The Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey has an international reputation as a centre of excellence in both research and teaching. It is one of only six sociology departments in the UK to have obtained the highest possible rating of 5** in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, and has a vibrant and thriving research culture with strengths in a number of fields, brought together under our four research groupings and underpinned by methodological innovation and rigour. The research groupings are: Age, Generation and Everyday Life; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Culture and Identity; Developments in Methodology, and Science, Environment and Technologies. The Department also has expertise in ageing and gender, and sleep, along with new developments in social simulation, and Access Grid Nodes as a data collection tool for social research.

The Department offers a full and continually expanding portfolio of high quality courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a successful programme of postgraduate research training.

Undergraduate Degrees
The department has undergraduate degree programmes in Sociology and Social Research, Sociology, Culture and Media, Criminology and Sociology and Applied Psychology and Sociology . Undergraduates are offered the opportunity to undertake a supported one year work placement in the third year of the course and students are strongly encouraged to take this opportunity. For further information visit the Placement website.

Masters Degrees
The department offers Masters' degrees in Social Research Methods (full time) and Social Research (part time). These have long been recognised as leaders in their field and have been providing high quality, professional research methods training for more than 25 years. The department also offers an MSc Criminology, Criminal Justice and Social Research which can be taken either full or part-time.

Research Degrees
The department has a full PhD programme with around sixty students registered at any one time. Supervision is offered across the range of academic staff research interests.The department is currently inviting applications from prospective PhD students for three ESRC Quota studentships to commence in October 2008.

Short Course Programme
The department also offers a range of specialised day courses on methodological topics and training courses for qualitative software.