Undergraduate Course
Sociology BA (Hons)
Question the norms that shape society, develop critical solutions addressing inequalities and injustice, and challenge media and popular discourses.
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By studying social theory you will deepen your understanding of contemporary society. You will develop your analytical skills by investigating the challenges societies face and focusing on topical social and cultural issues. Throughout the course you will examine existing and emerging social divisions such as class, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, and identities. You will develop critical reflections on popular media and social discourses, whilst questioning the world around us.
- Available in Clearing
1 in Yorkshire and Humber for student satisfaction in Sociology and Criminology (9th in the UK). (Complete University Guide 2024)
100% Sociology students responded with a 100% positivity score for how free they felt to express their ideas, opinions and beliefs during their studies. (National Student Survey 2024)
York campus
- UCAS code – 8K9S
- Duration – 3 years full time, 6 years part time
- Start date – September 2025, September 2026
- School – School of Humanities
Minimum entry requirements
104 UCAS Tariff points
3 GCSEs at grade C/4 (or equivalent) including English Language.
Tuition fees
UK 2025 entry £9,535 per year full time
International 2025 entry £12,100 per year full time
Discover Social Sciences
Dr Rosie Binfield-Smith, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, and Dr Steven Hirschler, Senior Lecturer in Criminology introduce us to the Social Sciences courses at York St John University.
Course overview
Your insight into the social world is unique. This course will encourage you to explore your own social identity and consider your experiences of the world. You will let this self awareness inform your studies, and in the process you may even discover new specialisms you are passionate about pursuing.
In Year 2 and 3 of your studies you can choose from a diverse range of modules covering topics from across sociology and criminology. This means you can tailor your degree to your interests and future career ambitions.
On specialist modules you will learn qualitative and quantitative research methods that are used by sociologists and apply them to your own research. We will also introduce you to the different theoretical perspectives you will use to analyse topics such as:
- Sexuality
- Death
- Technology and media
- Inequalities
- The body and identity
You will also have opportunities to engage with professionals working in different sectors. You can learn from their experiences and ask advice to help you prepare for the future.
We will help you to develop your critical thinking skills so you can back up your ideas with evidence and reason. The staff who will support you as you study are all active in social research, meaning the material you cover is the most relevant it can be.
Course structure
Year 1
Our academic year is split into 2 semesters. How many modules you study each semester will depend on whether you are a full time or part time student.
In your first year, if you are a full time student, you will study:
- 3 compulsory modules in semester 1
- 3 compulsory modules in semester 2
If you are studying part time, the modules above will be split over 2 years.
You can find out which modules are available in each semester on the Course Specifications.
Modules
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
On this module we will introduce you to the fundamentals of sociological theory, the historical inception of sociological thought, its unique contributions to social scientific study (as well as its unique problems), and its renewed relevance today. Sociological theory provides a lens for understanding and actively shaping the world. By focusing on the role of the social, you will learn how essential sociological theory is to the study of the contemporary world, and how sociological thinking diverges from psychology, psychiatry and the like.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
On this module we will introduce you to the study of everyday life as a field of sociological inquiry. You will start to make sociological sense of ordinary situations, people, events and things. Your sessions are based around specific objects and artefacts, such as a bank note or a ring. You will explore how these relate to everyday experiences and discuss their relationship to power, the economy, love and the patriarchy.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
Throughout this module you will be introduced to basic principles of presenting, evaluating and interpreting data from quantitative and qualitative sources, such as government statistical bulletins and cultural artefacts. Each week you will explore a contemporary social issue or news story from a socio-criminological perspective, and will engage in critical reflection and discussion. Topics will change weekly to reflect current issues, debates, and matters of social, cultural and political importance.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
This module builds on the skills you will have developed in the first semester around differing sociological and criminological perspectives, applications to the social world, and practical approaches to understanding and exploring social problems. You will learn to deconstruct media representations of social phenomena, drawing on real-world examples and global perspectives, while examining the impact of technological change and related challenges.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
Who are we? How are we are socially shaped and situated? How are identities central to social harms and inequalities? On this module you will develop sociological theoretical knowledge on sociological themes such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and social class. Framed by an engagement with key debates on identity, you will have the opportunity to explore how our identities are socially produced, embodied, and experienced.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
On this module you will investigate contemporary sociological and criminological perspectives that exist in society at a global level. You will learn to interpret associated subjects such as globalisation and neoliberalism and fundamentally unstable concepts that increasingly hang in the balance as the global social order unravels. You will be encouraged to adopt a global mindset and generate an awareness of international perspectives that support efforts to decolonise the curriculum.
Year 2
In your second year, if you are a full time student, you will study:
- 2 compulsory modules and 1 optional module in semester 1
- 1 compulsory module and 2 optional modules in semester 2
If you are studying part time, the modules above will be split over 2 years.
You can find out which modules are available in each semester on the Course Specifications.
Optional modules will run if they receive enough interest. Not all modules will run every year.
Modules
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
Explore the diverse career pathways available to social sciences graduates, and gain the practical tools you need to navigate your post-degree journey. We will encourage you to critically reflect on your skills, aspirations, and experiences, while engaging with real applications of social scientific knowledge. You will assess your current position, career goals, and disciplinary skills to help you make informed decisions about your future career. You will also hear from a range of guest speakers who use social scientific skills within their working lives, expanding and underlining the career potential for social science graduates.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
On this module you will gain a working proficiency in survey research design, accessing and managing secondary quantitative data, data analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). You will learn to perform and understand basic statistics (descriptive and inferential), and write up results from statistical analysis in response to a sociology-relevant research question.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Visual culture expands our everyday experiences, and media and technologies are constantly changing. On this module we will take a feminist approach to understanding why visual culture matters in a changing social landscape. You will explore how gender and sexuality shape, and are shaped by, visual cultures. By engaging in key feminist debates such as post feminism, the male gaze, objectification, transgression, and abjection, you will also critique and evaluate media representations and creative industries, and communicate strong, robust, and convincing arguments that are sociologically informed.
Credits: 20
Optional module
By studying global disasters, you will not only learn about how things go so badly wrong, but how society normally functions – and how that normal functioning itself can bring about disaster. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own experiences and use these to inform your approach to global disaster, including your engagement with mainstream and social media presentation of disasters. You will engage with global disasters as an accident investigator and problem-solver, uncovering the underpinning values or structures that caused disaster – and consider ways to mitigate or prevent future disasters.
Credits: 20
Compulsory module
Qualitative research has provided Sociologists with a range of useful findings that have informed the development of the discipline. On this module you will develop knowledge, skills and techniques that are generally classified as qualitative. A range of sociological qualitative methodologies will be examined and evaluated, and methodological processes that qualitative sociologists engage in will be reviewed. Building upon the first year module, Becoming a Social Scientist, you will develop the skills necessary to approach the Dissertation module in your final year.
Credits: 20
Optional module
The world is in motion – and it is made through that motion. On this module you will explore the world system via the mobilities paradigm – a turn in social sciences thinking that emphasises the importance of movement. This is vital not only for understanding the world but also for holding it to account for its injustices, inequalities and uneven development.
Credits: 20
Optional module
This practice-based module will allow you to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world impact by designing your own table top games. These games will be designed to communicate, teach the general public, and elicit discussion regarding key social justice issues, for example:
- Homelessness
- Gentrification
- Food inequalities
- Environmental justice
You will be challenged to engage deeply with research concerning social issues, while also developing and broadening your communication skills.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Sickness – our own, or of those we care for – reaches us all, one way or another. With sickness comes suffering and loss. Sickness may be felt in the body, but it can also reach deeper, into one’s very sense of the self. There can be something deeply unjust about sickness, also because it so readily entwines with broader social and economic inequity and injustice. On this module we will consider sickness as socially produced. You will explore the ways in which understandings and experiences of sickness are neither natural nor neutral, but shaped by culturally and historically specific knowledges.
Year 3
In your third year, if you are a full time student, you will study:
- 1 Applied Social Science Investigation module across semester 1 and 2
- 2 optional modules in semester 1
- 2 optional modules in semester 2
If you are studying part time, the modules above will be split over 2 years.
You can find out which modules are available in each semester on the Course Specifications.
Optional modules will run if they receive enough interest. Not all modules will run every year.
Modules
Credits: 40
Compulsory module
On this module you will apply your knowledge and focus your studies on the topic that interests you most, to produce a substantial piece of research work. You will choose an issue of sociological importance and conduct detailed social research as you follow your line of enquiry. This will involve carrying out your research in a systematic and ethical way, drawing on the skills you have learnt throughout your degree. An academic tutor will support you throughout the module, offering 1 to 1 advice and guidance on your research.
Credits: 20
Optional module
On this module you will explore different criminological and sociological perspectives on what constitutes a social problem, and consider the role of applied, research-led approaches to resolving these issues. we will encourage you to think creatively about timely social justice issues such as criminal justice, community, migration, housing, vulnerability, victimisation, and health.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Video games are the largest cultural-commercial genre/industry, and are the fastest growing social space. Games are a form of virtual media and place/space where meaning is made and social divisions are lived and experienced. In games, player positionality is altered and contested, and ways of seeing can be introduced, challenged or enhanced. On this research-led module you will use video gaming as a lens to understand how social interaction is lived in play spaces, and how social inequalities are reproduced and can be addressed in game media.
Credits: 20
Optional module
On this module you will explore immigration, its causes, and societal and state responses to the arrival of non-citizens. You will develop your understanding of the social and legal frameworks operationalised in the control of immigration, including the law, border control practices, surveillance, and media or political constructions of immigrants. Explore the effects of global dangers, such as war, unrest, climate change, and ecological disasters, and how these contribute to migration flows and restrictive government responses to immigrant arrivals.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Sex and the sexual body are immensely intimate and personal. Yet, how we conceptualise sex and the sexual body is also inherently social. On this module you will draw on feminist thinking to explore and challenge the many ways in which social ideas shape, produce, and constrain bodies and sex. We will aim to understand how social and historical ideas shape bodies, lives, and opportunities, and how the sexual body is shaped by social norms, expectations, and entitlements.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Crime is a popular yet controversial topic in the media. On this module you will go beyond traditional and often foundational studies of crime and the media, which focus on issues surrounding moral panics and crime news. Drawing heavily on new developments within criminology, including both visual and narrative criminology, you will explore topics such as:
- True crime podcasts
- AI
- Participatory crime solving cultures
- Wound culture
- The aesthetics of crime
- The role of crime stories, voyeurism, and policy impact
Credits: 20
Optional module
On this module you will explore contemporary health harms through the lens of the social sciences. You will consider how these topics intersect with broader social structures and inequalities including race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, age, and other demographic factors. Some key issues we will explore include:
- Disability
- Reproductive rights and access
- Drug use
- Global migration
- Climate change
- Environmental harms
Credits: 20
Optional module
The promise of the democratised ‘global village’ that facilitated the decentralisation of power and the redistribution of wealth has never come to pass. On the contrary, today’s digital sphere is characterised by predation, polarisation and passive consumption. On this module you will explore trends as the product of historical conditions shaped by social, political and economic forces. By understanding digital communication technologies from a social scientific perspective and how technology is shaped socially, you will discover the practice and merits of sociological critique and study the political economy of the tech industry.
Credits: 20
Optional module
Explore the importance of theoretical and conceptual thinking for understanding society. Critical theory means not only thinking that is analytical, but also ideas that are vital and urgent. On this module you will consider a different social theorist each week and assess the influences, value and legacy of their ideas. You will get to grips with the act of theorising itself, and make your own theoretical contributions to social issues and problems. By reflecting on the value and purpose of theoretical thought, you will develop valuable transferable problem solving skills.
Credits: 20
Optional module
This module gives you the chance to study the sociology of health and illness, a key area of sociological study. You will apply your knowledge of sociological concepts to discuss topics like:
- Illness and self identity
- The doctor-patient relationship
- Therapy cultures
- Power and privilege in healthcare
- The placebo effect
- Heath inequalities
Teaching and assessment
Teaching and learning
You will learn through:
- Lectures - explore different Criminology themes and issues
- Seminars - discuss, debate and analyse material from your lectures
- Workshops - discuss a topic with your coursemates
You will usually study 3 modules per semester. Each has 2 to 4 hours of contact time a week. We schedule our taught sessions between 9.00am and 8.00pm, Monday to Friday.
You will need to conduct independent study outside of this time. This might include reading, writing tasks and research. You can also arrange academic tutorials with your module tutors throughout the year to receive feedback on your work and discuss the course content.
Assessment
Assessment types vary from module to module. Some of your assessments might include:
- Annotated bibliography
- Essay
- Online portfolio
- Open exam (where you can take in research materials)
- Podcast
- Presentations
- Research proposal
For each assessment you will have the chance to talk to a tutor about your work before submission. Each assessment will be returned with feedback so you can improve your academic writing.
Career outcomes
Your future with a degree in Sociology
On this course you will gain valuable skills which can lead to a variety of different career paths, some of which are directly related to sociology and some which allow you to apply your skills more broadly. You will gain research, analytical and presentation skills that are in high demand in a range of careers.
This degree could be the first step toward your career as a:
- Charity officer
- Community development worker
- Family support officer
- International aid worker
- Social researcher
- Youth worker
You could also progress onto a postgraduate degree and take your learning even further.
Alumni stories
Visit our YSJ Snapshots blog to see what our past students from across the University have done with their York St John degrees.
Whatever your ambitions, we can help you get there.
Our careers service, LaunchPad provides career support tailored to your ambitions. Through this service you can access:
- Employer events
- LinkedIn, CV and cover letter sessions
- Workshops on application writing and interview skills
- Work experience and volunteering opportunities
- Personalised career advice
This support doesn't end when you graduate. You can access our expert career advice for the rest of your life. We will help you gain experience and confidence to succeed.
Entry requirements
Qualifications
Minimum entry requirements
104 UCAS Tariff points
3 GCSEs at grade C/4 (or equivalent) including English Language.
Calculate your UCAS Tariff points
International students
If you are an international student you will need to show that your qualifications match our entry requirements.
Information about international qualifications and entry requirements can be found on our International pages.
If English is not your first language you will need to show that you have English Language competence at IELTS level 6.0 (with no skill below 5.5) or equivalent.
International entry requirements
Mature Learners Entry Scheme
If you have been out of education for 3 years or more and have a grade C GCSE in English Language or equivalent, you are eligible for our entry scheme for mature learners. It's a scheme that recognises non-traditional entry qualifications and experience for entry onto this course. Information on how to apply can be found on our dedicated page.
This course is available with a foundation year
If you do not yet meet the minimum requirements for entry straight onto this degree course, or feel you are not quite ready for the transition to higher education, this is a great option for you. Passing a foundation year guarantees you a place on this degree course the following academic year.
Law, Policing and Social Sciences foundation year
Terms and conditions
Our terms and conditions, policies and procedures contain important information about studying at York St John University. You can read them on our Admissions page.
Fees and funding
To study for an undergraduate degree with us, you will need to pay tuition fees for your course. How much you pay depends on whether you live inside the UK, or internationally (outside the UK).
Tuition fees are reviewed annually and may be increased in line with inflation, prior to the start of each academic year, and subject to the fee cap set by the UK government. Such increases to fees will be at the Retail Price Index (RPI) forecast rate, as advised by the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Office for Students. The only exception to this would be where government legislation deems otherwise.
If a rise in the tuition fee becomes necessary, we will endeavour to inform you as soon as possible and we will explain the reason(s) for the increase. Any tuition fee increase will only be applied from the start of the next academic year and will not be applied 'in year'.
UK 2025 entry
The tuition fee for 2025 entry onto this course is:
- £9,535 per year for full time study
- £7,145 per year for the first 4 years if you study part time
These prices apply to all UK, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man students
You can find out more about funding your degree by visiting our funding opportunities page:
Placement year funding
If you choose to take a placement year, and your course offers it, you can apply for the Tuition Fee and Maintenance Loan for your placement year. How much you are awarded is based on the type of placement being undertaken and whether it is a paid or unpaid placement. The tuition fee for your placement year will be reduced.
Tuition fees
UK 2025 entry £9,535 per year full time
International 2025 entry £12,100 per year full time
International 2025 entry
The tuition fee for 2025 entry to this course is £12,100 per year for full time study.
This price applies to all students living outside the UK.
Due to immigration laws, if you are an international student on a Student Visa, you must study full time. For more information about visa requirements and short-term study visas, please visit the International Visa and Immigration pages.
Find out more about funding your degree:
Additional costs and financial support
There may also be some additional costs to take into account throughout your studies, including the cost of accommodation.
Course-related costs
While studying for your degree, there may be additional costs related to your course. This may include purchasing personal equipment and stationery, books and optional field trips.
Study Abroad
For more information on tuition fee reductions and additional costs for studying abroad, please visit our study abroad pages.
Accommodation and living costs
For detailed information on accommodation and living costs, visit our Accommodation pages.
Financial help and support
Our Funding Advice team are here to help you with your finances throughout your degree. They offer a personal service that can help you with funding your studies and budgeting for living expenses.
For advice on everything from applying for scholarships to finding additional financial support email fundingadvice@yorksj.ac.uk.
Course highlights
Engage with employers
As part of the Working in the Social Sciences module, you will have the opportunity to work with employers and gain valuable experience.
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Active in research
Learn from academic staff who are publishing work in the fields of death, gender, the body, technology, media, sex work, inequalities and much more.
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Find your specialism
Build a degree that suits your interests and career aspirations. Choose modules that reflect your interests in year 2 and 3.
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Molly Sociology
I knew I wanted to be an advocate for social change and help vulnerable people within society. I will be forever thankful for the things I learnt whilst at York St John, the amazing lecturers and the fantastic resources they provided.
More to explore
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Join us in 2025
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Open Days
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