About Sociology
Newcastle Sociology
Our external assessor told us, "You’re lucky. Newcastle Sociology is exactly the right size. Big enough to offer lots of choice of optional modules and specialisms, small enough to know every student as an individual."
Newcastle Sociology takes approximately 80-90 undergraduate students in total each year on our single honours Sociology (L300) degree, and our joint honours Politics & Sociology (LL32). We also offer two Masters programmes, one leading to a PhD.
Taking you where you want to go
Our degrees will prepare you for work and for the rest of your life.
Taking teaching seriously
We are open, approachable and passionate about our specialist subjects.
Teaching: 8th best in the country (National Student Survey)
Our scores for teaching and academic support in the recent NSS survey place us 8th nationally.
Understanding the real world
Studying sociology is about thinking critically about the world around us.
Top marks for enthusiastic teaching (National Student Survey)
All students participating in the NSS survey agreed that ‘Staff have made the subject interesting’.
Challenging yourself and the world around you
Top marks for staff contact (National Student Survey)
Top marks for communication (National Student Survey)
Achieving the perfect balance
Our subject area is big enough to be stimulating, small enough for us to know you personally.
National Student Survey: Top position for organisation and management
Being at the heart of a vibrant city alongside Newcastle Sociology’s quality reputation, combine to make us a popular choice, attracting lively and diverse students. Our friendly and stimulating environment for learning includes supportive personal tutoring, contact with active researchers and good career prospects.
So you will actually meet all our staff, from internationally renowned senior professors, as well as our up-and-coming younger lecturers, at whatever level you are studying.
Like our students, we come from several national backgrounds, and our teaching and research interests reflect today’s global sociology. Our strengths in the core areas of sociology are evident in current topics like identity, health and illness, environmental issues, sexuality, race, and contemporary social change.
Our degrees combine sociology and social anthropology to ensure that Newcastle Sociology is distinctively broad in its scope, with wide individual choice of optional modules.
Postgraduate Sociology
Students on our undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes benefit from the research led teaching that we are able to offer.
Research
One of the younger major Sociology units in the UK, Newcastle Sociology is in the ‘Top Twenty’ in the country and 8th among the Russell Group Universities in the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise. 85% of our research is rated world leading (4*), internationally excellent (3*), or internationally recognised (2*). We are already building on this platform to develop new research agendas. You can see some of our recent books, and conferences we are organising or have recently held.
Several staff and some of our PhD students also belong to PEALS, the highly successful Policy, Ethics & Life Sciences Research Centre. Other Sociology staff link with the Institute of Health and Society and the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability.
The current Head of Sociology is Dr Steph Lawler.