Bachelor of Science in Politics and Sociology

at University of Bristol - Clifton Campus United Kingdom

Childhood studies at Bristol provides you with a holistic understanding of children, childhood and adolescence, combining elements of education, psychology, law, social work and social policy.

This course is ideal for students interested in learning more about how to use numbers and data within childhood studies. It provides training in practical and analytical skills, which will enhance your career prospects and provide you with a strong platform for postgraduate study. No prior knowledge of statistical techniques is required.

About two thirds of your studies will follow the single honours Childhood Studies course, where you will consider childhood in the contexts of families, peers and society at both a national and international level. Within a framework of children's rights, you will consider their participation and protection and the provision of services for children and young people.

The remaining third of your course will provide interdisciplinary training in quantitative methods. In year one of the quantitative pathway we discuss how numbers and data are used to tell convincing stories in the media and social research. We consider what is meant by segregation and how it can be mapped and measured.

Year two offers practical classes in social statistics and applied data analysis, which will develop your skills in numeracy and analysis and enable you to undertake your own individual research project in an area of quantitative social science in year three.

This course combines politics and international relations with the study of Portuguese, the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. This provides a valuable skill set, ideally tailored to the increasingly globalised workplace.

Politics is organised around three themes: political theory; comparative and national politics; and international relations. You will study the politics of individual countries and governments and the relationships between countries, communities and individuals.

In Portuguese you will study a combination of language and culture units. Portuguese is spoken throughout the world and Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and Angola have complex, fascinating cultures. 

You will spend your third year abroad, enabling you to refine your language skills and cultural knowledge and gain valuable work experience. For details on year abroad opportunities, please see Global Opportunities.

Both schools enjoy a strong reputation for teaching and research and this course combination provides intellectual challenge with a cosmopolitan perspective.

If you love the challenge of thinking through a maths question and the satisfaction of having solved a difficult problem, but also want to think about a broad range of intellectual questions in a rigorous way, this course is for you.

Linked by the formal study of logic, the two components of the course complement each other. You will develop rigorous analysis and argument distinctive to the analytic philosophical tradition, while developing mathematical maturity to reason through subtle ideas in abstract mathematics.

There is also the opportunity to use your mathematical knowledge in the study of the philosophy of biology, economics and physics.

In your first year you will take 80 credit points of mathematics units in common with all other first-year maths students, for example linear algebra, topics in calculus and differential equations, analysis and an introduction to the ideas of proof and group theory. In philosophy you will take 40 credit points in two mandatory introduction to philosophy units.

In your second year a unit in realism and normativity is compulsory, leaving much scope to tailor the rest of your year to your own interests. This continues in the third year, which allows you to choose a variety of units in both mathematics and philosophy. You will complete a philosophy project in your third year.

This course is ideal for students interested in learning more about how to use numbers and data within geography. It provides training in practical and analytical skills, which will enhance your career prospects and provide you with a strong platform for postgraduate study. No prior knowledge of statistical techniques is required.

About two thirds of your studies will follow the single honours BSc Geography course, where you will acquire core knowledge in your subject. You will develop a wide range of geographical and scientific skills, gaining an advanced overview of both human and physical geography in year one, and choosing from a wide range of specialist units in years two and three.

The remaining third of your course will provide interdisciplinary training in quantitative methods. In year one of the quantitative pathway we discuss how numbers and data are used to tell convincing stories in the media and social research. We consider what is meant by segregation and how it can be mapped and measured. Year two offers practical classes in social statistics and applied data analysis, which will develop your skills in numeracy and analysis and enable you to undertake your own individual research project in an area of quantitative social science in year three.

This is a challenging one-year taught master’s degree focused on advanced topics in communication networks (fixed and wireless) and related signal processing, including associated enabling technologies. It provides an excellent opportunity to develop the skills needed for careers in some of the most dynamic fields in communication networks.

This program builds on the internationally recognised research strengths of the Communications Systems and Networks, High Performance Networks and Photonics & Quantum research groups within the Smart Internet Lab. The groups conduct pioneering research in a number of key areas, including network architectures, cross-layer interaction, high-speed optical communications and advanced wireless access.

The program includes units on Optical Networks and Data Centre Networks. Optical Networks focuses on wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks, time division multiplexed (TDM) networks including SDH/SONET and OTN, optical frequency division multiplexed networks, and optical sub-wavelength switched networks. Data Centre Networks focuses on networks for cloud computing, cloud-based networking, grid-computing and e-science. There is a further networking unit: Networked Systems and Applications, which provides a top-down study of a networking system support for distributed applications, from classical web and email to telemetry for the Internet of Things.

The program is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, one of only a handful of accredited program in this field in the UK.

This is applied psychology degree uses psychological research methods to understand and interpret social and human behaviour in the context of education, wherever and whenever it happens throughout people’s lives. As with our BSc Education Studies, education is conceptualised as lifelong and in many different contexts.

The British Psychological Society accreditation means that successful students are eligible to apply for professional training as a psychologist.

Students acquire valuable skills spanning two rapidly changing disciplines that inform each other. You will apply psychological theory and research to real-life educational settings involving children, adolescents and adults.

The course currently includes an optional placement unit, Education in Practice, where you will have the opportunity to connect your academic learning with the practice of education on a placement within a school, community organisation, charity, museum or other relevant organisation.

Lectures, workshops, seminars, discussions, guided independent study and tutorials offer a well-rounded, evidence-based and flexible basis for professional development. Seminars and workshop activities encourage you to collaborate with others, while individual and group presentations help you develop confidence in conveying your arguments and ideas.

This course is available as a four-year degree, including a year studying in English at a partner institution overseas: BSc Psychology in Education with Study Abroad. 

Numerical models and satellite observation are fundamental to understanding environmental systems and change. The MSc in Environmental Modelling and Data Analysis will provide you with the skills to go on to a career in this exciting area. You will learn how models of environmental processes are developed and applied across a range of areas including climate change, flooding, biogeochemistry and glaciers. You will gain an appreciation of all aspects of environmental modelling ranging from the philosophy of model development, focussing on links to observations and uncertainty analysis, through to more practical aspects such as numerical approximation and algorithm development and testing.

The programme has close links to its twin MSc in Geographical Data Science and Spatial Analytics, which allows students to develop skills in Geographical Information Systems, analysis of satellite observations and Data Science techniques more widely. This will be complimented by hands-on teaching aimed at developing your coding skills in scientific programming and high-performance computing (with access to Bristol’s unique supercomputing facilities).

The MSc is taught by world-leading researchers from the School’s Hydrology, Glaciology and Earth System Modelling research groups. It is closely linked to the School's Geocomputation research strand, which hosts seminars and workshops aimed at consolidating links between environmental modelling and Data Science.

Researchers, research managers, policy advisers and service planners are all faced with a growing need for research that is timely and relevant. This program builds on the links between research and policy in developing the particular skills and capacities needed by policy-oriented researchers, professionals and postgraduate students who are interested in carrying out public policy, social policy and social welfare research. We believe this is vital if researchers are to maximise the impact of their work in addressing issues of real concern to policymakers.

The program provides core research training in philosophy and research design in the social sciences, along with introductions to and further approaches in quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences. It also offers optional units in our particular areas of research expertise, such as child and family welfare, gender and violence, health and social care, poverty and social exclusion, and policy-oriented evaluation.

We recognise that students will be joining with relevant - albeit varied - experience. Therefore, there will be opportunities for you to draw on your own experiences as researchers, managers and policy advisers and share insights with other students working towards research degrees in disability studies, social work research and health and wellbeing.

Those who have recently embarked on a career in policy research, or who hope to do so, will find the program offers a combination of academic rigour, up-to-date policy content and relevant skills development.

Core units are taught in collaboration with other postgraduate programs, providing a co-learning environment and giving you the opportunity to interact and share insights with other students working towards research degrees in disability studies, policy research, social work research and health and wellbeing.