Sociology/Social & Public Policy

Sociology and Social and Public Policy together address the fundamental questions of how societies work and what governments and institutions can do to make them work better. Sociology studies how people organise their lives together, examining the structures, norms, and inequalities that shape human experience, and asking why patterns of advantage and disadvantage persist across generations. Social and public policy examines the responses that states and institutions develop: welfare systems, healthcare, education, housing, criminal justice, and the political processes through which those responses are designed and contested.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year, full-time joint programme draws on both disciplines to give you an unusually rich understanding of social life and its governance. You will engage with the major theories and methods of sociology, developing the ability to analyse social phenomena with care and rigour, alongside a detailed understanding of how social policy is made, implemented, and evaluated in the UK and comparatively across other countries. The programme includes a year abroad, allowing you to study the social structures and policy environments of another country directly, which deepens your comparative perspective and adds an important dimension to your academic and personal development.

The skills the programme develops are genuinely transferable: the ability to gather and analyse evidence, to evaluate the arguments behind policy choices, to understand the social context in which decisions are made, and to communicate findings clearly. Graduates go on to careers in government, public administration, social work, the charity sector, policy research, housing, health services, education, and international organisations. Many continue to postgraduate study in sociology, social policy, public administration, or social work, and some pursue research careers contributing to the knowledge base that informs better policy.