Sociology With Foundation Year

Sociology is the systematic study of human society: how it is organised, how social structures shape the lives of individuals and groups, how inequalities are produced and sustained, and how change occurs. It is a discipline that encourages you to question assumptions about what is natural or inevitable in the social world and to develop instead a rigorous, evidence-based understanding of why societies work the way they do. Few disciplines are better suited to making sense of a world in which rapid social, economic, and technological change is creating new forms of inequality, community, and belonging.

This four-year, full-time programme at Edge Hill University includes a foundation year, providing a supported and gradual introduction to degree-level study for students who want additional preparation before moving into the full sociology curriculum. The foundation year develops the key transferable skills and subject-specific knowledge needed for success across a range of social science and humanities disciplines, with a particular focus on the academic writing, critical thinking, and research skills that sociology demands. You will then move into the full sociology degree, studying social theory, research methods, and a range of substantive topics about contemporary social life.

Graduates of sociology move into careers across a very wide range of fields. Many work in social research, policy, public health, education, social work, community development, housing, and the third sector. Others move into journalism, communications, the civil service, human resources, and management consulting, where the ability to understand social patterns and communicate them clearly is directly valued.

The research and analytical skills sociology develops are genuinely transferable, and the discipline's characteristic concern with inequality, diversity, and social change gives graduates a perspective that is increasingly valued in organisations of all kinds. Further study at postgraduate level in sociology, social research methods, social policy, or related disciplines is a common path for those who want to develop specialist expertise or pursue research.