Health and Social Care BSc (Hons)

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 sector.

Learning and teaching in 2021

Overview

This course gives you the opportunity to gain critical understanding of integrated health and social care welfare structures and processes, as well as advanced theoretical knowledge and skills in practice and management in the sector. You can study this course on either a full or part-time basis. The completion of at least one (and optionally two) placements enables you to gain practical, real-world experience of a health and social care environment.

New for 2020/21 is the integration of different degree routes within Health and Social Care (chosen at the end of Stage 1). Each of the routes maintain a strong basis in social sciences and have been developed to address both student and employer needs. The new routes allow you to develop the attributes you need to succeed in these roles. Graduate with a named degree in one of four routes:

BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care: focus on broad topics and theories relating to health and social care, applying them to contemporary issues such as mental health, substance use and domestic abuse.

BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care: Health and Wellbeing: focus on public health-related issues such as health promotion, health inequalities, health ethics, and health wellbeing.

BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care: Practice: focus on practice knowledge and skills related to health and social care, such as counselling skills, and how to devise effective and theoretically sound assessment and intervention plans.

BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care: Management and Leadership: focus on skills for management related to working effectively with other employees and considerations about wellbeing at work. You'll also focus on management and leadership, as well as project management and social entrepreneurship.

As well as the new routes, this degree is also integrated with our social studies’ sister courses; Sociology and Criminology. This way we are better able to combine teaching across the school to enable you to choose from a wider range of options. The option choices increase as you progress through the course, allowing you to focus more on your preferred areas of study in the final year.

Why us?

This course has 90% Overall Satisfaction according to the National Student Survey 2020
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)
The University of Sunderland was ranked 12th in the Courses and Lecturers category of the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2019
Health and Social Care students have participated in extra-curricular activities such as volunteering for local support organisations, as well as national and international trips. Read more about their life-affirming trip to Kenya in their guest blog

Our Social Work courses were ranked 1st overall in the UK in the 2018 UK Engagement Survey
Our Social Work courses were ranked 2nd in the UK for Assessment and Feedback, and 2nd in the UK for Retention and Progression in the 2018 UK Engagement Survey
Complete two route-specific placements during your course – one research-based and the other practice-based
Learn from our concurrent three-year skills programme throughout your degree as you prepare to move on to each subsequent level of study; to graduation and employment; allowing you access to additional qualifications such as SuPA

Learning and teaching in 2021

You will engage in a full programme of study, delivered as a hybrid of online and face-to-face contact. The majority of teaching activities will take place online with contact time on campus of two hours per week for each student (every Thursday, weeks 8–12 and 14–18). The Health and Social Care team remain committed to ensuring we work in partnership with our students and have streamlined the course to ensure wider participation in education, making it even more accessible and flexible.

You will be provided with an assessment calendar at the start of Semester 1 so you are forewarned of assessment dates and therefore better equipped to plan for your studies. Alongside your core taught content, you will undertake our ‘Student, Social, Personal and Professional’ (SSPP) Development programme.

Outside of formal teaching, you will develop the necessary skills, experience, and competencies to ensure you are in prime position to follow postgraduate and career goals. The course will also include additional support to ensure that you are able to fully engage with the online learning activities.

Course structure

You'll take a range of modules that are both academically and vocationally focused. You'll be provided with a detailed understanding of health and social care theory, policy and practice and will also be supported to understand key contemporary issues that influence health, social care and the wellbeing of individuals and communities – a topic of global significance.

Overall this degree combines academic rigour with practical experience. You'll have the opportunity to test your new knowledge and skills in a placement in Stage 2; and an optional placement in Stage 3 (placement area depends on route chosen). Both placements will help you develop and understand the application of research methods for improving practice in health and social care.

Across all modules, the inclusion of formative work will support you with your learning.

A typical week for you will include workshops, seminars, blended learning, group work and meeting with supervisors at each level of your degree. You will also take part in computer-based learning using specific social research software and statistical programmes for surveys and questionnaires such as SPSS and software for interviewing such as NVivo.

Your progress will be assessed through traditional essays but also through innovative assessments (module dependent) which aid your employability skills. These may include research and organisational reports, portfolios, source reports, e-resources such as blogs and podcasts, presentations, reports for global bodies and organisations and community studies.

You will be allocated a personal tutor in each year of the course who will offer one-to-one support.

Student, Social, Personal and Professional (SSPP) programme
We also run our innovative and mandatory SSPP programme at each stage of your degree. At Stage 1, the weekly programme is designed to support your academic skills in writing university-level assignments and offering you opportunities for internships and volunteering. At Stage 2, the programme develops your practice through workshops and training such as community empowerment skills, managing organisations, writing fundraising bids and safeguarding training. In the final year we prepare you for graduate employment through designing a graduate-level CV, engaging with graduate job opportunities and opportunities for postgraduate study. Alongside this, we encourage you at each year to gain additional bronze, silver and gold SuPA Awards which are an extra qualification you can gain to boost your credentials and show employers your extra-curricular experience.

Part-time study
Part-time students study the same course as full-time students, just over a longer period of time. If you study this course on a part-time basis, you will typically complete 60 credits in a year, rather than the 120 credits of full-time students. You'll be studying alongside full-time students.

Flexibility
BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care is a flexible degree, offering you the opportunity to choose the route that most interests you. In addition to a broad range of health and social care modules, you can choose from options in Sociology and Criminology.

Reasonable adjustments to teaching and assessments will be made for students who hold a current University of Sunderland Support Plan (in line with their stated entitlements and/or accommodations).

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules:

Foundations of Policy, Practice and Inequalities in Health and Wellbeing
Biopsychosocial Theory
Everyone's Accountable: Safeguarding to Promote, Prevent, Protect

Optional modules:

Living with Disability: Culture and Identity
Social Policy in Action
Victims/Survivors: Rights and Redress

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules:

Researching Society with Placement (all routes)
The Individual and Society across the Lifecourse Core (Health and Social Care route)
Health Inequalities and Lifestyle 'Killers' (Health and Wellbeing route)
Counselling Skills: Theory into Practice (Practice, plus Management and Leadership routes)

Optional modules:

The Individual and Society across the Lifecourse
Health Inequalities and Lifestyle 'Killers'
Counselling Skills: Theory into Practice
The Medical Gaze: Surveillance, Medicine and Social Control
Gender, Diversity and Human Rights: Global Perspectives
Domestic Violence and Criminal Justice

Year 3 (national level 6):

Core modules:

Social Science Dissertation or Social Science Work-based Dissertation (all routes)
Drugs, ‘Madness’ and Violence as Responses to Liquid Modernity? (Health and Social Care route)
Theorising Ethics in Practice (Health and Wellbeing route)
Who Knows Best? Effective Assessment and Intervention Strategies in Welfare Services (Practice route)
Entering the ‘Dragon’s Den’: The Entrepreneurial Health and Social Care Manager (Management and Leadership route)

Optional modules:

Drugs, ‘Madness’ and Violence as Responses to Liquid Modernity? Theorising Ethics in Practice
Who Knows Best? Effective Assessment and Intervention Strategies in Welfare Services
Entering the ‘Dragon’s Den’: The Entrepreneurial Health & Social Care Manager
Taking Control: Counselling and Help Strategies
Pain or Happiness? Understanding Somatic Illnesses
Our Planet: Global Health, Inequality and Poverty
Pathologising Crime: Disability, Confinement and Justice
Selling Sex: Theory, Policy and Practice

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

Our typical offer is:

Qualification	Minimum grade
High School Diploma along with one of the following at the required grade - SAT I and SAT II, ACT or Advanced Placement	GPA 3.0 or above and: Sat score of 1250/1600 from SATs AP (Grades 3+ in at least 3 subjects) ACT (score of 30+)

If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk for further advice.

If you don't meet our standard entry requirements, we also offer this course with an Integrated Foundation Year.

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

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

The annual fee for this course is:

£9,250 if you are from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled
£12,500 if you are an international student

Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants 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

Career ready

Our BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care graduates work with a variety of service user groups in areas such as mental health, domestic abuse, substance abuse, and older people. They work for organisations such as the NHS, Local Authorities, schools, colleges and universities as well as charities/private organisations such as Age UK, MIND, and Turning Point to name a few.

Further study is also a route chosen by our graduates. Some choose professional routes such as Nursing, Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Counselling or Teaching. Others choose business and management routes such as Human Resources; or research degrees such as a PhD.

Guest speakers

As a professions-facing course, we have active relationships with a number of local and national organisations in the health and social care sector. Past speakers have included workers from Children North East, Lifeline, Healthworks, Headlight and Local Authority Social Workers. This enables our students to hear from frontline workers as well as begin to develop networks.

Work placements

As part of your degree, you'll have the opportunity to complete two work placements (core module in stage 2; and option in stage 3). The placement is chosen by yourself and should relate to the specific route you have chosen in Stage 2. 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.

Extra-curricular opportunities

We encourage our students to actively seek out CV-enhancing employment/volunteering opportunities with local organisations throughout their degree. Many of these relationships are formed through students completing placements and continuing to work with organisations after graduation.

Our students have taken part in international development work on gender and education in Kenya and have worked with international NGOs on projects associated with girls rescued from bonded labour in Nepal. Students have also benefited from trips to London and locally, to enhance their subject knowledge and cultural awareness through museum exhibitions and public talks linked to topics in the curriculum.

Many of our Health and Social Care students have published their first class degree work on our Social Sciences Blog. Check out their excellent assignments.

Centre for Applied Social Sciences

The University of Sunderland’s Centre for Applied Social Studies (CASS) combines original academic research with practice-based collaborations and reach-out activities, often working directly with practitioners, policymakers and front-line delivery staff regionally, nationally and internationally. According to the most recent National Research Excellence Framework Exercise, almost half of our outputs are either 'world leading' or 'internationally excellent'.

The mission of CASS reflects that of the University's aim as a civic university: to take an active interest in the social issues that affect the region and beyond by engaging in research and practice-based collaborations that aim to improve living conditions, address inequalities and social exclusion and promote social justice. Currently our research focuses around three strands: children, young people and families; communities, health and social exclusion; and crime, victims and social justice.

CASS regularly hosts visiting speakers and holds events that you will be invited to. This can be an excellent way to learn from the real-life experience of people who already have a strong track record in sociological and social policy related social research. This is a great way to learn from experts in their field.

Our students

We have a broad range of students who come to study Health and Social Care at Sunderland: young people straight out of school/college; mature students with work experience in health and social care sectors; young people who have experiences of the care system; parents and carers; as well as international students with a range of experiences. Overall, this leads to diverse and dynamic cohorts who can share different experiences and knowledge with each other.

We acknowledge that many of our students will continue to work throughout their studies and we anticipate our new degree structure enables a certain amount of flexibility to enable students to maintain both.

Meet the students

The modules are fascinating and involve many different aspects of contemporary life.

Chris Hunter
I was so inspired by the lecturers they made me want to teach Health and Social Care myself.

Lesley McPartlin
Studying at the University of Sunderland was the best time of my life.

Ola Tony-Obot

Meet the team

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

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Education and Society.

Page last updated: 17 December 2020

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Overview

Why us?

Course structure

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules:

Optional modules:

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules:

Optional modules:

Year 3 (national level 6):

Core modules:

Optional modules:

Facilities

Entry requirements

Fees and finance

Career ready

Guest speakers

Work placements

Extra-curricular opportunities

Centre for Applied Social Sciences

Our students

Meet the students

Chris Hunter

Lesley McPartlin

Ola Tony-Obot

Meet the team

Related courses

Contact

Sign up to receive more information