A level offer – A*AA.
If you would like to study:
Economics, an A in A level Mathematics is required.
English Literature, History or Music a grade A at A level (or equivalent) is required in the subject.
Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Russian or Spanish at an advanced level, a grade A at A level (or equivalent) in the language is required.
Arabic, German, Italian, Russian or Spanish ab initio, a grade A at A level (or equivalent) in any modern foreign language is required.
Chinese or Japanese ab initio, a grade A at A level (or equivalent) in a modern foreign language is desirable but not essential.
BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma/OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma – D*DD and subject specific A levels (or equivalent) as above.
IB Diploma score – 38 with 666 in higher level subjects. There are also higher level subject requirements. Students wishing to study the subjects listed above would need to achieve Higher Level grade 6 in the subject. For students wishing to study Economics we are happy to accept either Higher Level grade 6 or Standard Level grade 7 in Mathematics. Mathematical Studies is not acceptable.
After we have received your application we will send you a link, which you will need to follow to submit your subject choices. We will use this information to establish that you have satisfied, or will satisfy, any special requirements for studying these subjects, and to assist us in the evaluation of your personal statement.
In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note:
We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or who may have had a break in their study.
We are happy to consider applications for deferred entry.
If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take an International Foundation Year pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre.
IELTS for UKVI 5.0 (5.0 in reading and writing, minimum of 4.5 in all other skills)
Combined Honours in Social Sciences provides fantastic flexibility and choice across Durham’s breadth of world-renowned research-led education, allowing you to create a bespoke, academically ambitious degree suited to your individual interests, strengths and career plans.
Our Combined Honours degree enables you to choose modules from two, three or even four subjects, enabling you to develop your expertise or to explore new interests. The course provides a flexible, multidisciplinary framework with the opportunity to spend a year abroad or on a work placement, preparing you for your career ambitions.
You will be focusing on subjects in the Social Sciences, but you can take up to half of your credits in the Arts and Humanities.
In the Social Sciences, the subjects currently available to you are:
Anthropology
Archaeology
Business
Economics
Education
Geography
International Relations
Politics
Sociology and Criminology
Sport.
Please note it is not possible to study Business and Economics alone or Politics and International Relations alone – for these combinations you would need to look at courses offered by the Business School or School of Government and International Affairs, respectively.
UCAS code: LMV0
More info: Click here
Year 1
In your first year, you will choose 120 credits (typically six 20 credit modules) from two, three or four subjects.
Year 2
In your second year, you will choose 120 credits from two, three or four subjects.
Year 3
(Year 4 if undertaking a Year Abroad)
In your final year, you will undertake a major Research Project, and choose additional modules up to a total of 120 from two or three subjects.
Social Sciences subjects
Department of Anthropology
Anthropology offers pathways in cultural anthropology and physical anthropology, and a range of modules concerned with material culture, the physical and social evolution of humans, and topics such as medical anthropology and development anthropology.
Department of Archaeology
Archaeology provides the opportunity to focus on particular periods and places, through prehistoric archaeology, Roman archaeology, medieval and post-medieval archaeology, and the archaeology of Britain, Europe, Egypt, India, and the Near East, and also to study the employment of scientific methods in archaeology.
Business School
A series of modules focusing on entrepreneurship, management, and governance. Economics offers the opportunity to study microeconomics and macroeconomics, and topics such as the history of economic thought, environmental economics, development economics, monetary economics, and the economics of social policy.
School of Education
Education offers the opportunity to study central issues in school and higher education, involving the study of the historical, philosophical, psychological, sociological, and political dimensions of educational theory and practice, and the development of the social sciences in the modern and postmodern periods.
Department of Geography
Geography offers a pathway in human geography, and a range of modules concerned with geographical theory and methods and special topics such as urban transformation, environmental change, development, and hazard and risk.
School of Government and International Affairs
Politics and International Relations offers the opportunity to study politics, in Europe, the USA, the Middle East, and the Far East, the history of political thought, comparative government, international relations, with a special emphasis on the Middle East and the Far East, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.
Department of Sociology
Sociology offers the opportunity to study modules in sociology, including theories and methods, social structures, social policy, social exclusion, and the sociology of health, the city, and popular music, and in criminology, including theories and methods, crime and deviance, policing, sociology of punishment, and the criminal justice system.
Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences
Sport offers a series of modules on the sociology of sport and on sport and social policy.
Arts and Humanities subjects
Department of Classics and Ancient History
Classics and Ancient History offers the opportunity to study, in translation, the history, philosophy, literature and culture of the ancient world, and to study Greek and Latin at several different levels, opening up the literature of the Greek and Roman worlds in their original languages.
Department of English Studies
English Literature offers the opportunity to study specific literary genres, including poetry, drama, and the novel, and the literatures of specific periods, including Medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, Victorian, and Modern Literature, as well as studies in the theory and practice of literary criticism.
Department of History
History offers the opportunity to study medieval, early modern, and late modern history, through a range of modules in economic, social, religious, cultural, political, and diplomatic history, focusing on Britain, continental Europe, Africa, China, and the USA.
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
The principal languages are Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish, and each offers core language modules and ‘culture’ modules which cover a broad range of themes in history, politics, literature, film, the media, linguistics, translation, and interpreting.
Students who are not specialising in one or more modern languages can study a number of languages, currently including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish, at various levels, from beginners’ to advanced level, in the School’s Centre for Foreign Language Study (CFLS).
Department of Music
Music offers the opportunity to study musicology, including the history of music, music theory and analysis, and ethnomusicology, and, where these are studied alongside musicology, performance, composition, and other practice-based disciplines.
Department of Philosophy
Philosophy offers the opportunity to study many of the principal philosophical disciplines, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics, and also the history and philosophy of science and medicine.
Department of Theology and Religion
Theology and Religious Studies offers the opportunity to take modules in biblical studies, Christian theology, including the history of theology, contemporary theology, the philosophy of religion, and ethics, and religious studies, including the sociology and anthropology of religion.
Visual Art
Visual Art combines high-level critical and historical study of visual arts and film with a range of practical skills.
Your choice of modules is subject to availability, timetable constraints, and the approval of the Director of Combined Honours in Social Sciences. You will also need to meet subject-specific requirements.
Placement Year
You may have the opportunity to undertake an optional placement year during your time at Durham. Similarly to the ‘Year Abroad’, this will extend your degree by a year and take place between your second and final year. Supported by the Faculty Placement Officer, you are encouraged to secure an opportunity which aligns with your broader career aspirations and compliments your degree. Due to the flexibility of the degree, Combined Social Science students are in a strong position to work for a range of organisations from multi-national corporations, government agencies, NGOs and small businesses. Suitable placement opportunities can take place in the UK or internationally meaning that you are still able to have a global experience during your degree. The Combined Honours Staff, Faculty Placement Officer and Careers and Enterprise Centre support you before, during and after your placement year.
We review course structures and core content (in light of e.g. external and student feedback) every year, and will publish finalised core requirements for 2020 entry from September 2019.
Study Abroad
Combined Honours in Social Sciences
The Year Abroad (Modern Languages)
If, in the first year, you are taking Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish, and you intend to continue studying one or more of these languages throughout your degree, you will insert a ‘Year Abroad’ into your course of study between your second year and your final year. The Year Abroad offers you an opportunity to study at a university, or to teach English in a secondary school, or to undertake an internship, in a wide variety of locations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America. You will be transferred from the three-year to the four-year version of your degree course at the end of your first year, giving you over a year in which to plan the Year Abroad, in consultation with your advisers in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. If, however, you later decide to stop studying a language, at the end of your second year, you will transfer back to the three-year version of the course.
Alternatively, you can study a language through the School’s Centre for Foreign Language Study (CFLS). The Centre teaches a number of European and Asian languages at beginners’, intermediate, and advanced levels but these do not lead to a Year Abroad.
Other opportunities for Study Abroad
We have established exchanges with many international partner universities, and opportunities for you to spend a year studying abroad are now multiplying as more and more of these exchanges are created. Combined Social Sciences students are in a particularly good position to take advantage of these opportunities, since you are studying several subjects, and would, therefore, be ‘at home’ studying in universities throughout much of the English-speaking world. You must compete for Study Abroad places, and so it is not possible to guarantee that everyone who wishes to study in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Australia, for example, will be able to do so as part of their course. If early in the second year, you are offered a Study Abroad place, you will be transferred from the three-year to the four-year version of your degree, and spend your third year studying abroad before returning to Durham for your fourth and final year.
Placement Year
All Combined Social Sciences students have the opportunity to undertake an optional placement year during their time at Durham. Similarly to the ‘Year Abroad’, this will extend your degree by a year and take place between your second and final year extending your degree to four years. Supported by the Faculty Placement Officer, you will be encouraged to secure an opportunity which aligns with your broader career aspirations and compliments your degree. Due to the flexibility of the degree, Combined Social Science students are in a strong position to work for a range of organisations from multi-national corporations, government agencies, NGOs and small businesses. Suitable placement opportunities can take place in the UK or internationally meaning that students are still able to have a global experience during their degree. The Combined Honours Staff, Faculty Placement Officer and Careers and Enterprise Centre support students before, during and after their placement year and students retain their student status for the year on placement.
Placement Year
You may be able to take a work placement.
Combined Honours in Social Sciences
Of those students who graduated in 2018:
91% are in paid employment or further study 15 months after graduation across all our programmes
Of those in employment:
86% are in a professional or managerial job
Average salary of £27,000.
InsuranceFee: 624 GBP
