Our students take such skills into a wide variety of professions, such as teaching, research, politics, public administration, the social and health services, advertising, journalism, other areas of the media, law, publishing, industry, accounting, marketing, personnel and management. This programme covers the most significant recent developments in sociology and enables students to specialise in particular areas, developing their critical skills and advancing their knowledge of modern sociology. You will be advised on the dissertation topic by your personal tutor, in conjunction with the MSc course tutor. You choose the topic which can be empirical or theoretical in its approach. The dissertation gives you the opportunity of thinking sociologically and at length on a sociological problem, issue or debate within sociology itself.
Crime is studied by criminology, sociology or law and dealt with by the criminal justice system.
Politics and Human Rights are studied by political science, history or international relations. This course explores connections between these areas, eg crime as a political issue, the boundary between criminal and political, 'crimes of the state' or 'gross human rights violations', democratisation and justice in transition. Rise of fundamentalism, and the New Age questions the claim that religion is no longer important in modern society. There are group and individual visits to meetings of different religions. Issues include brainwashing, defection, charismatic leadership, violence, reactions from the media, anti-cult movements.