Social Sciences with Foundation Year BSc (Hons)

This module will familiarise students with the most important themes, theories and thinkers of modern western political thought, starting with Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, through to Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and the enlightenment and 19^th century political philosophers and sociologists. It also deals with the socio-political and economic contexts that lead to the birth of the political ideas that transformed (and are currently transforming) our society. Emphasis is given to the development of political ideologies, starting with liberalism, conservatism, socialism and anarchism in the 19th century, and on to nationalism, fascism and communism in the 20th century. Social change, as well as economic, demographic and value transformations are introduced to understand how social conditions exert an influence on political thought and political change, helping to explain the world in which we find ourselves today.

Explore the intricacies of legal procedures and individual accountability, from investigation to trial and beyond with our Criminal Process and Responsibility module.

Delve into theories of culpability, mens rea, and the moral dimensions of criminal behaviour through real-world case studies and landmark legal decisions, preparing you to navigate the complexities of criminal justice while honing your legal analysis skills. Through this module you gain a nuanced understanding of the ethical and legal implications of criminal actions and become equipped to contribute meaningfully to the fair and effective functioning of the criminal justice process.

This module is designed to enable you to gain an understanding of how Education and Early years provision in the UK have developed since the 19th Century. 

You will explore philosophical questions about the role of education and consider the aims/purpose of education. 

You will be introduced to key concepts such as ‘marketisation’, ‘social mobility’ and ‘meritocracy’ and explore ways in which inequalities related to ‘race’, ‘class’, gender and ‘disability’ are reproduced within the education system.

In this module you will be introduced to social and developmental psychology. You will learn how humans develop over the lifespan and how individual and group behaviour changes based on the presence of and our interaction with others.

This module will take your understanding of individual differences to the next level. In this module you will explore the role of culture and how assessment and measurement vary across general and diverse populations. You will also cover hands on topics such as psychometrics testing in personality and intelligence.

With diversity being a central pillar of society’s doctrines this module examines diversity, equity and inclusion within the criminal Justice System of England and Wales and examines the causes of perceived and apparent inequities based on gender, social class, race, sexual orientation, religion and other characteristics, protected or otherwise.

The module delves deeper in examining the causes of and society’s response to; hate crime, human trafficking and sex crime and explores the causes and consequences of drugs and crime. The Criminal Justice System itself is examined, diversity within it analysed and the causes of disproportionate representation and underrepresentation explored.

This module explores educational goals, policies and practices around the world through a comparative lens. You will gain a critical understanding of the factors, such as poverty, globalisation, migration and conflict, that impact economic and social mobility, school enrolment, girls’ education and access to quality education in different parts of the world. 

You will critically examine the colonial and postcolonial roots of comparative education and the distribution of power among the policy actors in the field. 

Taking a human rights perspective, you will evaluate the shift from increasing access to formal schooling for all children and communities (Millennium Development Goals) to improving the quality of teaching/learning (Sustainable Development Goals #4) and its implications across various global contexts.

Since the second world war international organizations have become prominent players in the international system. Debate continues in academic and policy communities over why international organizations exist, whether they matter in global politics, and how useful they are in alleviating global problems. The goal of this module is to develop an advanced theoretical and practical understanding of international organizations (IOs) and the main policies they action in the international system. Upon completion of the module, students should be able to articulate the leading explanations within international relations for why IOs exist, what policies they put forward, what controversies surround IOs in the context of international relations theory, and the main strengths and challenges IOs face in meeting their objectives.

This module will provide you with a holistic understanding of resilience and wellbeing. In this module you will journey through the applications of positive psychology and its role in managing mental health. You will also cover topics such as prevention interventions and trauma informed care approaches.

Explore the world of criminal behaviour with our dynamic module, Explaining Criminal Behaviour. Explore the psychological aspects of crime, unravelling diverse theories to discover the motivations behind criminal actions. This module guides you through a critical examination of human behaviour, emphasising foundational concepts like psychopathy, personality disorders, and behavioural disorders.

From cognitive processes to social learning, gain invaluable insights into the driving forces behind criminal decision-making. Engaging case studies and empirical research bring theory to life, allowing you to analyse the intricate relationship between psychological factors and criminal conduct. Address both psychological and societal perspectives for a well-rounded viewpoint, fostering cultural competence and adaptability—key attributes in the diverse landscape of criminological professions.

This module concentrates on the major current issues involved in Asia, Latin America and Africa in the field of Politics and International Relations. The historical and theoretical background to these issues will involve the relationship between the state and civil society, clientelism and the issues around religion, nationalism, democracy and authoritarianism. The position of NGO’s and international interventions will also be investigated, where applicable, to the regional international relations dynamic. In order to facilitate this study, students will be inducted into the methodologies appropriate to comparative political analysis. By the end of the module students will be able to use conceptual tools to analyse current affairs involving democracy, authoritarianism, clientelism and other such topics relating to problems in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

This module introduces you to the health psychology pathway essential for the healthcare sector. You will learn how psychological principles can be applied to the understanding of illness and health and how to promote healthy behaviours in people and communities.

The module explores the relationships between social and cultural ways of understanding identity formation through ideas of ‘high’, ‘low’ and ‘popular’ culture, which are arguably central to our understanding of ‘self’ and ‘other’ in our everyday lives. Consequently, we will interrogate how language and symbolism give meaning to everyday social arrangements, forcing us to challenge the traditional criteria for self-identity, belonging and group membership in a rapidly shrinking global world. This means that criteria such as class, gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality, occupation, political affiliation, which would be used to understand your structural placement in society in the past, are now unstable and always in flux. This has resulted in looser and more fluid social arrangements where particular, formerly discrete notions of race and ethnicity, as somewhat fixed and rooted in time and place, are no longer viable ways of ‘knowing’.  This is because our social, political and cultural identities transcend narrow local, national and international forms of identification as many locate themselves as global citizens.  

Moreover, with the radical shift in social stability in the UK as a consequence of BREXIT, the influx of Eastern Europeans and the issues surrounding refugees and economic migrants, we are faced with very public debates on Britishness and who does and does not belong. This contemporary climate and the increase in far-right extremism in many ways mirrors what happened with the influx of West Indians - The Windrush Generation - in Post War Britain. Therefore, the module will examine how our understanding of race and ethnicity are dependent upon a system of shared meanings and practices, that cannot be reduced to a simple dichotomy between a ‘white’ and ‘non-white’ presence, to determine who does and does not belong in contemporary Britain. Consequently, there will be discussions of the different theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of popular culture, and its association with cultural artefacts such as language, signs and symbols.  

Education is guided by policy at local, national, and, increasingly, global levels. This module will help you to understand how and why policy is made, the impact upon practice and their role in policy as an educator, and the role that politics, ideology, society, and the economy play in education policy.

This module aims to engage students in the actual diplomatic mechanisms of conflict resolution and crisis management. They will start by exploring concepts such as conflict, crisis, conflict resolution and crisis management in the global context, including an exploration of the rapidly changing nature of contemporary conflicts. They will study various empirical case studies, where different causes of international crises and conflicts are discussed in their contemporary contexts. Finally, through the presentation of different international organisations directly involved in crisis management and peacekeeping (OSCE, EU, NATO, UN, NGOs), formal mechanisms of conflict resolution in international politics are discussed, paying particular attention to the limits of these formal mechanisms in the changing nature of contemporary conflicts. The students are expected to critically assess the limits and strengths of traditional tools of conflict management and to engage in a live simulation of an actual or hypothetical crisis in the UN Security Council. The students will work in groups during the simulation to find a joint solution by applying all the theoretical and practical knowledge and diplomatic skills acquired during the module.

This module overviews how social psychological theory can be applied to understand issues related to culture and diversity. You will learn how concepts such as multiculturism and social identity can be better understood adopting a social justice lens.

This module will provide you with the tools to examine and interrogate the assumed neutrality of everyday processes in education settings, explore attitudes to cultural differences, and reflect on the ways in which education practitioners can develop learning environments that can help every child reach their own potential.

Fancy yourself as the next Sherlock Holmes? Then this module is for you. 

Tackling real-life cases, you'll find out what it’s like to be at the forefront of decision-making in complex crime scenarios. Building on your knowledge of criminal behaviour, you will explore how crime scene investigation can both help and hinder justice being served.

Learn from actual cases and forensic experiments, honing your ability to critically evaluate crime scenes and form analytical judgments. You will develop advanced skills in evidence interpretation, understanding how experts weigh physical, digital, and interview evidence for compelling prosecutions.

Gain core employable skills, including first-hand experience with police techniques for establishing and following leads. Develop an experiential understanding of science's role in the justice system, mastering the skills to navigate error and uncertainty in evidence. Unleash your potential in the exciting realm of forensic sleuthing!

This module will explore how human rights theory has developed (both up to and since) the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The expansion of rights-based arguments from Thomas Paine through to contemporary theory will be discussed, as well as the expansion in the international law of rights such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and other international human rights treaties. Further issues include the rights of indigenous peoples and issues around global development and social justice. By the end of the module, you will have explored the specific philosophical and theoretical literature on human rights and have acquired an understanding of the historical development of rights-based arguments. You will have learned to evaluate a broad range of issues and contexts related to the national, regional and international human rights doctrines, their tensions and their application, to contextualise the issues of politics and morality to a given human rights question.