2.5-Term Pathway - Foundation Certificate in Social Sciences - Continue to Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Sociology and Criminology (Placement Year)

For students who've finished high school but don’t meet the entry requirements for university, a Foundation Certificate can help them gain entry to an undergraduate degree. After completing this pathway option students qualify for progression to the 1st year of an undergraduate degree at the University of Essex.

A student’s course length is determined mainly by their English language level (UKVI IELTS score). Students on all course lengths take a set of common or similar modules to gain a solid base of skills for university. Students taking a course longer than 2 terms, will take additional modules designed to improve one or more of their English language level, academic skills, and basic knowledge of particular subjects.

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Sociology and Criminology

There can be no crime without society. Combining the specialist study of criminology with a broad approach to sociological questions, this course emboldens students to study crime, criminals, and criminal justice within wider social contexts.

Guided by the expert staff who specialize in terrorism, prisons, drug abuse, and crime in the media, students explore how criminal activity interlinks with age, gender, and social concepts such as power and identity.

They will study areas including:

• Social divisions, inequality, the nature of work and commercial culture • Culture, identity and subjectivity • Public policy regarding health, the environment, crime and aging • Visual criminology • Social history and crime

Students also have the opportunity to complete a supervised dissertation on a topic that inspires them, encouraging them to think differently and connect with live issues and debates, and preparing them for their graduate career.

The BA Criminology is run by the Department of Sociology, which was rated top 10 in the UK for research quality (REF 2014), and ranked 7th in the UK for Sociology in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020.