You will meet and work with others who will be embarking on a similar journey to your own, in an environment designed for adult learners. The course is designed for adults living in the local area and we don't ask for previous qualifications, and successful completion guarantees you a place on the University of Warwick’s part-time BA (Hons) Social Studies Degree

Learn more from the course tutor

Flexible entry requirements with consideration given for non-traditional qualifications, work and life experience. Applicants are interviewed by the course selector, and there will be a short written exercise.

Successful completion (good attendance and marks in assessed work) guarantees a place on the BA (Hons) Social Studies Degree.

• You can study part-time at your own pace around work and family commitments
• You will develop skills, knowledge and confidence to study at one of the top universities in the world
• The Gateway course is an equivalent level of study to Access or A-levels
• Successful completion (attendance throughout the programme and passing all 3 pieces of assessed work), guarantees a place on the BA (Hons) Social Studies Degree
• We will also endorse successful students who intend to apply to other universities

The course is intended to prepare you for higher education study by:

• Introducing key concepts within the social sciences
• Introducing important ‘social science’ disciplines
• Embedding key skills for HE study
• Visiting the University library and learning study skills such as referencing

This course develops from your own experiences – encouraging you to think about your own identity. The course looks at wider issues that impact on you – exploring themes around the local, the national and the global environment. We start by drawing very much from your personal experiences – using these experiences to introduce ‘academic’ ways of thinking and talking about familiar and local contexts. We then move onto wider social themes such as shopping, work, the environment, before widening still into global issues – challenging you to consider the relationship between the global and the local.

• Media
• Food
• Family
• Education
• Shopping
• Work
• Care
• Environment
• Migration
• Globalisation

Applications for the November Gateway are now open. Apply here.

Free course. View potential additional fees

For details of student funding for anyone who progresses on to our BA (Hons) Social Studies degree please visit the student funding webpages.

The next Gateway to HE will take place in November 2020. There will be a mixture of online and face-to-face teaching.

The first 3 weeks of the course will be online:

• Tuesday 24 November, 10-11:30am
• Tuesday 1 December, 10-11:30am
• Tuesday 8 December, 10-11:30am

After the Christmas vacation, sessions will take place on campus on Tuesdays from 10am-12:30pm. The sessions will run from Tuesday 12 January - Tuesday 30 March.

The final 4 sessions will then take place after the Easter break. The dates are as follows:

• Tuesday 27 April, 10am-12:30pm
• Tuesday 5 May, 10am-12:30pm
• Tuesday 11 May, 10am-12:30pm
• Tuesday 18 May, 10am-12:30pm

If you are considering making an application for the Gateway course, have a look at our application guidance page here