Social Policy and Criminology with Year Abroad (Hons)

Overview

This Social Policy and Criminology with Year Abroad (Hons) degree at University of Birmingham combines popular degree subjects that offer complementary insights into a range of social problems and social harms. You will be encouraged to consider the reasons why they are designated as being either 'crimes' or 'social policy' issues and therefore are dealt with through contrasting 'welfare' or 'criminal justice' responses. Students who meet the requisite academic performance criteria will be offered the opportunity to undertake a specialist placement during the second year of their degree programme.

The Social Policy and Criminology Joint Honours is an interdisciplinary programme suitable for students who are currently studying a range of subjects at A-level and who have a particular interest in a wide range of topic areas, such as poverty, homelessness, crime, prisons, drugs and alcohol addiction. Your degree will follow the same programme as the standard degree in Years 1 and 2. However, your third year will be spent abroad at a university in the EU or elsewhere in the world. After completing your year abroad, you will return for your fourth and final year to the same degree programme.

Career opportunities

There are a number of career paths for you to take after graduating this Social Policy degree. There are graduate schemes in managing welfare services in health care, the third sector and local government which can be popular choices with our graduates. Since our Social Policy degree is based upon how policy is made it is a great degree for working in the civil service, local government or for think tanks. Our graduates also gain many transferable skills such as critical thinking, written and verbal communication and teamwork which give them the flexibility to go into a wide range of employment opportunities:

• Campaigns Manager – The Princes Trust
• Culture Change Officer – Birmingham City Council
• Domestic Violence Advocate – Women’s Aid
• Policy Manager – Social Work England
• Management Consultant – Deloitte UK
• Marketing Professional – BT
• Programme Manager – National Lottery
• Senior Policy Advisor – Cabinet Office
• Service Manager – Solihull Community Housing