Subject area: Social Policy

Introducing Social Policy

Social policy at the University of Edinburgh will enable you to engage with confidence in many of the political debates of our time.

We cover a wide array of policy areas, for example:

• health
• welfare
• labour markets
• education
• family and childhood

We also discuss how policies affect our civic culture through studying political engagement and citizen participation.

Our programme will equip you with the knowledge to understand how policies affect society and the economy. It will also enable you to critically assess how policies are made and what actors and processes influence the policy-making process.

Our degrees are for students who are interested in how political actions affect the real lives of people. Our programmes are designed to foster critical thinking about policy to ensure you are able to look beyond news headlines and understand in detail why certain political decisions are taken and what their impact may be.

You will be taught by staff members who are passionate about conducting research that has strong applications to the world outside of academia.

We work closely with:

• governments
• non-government organisations (NGOs)
• third sector organisations
• interest representation groups
• international organisations
• other external actors

International comparative analyses are one of our main strengths and we place a strong emphasis on providing you with empirical research skills, so that you can become a critical researcher yourself.

Take a social policy degree at the University of Edinburgh and you will be challenged to re-evaluate how you look at politics, society and the economy with the ability to improve others’ understanding as well.