Admission Criteria

Candidates must be able to satisfy the general admission requirements of the University of the West of Scotland as specified in Chapter 2 of the University Regulatory Framework together with the following programme requirements:

SQA National Qualifications

Year 1 BBBB at Higher or 108 UCAS Tariff points. One of these will normally be English. Applicants should also have National 5 Maths at level 3 (or equivalent).

or GCE

Year 1 CCC at A Level or 96 UCAS Tariff points.
Applicants should also have GCSE Maths at level 2 . i.e. minimum grade C (or equivalent).

or SQA National Qualifications/Edexcel Foundation

Year 1
HNC Social Science/Social Studies
HNC in Humanities
HNC Business
HNC Communications
HNC Law
HND Legal Services


Year 2
May be possible with a relevant HNC (B in Graded Unit):
HNC Social Science/Social Studies
HND Pass in Social Science or Social Studies only

Year 3
May be possible with a relevant HND (BB in Graded Unit)
HND Social Science/Social Studies

BTEC

Year 1
Level 4

Year 2
Level 5

Irish Leaving Certificate
Year 1
H3 H3 H3 H4

International Baccalaureate
Year 1
24 points with three subjects at H4

SWAP:
Year 1:

SWAP: Access to Humanities (BBB)
SWAP Access to Primary Education
SWAP: Access to Social Science

Other Required Qualifications/Experience

Further desirable skills pre-application

General Overview

The Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences is an interdisciplinary programme that offers a broad academic grounding in social sciences with the opportunity for disciplinary specialism in Sociology (Lanarkshire Campus), Politics & Policy (Paisley Campus), and Sociology & Policy (Paisley Campus), all three underpinned by research practice. We aim to engage students with contemporary local and global challenges using a range of theoretical lenses and research methods by delivering evidence-based learning with practical skills. In the global marketplace, transferable skills and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances are at a premium.  
 
This programme offers a foundation of broad-based social science skills with a strong emphasis on problem solving across the first two years, after which, students can elect to follow one of three specialist pathways, highlighting in-depth disciplinary knowledge in 1- Politics and Policy, 2 - Sociology and Policy or 3 - Sociology. The programme’s Research and Inquiry spine, running from first year through to the final year dissertation, offers a range of research skills, which can be applied throughout life in different working environments.  
 
Our team of internationally active academics and researchers take a student-centred approach to learning, employing diverse modes of engagement and assessment to offer stimulation and accommodate a range of learning styles. In particular, we strive to offer a safe environment in which students can exercise their curiosity and develop both leadership and collaborative skills which will serve them in any future workplace.    
 
Programme structure

The programme features a mostly pre-determined curriculum at Level 7 and Level 8 where students complete core Research and Inquiry spine modules, and inter-disciplinary modules which provide a grounding in sociology, politics and policy. At Level 9 and Level 10, students have a high level of choice over optional modules. Students use these choices to build their programme of study according to their own priorities and interests, and they may become eligible for a bracketed award in a named discipline, depending on the combination of modules undertaken. 
 
At Level 7, students are being introduced to social science disciplines including sociology, politics, and policy through modules such as Introducing Sociology, Democracy in the UK, Development of Social Policy, and Making the Modern World. They will also undertake one 20-credit core Research and Inquiry core modules, Introduction to Social Research and the ASPIRE module which is delivered across the university. These modules will take place across term one and term two. Through these modules, students will begin their engagement with research and academic practice.
 
At Level 8, students will undertake two core 20-credit research focused modules: Foundations of Qualitative Research in Term 1 and Foundations of Quantitative Research in Term 2, through which they will deepen their engagement with research practice. Student also undertake two further modules in term one, which address issues of power, citizenship, and social theory (Introduction to Comparative Politics, and Foundations of Social & Political Thought). In term two they undertake two modules, Global Society and Social Policy & Social Change. 
 
At Level 9, students undertake the third instalment of the Research & Inquiry spine, with Data Analysis for Social Science in term one as an optional module, and Designing Your Dissertation Project as a core module in term two. Students will select their modules of choice from a bank of options, with students choosing three options in the first term and two option in the second term. The following section indicates which options will run at each campus, and consequently which bracketed awards can be achieved on each site.

At Level 10, students complete the Research & Inquiry spine by undertaking a Social Sciences Dissertation. This is a 40-credit module running over both terms. Students assemble the remainder of their curriculum from optional modules, selecting two in each term. It is worth noting that students at Level 10 are permitted to select one Level 9 option. 
 
Learner choice

The programme is designed to provide students with a significant level of structured choice at Levels 9 and 10. By this stage in their studies, students will have an emerging sense of their favoured specialisms and the degree structure enables them to pursue these priorities through five optional module choices at Level 9 and a further four optional modules choices at Level 10. Depending on the combination of modules undertaken, students may become eligible for a bracketed award title that reflects a particular concentration of study within one disciplinary area.  
 
In addition to the choices open to learners between modules, the programme also prioritises learner choice within modules. In line with the programme commitment to inquiry based learning and authentic assessment, students are supported across a wide range of modules to identify their own preferred topics of inquiry and negotiate appropriate assessment modalities, analysing social, political and policy challenges of their own selection through a range of media, including poster design, conference style presentation and case study. 
 
Bracketed awards

Students may graduate with a bracketed award at Level 10 that indicates a disciplinary emphasis to their studies, albeit very much within a Social Sciences context. These brackets will be specific to individual campuses. No student is obliged to pursue a bracketed trajectory, and even if a student does so they are not disadvantaged if they are unable to achieve the correct combination of modules – all students are fully eligible for an ‘unbracketed’ title by completing the cores and the relevant number of optional credits of any disciplinary stripe.  
 
The three available bracketed titles are as follows:

• BA (Hons) Social Sciences (Politics & Policy) offered at Paisley campus
• BA (Hons) Social Sciences (Sociology & Policy) offered at Paisley campus
• BA (Hons) Social Sciences (Sociology) offered at Lanarkshire campus

In order to become eligible for a bracketed title, students must complete the following:

• at least two relevant options at Level 9
• at least two relevant options at Level 10 
• a Level 10 Social Sciences Dissertation in a relevant area.  

Full guidance will be provided to students from their earliest attachment to the programme to ensure that they can design their curriculum accordingly.

Assessment and feedback

The programme provides learners with a range of formative and summative assessments to support the development of the following: subject knowledge and understanding; applied knowledge, skills and understanding; generic cognitive skills; communication, ICT and numeracy skills; and, autonomy, accountability and working with others. The programme team conducts an assessment mapping exercise, which identifies learning outcomes, assessment structures, and assessment dates in order to identify over-assessment, assessment imbalance, clashes, and variety of assessment practices. This offers clarity and cohesion for students and staff.  
 
The programme focuses on developing and extending assessment for learning and on the development of assessment literacies. To support this, the programme team has been required to explicitly embed the principles of assessment for learning within their modules in order to facilitate:  

• an appropriate balance and linkage between formative and summative assessment; 
• the extension of peer and self-assessment;
• student awareness of and engagement with the assessment process;
• development of active, collaborative and dialogic learning environments;
• the empowerment of learners in the processes of self-evaluation, assessment and regulation;
• increased student investment in the assessment process;
• reflexive student engagement with assessment, and learning more widely. 

A further emphasis has been placed on authentic assessment: engaging students with assessment that mirrors or is explicitly located in lived experience and reflects ‘real world’ events and scenarios.

Graduate Attributes, Employability & Personal Development Planning

Graduates of Social Sciences Programme are equipped with highly sought-after transferable skills, knowledge and competences. The programme team recognised that the graduate pathways pursued by social science students are more varied than is the case of other, more sectoral-specific disciplines. The programme team take the view that this puts a premium on the development of transferable skills, not least the ability to recognise and articulate the applicability of those skills developed in a social science programme to specific labour market opportunities.  
 
In response to this, relevant cognitive, communications and interpersonal skills are captured in the programme learning outcomes to make visible to students the real world applicability of their learning. Communication skills are fostered through individual and group class presentations and through more informal participation in tutorials. Interpersonal skills are encouraged through extensive forms of group work, and through class debates. Cognitive skills are cultivated and enlarged through a variety of formative and summative assessments that require students to show novel, critically formulated ideas and creative responses to module or discipline specific issues. These activities, whether formative or summative, are designed to meet the professional standards and practices employers will ask from our students. For instance, students are required to produce Policy Briefs, short presentations, podcasts or vlogs and case studies in a format expected if they were working as policy officers in a variety of organisations. 
 
In addition, UWS agreed a set of Graduate Attributes in 2017, and BA (Hons) Social Sciences is designed to enable students to realise the Graduate Attributes across their period of study. The programme design is constructed in relation to our core graduate attributes of Universal (offering globally relevant learning with comprehensibly applicable abilities, skills and behaviours), Work ready (dynamic and prepared for employment in complex, ever-changing environments which require lifelong learning and resilience) and Successful (with a solid foundation on which to continue succeeding and realising potential across various contexts. Course content, learning activities and assessment are designed with regard to these attributes across three dimensions, supporting students to develop a suite of academic, personal, and professional skills 
 
Routes into further study and employment 

This programme provides students with a research-underpinned, globally informed and contemporary social science qualification, which will prepare graduates for success in a wide range of postgraduate areas of study, including doctoral study.  
 
Within the School of Education and Social Science, the programme acts as an ideal route into our own taught postgraduate programmes, especially in the following MSc Programmes : 

• MSc International Politics
• MSc Social Policy
• MSc Applied Social Science
• MSc Policy Analysis and Global Governance  

To date, our social science graduates have entered careers in teaching, health and social care, public services, private sector employment, politics, and academic research.

Work Based Learning/Placement Details

The very nature of contemporary work and the characteristics of modern workplaces in local and global contexts must be a subject of academic reflection within a social science programme. That is to say, our students are not just preparing for employment, but recognising work as a subject of profound importance to social science scholarship. The Work, Welfare & Society Level 9 module represents the fullest realisation of critical work-related learning in the programme so far, but the programme team are ambitious to extend this commitment further in the years ahead. 
 
Furthermore, the programme team are immersed deeply in a variety of relevant professional networks. Colleagues harness these connections to enhance the learning experience and expose students to key influencers in public life. Indeed, UWS alumni themselves form a key element of the professional network that has been established around our social science provision.  
 
As such, BA (Hons) Social Sciences benefits from the wealth of high quality professional contacts built up by staff in their work on the two existing programmes. Indeed, the academic potential of these networks has been strengthened since the process of designing a single programme has provided an opportunity to make the professionally-relevant opportunities available to students more visible and more integrated across the two campuses. For instance, through our UWS-Oxfam partnership. Programme staff integrate research-led teaching into global theoretical, empirical and policy contexts, offering insights dealing with contemporary challenges and key social and institutional frameworks. Lecture and workshop contributions offered by relevant practitioners and experts further supplement the programme, presenting on organisational aims and processes.

Engagement

In line with the Academic Engagement Procedure, Students are defined as academically engaged if they are regularly engaged with timetabled teaching sessions, course-related learning resources including those in the Library and on the relevant learning platform, and complete assessments and submit these on time.

Where a programme has Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body requirements these will be listed here:

All fulltime students (part-time and distant learning students should check with their programme leader for any queries) are required to attend all scheduled classes and participate with all delivered elements of the module as part of their engagement with their programme of study. Consideration will be given to students who have protection under the appropriate equality law. Please refer to UWS Regulations, Chapter 1, 1.64 – 1.67, available at the following link: http://www.uws.ac.uk/current-students/rights-and-regulations/regulatory-framework/

Equality and Diversity

The University's Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Procedure can be accessed at the following link: UWS Equality and Diversity Policy

Aligned with the overall commitment to equality and diversity stated in the Programme Specifications, the module supports equality of opportunity for students from all backgrounds and with different learning needs. Using Moodle and Aula learning materials will be presented electronically in formats that allow flexible access and manipulation of content (part-time and distant learning students should check with their programme leader for any queries). The module complies with University regulations and guidance on inclusive learning and teaching practice. Specialist assistive equipment, support provision and adjustment to assessment practice will be made in accordance with UWS policy and regulations. The University’s Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Policy can be accessed at the following link: http://www.uws.ac.uk/equality/

Our partners are fully committed to the principles and practice of inclusiveness and our modules are designed to be accessible to all. Where this module is delivered overseas, local equivalent support for students and appropriate legislation applies.

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Knowledge and Understanding

Practice - Applied Knowledge and Understanding

Communication, ICT and Numeracy Skills

Generic Cognitive Skills - Problem Solving, Analysis, Evaluation

Autonomy, Accountability and Working With Others

Regulations of Assessment

Candidates will be bound by the general assessment regulations of the University as specified in the University Regulatory Framework.

An overview of the assessment details is provided in the Student Handbook and the assessment criteria for each module is provided in the module descriptor which forms part of the module pack issued to students. For further details on assessment please refer to Chapter 3 of the Regulatory Framework.

To qualify for an award of the University, students must complete all the programme requirements and must meet the credit minima detailed in Chapter 1 of the Regulatory Framework.

Combined Studies

There may be instances where a student has been unsuccessful in meeting the award criteria for the named award and for other more generic named awards existing within the School. Provided that they have met the credit requirements in line with the SCQF credit minima (please see Regulation 1.21), they will be eligible for an exit award of CertHE / DipHE or BA / BSc in Combined Studies.

For students studying BA, BAcc, or BD awards the award will be BA Combined Studies.

For students studying BEng or BSc awards, the award will be BSc Combined Studies.