What will I learn?

Our Social Science IFP is designed to provide you with the knowledge and skills to be able to progress on to a wide range of related degree courses at university, including Sociology and Politics.

You'll be encouraged to develop your critical thinking skills and will learn how to analyse sources and present academic arguments. Throughout the course, you'll be given opportunities to further develop your communication skills and team-working ability - key skills required to be successful in undergraduate studies, as well as throughout your career.

How will I learn?

You will be taught through a combination of lectures and seminars, which is the same type of teaching you can expect at undergraduate level in the UK.

Lectures are where all students on a module are together (this can be up to 100 students on the IFP), and the academic tutor introduces the topic of study. Seminars are much smaller groups (typically no more than 15 students), where you have the opportunity to explore a subject in more detail with your academic tutor and classmates. In your seminars, you will be expected to engage in discussions and debates around the subject matter.

How will I be assessed?

Across your modules you will be assessed through a range of methods including essays, literature reviews, presentations and examinations.

The modules on this programme have been developed to give you a thorough preparation for a range of related undergraduate degrees.

Understanding Society
Our Understanding Society module aims to introduce you to the family of disciplines that constitute the social sciences. By providing you with a social science ‘toolkit’ to use to understand society and the world around us, the module should enable you to evaluate a variety of contemporary social issues and events in an interdisciplinary way. In applying the tools learned to a range of topics such as food, gender and migration, you will learn the key concepts and techniques required to be a successful undergraduate student of any social science discipline. You’ll be assessed in innovative and creative ways, across a variety of assessment types similar to those you may find at undergraduate level.

Politics and International Relations
This module will introduce you to the study of politics and international relations. It is divided into four interlinking parts. The first part challenges you to think about what politics is and where it can be found and engages the question of what is democracy. You’ll be introduced to the core political ideologies of liberalism, conservatism and socialism in the second part, and how these influence UK and international politics. Part three explores the UK political system, its key institutions and place in the global system, before the final part of the course introduces the most important theories of international relations and their application to contemporary global issues. You will leave the course with the ability to engage with scholarly debate in the subject of politics and international relations and to evaluate political issues and events in the national and global context.

Philosophy
The main aim of our Philosophy module is to provide a broad, introductory, critical overview of the core traditions in Philosophy, from the key thinkers to the key areas of philosophical argument. You will learn about a range of key philosophers and will become familiar with their written works and in doing so, will become confident with the language and logic of philosophical arguments. The module will also provide a range of opportunities for you to develop a variety of skills including critical thinking, essay writing, analysis and evaluation that will enable you to engage successfully in philosophical dialogue. The skills and knowledge gained through this module will help prepare you for a range of different degree level courses.

Our Inquiry and Research Skills for Social Science is a core module on this course, and is delivered in two parts to complement your other modules. The first part of this module looks at developing core research and inquiry skills including academic searching, using sources, teamwork, reflection and problem based learning inquiries. The second part of the module allows you to put everything you have learnt into practice through a research based project.

All students will also study an English for Academic Purposes module. This module is not about developing your conversational or everyday English skills; instead, it will develop your Academic English skills. You will consider how academic essays should be written, including looking at appropriate referencing and paraphrasing, as well as thinking about how presentations should be delivered in an academic context.

Please note that given the interval between the publication of these modules and enrolment, some of the information may change. You can find out more by reading our terms and conditions.

A list of our entry requirements, according to country, is available on our Application Information pages. If you have any questions about your qualifications and whether they are suitable for this course, please contact the team.

Students on this course would typically be looking to progress to a range of undergraduate degrees within the Social Sciences such as Politics, Sociology and Criminology.

Please note that if you wish to progress to BA/BSc Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) or BA/BSc Economics, Politics and International Studies (EPAIS), you may be required to take an extra Maths test alongside the IFP assessments.