culture in the American Gilded Age

EN704 - Discord and Devotion: Society & Spirituality in Middle English Literatu

EN705 - The Contemporary Memoir

EN707 - The British Novel in the 1860s: Sensing Modern Life

EN708 - Virginia Woolf

EN709 - Animals, Humans, Writing

EN710 - Victorian Aestheticism and Decadence

HI796 - Inviting Doomsday: US Environmental

HI770 - From Blitzkrieg to Baghdad: Armoured Warfare in Theory, Practise and Im

HI6049 - The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the Atlantic World, c. 1500 - 1900

HI605 - Independent Documentary Study in History

HI747 - The Cold War, 1941 - 1991

HI6044 - British Politics 1625-1642

HI6045 - Origins of the Second World War

HI6046 - Wolves, Walruses and the Wild

HI6037 - Science Satirised

HI6039 - The Rights Revolution: The 20th Century US Supreme Court & Society

HI6040 - The Discovery of the World c.1450 - 1800

HI6041 - The Crusades in the Thirteenth Century

HI6035 - Anglo-French Relations 1904 - 1945

HI6029 - The Great War: British Memory, History and Culture

HI6030 - Empires of Religion

HI6021 - Famine in Pre-Industrial Societies

HI6024 - Napoleon and Europe, 1799 - 1815

HI5095 - Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies: The British and French Experienc

HI5099 - The Wars of the Roses

HI6012 - From Crisis to Revolution: France 1774-1799

HI6014 - Riders on the Storm

HI6016 - The English Reformation and the Invention of the Middle Ages

HI5093 - Armies at War 1914-1918

HI5024 - The American Civil War Era 1848-1877

HI5068 - War and Modern Medicine 1850-1950

HI5072 - The American Revolution

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 6.5

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

take an IELTS test.

Requirements

The University will consider applications from students offering a wide range of qualifications, typical requirements are listed below, students offering alternative qualifications should contact the Admissions Office for further advice. It is not possible to offer places to all students who meet this typical offer/minimum requirement.

Qualification Typical offer/minimum requirement

• A level: ABB including English Literature or English Language and Literature grade B, and History grade B excluding General Studies and Critical Thinking

• Access to HE Diploma: The University of Kent will not necessarily make conditional offers to all access candidates but will continue to assess them on an individual basis. If an offer is made candidates will be required to obtain/pass the overall Access to Higher Education Diploma and may also be required to obtain a proportion of the total level 3 credits and/or credits in particular subjects at merit grade or above.

• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma (formerly BTEC National Diploma): The university will consider applicants holding BTEC National Diploma and Extended National Diploma Qualifications (QCF; NQF;OCR) on a case by case basis please contact us via the enquiries tab for further advice on your individual circumstances.

• International Baccalaureate: 34 points overall or 16 points at HL including History 5 at HL or 6 at SL, IB HL English A1/A2/B at 5/6/6 OR English Literature A/English Language and Literature A (or Literature A/Language and Literature A of another country) 5 at HL or 6 at SL

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 University of Kent.

Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Kent offers a comprehensive exploration of societal issues, public policies, and social behaviors. This programme is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of the social forces shaping contemporary society, alongside practical skills for analysis, research, and policy development. Students will engage with a broad range of topics, including social justice, inequality, welfare systems, community development, and the impact of social policies on various populations. The curriculum combines theoretical perspectives with empirical research methods, equipping graduates to critically assess social problems and contribute to policy solutions.

The programme typically covers core modules in social theory, dynamics of social change, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and global social issues. Students also have opportunities to specialize through optional modules, which may include topics such as migration, health inequalities, youth studies, and sociology of education. Placement opportunities and internships are often embedded into the course structure, allowing students to gain real-world experience and enhance their employability in fields like government, non-profits, research institutes, and international organizations.

Teaching approaches include lectures, seminars, workshops, and independent research projects. The university emphasizes research-led learning, enabling students to engage with current debates and contribute to ongoing research initiatives conducted by staff. Assessment methods consist of essays, presentations, research projects, and exams, fostering a variety of skills, from critical thinking to academic writing.

The programme also encourages students to develop digital literacy, intercultural understanding, and ethical awareness, preparing them for diverse careers. Graduates of Social Policy and Sociology from the University of Kent often pursue careers in social research, policy analysis, community development, advocacy, and further academic study. The degree typically spans three years for full-time students and may include optional placement years or study-abroad opportunities, depending on the specific pathway chosen.

Facilities at the university support student learning, including well-equipped computer labs, libraries, and dedicated social science research centers. The University's campus provides an inclusive and diverse environment, fostering teamwork, independent learning, and critical engagement with social issues. Overall, the programme aims to produce socially conscious graduates equipped with the analytical skills necessary to influence positive societal change and address complex social challenges.