BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care
Course Overview
Health and social care is a vast service sector providing support to vulnerable people, such as children, older people and adults with disabilities or mental health issues. Our BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care offers you the opportunity to develop the values, skills and knowledge essential to good health and social care practice, opening the door to a huge range of rewarding employment opportunities.Balancing policy, practice, and academic training, our course is strongly linked to the UK government’s health and social care agendas. Our highly experienced and dedicated team will lead you in an exploration of the principles of care, person-centred health and social care, the ethical aspects of care, and areas such as health promotion, safeguarding, and more. We’ll support you as you learn how to collaborate across professional boundaries, use evidence to inform your decisions and gain an understanding of critical issues in health and social care and ways of dealing with them.
Practical experience, including a work experience placement in a health and social care setting, is key to your development. Our focus is on helping you become a knowledgeable, compassionate, and person-centred care professional.
Highlights
- Our Health Studies courses are top in the UK for student satisfaction, according to The Complete University Guide 2022.
- Guest lectures and talks by health and social care service providers and users give alternative perspectives to enhance your understanding.
- We offer access to purpose-built health and research facilities in the £31 million Bolton One centre on campus.
- Our Clinical Simulation Suites in Bolton One mimic the clinical environment, including simulated patients, allowing you to gain clinical experience in a realistic and dynamic way.
- Professional experience is an essential element of the course that gives valuable, hands-on, real-life experience in a health and social care setting. Our extensive network of health and social care contacts means we can offer a wide variety of placements.
- Alongside specialist health and social care knowledge, you’ll have the chance to develop your skills in research, data evaluation, critical reasoning and analysis, as well as in areas such as communication, team working, problem-solving and self-reflection.
- Our emphasis on supporting you in developing study and critical thinking skills will help you engage with further learning and prepare you for postgraduate study.
Key Features
- We'll work with you as an individual, giving you access to the help and support you need to succeed.
- Our highly qualified and research-active team offers a vast range of professional experience in health and social care, as well as close links with the sector, the NHS, and voluntary and charitable organisations.
- The programme is connected with local and national employers through an Industrial Advisory Board. This helps to ensure that you have excellent placement opportunities and that the course content is kept up to date.
- Getting out of the classroom and into the workplace is a key part of your learning, so you’ll undertake a placement in a health and social care setting at level HE5 of the course.
- We’ll encourage you to engage in voluntary work in health and social care environments throughout the course. These activities contribute towards your portfolio of evidence, ready to impress employers when you enter the jobs market.
- By studying alongside students who are already health and social care professionals, you’ll be able to share in the knowledge and experience they have developed in their working environments, helping you to provide the highest standard of care for your own patients in the future.
Entry Requirements
- 96 UCAS points. We accept a full range of qualifications that carry UCAS points, including A-levels, BTECs and T-levels. Please see our guide to the UCAS Tariff for examples of how to achieve these points. For most courses, we are also able to consider non-tariffable qualifications.
- Any subjects are acceptable at Level 3. Subjects relevant to the study of health and social care are preferred.
- You should also have five GCSEs at grade C or above or grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent), including English and Mathematics.
- If you don’t meet the standard entry requirements but have non-traditional qualifications and/or relevant experience, we’ll be happy to consider your application. You may be asked to undertake additional assessment(s) to determine your suitability for the course.
- Not sure if this is the correct Health and Social Care qualification for you? If you meet the entry requirements for this course and are new to the health and social care sector, then this course should be a good choice for you. If you have extensive appropriate work experience in the health and social care sector but don't meet the entry requirements for this course, please consider our FdA Health and Social Care. If you don't meet the entry requirements for this course and are new to the health and social care sector, please consider our HND Health and Social Care or BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care with foundation year. If you already have a foundation degree or HND in Health and Social Care (or equivalent), you may wish to apply for our level HE6 BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care (final year top-up) degree. The level HE6 course allows you to top up your existing qualification to a full BSc honours degree by a further 12 months of full-time study or 18 months of part-time study.
- Every application will be considered on its individual merits.
- You may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
- This course involves working unsupervised with children and/or vulnerable young people and adults and you must gain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before starting your studies. Charges are payable to cover the cost of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure application and annual registration with the online Update Service.
- If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
- Please note that this course is subject to the University of Bolton's Fitness to Practise procedure.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
Career Opportunities
Our BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care looks at health in its broad context and investigates contemporary health issues. There’s a growing demand for health and social care workers who are not restricted by boundaries and can work flexibly to accommodate the increasingly complex health and social care needs of individuals, families and communities.
This degree will also enable you to develop a range of key transferable employability skills, including written and verbal communication skills, IT skills, the ability to work independently and in a team, research and data analysis skills, the ability to provide support and guidance, and work in complex and demanding situations.
What can I do with this qualification?
In addition, as a graduate with a health and social care background, you'll be in a good position to be considered for careers in health education and promotion, welfare, health research, community mental health and commissioning and care management services. You'll be able to pursue roles in service management and coordination, or in advocacy, education and training. You might also seek work as a technician and support worker helping children and families, older and disabled people, drug and alcohol abusers, and people with mental health problems.
Further study is a popular option for health and social care graduates. For some career areas, such as social work, nursing, research and teaching, additional study is required to achieve professional recognition.
Alternative career options
Graduates can use this qualification as a stepping stone into a range of other careers. For some of these roles, relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. They include:
- Probation work
- Substance misuse
- Victim support
- Youth work
- Social housing
- Learning support
- Counselling
- Mental health
- Occupational therapy
- Community education
- Teaching and training
- Journalism
- Dietitian
Fees & Funding
Home/EU Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
International Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
Bursaries
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2025-26 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
How to apply
Home Applicants
Please contact Admissions by telephone on 01204 903903 or email enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Admissions
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB
United Kingdom
Tel: 01204 903903
Email: enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
International Applicants
International applications are not possible for this course
As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.
We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.
Partner Organisation Applicants
Please contact Admissions by telephone on 01204 903903 or email enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Admissions
University of Bolton
Deane Road
Bolton, BL3 5AB
United Kingdom
Tel: 01204 903903
Email: enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
Teaching & Assessment
We use a wide variety of learning, teaching and assessment methods. These aim to help you develop the skills, knowledge and competencies you need to achieve the learning outcomes of this course, and more importantly, the values and attitudes essential to good health and social care practice that will support you to succeed in your future career.
Lectures introduce the core course content, while seminars and group-based activities allow you to explore subjects in greater detail and consider the policies and practices involved. In tutorials, you can ask questions to ensure you understand the topics covered in lectures and seminars. We use case studies, practical scenarios, and role-play to help you learn to apply academic theory to real-life problems, allowing you to gain insights into health and social care practice in the working environment. You’ll also have the chance to gain practical skills in our clinical skills laboratory with simulated patients. We’ll encourage you to use online learning resources to enhance your studies.
In addition, we offer masterclasses with practitioners from the health and social care sector, sessions with guest speakers who use health and social care services and applied work experience. These seek to enhance employability and bridge the gap between theory and professional practice.
Our assessment methods aim to replicate activities that are required in the workplace. For example, you’ll be expected to write reports, give presentations, create leaflets, develop your portfolio of practice, analyse care plans, review relevant literature, analyse complex cases and discuss how to manage change. You’ll also be required to write essays and reflective accounts, take practical and written tests and get involved in group discussions. Some assessments will contribute to your final module mark and allow you to demonstrate that you have met the learning outcomes. In contrast, others are designed to help you identify areas that need extra attention on your part or where you need extra support from your tutors.
Modules
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
- Enhancing Communication and Academic Skills
- Introduction to Research and Evidence-Based Practice
- Principles of Care
- Legal and Ethical Issues
- Anatomy & Physiology for Health and Social Care
- Introduction to Social Policy
- Employability Skills
- Health Promotion - Challenges and Opportunities
- Social Inclusion, Empowerment and Health
- Work-based Experience
- Person Centred Health and Social Care
- Group Dynamics and Working in Teams
- Research Proposal/Methods
- Compassionate Health and Social Care
- Dissertation/Research Project
- Contemporary Mental Health
- Safeguarding Children
- Care of the Older Person
- Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults
- Working With Children and Families
Assessment methods
| Level | Assessment method |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Coursework 95% Practical exams 5% |
| Level 2 | Coursework 100% |
| Level 3 | Coursework 100% |
Learning Activities
| Level | Activity |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Guided independent study 70% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 30% |
| Level 2 | Guided independent study 70% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 30% |
| Level 3 | Guided independent study 78% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 22% |
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
