Sociology with Placement Year

BA (Hons) Sociology with Placement Year

Everybody has their own ideas about society, but how do we gain an accurate picture of what is really happening? Studying Sociology at Derby helps you analyse and understand the dramatic and diverse changes affecting our lives today.

Why choose this course?

Get to the heart of public debates: with BA (Hons) Sociology you’ll explore social dynamics, politics and culture, considering how we can bring about change for the better. This course develops you into an actively engaged citizen – with practical research skills, the ability to analyse arguments and the confidence to justify your opinions.

Is this course for you?

Sociology is a fresh, engaging subject which challenges your perceptions and opens doors to wide-ranging graduate careers. You’ll find yourself discussing fascinating themes like social inequality, race and ethnicity, the nature of evil and the cult of celebrity.

Boost your employability with a placement year
You’ll have the opportunity to take a placement year to put the skills you’ve learned into practice in a real-world environment. We'll support you to find your placement and throughout your year in industry. Placements allow you to gain valuable experience to add to your CV, make industry contacts and help you to narrow down what kind of role you may be interested in after graduation.

How you will learn

You’ll learn through lectures, seminars, multimedia presentations, online collaboration, guest speakers, class debates and a thorough grounding in research methods, fieldwork and data collection. A broad choice of optional modules means you can focus on the issues that interest you most.

Opportunities and experiences

If you have a particular interest in youth justice, this course gives you the chance to achieve an additional professional qualification – the Youth Justice in Effective Practice Certificate (YJEPC) – alongside your degree studies.
We also offer you the opportunity to spend a semester in the lively Czech capital of Prague as part of our Erasmus partnership with Charles University.

Careers and employability

BA (Hons) Sociology develops impressive skills and insights, so it’s no surprise to find that our graduates fulfil their ambitions in successful careers including social and probation work, social research, marketing, counselling, welfare advice, and community work.

Based solely on more than 24,000 student reviews, we were named Uni Compare's University of the Year 2027, and voted 1st in the UK for employability and 2nd in the UK for course quality. Not only that, but 97% of students would recommend the University of Derby*, which we can offer you industry-relevant teaching, state-of-the-art study spaces, multi-award-winning accommodation, and a welcoming, inclusive community.

*Uni Compare 2027