Courses and structure

Credits and levels of learning

An undergraduate honours degree is made up of 360 credits – 120 at Level 4, 120 at Level 5 and 120 at Level 6. If you are a full-time student, you will usually take Level 4 courses in the first year, Level 5 in the second, and Level 6 courses in your final year. A standard course is worth 30 credits. Some programmes also contain 15-credit half courses or can be made up of higher-value parts, such as a dissertation or a Major Project.

Teaching

Teaching is by lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. You're assigned a personal tutor, who also acts as an academic tutor. Tutors oversee your academic work and progress over the year. In the third year, most students undertake a Dissertation on a subject of their choice, for which they receive supervision.

Assessment

Assessment is through a combination of examinations, pre-released examinations, assessed course work and projects.

Level 6

At Level 6 you take a core Sociology course (Theorising Contemporary Society - 15 credits) and then choose two Sociology Options. 

You also select two Anthropology Options from the following list:

• Anthropology of Art (15 credits)
• Anthropology of Development (15 credits)
• Anthropology and the Environment (15 credits)
• Anthropology of Europe (15 credits)
• Anthropology and Gender Theory (15 credits)
• Anthropology of Human-Animal Relations (15 credits)
• Anthropology of Rights (15 credits)
• Anthropology and the Visual: Production Course (15 credits)
• Gender Theory in Practice (15 credits)
• Health, Medicine and Social Power (15 credits)
• Psychological Perspectives in Anthropology (15 credits)
• Urban Anthropology (15 credits)
  
  The balance of Level 6 is made up of Options chosen from departments. You may also choose to do a Dissertation in Sociology or Anthropology. College regulations determine the exact balance of courses between the departments and these are explained carefully when you make your third-year choices.

Learning and teaching

On this degree you'll attend lectures and seminars where you'll hear about ideas and concepts related to specific topics, and where you'll be encouraged to discuss and debate the issues raised. This will enhance your academic knowledge of the subject, and will improve your communication skills.

But this is just a small proportion of what we expect you to do on the degree. For each hour of taught learning in lectures and seminars, we expect you to complete another 5-6 hours of independent study. This typically involves carrying out required and additional reading, preparing topics for discussion, or producing essays or project work.

This emphasis on independent learning is very important at Goldsmiths. We don't just want you to accept what we tell you without question. We want you to be inspired to read more, to develop your own ideas, and to find the evidence that will back them up. Independent study requires excellent motivation and time management skills. These skills will stay with you for life, and are the kind of transferable skills that are highly sought after by employers. 

Learning and teaching on this degree will take place through:

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Tutorials
• Independent learning
• Presentations
• Assessments

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Find out more about these learning and teaching approaches.

Skills and careers

Skills

The BA Anthropology and Sociology programme will help you develop the following skills:

• an understanding of human behaviour and organisation
• an understanding of current and emerging concepts and theoretical approaches that are central to sociology and anthropology
• the ability to examine how social, public and civic policy can be influenced by sociological knowledge
• the ability to investigate, appraise and communicate empirical information
• research and problem-solving skills
• communication skills

Careers

This degree enables graduates to go on to a wide range of careers, covering areas including:

• social and community work
• teaching
• business and management
• the media
• the public sector
• the voluntary and charitable sector

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• Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths

About the Department of Anthropology

What is normal?

It’s what anthropology is all about.

Anthropology is a critical science that studies what it means to be human in different parts of the world. And at Goldsmiths it’s fast and it’s contemporary. We focus on how anthropology can help us understand society and our place within it, by applying anthropology as a local and global lens to explore everything from myth and ritual to new technologies.

As a department we’re interested in pushing the discipline forward – we’re known for pioneering new fields including visual anthropology and the anthropology of modernity – so as a student here you’ll get the chance to specialise in unique areas and look at subjects you can’t study elsewhere.

We want you to graduate with an anthropology degree that has weight in the real world so we make sure you learn anthropology’s core methods and theories together with specialist subject areas relevant to contemporary public life. It’s why our research, cited as ‘internationally excellent’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, is policy-oriented and addresses everyday issues in areas as diverse as urban planning, development, emotions and aesthetics, and new social movements.

Why study Anthropology at Goldsmiths?

• The Department of Anthropology is exciting and multi-disciplinary, with specialists in a huge variety of areas of research
• We're one of the most consistently innovative departments in Britain, and have been at the forefront of new fields in the discipline, including visual anthropology, the anthropology of development and rights, and the anthropology of media
• We look at the subject from a contemporary perspective, which means that what you learn in the classroom will be relevant in a variety of public domains, in Britain and elsewhere
• We currently have 16 permanent members of teaching staff and three administrative staff, as well as a large group of visiting tutors, and research fellows working on a range of exciting projects
• We have approximately 250 undergraduate students, plus 80 Masters and 40 research postgraduate students
• We also have close links with other departments and research centres at Goldsmiths, including the Centre for Cultural Studies, the Centre for Urban and Community Research, the Centre for the Study of the Balkans, Sociology, Psychology, History, Media and Communications, and Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies
• As a University of London student, you'll have the opportunity to attend seminars and courses throughout the University’s colleges and institutions, and can make use of the excellent library facilities at Senate House and fellow colleges

We have wide-ranging research links with other institutions, and our areas of specialisation include:

• the environment
• peasantries
• post-socialism
• kinship
• gender
• animals
• medicine health and the body
• anthropology of science and biotechnology
• visual anthropology
• development and rights
• representation
• material and popular culture
• cultural politics
• neo-colonialisms
• postcolonialisms
• history

Staff research interests cover many geographical regions including Latin America, North America, Africa, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe, including Britain.

About the department

Sociology

Discover different sides of life

Sociology studies the relationship between social structures and social actions. We study how people make their own histories but never under circumstances of their own choosing. Sociology at Goldsmiths is active, contemporary and inventive. We are as interested in the ‘global’ issues of poverty and injustice as we are in the ‘micro’ issues of identity and presentation of self. Sociology is a craft, a vocation and to study and engage with the subject can be transformative; once you have acquired a sociological imagination the world will never be the same for you again.

As a department we are interested in pushing the discipline forward. We are proud to be the joint top university for sociology in the UK (Research Assessment Exercise 2008) and we are known for pioneering ‘Live Sociology’ - focusing on contemporary issues, using innovative methods and celebrating the sociological imagination. It is an approach driven by our international research and it means that as a student here, you can delve into a whole host of topics; many you will be familiar with from previous study – class and stratification, race, gender, power - but much of which will be new – the digital, the body, culture and cities.

We want you to graduate with a sociology degree that has weight in the real world so we make sure you learn how to apply sociology’s core methods to particular areas of life now. Our courses are hands-on – giving you the opportunity to research and record an environment, create and analyse your own data, and draw your own conclusions. And you can apply the skills of sociological study to many careers – our graduates go on to work in a whole range of settings from research institutes to major record labels. 

Why choose Sociology at Goldsmiths?

We’re welcoming. Come and let us know what you think and learn through a combination of lectures, small group seminars, practical workshops and field trips, and from an approachable team of expert staff, many of whom have won awards for their teaching.

We are experimental. As a student here you can test out your ideas and get involved in the latest developments within the field. Because all of our staff teach their own specialisms, you find out about the latest research first.

We are active. This means you won’t be synthesising existing information but you will be generating data of your own, conducting your own primary research, and experiencing what it means to be a sociologist now.

At Goldsmiths you can:

• Choose from five undergraduate degrees covering areas from media and sociology to the social and political sciences

• Be part of an internationally recognised department whose research was rated ‘world class’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise

• Access unrivalled University of London research libraries, and gain a reader’s ticket to The British Library

• Engage with a programme that draws on a range of interdisciplinary subjects and looks at a whole range of areas from the technologies of medicine, to media, advertising and branding, and bodies.

• Be part of an international learning environment where everyone offers their own unique point of view

• Debate with academics who are experts in their field, published authors and media commentators in their own right

• Set up your own work placement to apply your skills in practice

• Access a range of research partners from UNICEF to Amnesty International, and from Intel to the BBC

Staff

The Department has 28 full-time academic staff, including nine Professors and nine professional staff, as well as part-time and research staff. We also have a number of visiting tutors.

We publish widely in the form of books, contributions to journals, and press articles. This means that you'll be taught by staff who are actually shaping the discipline.

Find out more about staff in the Department of Sociology. 

Facilities

In addition to extensive computing facilities, the Department co-ordinates a programme of talks featuring visiting lecturers from other universities. These talks cover specific areas of interest, and supplement events held by academics within the Department.

Find out more about Goldsmiths

• Student life
• Campus life
• Facilities
• Open days

Graduate profiles