Health and Social Care with Integrated Foundation Year BSc (Hons)

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This is a four-year version of our popular BA (Hons) Health and Social Care course, with an integrated foundation year. Understand the key issues that affect health, social care and wellbeing. Make a difference to some of society's most vulnerable groups. Gain a well-respected qualification to open doors in the field. 

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Overview

This course will provide you with a detailed understanding of health and social care policy and practice. You will study the key contemporary issues that influence health, social care and the wellbeing of individuals and communities, from a theoretical, policy and practical level.

This degree combines academic rigour with practical experience; you will have the opportunity to test your new knowledge and skills in a 60-hour work placement in your final year.

Why us?

  • 93.4% of our graduates are in employment, further study or training within six months of graduating, according to DLHE 2016/17 (based on full-time, first degree, home leavers)
  • We are a University that is nationally recognised for supporting learners particularly from non-traditional backgrounds and many students come to us with no formal qualifications but with valuable work experience

Course structure

This course is taught via workshops, small group work, lectures, computer-based learning, presentations and independent learning.

Your progress will be assessed with group projects/presentations, multiple choice questionnaires, and time-constrained tests. Throughout the degree you'll have one-to-one support from academic staff.

Foundation year 

The Social Sciences and Law Integrated Foundation Year includes five modules:

  • Essential Study Skills (20 credits)
  • Maths (20 credits)
  • Foundation module (40 credits)
  • Project (20 credits)
  • Subject Specialism (20 credits)

 

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Read more

 Year 1 (national level 4):

  • Understanding Health and Social Care (20 credits)
  • Social Problems (20 credits)
  • Practical Skills in Health and Social Care (20 credits)
  • Dimensions of Health (20 credits)
  • Exploring Psycho-Social Theory (20 credits)
  • Applied Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences (20 credits)
Read more

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules:

  • Health Improvement and Healthy Lifestyles (20 credits)
  • Early Life Course Approaches in Health and Social Care (20 credits)
  • Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (20 credits)
  • Working Together to Safeguard Vulnerable Children, Young People and Adults (20 credits)

Optional modules:

  • Medicalisation, Normality and the Body (20 credits)
  • Sex, Families and the Construction of Personal Lives (20 credits)
  • Globalisation, Health and Social Care (20 credits)
  • Counselling Approaches in Practice Settings (20 credits)
Read more

Final year (national level 6):

Core modules:

  • Practical Applications (20 credits)
  • Health and Social Care Dissertation (40 credits)
  • Life Course Approaches to Health and Ageing (20 credits)

Optional modules:

  • Violence, Gender and Society (20 credits)
  • The Clinical Gaze: Medicine, Disability and Confinement (20 credits)
  • Social entrepreneurship and Project Management (20 credits)
  • Contemporary Issues in Social Welfare (20 credits)
  • Substance Use and Society (20 credits)
Read more

The Reg Vardy Centre,
Sir Tom Cowie Campus,
Sunderland,
SR6 0DD

54.912052,-1.374524

  • You'll have access to specialist software packages for social science. These include NVivo, which allows deep levels of analysis of large volumes of data, and SPSS, for surveys and data mining.

    You can access free Wi-Fi throughout the University campus, so you can work from anywhere. If you don't want to carry a laptop around, just use one of the University’s PCs or Apple Macs. We have hundreds of computers for you to use in the Murray Library, St Peter's Library, and the David Goldman Informatics Centre. If you ever have any technical problems, just ask the friendly helpdesk team.

  • We’ve got thousands of health and social care books and e-books, with many more titles available through the inter-library loan service. We also subscribe to a comprehensive range of print and electronic journals so you can access the most reliable and up-to-date academic and industry articles.

    Library resources which you might find particularly useful for this course include:

    • SocINDEX with full-text articles – probably the world's most comprehensive and highest-quality sociology research database
    • Professional Development Collection, which features hundreds of education journals and reports
    • Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Database, which includes full-text journal articles on topics spanning emotional and behavioural sciences, psychiatry and psychology
    • Lexis Library, which covers UK and international legal information as well as full-text newspaper articles
    • Community Care Inform, which helps professionals who work with children and young people to make, and evidence, their decisions
    Library Services - health and social care

Facilities

You'll be based at The Reg Vardy Centre, situated on the award-winning St Peter's riverside campus. The location benefits from dedicated library services and has superb transport links with the city centre and City Campus.

Entry requirements

The Integrated Foundation Year is specially designed to support you where you have just missed the grades required for direct entry onto a three-year degree, or if you have relevant work experience and are now looking to broaden your subject knowledge but want more time to develop study skills before starting your degree.

Entry requirements are provided for guidance only and we may offer you an entrance interview which will help us determine your eligibility for your chosen degree. This enables us to consider making you an offer if you are perhaps a mature student who has been out of education for a period of time, or you have gained significant knowledge and skills through employment rather than traditional education.

Eligible entry qualifications:

1. Normally a minimum of three Level 2 qualifications (NVQ, GCSE or equivalent ), including Maths and English at grade C or above** and a minimum of 40 UCAS tariff points from Level 3 qualifications (e.g. A or AS Levels, BTEC certificates/diplomas, access courses or equivalent)
OR
2. Demonstrable evidence of appropriate knowledge and skills acquired from at least three years of post-school work experience.

If you are unsure of whether you think you might be suitable for the course, please contact us!

** If you have studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade then you will need to achieve a grade 4 or above. Equivalent alternative qualifications are also accepted, such as Level 2 Key Skills in Communication and Application of Number. If you have not achieved a grade C in Maths and English we may be able to work with you to ensure that you are able to gain these in the first year of the course, depending on your experience.

If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.

For more information about Integrated Foundation Year programmes, including more detailed module information, please see our Help and Advice articles.

Fees and finance

The Foundation Year will be £4,000. For the following three years, the annual fee will be £9,250, but you will receive £1,250 cash-back in the first and final year of the three years.

In addition, you will receive free travel across the Tyne and Wear region, and you may be eligible for means-tested scholarships if you are from a low-income household.

Register with StudyPLUS and enjoy up to £200 worth of books and university study essentials.

If you are a full-time UK student you will be eligible to receive financial support to cover your fee and maintenance loan for the full four years.

Please note, this course is not available to international students.

If you are not sure whether you qualify as a UK, EU or international student, find out more in our Help and Advice article.

Take a look at the Your Finances section to find out about the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

The Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter's by night

Employment

Health and Social Care is a diverse field, with opportunities to specialise in areas such as young people, mental health, or drug and alcohol abuse support.

Many BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care graduates now work in the NHS, charities such as Age UK and MIND, social care organisations such as Turning Point, and other public, private and voluntary sector health agencies.

Further study is also a popular option, with some graduates choosing to pursue taught Masters courses or research degrees.

Guest speakers

We have a regular schedule of guest speakers who discuss their experiences in Health and Social Care. Past speakers have included representatives from Children North East, Lifeline, Healthworks and Headlight.

Attending our programme of guest speakers is an excellent way to hear from practitioners in the field, and also develop a network of professional contacts, which may become useful when applying for placements and jobs.

 

Work placement

As part of your degree you will undertake a 60-hour work placement during your final year. This will be your opportunity to apply your learning in a real-life context. You will be able to choose the placement which most closely matches your interests.

Previous students' placements have been with organisations such as local hospices, residential care homes, disability support, schools, mental health services, drug and alcohol services, the North of England Refugee Service, and Age UK.

 

Meet our academics

Andrew (Drew) Dalton

Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Freda Cook

Senior Lecturer - Customised Awards Scheme Leader

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

IFY Social Sciences and Law programme specification (.pdf)

Page last updated: 14 August 2018

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