What you will study
Throughout the year-long course you will cover criminology, sociology, psychology, economics and politics, regardless of the specialist area you will be studying the following year. This will enable you to gain an overview of the social sciences and it will guide you in the direction of the social sciences degree that you're particularly interested in.
Foundation year
The foundation year of the course is made up of four year-long modules that cover criminology, sociology, psychology, economics and politics.
Core modules
Overcoming the challenges in understanding individual and collective human behaviour
30 credits
This is a core module for all students following the Foundation in Social and Behavioural Sciences programme. The module is designed to introduce students to the wide spectrum of disciplines and approaches that encompass the social and behavioural sciences. The module will address both common features across the social and behavioural sciences (ie. the study of collective and individual human behaviour), as well as the defining features of the individual disciplines. A key focus will be on the overlapping and somewhat artificial nature of the boundaries between the different disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences. In addition, the module will allow students to engage with key qualitative methods used in the fields examined. At the conclusion of the module students will have acquired a comprehensive overview of the social and behavioural sciences as a field of study, of the individual, yet overlapping, disciplines within the field and how they are examined.
Practical Research Skills
30 credits
This module offers you the opportunity to carry out a research project on a topic agreed in consultation with a supervisor. Supervisory sessions with an academic supervisor will help guide you to conduct a literature review, formulate a research question, design a research study, collect data and present findings.
Becoming an Active Learner
30 credits
This module is designed to provide students with a general introduction to the Social Sciences through the critical lenses sociology and criminology. Therefore the module uses the creative pedagogy of film making to help students Iexplore the social nature of crime, deviance and social control, and familiarizes students with key ideas relevant to explaining these phenomena. At the same time the module will also enable students to develop academic skills necessary for them to succeed at university such as active academic reading, developing arguments, understanding assessment strategies, ways of working in groups, giving presentations and library skills. The module will develop students wider self-awareness of themselves as learners and encourage them to actively shape their own learning. This will be evidenced through the production of a portfolio of work to include:
- a group podcast
- the production of a group audio-visual film
- peer assessment task based on the audio- visual film
- a reflective essay worth 40% which will demonstrate students' abilities to identify and research of topics of interest to themselves and consider how their learning informs their understanding of the world and their lived experience outside of the classroom.
Using Quantitative Methods
30 credits
This module is designed to allow students to develop competence in a range of mathematical and statistical techniques which they can then apply within a range of contexts in social and behavioural sciences. The module reinforces basic mathematical concepts to the level required for entry in the BA/BSc programmes offered by the School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences, and is accessible to students with a wide range of previous mathematical experiences.
