Sociology and Social Policy

Sociology and Social Policy together offer a powerful set of tools for understanding the structures and forces that shape people's lives. Sociology asks fundamental questions about how societies are organised, how inequalities are produced and reproduced, and how institutions, culture, and power influence individual experience. Social Policy focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of the systems through which governments and other bodies try to address social problems, from housing and healthcare to education and welfare.

Studied together, these disciplines connect the analytical with the applied, helping you not just to understand the world but to think about how it might be changed.

At the University of Bath, this three-year full-time programme gives you a rigorous and intellectually ambitious grounding in both fields. Bath has a strong tradition of social science research, and the programme benefits from staff who are active researchers as well as teachers. You will engage with sociological theory, research methods, the sociology of organisations and institutions, and topics such as inequality, gender, race, health, and education.

In the social policy strand, you will examine welfare states, public services, and the political and economic debates that shape how policy is made and who it serves. Bath's location and culture lend a certain practical awareness to the programme, and students develop strong skills in data analysis and evidence-based argumentation that are applicable across many professional contexts.

Graduates from Sociology and Social Policy at Bath go on to careers in the civil service, local government, health and social care management, policy think tanks, the voluntary sector, research, journalism, and education. Many employers value the combination of critical thinking, quantitative and qualitative research skills, and policy literacy that this degree develops. Some graduates continue to postgraduate study in social policy, public administration, social research, or related disciplines.

This is a degree for people who want to engage seriously with the question of how society works and how it might work better.