Social Science Degree Scheme
The BSc Social Science degree provides a unique opportunity for students to synthesise knowledge from different disciplines and develop an advanced understanding of the social relations and structures and social and psychological processes occurring in the world. The degree will enable you to specialise in different areas of human geography, politics, psychology, and history, drawing upon research and teaching expertise from across the Institute of Geography, History, Politics and Psychology. The degree will enable you to build an inter-disciplinary social science degree taught by world-leading staff whose research is at cutting edge of the social sciences, as well as staff who undertake inter-disciplinary social science research.
At the heart of this degree is an exploration of how societies vary across space and time, having a distinctive geography and history that is reflected in a wide range of global, social, political, cultural and economic processes.
The Social Science degree provides an excellent opportunity to do an inter-disciplinary degree: combining the theories and methods of separate disciplines to increase knowledge and understanding. This degree allows students to select modules from across the social science spectrum – including human geography, history and Welsh history, International Politics, and psychology – with the potential for additional options to be taken in criminology, education and management and business. You will learn to think outside of conventional disciplinary boundaries, and a core teaching provision will provide a catalyst for students to explore connections between these disciplines.
The Social Science degree creates a unique context in which to learn how to undertake inter-disciplinary social science research. The modules in the first year address broad-based themes and provide an introductory engagement with key concepts, theories, methods and approaches, including a core module on Understanding the Social World. Students can choose from over twenty first year optional modules, with typical examples including Perspectives on Social and Individual behaviour, Place, Culture and Society, Approaching the Political, and Capitalism and the Making of the Modern World. In Years 2 and 3 you will focus on core social science research methods and skills, choosing specialist modules from a choice of over thirty. Typical optional modules include: Social Psychology, Modern China, Modern Welsh Society, Sustainability and Resilience, Gender, Conflict and Security, and the 21st Century Self. By the end of your final year you will have produced a social science dissertation on a subject of your choice.
The aim is to ensure an extensive choice of modules in each year of the degree programme, although the range of optional modules will vary because of changes to the academic staff or sabbatical leave provision.
You could take advantage of not only the teaching and research expertise here at the University, but also its array of overseas and work-based educational opportunities. There are a variety of international fieldtrips, work-placements and internships on offer, and you will be encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities as well as Aberystwyth University’s Year in Employment Scheme and its Erasmus and International Exchange programmes. At present, optional overseas fieldtrip opportunities would enable you to undertake urban social science field research in Dublin or New York.