BASS Sociology and Data Analytics

The university organises  open days  every year in June, September and October.

These are an opportunity to find out about the course, meet students and staff, tour the campus, accommodation, finance, study abroad, and facilities.

If you receive an offer, we will invite you to a visit day where you learn about the School, teaching and learning, study opportunities and student life.

Apply through  UCAS .

The last date for the receipt of applications to qualify for full and equal consideration was 26 January 2022, 18.00 (GMT). 

This programme is now closed to further applications for September 2022 entry.

If you are submitting information about mitigating circumstances that have affected, or are likely to affect, your academic performance, you should include this in the referee's report.

We cannot consider information that is supplied after an adverse decision has been made on an application.

Examples of mitigating circumstances include family illness, problems with school facilities or an unusual curriculum followed by your school of college.

You will learn theories about the workings and organization of societies, but they also learn how to translate these theories into empirical questions that can be studied using real life data.

Specifically, you will learn data analytic and data science techniques to understand social dynamics, predict and classify sociological phenomena and describe and analyse networks of relationships between individuals or organisations.

By completing the core and optional units, you can gain general sought-after skills, including:

• how to collect, describe and visualise data;
• how to build quantitative models to explain phenomena;
• how to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of policies;
• how to map and analyse complex social networks;
• how to implement key machine learning algorithms;
• how to implement data analytic techniques and data science algorithms using statistical software including R, as well as proprietary packages such as SPSS.

The pathway emphasises the application of modern data analytic methods to real life problems, although you will have the opportunity to learn some of the underlying theory, to progress further in your career to more advanced postgraduate courses and to more challenging scenarios in policy and industry.

You apply in year 1 to boost your employability through a paid Professional Experience Year.

If you meet the criteria, the Professional Experience Team and Careers Service will work with you to find a suitable placement in your 2nd year.

You will then complete your Professional Experience Year in 3rd year extending your degree to four years, before returning to University to finish your final year.

Your degree title will be extended to include 'with Professional Experience', giving you the added advantage of relevant work experience when entering the competitive graduate jobs market.

Paid placement opportunity

You can apply for a paid Q-Step internship between Year 2 and 3.

Study abroad

If you would like to broaden your horizons and your degree, you can apply to study overseas for a year at one of our partner universities. You apply in Year 2 to spend a year abroad in Year 3. If successful, you will put together a programme of study at the host university in consultation with your Academic Exchange Advisor, to complement your studies at Manchester. You will then come back to Manchester to study for a fourth year and graduate with a degree title including ‘with International Study'. See The University of Manchester Study Abroad pages for more information, including eligibility criteria, destinations, costs and funding.

Course units feature formal lectures supported by smaller tutorials or seminars where you explore the contents of lectures and recommended reading in greater depth.

Tutorials and seminars are key to improving your written and oral communication skills through group discussions, essay-writing, and presentations.

You are assigned an Academic Advisor who can advise you on selecting course units and career opportunities.

The range of methods is designed to promote in-depth learning and understanding, including:

• essays, coursework and other mid-term evaluations;
• dissertations;
• presentations and group projects;
• exams.

Graduates pursue a variety of careers including journalism and the media, charities, consultancy, civil service, finance, marketing, social work, teaching, the law and postgraduate study. Recent examples include:

• AXA; 
• Barclays; 
• the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the Houses of Parliament, the Ministry of Justice; 
• the United Nations; 
• the Centre for Social Justice; 
• Google;
• the Foreign and Commonwealth Office;
• Teach First.

We work with students and the Careers Service to embed employability into our courses through specific careers and networking events.

You can also boost your employability by choosing course units in Year 2 from the University College for Interdisciplinary Learning

Find out more on the careers and employability page