Postgraduate Programmes – Welcome

The Department of Social Sciences has long been recognised as an international centre of academic excellence and for its cutting edge interdisciplinary work. In the most recent 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (the official UK Government sponsored audit of the sector) 25% of our work was classified in the highest category of ‘world leading’ (rated the maximum 4*). We were rated 3rd for Social Policy, 4th for Sociology and 4th for Communication and Media Studies inthe Times Good University Guide 2010. This recognition of excellence has been a major factor in enabling the Department to recruit a lively community of postgraduate students that currently numbers around 100.

All our academic staff are active researchers working within and across the following disciplinary boundaries – Communication and Media Studies, Criminology, Cultural Studies, Discourse and Rhetoric, Social Policy, Social Psychology, and Sociology. We have four major research centres – the Centre for Research in Social Policy, the Communications Research Centre, the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Centre for Child and Family Research. There are also a number of research groups with established research programmes. Research seminar series are active both at Departmental level and around particular research interest groups such as the Discourse and Rhetoric Group and the Cultural and Media Analysis Research Group.

The Department has received full accreditation from the Economic and Social Research Council for its postgraduate programmes in Social Research and Criminal Justice Research. This recognition is also held by the Department’s doctoral programme.

Please click on the links for further information on research