Dear Social Policy students,

I’m writing to let you know that the College is making some changes in the way that we organise and promote our joint degree programmes here at Aston. As a result of this, we have taken the decision not to recruit further students to our Social Policy joint degree programmes, starting from this summer. This is part of a wider discussion about what we teach and how we teach it, so that we can continue to recruit talented and thoughtful students like yourselves, in a very competitive field.

What does this mean for my degree?

The change will have no practical effects on your own degree programme. You will continue to be able to study our existing social policy core (LK2036 Critical Policy Analysis, LK3037 Social Policy Dissertation) and option modules (for example LK2020 Global Society, LK2023 Welfare, LK3025 Health Policy, LK3030 Migration Borders and Belonging…). You will also be taught by the same teaching team; it’s worth underlining that no-one will lose their jobs because of this change. And your degree certificate will continue to have the Social Policy title – so whichever programme you are studying now, whether it is Sociology and Social Policy, International Relations and Social Policy, or Business, Management and Social (or Public) Policy (or any of our other current Social Policy combinations), then that is what your degree certificate will say. As always, you will continue to be fully supported by the Careers and Placements team, and once you have graduated, the Alumni team (and Aston for Life).

Will this change affect the teaching of Social Policy modules at Aston?

There will be some changes to what we teach, but they mostly will be minor. The overlap between Sociology and Social Policy is quite broad; in many ways, our approach is that we teach a sociology of policy. The Single Honours Sociology and Joint Honours Sociology and Social Policy programmes have a common first year, and this won’t change next year – so students taking Sociology SH will still take Social Policy modules at first year, and will still be able to take a number of Social Policy modules as they progress through their degree programmes. We will inevitably make some changes in the future, and once all the Social Policy students have graduated, we will retire the final year Social Policy dissertation. But this type of change is the normal run of things – we always review our modules in the light of changing conditions.

When does the change take place?

The change is effective from this summer. This means that there won’t be any new first years next year on Social Policy degree programmes.

What can I do if I have further questions?

Please do get in touch with me – hayesga@aston.ac.uk, I’m happy to talk!

Dr Graeme Hayes

Head of Department of Sociology and Policy