Sociology, BSc (Hons), with industry placement

Course summary

The study of human behaviour and relationships creates a lens through which to see the world better. At Plymouth, you’ll hold that lens to the world around you so you can play a positive role in it. Here we look inwardly at our surroundings as much as we look beyond them, and you’ll spend time immersed on the streets of the city you’re living in, putting Plymouth society under the microscope. See how change is made by working with local support groups and projects like Landworks.

• Learn from passionate and committed academics with active and wide-ranging research expertise. Our research and specialisms include health, well-being and social policy alongside politics and identities.

• Apply sociological theory to contemporary issues in an interactively taught environment, then explore and experience first-hand the world beyond the classroom with national and international field trips and exchange opportunities.

• Engage in a pioneering, well established work-based learning programme along with voluntary opportunities to enhance your employability.

• Develop key transferable skills that employers actively seek through novel research methods training.

• Experience varied and engaging assessment formats supported through personal tutoring.

In your first year, you’ll start investigating how and why societies change, looking into how individuals and society connect. Working in small tutorial groups, you’ll explore real-world research through topics such as health, poverty, housing, gender, race, family, education, religion, employment, global development and environmental sustainability. Throughout the year, you’ll learn what it is to be a sociologist and how to use evidence to better understand the social world. In the second year, you’ll put into practice what you’ve been learning in the classroom and see sociology in action while gaining work experience relevant to your future career. In tutorials, you’ll explore the impact of global change and international social justice, and discover how these affect socio-cultural identity. You’ll also gain confidence in discussing contested social ideas and how they are applied in today’s global world, industry and employment. In your final year, you’ll examine in more depth the sociological issues that particularly interest you and complete a dissertation on your chosen topic. With teaching focusing on the links between theory, policy and professional debates, you choose from a selection of modules including: food and foodways; philosophy of social science; work-based learning in sociology; anthropology of humour and laughter; green criminology; and media, state and society. The modules shown for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry.