Education and Sociology

We will consider students who have taken GCE A Level examinations or the International Baccalaureate (IB). Holders of the Tawjihi are not normally eligible for direct entry onto our undergraduate programmes without completion of a suitable foundation programme, such as one of our foundation pathways.

Where can your Education degree take you?

Our award-winning Careers Network team can help you develop your career from the moment you arrive with us, through bespoke training and events. Careers Network support is tailored to your academic subject area, offering a specialist college team who can give you expert advice.

A University of Birmingham degree is highly sought after by employers as evidence of your ability to succeed in a demanding academic environment. Employers target Birmingham students for their drive, diversity, communication and problem-solving skills, their team-working abilities and cultural awareness, and our graduate employment statistics have continued to climb at a rate well above national trends. If you make the most of the wide range of services you will be able to develop your career from the moment you arrive.

Graduates from our Joint BA (Hons) Education and Sociology degree will gain comprehensive knowledge of two disciplines and will allow you to develop a range of skills and practical experience which will enable you to pursue either educational or sociological study at a higher level or to secure employment as educationalists or sociologists. Reasoning, communication and organisational skills acquired from this programme, and practiced in the context of two disciplines, are readily transferable to a large number of professions and other careers. 

Transferable skills include: 

• written communication developed through writing essays; 
• oral communication skills gained through reasoned debates during seminars and presentations;
• ability to work as part of a team, through collaborative group work;
• research and analytical skills with the ability to judge and evaluate information;
• organisational and time management skills by prioritising tasks to ensure academic, social and work commitments are completed on time; 
• negotiation, informally with peers and formally with staff;
• problem solving; 
• IT skills.

For all undergraduate courses at Birmingham, you apply online through UCAS. The UCAS website has lots of information and advice around the process.

Top tips for your UCAS application

• The University of Birmingham’s UCAS campus code number is B32.
• Check the application deadline for your chosen course as they aren’t all the same. This will make sure that your application reaches us in time to be considered. For entry in September 2023, the application deadline for most courses is Wednesday 25 January 2023; for Medicine and Dentistry, the deadline is 15 October 2022.
• A ‘firm choice’ is your first choice, and an ‘insurance choice’ is your backup.

How to make your application stand out and write a great personal statement

Your personal statement is your chance to convince admissions tutors to offer you a place on the courses you’re applying for. You should showcase your passion for your subject and show that you have the motivation and ambition to succeed.

At a glance

• Make sure your personal statement is relevant to the course(s) you're applying to
• Show your genuine interest in the course and that you have taken the time to properly find out what's involved
• Analyse your reading, activities, and work experience - don't just say what you've done and that you enjoyed it.

How to structure your personal statement

Everyone's personal statement should be different, so while it might be helpful to find templates on the internet or at school to get you started, you should make sure that you make it your own.

Here are a few tips to keep your statement structured and to the point:

At least 75% of your personal statement should be related to what you want to study, and why you want to study that subject.

• You need to tell us what it is about your chosen subject that interests you so much that you have chosen it above everything else. Show your passion, enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity.
• We like to see evidence that your interest is genuine. For example:
• Demonstrate that you have read more widely than just the set texts at school/college, and that you understand what the content of the course you’re applying for involves
• If your degree is related to a particular line of work, show that you have work experience in a relevant setting or can otherwise demonstrate that you understand what that career involves
• Show that you have given some thought to what you want to do after you have graduated (this is less important for degrees which are not vocational in nature, but can be useful for Admissions Tutors)
• When you write about your experiences or activities that are related to the subject or course (for example, work experience; extra reading; clubs or societies), don’t just tell us what you did or read, but analyse what you got out of those activities and how this has increased your knowledge or interest in the subject you are applying to study.

The remaining 25% of your statement should be about your other achievements. You don’t need to write a list of everything you have done at school, but we are interested to see if you have taken full advantage of the opportunities that have been available to you. For example:

• Have you held positions of responsibility?
• Have you been in school or higher-level sports teams?
• Have you taken part in school drama productions or debates?
• Have you helped to run school societies or clubs?
• Have you any community involvement or carried out volunteering?
• Have you had a part-time job?

Where you use these examples, you should demonstrate the skills and experiences that they have given you and how they will help you at university.