Sociology and Criminology with Foundation Year

Sociology and criminology together provide an unusually complete framework for understanding social life and the ways in which society responds to deviance and harm. Sociology examines the structures, institutions, and cultural forces that shape how people live, how inequalities are produced, and how social change happens. Criminology investigates crime as a social and political phenomenon, asking who commits crimes, who experiences them, how the criminal justice system operates, and whether it achieves what it claims to.

Studied together, these disciplines are in constant conversation, each enriching the other.

At Birkbeck College in London, this four-year full-time degree includes a foundation year, which provides a supported introduction to both disciplines for students who want to build their academic foundation before the main programme begins. Birkbeck's distinctive character as a university that has historically served students who work alongside their studies informs its teaching approach, and the evening-teaching model of many Birkbeck programmes makes degree study accessible in ways that suit a wide range of students. You will study sociological theory and research methods alongside criminological perspectives on offending, policing, courts, prisons, and victim experience, developing both the analytical frameworks and the research skills that both disciplines require.

You will develop the capacity to think critically about social structures and institutions, to evaluate evidence, and to engage with questions of justice, inequality, and social change with intellectual rigour. These skills are valued across many professional contexts.

Graduates work in probation, youth justice, the prison service, social work, the voluntary sector, public policy, social research, journalism, and education. Many also pursue postgraduate study in criminology, sociology, or social policy, and the combination of the two disciplines provides a strong foundation for roles that require engagement with both social theory and the practical dimensions of criminal justice. The London location and Birkbeck's connections to the city's research and policy communities provide relevant professional context.