Business and Sociology

Course outline

This course is designed to develop your sociological analysis and research skills and a comprehensive understanding of the various functions of management. 

You will develop an informed understanding of the major debates shaping today’s society, and cultivate a wider ‘sociological imagination’ of the contemporary world. You will establish foundations in sociological approaches to gender, ‘race’, class and sexuality. This will feed into higher level courses that deal with more complex issues including the relationship between science and ‘race’, reproductive politics, environmental justice and media power.

You’ll study the theories, principles and underlying concepts of the main functions of management and develop a strong understanding of business models and processes. You’ll examine how strategic decision-making within organisations takes place, and develop the ability to recognise and analyse the economic, technical, financial, social and organisational parameters within which modern managers make decisions.

Your placement year will give you the opportunity to apply your key skills and competencies within a real work-based situation.

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Subject Guide

Sociology & Business students take 120 credits of modules per year, 60 from business modules and 60 from sociology modules. A 10 credit module comprises approximately 100 learning hours and has up to three contact hours per week.

During your second and final years you have the opportunity to specialise in the areas of business and sociology of particular interest and relevance to your career.

Year 1

• Classical Social Theory I

• Classical Social Theory II

• Identities and Inequalities (20 credit module)

• Research methods (20 credit module)

• Quantitative Methods
  
• Organisational Behaviour

• Principles of Financial Accounting

• Economic Environment of Business

• IT for Business
  

• Critical Perspectives on Business & Management
  

Year 2

Sociology
You will study two core modules, and select two elective modules.

• Contemporary Social Theory (20 credit core module)

• Qualitative Research Methods (20 credit core module)

• Global Society (Elective module)

• Sociology of Racism (Elective module)

• CSI: Crime, Subversion and Injustice (Elective module)

• Technology and Social Theory (Elective module)

Business
You will study two core modules, and select two or three elective modules (up to 30 credits).

• Business Policy (Core module)

• Business Game (Core module)

• Marketing (Core module)

• Theories & Practice of Human Resource Management (20 credit elective module)

• Psychology & Work (20 credit elective module)

• Effective Teamwork (Elective module)

• Developing Creativity at Work (Elective module)

• Business Economics (Elective module)

• Technology and Social Theory (Elective module)

Placement year

At Aston the placement year is an integral part of your course, and contributes to your final grade. Find out more about the Sociology & Business placement year.

Final year

Sociology
You will study one core module worth 20 credits, and select elective modules worth 40 credits.

• Final Year Project (20 credit core module)

• Health Matters (20 credit elective module)

• Risk, Environment and Society* (20 credit elective module)

• Sociology of Work and Society* (Elective module)

• Racism, class and gender* (Elective module)

• Sociology of Education* (Elective module)

• Contemporary Social Movements* (Elective module)

• Sport, Politics and Culture* (Elective module)

Business
You will study two core modules and select elective modules worth 40 credits. 

• Finance (Core module)

• Value Based Strategy (Core module)

• Making Managerial Decisions using Accounting Information  (20 credit elective module)

• Theories and Practice of Leadership (20 credit elective module)

• Psychology & Work (20 credit elective module)

• Marketing Psychology (20 credit elective module)

• International Marketing (20 credit elective module)

• International Operations (20 credit elective module)

• Effective Project Delivery (20 credit elective module)

• Entrepreneurial Management (20 credit elective module)

• Learning, Training and Development in Organisations (10 credit elective module)

• Global Working (10 credit elective module)

• Business Ethics (10 credit elective module)

• International Business Economics (10 credit elective module)

Learning, teaching & assessment

You will participate in lectures, tutorials, seminars, group and individual project work.  Traditional teaching is supported by a virtual learning environment that is used to host a range of electronic supporting materials.

The course deals with many topical issues, and as a result we try to incorporate current media coverage and public debates into class discussions and to link these to academic research and commentary wherever possible.

There is a much stronger emphasis on reading and on your own private, independent study than at pre-degree level. To help you manage your learning, we set out your work for the year in an online student guide. This includes full details of all modules including week-by-week lecture breakdowns, reading lists and all coursework assignments for the year with the relevant deadlines. The University offers training courses in study skills, and the Library’s Learning Development Centre provides one-to-one instruction, workshops and study guides for academic research and writing.

We use a range of assessment methods and most modules are assessed with a combination of coursework and an end of year examination. Coursework includes essays, research reports, individual and group projects, statistics assignments, class tests and both individual and group presentations.

For further information, see the programme specification (PDF).

Placement year

The placement year is an opportunity for you to set your studies in context and gain valuable professional experience. It is highly attractive to potential employers and many of our students are offered graduate jobs by their placement employer.

You can choose whether your placement has a business or a sociology focus and your may be in the UK or abroad. Placements taken by Aston students are generally paid, with the average salary being around £16,000.

In recent years our Joint Honours business and sociology degrees at Aston have undertaken placements in a variety of organisations, including:

• Aston Villa Football Club

• Behavioural Support Centres

• British Energy

• Children’s Society

• Civil Service

• Ford

• Home Office

• Marks and Spencer

• NHS

• People and Planet

• Pupil referral units

• Suffolk Youth Offending Service

• University research and study placements (UK, US, Australia, Finland and Singapore)

You'll receive plenty of help and advice in finding your placement and specialist support and supervision from the University during your placement.

Find out more about placement years at Aston.

Career prospects

Our Sociology & Business graduates go on to pursue a very wide range of career paths. Graduates enter business and commercial careers, caring and social careers, teaching and local government careers and many others. Progression rate to a first job is very high for Aston students and career prospects are good.

Our graduates are in demand from a wide range of employers where a sound understanding of
organisations, management, team work and communication skills are essential. 

Our Sociology & Sociology programme prepares you for many careers in both the public and private sector - for example advertising, management consultancy, caring and social careers, human resources management or teaching. 

The growth of the service sector puts Sociology & Business graduates at a  premium – they have insight into motivation and behaviour and know about people, relationships and community dynamics. Our graduates have excellent communication and teamwork skills, are critical and analytic and can design, conduct and analyse and evaluate research. As a manager you will be a problem solver, planner and leader, and this course aims to prepare you for these challenges.

Graduate destinations 

Graduates who have studied a Joint Honours business or sociology course, have a strong track record in finding jobs and have gone on to work in organisations including: 

• Housing Officer, Wychavon District Council

• Support Worker, Future Homecare

• Graduate Management Trainees at a variety of companies including Lloyds Bank, local government, Nestlé, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte  

• Graduate Buyer, Carillion

• Theatrical Marketing, Warner Brothers

• Case Worker, Crown Prosecution Service

• Trainee Teacher, Castle Vale School

• PGCE – Primary, Secondary, College Teaching

• Management Trainee for the NHS

• Finance Officer, English Heritage

• Police Constable

• Marketing Assistants (variety of companies)

• Financial Analyst, IBM

Personal development

This course is designed to also give you a range of transferable and practical skills to succeed within your chosen career. We make extensive use of group working and presentations to prepare you for the reality of working life. Such work develops your team working and negotiating skills.

Our placement year gives you the opportunity to gain practical work experience that is invaluable in developing an appreciation of issues which cannot be replicated in the lecture room.

Facilities & equipment

In the Business School, teaching rooms and facilities have also been recently refurbished. All lecture theatres and seminar rooms are fully equipped with the latest teaching aids and extensive use is made of our Virtual Learning Environment to help support your studies. 

The School of Languages and Social Sciences has a dedicated student room, the ‘Cadbury
Room’, with social seating, study stations and meeting tables, WiFi, networked printing and
photocopying facilities.

As a Sociology student you'll have access to a wide range of resources for study and research, including access to thousands of online journals, books and databases; computer labs equipped with SPSS and NVivo data analysis software; and a dedicated learning technologies team that supports student research and creative production.

You are encouraged to borrow from our stock of research equipment, including video and digital voice recorders. You can sign up for workshops which focus on techniques of interviewing, conducting recorded focus groups, analysing audio and visual data, and
producing and editing video and audio media.

Teaching staff

Although based in the School of Languages & Social Sciences, this course is taught jointly with staff from Aston Business School.

Further information

For more information, please contact the Languages & Social Sciences Admissions Office on +44 (0) 121 204 3777 or lss_ugadmissions@aston.ac.uk.