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Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)

2025-26

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Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

3 years full-time

Entry requirements

A Level - BCC

BTEC - MMM

See full entry requirements

Places available (subject to change)

45

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About the course

Reasons to study

  1. You’ll gain real-world experience via a work placement in your third year; this potentially career-enhancing placement provides the opportunity to put your theoretical skills into practice. 
  2. You’ll be taught by a supportive and experienced teaching team, who have worked in a range of health and social care roles and will use their expertise to bring your Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) modules to life.
  3. To enhance your learning, you’ll hear first-hand experiences and viewpoints from service users and carers who are part of the Public Partnership Group.

 

From exploring different aspects of Health and Social Care to looking at how to assess needs, our Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) degree will also introduce you to law, social policy, assessment and care planning. On the course, you’ll explore your own values in relation to working with diverse groups, and you’ll engage in becoming a reflective practitioner.

Why study Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)

Introducing you to a wealth of post-university career opportunities, this course gives you the chance to put your theoretical skills into practice by undertaking a work placement in your third year. You may also have the opportunity to work and study abroad via the Turing Scheme. Supporting and enhancing your learning and increasing your future employability prospects, the placement could give you the chance to make useful industry contacts, as well as give you the edge when applying for a relevant role. You’ll have the opportunity to progress to careers in diverse areas, including youth work, housing, domestic violence, social prescribing, and drug and alcohol support. Alternatively, you could pursue further, Master’s level study to enter fields such as nursing, social work, and occupational therapy.

On campus, you’ll be taught by a supportive and experienced teaching team, who have worked in a range of health and social care roles. Bringing their teaching to life with real-life case studies, they will be on hand to guide you throughout the course, with everything from on-campus work to placements. You’ll be taught a wide variety of aspects of health and social care, from health and community development to social policy, residential health, and more. You’ll have the best chance of success on this course, as you’ll learn from the best. Our staff rank in the top three in England for the proportion who hold doctorates, who have higher degrees, and hold teaching qualifications (HESA 2022).

Not quite ready to start Health and Social Care BSc(Hons)? Successful completion of our Health Foundation Pathway leading to a BSc(Hons) Degree will equip you with the foundation knowledge to study Health and Social Care.

Course detail

Core modules:

Introduction to Law and Social Policy

The module will introduce you to relevant English legislation and social policy underpinning health and social care practice. You'll cover topics including economic and political context of law and social policy, legislation and policy that applies to health and social care practice, the criminal justice system, work with children and families (including risk and safeguarding issues), work with adults (including risk and safeguarding issues), human rights and the political impact and influence upon law and social policy. The application of law and policy to the practice context will also be explored.

Social Science and Professional Practice

This module introduces you to sociological and psychological theories that can help us to understand people’s lives and circumstances. You'll have the opportunity to develop your understanding of these approaches and consider the ways in which they impact upon professional practice in a range of social care settings.

Understanding Health and Social Care

This module helps you to develop the key skills required for undergraduate study, professional development and life-long learning. You‘ll have the opportunity to develop autonomy in planning, managing and evaluating your own learning through discussions and debates in seminars. You’ll be introduced to theories methods and techniques to enable you to develop your reflective practice and enable you to begin to examine your progress as a professional.

Working Together with Service Users and Carers

You’ll have the opportunity to develop an understanding of what it is like to be a service user or a carer in today’s society. Your understanding of particular groups will be supported through a series of sessions delivered by service users, service providers and carers.

Entry requirements

BCCat A Level .

104 UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications.

Pass at T Level with grade C on core

MMM in BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma.

  • Access to Higher Education Diploma with 45 Level 3 credits at Merit or above.
  • 104 UCAS tariff points from International Baccalaureate qualifications.

If you do not have the appropriate qualifications for direct entry to this degree you may be able to apply to our Health Foundation Pathway leading to a BSc(Hons) Degree.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

We are keen to support a wide and diverse range of applicants on to our courses. Other suitable experience or qualifications will be considered. For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.

Placements

This course includes a compulsory 160 hour work placement in your third year in an appropriate environment, providing you the opportunity to relate theory to practice and develop skills in a real world context. In order to undertake your placement you'll need to have a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

You'll have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of existing and new placement providers for example, housing organisations, Women’s Aid, drug and alcohol services, community gardening projects and health promotion services. A successful placement experience may lead to further opportunities with the placement provider, such as volunteering or paid work.

For more information visit our placements page.

My placement enabled me to go into police custody suites and offer support to the detainees, I also shadowed several home visits and assessments of vulnerable adults and children. This was beneficial to my career, widening my experience and solidifying my wish of becoming a social worker.

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Jade Nothers, graduated from Health and Social Care BSc(Hons) in 2022, now a Custody Worker at West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion

Your career

We know from previous experience that students will go onto a variety of careers, such as working in drug and alcohol services, housing agencies, domestic violence services, disability and wellbeing services, teaching, and relevant Master’s courses to pursue vocations such as Social Work and Nursing. 

 

*Percentage of graduates from this subject area who were in work and/or further study within fifteen months after graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2020/21, including both UK and non-UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

 

85% Graduates employed*

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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