BA (Hons) Sociology (With Foundation Year)

BA (Hons) Sociology degree will develop your digital sociological imagination and the critical and professional skills that lead on to a wide range of careers such as teaching, social research, journalism, social work, human resources, social policy, and NGO management. Your first two years on the degree will prepare you to conduct your own research project on a subject of your own choice supervised by one of your lecturers and you will also gain valuable work experience by doing a work placement in your final year.

Foundation Year (If Required)

• Knowledge, Skills, Practice and the Self: Professional Life: Mental Wealth
• Exploring Communities as Social Scientists.
• Researching Changing Communities
• Reimagining the Work of a Social Scientist
• Crime, Justice, and Surveillance
• Reading the Body
• Psychosocially
• Introduction to Digital Sociology
• Globalisation & Society

Year 1

• Mental Wealth 1: Knowledge, Skills, Practice and the Self (core)
• Constructions of Identity (core)
• Social Theory 1: Sociological Arguments (core)
• The Mess We Are In (And How We Got Here) (core)
• Digital Sociology and the 4th Industrial Revolution (core)
• Issues in Contemporary Society (core)

Year 2

• Mental Wealth 2: Social Entrepreneurship (core)
• Research Methods (core)
• Social Theory 2 (core)
• Space, Bodies & Power (core)
• The Sociology of the City (option)
• Understanding Social Change (option)
• Intersectionality and Digital Culture (option)
• Generations Age and Meaning (option)

This course offers the opportunity for year-long placement between years two and three. If you choose to take this option, you’ll spend your third year on a placement with a relevant company or organization, adding valuable practical experience to your growing academic knowledge. The extra placement year means it will take four years to complete your studies, instead of three.

Year 3

• Applied Project (core)
• Mental Wealth: NGO Placement Reflections (core)
• Constructions of ‘Race’ in Culture and Politics (option)
• Life Histories (option)
• Bordering and Governance (option)
• Surveillance and Society? (option)
• Gender Studies (option)
• Culture, Media and Politics (option)

Employability

All of our sociology courses at UEL are about working with people. A sociology degree will prepare you for a wide variety of jobs. Increased focus on people, relationships, and communication skills mean that our students have gone into fields as diverse as teaching, human resources, the police, and journalism. For the last few years, we have collaborated with the Government in Social Research who is concerned to increase the diversity of social researchers within the civil service. This has involved students being advised through talks and workshop exercises how to apply for placements and fast-track entry into the civil service. Many large retail firms such as Laura Ashley, Tesco, and Marks & Spencer now view sociology graduates as ideal candidates to step straight on to their management training schemes. You will graduate very knowledgeable about current affairs, have good communication and data analysis skills. You will be able to work well in a multi-cultural environment, which is what employers want, too.