Health and Social Care | BA (Hons)

Program Overview

The BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care degree combines research-informed practice with a broad understanding of health and social care issues. Its vocational focus equips students with transferable skills for roles in the health and social care sectors, including direct work with service users, health promotion, and policy administration. The program emphasizes social justice, research engagement, and practical experience through an optional one-year industry placement.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Develop the skills and confidence to deliver real-world research-informed health and social care on a degree course that opens up a wide range of career roles across the public voluntary and independent sectors. This course gives you a broad understanding of contemporary health and social care issues and their relevance to wider social policy legal and organisational environment both within the UK and internationally. Areas of study incorporate sociology public health law and health inequalities. In your second and third years follow your interests with optional units in mental health disability safeguarding addictions human rights and care of older people. There is a strong vocational focus ensuring you develop transferable employability-enhancing skills. Take this course over four years and include a fee-free one-year placement in industry where you gain practical experience build your CV and meet potential future employers.

• Only available to UK/EU students.

Outline:

Level 4

• Introduction to Research and Social Inquiry
• Career Planning for Social Scientists
• Childhoods in a Global Context
• Care of Older People: Health and Social Care in an Ageing Society
• Health Services Planning and Management
• Health Issues in Gender, Age and Ethnicity
• Sass Change Maker Project Dissertation
• Sass Change Maker Research Dissertation
• Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults
• English Language Foundation
• Academic Skills Foundation
• Developing English Language Skills
• Academic Skills Development
• Introducing Academic Skills
• Introduction to Health and Social Care
• Introduction to Sociology of Health
• Disability in Society
• Refugees, Displacement and the Politics of Migration
• Work and Welfare in the 21st Century
• Human Rights and Global Governance
• Individuals and Society
• Skills for Work and Personal Development
• Skills for Higher Education
• Contemporary Society
• Professional Practice Year (Applied Social Studies)

Level 5

• Global Public Health
• Sociology of Health and Illness
• Comparative Welfare State Politics
• Mental Health and Society
• The Social Sciences at Work
• Addictions and Society
• Research 1: Collecting Data
• Research 2: Exploring Data
• Interprofessional Working in Health and Social Care
• Law, Society and Controversy

Level 6

• Independent Project

Assessment:

The academic skills unit in level 4 develops both students' study skills and Academic English skills required to succeed. The feedback given to students as part of the assessment process will enable self-assessment and development of learning and skills and promote progress to overcome any learning problems identified.

Careers:

The degree prepares you for a range of roles in the wider health and social care sectors including the not-for-profit (voluntary) private sector and public sectors. Typical graduate destinations for Health and Social Care students include direct work with service users in areas such as:

• Children and families
• Drug and alcohol misuse
• Mental health
• Services for older and disabled people and young people
Work in other areas of the human services includes:
• Health promotion/public health
• Welfare
• Community development
• Environmental health
• Health policy and administration
• Healthcare management
• Social enterprise development
You may also consider further study at Master’s level (Level 7) - for example the University of Bedfordshire's MSc Integrated Healthcare Practice and Strategic Leadership; MSc Social Work; MSc Public Health; and MSc Nursing (Mental Health or Adult).

Other:

• Over 95% of our Health and Social Care graduates are in employment or further study 15 months after graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes, 2023)
• Our Health and Social Care courses rank 1st in their subject table for graduation prospects – outcomes (CUG, 2024)
• The Health and Social Care teaching team undertake a range of research studies as part of the Health and Social Care Interdisciplinary Research Group (HSCIRG).
We carry out interdisciplinary and community-based participatory research that involves service users and stakeholders in health and social care, with a focus on a co-production and bottom-up approach to involving all citizens in health-related matters.
• This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry.
Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
• Only available to UK/EU students.
• The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
• This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course.
You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
• The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.

Tuition Fees:

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2024/25 is £9,250 per year. See www.gov.uk/student-finance

Merit Scholarship

The Bursary will give you £1,000 over three academic years, or £1,300 if you are taking your course over four academic years (including those with a Foundation Year).

International

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2024/25 is £15,500 per year.