BA Philosophy

This unit consists of a Dissertation, on a topic of your own choice, produced to a professional level of presentation, due in before the January examination period.

The unit aims to:

• Improve students' research, critical analysis, independent study, time-management and presentation skills;
• Provide students with the opportunity for one-to-one philosophical discussions with an appropriate supervisor;
• Allow students to specialise in a topic that interests them and to develop intellectual independence.

One to one supervision.

Students should be able to:

• Identify the main philosophical questions arising in relation to a major philosophical topic;
• Clearly articulate the main philosophical questions arising in relation to a major philosophical topic.

Students should be able to:

• Evaluate the claims and arguments relating to a major philosophical topic;
• Formulate sustained and cogent arguments for a conclusion;
• Raise and respond to objections;
• Produce an extended piece of philosophical writing, independently identifying and deploying appropriate resources.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools and technology to gather information, design and produce an extended piece of work, independently identifying and deploying appropriate resources.

Dissertation (6000 words) 100%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Learn more about student finance options for UK students.

Learn more about fees and finance for international students.

As an international student you may be eligible for our Global Futures Scholarships . This is open to students starting their studies in September 2026.