Social Policy Analysis

What is this Structured Elective about?
Social Policy is focused on generating evidence-based understandings of social problems and devising evidence-based policy responses. This discipline also incorporates the historical and comparative study of responses to social problems by governments and other actors including: households, non-governmental organisations and the market sector and examines how social problems and policy responses are shaped by the political, social and economic context.

Why should I take this Structured Elective?
It will provide a platform for the further development of this subject outside the BSocSc in Social Policy and Sociology and enable students who are not registered to this degree to study social policy and thereby gain the significant academic and job market benefits outlined below.


How would this Structured Elective benefit me?
Social policy provides knowledge and skills which are relevant to a large number of professions, including: policy making and research, the civil service and the health and social professions. In addition, there are very significant synergies between social policy and the other social science subjects, particularly: politics and international relations, geography, economics, sociology and planning and environmental policy. Social policy is directly relevant to several legal specialisms such as family and human rights law, to the health professions such as nursing and to humanities subjects such as history.

How do I take the modules in this Structured Elective?

• Structured Electives are available to undergraduate students only.
• In order to earn this Structured Elective you must take the specified modules in or after 2019/20.
• To be awarded this Structured Elective you must take 15 credits from the list of modules outlined below. You will not be awarded this Structured Elective if you are graduating with a major or minor listed in the Eligibility section below.
• Students who successfully complete 15 credits in Social Policy Analysis will have this automatically noted on their final UCD degree transcript. The transcript will state that you have completed 'Structured Elective in Social Policy Analysis', in addition to your main degree subjects.

Eligibility

You will be ineligible to be awarded this Structured Elective if you are graduating with any of the degrees listed below.