Peoples opinions on the university of York?

Original post by lilycgbcd

Hey everyone! What are peoples opinions of the university of York? I’m interested in studying social and political science there and I haven’t really heard much about it but I just wanted to get some answers from real people! Thank you :smile:

I’m not looking at going there but I put it down anyway as one of my 5 options. It’s a great university though. It’s a Russell group and is in the top 20 uk universities

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Belledior

I’m not looking at going there but I put it down anyway as one of my 5 options. It’s a great university though. It’s a Russell group and is in the top 20 uk universities

Hey! Thank you for replying! What are you planning on studying at uni? :smile:

Reply 3

Belledior

Original post by lilycgbcd

Hey! Thank you for replying! What are you planning on studying at uni? :smile:

I’m looking to do law. My opinions are Oxford, Durham, York, Newcastle and UCL :smile:

Reply 4

OP

Original post by Belledior

I’m looking to do law. My opinions are Oxford, Durham, York, Newcastle and UCL :smile:

Ahhh wow that sounds so cool! I would love to do something with law if I couldn’t do social and political sciences! How do you feel about year 13 exams :frown:

it’s been a rough year for you guys 🙈

Reply 5

Belledior

Original post by lilycgbcd

Ahhh wow that sounds so cool! I would love to do something with law if I couldn’t do social and political sciences! How do you feel about year 13 exams :frown:

it’s been a rough year for you guys 🙈

Honestly I’m feeling pretty good about them. Still think they should be cancelled since Wales cancelled there’s we are still competing with these people as well as those from last year who deferred their place and got A grades handed to them. Plus those in lower infected areas who have been in the class room much more than others. But hey we must all look on the bright side and I’m just grateful I haven’t lost anyone dear to me.

Reply 6

BlueEyedGirl_

Original post by lilycgbcd

Hey everyone! What are peoples opinions of the university of York? I’m interested in studying social and political science there and I haven’t really heard much about it but I just wanted to get some answers from real people! Thank you :smile:

Hi! I studied social and political sciences at York 2016-2019, and @CoffeeAndPolitics is currently studying that course so may be able to give a more up to date perspective (and may know more about how York is handling COVID etc). As a summary, I absolutely loved my time at York and really enjoyed the course because it’s so flexible. If you have any specific questions about the course or the university in general, then let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them :smile:

Reply 7

JT_888

20

Original post by BlueEyedGirl_

Hi! I studied social and political sciences at York 2016-2019, and @CoffeeAndPolitics is currently studying that course so may be able to give a more up to date perspective (and may know more about how York is handling COVID etc). As a summary, I absolutely loved my time at York and really enjoyed the course because it’s so flexible. If you have any specific questions about the course or the university in general, then let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them :smile:

Thanks for the tag. :smile:

@lilycgbcd Social and Political Sciences (SPS) is indeed a very flexible course as you get to study across different departments (philosophy, politics, sociology and social policy). The course information on the uni's website is a bit dated, but there are 4 core modules for straight SPS (not SPS with philosophy) in Year 1 with the new one being Contemporary Issues in SPS - it's been introduced to help students to better develop the skills required for multidisciplinary learning in the social sciences. In Year 2, we have switched the teaching of research methods to social policy as they use SPSS which is better supported in terms of multidisciplinary learning in the social sciences.

As for my thoughts about the course, I really enjoy it and I like the flexibility in terms of module choices in Years 2 and 3. In normal times, the department would also run SPS Forums where we would get in a speaker (usually external) to talk about an interesting topic with the whole department together and the department also provides decent refreshments - basically fancy snacks, soft drinks and wine. There's also the SPS Society which you can get involved with - so far this academic year, most societies have struggled to engage people due to Covid, but we've tried our best to run socials such as coffee chats, speaker events and games nights. In my first year, the society hosted a wine and cheese night and a curry night which was great fun.

I hope all of this information is useful. Happy to answer further questions about SPS and/York in general.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Belledior

Honestly I’m feeling pretty good about them. Still think they should be cancelled since Wales cancelled there’s we are still competing with these people as well as those from last year who deferred their place and got A grades handed to them. Plus those in lower infected areas who have been in the class room much more than others. But hey we must all look on the bright side and I’m just grateful I haven’t lost anyone dear to me.

Yeah I totally agree with you, the amount of year 13s I have seen on tiktok and they look awfully stressed I can’t imagine it :frown:

I love your optimism!

Reply 9

OP

Original post by BlueEyedGirl_

Hi! I studied social and political sciences at York 2016-2019, and @CoffeeAndPolitics is currently studying that course so may be able to give a more up to date perspective (and may know more about how York is handling COVID etc). As a summary, I absolutely loved my time at York and really enjoyed the course because it’s so flexible. If you have any specific questions about the course or the university in general, then let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them :smile:

Hey thank you for replying! What are you doing now you have finished your degree? Is there a lot of options post graduation? :smile:

Reply 10

OP

Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics

Thanks for the tag. :smile:

@lilycgbcd Social and Political Sciences (SPS) is indeed a very flexible course as you get to study across different departments (philosophy, politics, sociology and social policy). The course information on the uni's website is a bit dated, but there are 4 core modules for straight SPS (not SPS with philosophy) in Year 1 with the new one being Contemporary Issues in SPS - it's been introduced to help students to better develop the skills required for multidisciplinary learning in the social sciences. In Year 2, we have switched the teaching of research methods to social policy as they use SPSS which is better supported in terms of multidisciplinary learning in the social sciences.

As for my thoughts about the course, I really enjoy it and I like the flexibility in terms of module choices in Years 2 and 3. In normal times, the department would also run SPS Forums where we would get in a speaker (usually external) to talk about an interesting topic with the whole department together and the department also provides decent refreshments - basically fancy snacks, soft drinks and wine. There's also the SPS Society which you can get involved with - so far this academic year, most societies have struggled to engage people due to Covid, but we've tried our best to run socials such as coffee chats, speaker events and games nights. In my first year, the society hosted a wine and cheese night and a curry night which was great fun.

I hope all of this information is useful. Happy to answer further questions about SPS and/York in general.

Hey! Thank you so much for replying! I’m just checking does it have a psychological, criminology side to the course? The thing that drew me to it was that it has a mixture of different topics, I also really enjoyed R.E in secondary school and am currently studying Psychology, Sociology and health and social care in sixth form which I really enjoy so I wondered if they were sort of linked to the course? :smile:

Reply 11

JT_888

20

Original post by lilycgbcd

Hey! Thank you so much for replying! I’m just checking does it have a psychological, criminology side to the course? The thing that drew me to it was that it has a mixture of different topics, I also really enjoyed R.E in secondary school and am currently studying Psychology, Sociology and health and social care in sixth form which I really enjoy so I wondered if they were sort of linked to the course? :smile:

No worries. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there's not much of a psychological side to the course aside from a small handful of sociology modules in Years 2 and 3 which might focus on that a little. There is definitely a criminology side to the course in Years 2 and 3, in particular in your final year there's a lot of specific topics you could specialise in, e.g. understanding vulnerability, deviance and social control, etc

As for how the course is structured, there is a small caveat in Year 2 whereby it is recommended that you pick 3 option modules in each department (politics, sociology and sociology), but it is possible to choose 2 option modules from the same department. However, it means that you must choose at least 1 option module from the department you didn't choose an option module for in Year 2 - I fall into this example currently as I'm taking 2 option modules in social policy + 1 option module in politics which means I must choose at least 1 option module in sociology in Year 3.

Another thing I would say openly is that there may be further restructuring to the course for 2021/22 as I know the department is keen to further improve the course, but atm, I don't know for definite.

P.S. I was struggling to decide what option modules to pick for this year and actually had a meeting with the Head of Department which really helped - what you want to do is pick modules that have some parallels to each other if possible and not just choose any modules which are completely different to each other. E.g. I'm doing Politics in the UK and The Policy Process this year and there are some overlaps. This is something your academic supervisor might be able to help with as well. :smile:

Reply 12

BlueEyedGirl_