This interdisciplinary course explores how crime, education, health, housing and poverty come to be viewed as social problems and how the institutions of the modern state seek to address them. You will gain an understanding of the historical, social and cultural dimensions of policy-making and examine education, housing and urban policies to learn about how states provide for people’s welfare. Using examples from around the world, you’ll consider the experiences of people who receive welfare services to understand the impact social policy has on their lives. By connecting issues facing contemporary societies to the big ideas that help to shed light on them, you’ll learn about why social problems and inequalities exist and why some activities are seen as deviant or criminal. A wide range of optional modules reflecting our diverse research interests will also allow you to explore broader topics such as disability rights, sex work or crime. Our graduates secure employment with some of the biggest UK companies in human resources, communications management, broadcasting and advertising. They are also ideally equipped to work in the public and third sector including in the civil service, teaching, youth work, fostering/children’s services, probation services, social work, prison service, housing and homelessness prevention. Graduates from this programme are well prepared for postgraduate study across a range of disciplines. Our recent graduates have gone on to study sociology, social Policy, teacher training, journalism, occupational therapy, human resources, marketing, town planning, social work, criminal justice studies and social research.