Health & Social Policy

Health and social policy is the study of how governments and other institutions organise, fund, and regulate the systems through which healthcare and social support are delivered. It examines the choices societies make about who receives what kind of support, under what conditions, and at whose expense, and applies social-scientific tools to understand how these choices are made, what values and evidence inform them, and what their consequences are for different groups. The discipline is particularly important at a moment when health systems, welfare states, and social care face simultaneous pressures from demographic change, fiscal constraint, technological transformation, and shifting political priorities.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time degree includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study health and social policy in an international context and to compare the approaches different countries take to welfare provision. Glasgow's research strengths in public health and social policy, combined with its location in Scotland's largest city, provide a rich environment for studying these questions. You will develop knowledge of welfare state theory, comparative social policy, health systems organisation and reform, public health, social inequality and its health effects, and the political economy of welfare.

Research methods in both quantitative and qualitative social science are developed throughout, building the analytical skills essential for professional work in policy, research, and public health.

Graduates pursue careers in government, the NHS, local authorities, think tanks, international organisations, health charities, social care management, public health, and policy research. The degree's combination of health and social policy gives graduates fluency across two closely related sectors that both value analytical rigour and evidence-based thinking. Further study options include postgraduate degrees in public health, health policy, social policy, social work, and public administration.