Sociology (including Year Abroad)

Description

Our BA Sociology (including Year Abroad) is an excellent course allowing you to develop strong social science skills. You study sociology, which looks at the different kinds of social tensions, interactions and networks that make up everyday life, asking why individuals, groups, cultures and peoples are the way they are and how they might be different. You spend your third year abroad.

Sociology combines two key ways of thinking about social life. First, it poses broad theoretical questions about the world. What holds societies together? Do people pull together because they have to or because they want to? What motivates so many people to migrate from their own societies to others? Second, it provides practical means of investigating and answering those questions. Sociologists are skilled at interviewing, conducting focus groups, designing surveys, observing organisations, evaluating data and handling basic statistics. These different research methods allow sociologists to work across many fields, from media industries, consumer research, gender relations, globalisation and psychosocial dynamics to social policy, crime, education, health and inequality.

First year students take Sociology and the Modern World, which explores how social scientists have theorised major social changes and Researching Social Life, which introduces different research methods. There are a range of optional modules available.

We teach through large-group lectures and smaller-group seminars and classes. You contribute in many ways, for example, by analysing set readings, giving presentations or completing research tasks. Some modules have their own websites where you can download powerpoints and podcasts, and contribute to online discussions.

Detailed Course Facts

• GBP 9000 Year (EEA)
• GBP 11950 Year (Non-EEA)

• English

Course Content

The special characteristics of our courses are flexibility and choice. In your first year, you usually take four or five modules that include pre-requisite(s) for your course but, in many cases, mean you can try subjects you have not come across before. If you are taking a humanities or social science, then you have the greatest choice, as most of our first-year modules do not assume any specialist knowledge.
With a small number of exceptions, if you successfully complete the first year of your BA, then you are qualified to enter the second year of that course and a range of other courses: for example, if you take economics, politics, philosophy and sociology, then you have a choice of at least nine possible single or joint honours courses at the end of your first year. This means you can change your course, providing you have taken the appropriate pre-requisites and places are available. We offer a range of optional modules in your second- and final-years and most courses allow you to undertake a final-year project, an individual piece of research on a topic that interests you.
We operate a credit framework for our awards, which is based on principles widely used across the UK university sector. Each module has a credit rating attached and our standard three-year course consists of 360 credits (120 credits in your first year, and 240 credits across your second and final years).
Please note that module information on our course finder provides a guide to course content and may be subject to review on an annual basis.

Year 1

Sociology and the Modern World;
Researching Social Life 1; and
two social science options from sociology, politics, economics, psychology, health and human sciences or language and linguistics

Year 2

Continuity and Controversy in Sociology;
Researching Social Life 2; and
two sociology options

Year 3

Year abroad

Year 4

Sociology Project;
Current Disputes in Sociology; and
two options, of which one may be an outside option

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 6

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

Requirements

• A-levels: ABB-BBB
• GCSE English: C
• IB: 32-30 points (we consider IB certificates at the Higher Level on a case-by-case basis).
• BTEC qualifications, in relevant disciplines, will be considered on an individual basis, depending on the units studied. The standard required is generally at Distinction level.
• Achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 6 level three credits at distinction and the remainder at merit (or above) or achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 45 level three credits at merit (or above).

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 Essex.

Funding

For up-to-date information on funding opportunities at Essex, please visit: www.essex.ac.uk/studentfinance.