Schools

The Graduate School of Education promotes effective learning by educating future educators and delivering multidisciplinary research and development work. We are a large, international community of students and staff working in close partnership with academics and practitioners at local, national and international levels.

Our teaching programmes span postgraduate teacher education, masters degrees and doctoral programmes ranging from the deeply reflective to the highly technical. Our students benefit from the strength of our research, the breadth of our academic expertise and excellent resources in our newly-refurbished Education Library. The school’s teacher training programme was awarded ‘Outstanding Provider Status’ by Ofsted in 2011.

Our internationally-recognised researchers and national and international visitors create a collaborative and vibrant research culture. We have an extensive portfolio of funded research projects supported by bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for International Development. The atmosphere is exciting, diverse, creative and welcoming, with regular research events, seminars and research development days for both staff and research students.

We provide specialist resources to education professionals including the Bristol Guide, a definitive guide to the law for students and teachers in England and Wales, and a Document Summary Service which delivers digests of UK government policy and reports on education to the desktops of practitioners.

The School of Economics, Finance and Management’s top-ranking research and education attracts staff and students from around the globe offering world-class study opportunities and research expertise in accounting, economics, econometrics, finance and management.

We offer an extensive range of high quality undergraduate programmes alongside postgraduate taught and research options. All are characterised by a high level of small group teaching underpinned by a robust quantitative foundation. A strong emphasis on theoretical and technical competence with practical application means that our graduates are highly sought after by prestigious employers in accountancy, business and finance, and other sectors.

The Research Assessment Exercise 2008 recognised our research excellence, placing us fourth in the UK for research in Accounting and Finance, and sixth for Economics. Our high-impact research ranges from the deeply technical to the policy-oriented with wide-ranging expertise in fields such as microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, international finance, corporate governance, management accounting, financial reporting, public sector financial management, organisational change, management science and critical inquiry.

The school also hosts the ESRC-funded Centre for Market and Public Organisation which studies the intersection between the public and private sectors of the economy. The Department of Accounting and Finance annually hosts the Financial Reporting and Business Communication Conference.

The School for Policy Studies delivers world-class research, education and professional training in social policy, public policy and social work. Our research intensive community attracts academics and students from many different specialisms and walks of life. We have a globally-recognised reputation for informing and changing the world of policy in the fields of disability studies, exercise, nutrition and health, family and child welfare, health and social care, poverty and social justice and urban studies.

Our experts come from a range of backgrounds in social policy research, social work, sociology, history, human geography, economics, psychology, and nutrition and health sciences. We attract funding from international bodies such as the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the EU and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, applying multidisciplinary expertise to policy-relevant research for governments, charities and research councils worldwide. The school also benefits from Hadley Trust funding for work on adoption and fostering and from the NSPCC for child welfare research.

Our students explore policy and practice with our leading experts on programmes from undergraduate to doctoral level launching them into a range of successful careers including policymaking, youth work and charity work. We also offer professional training to students embarking on careers in social work and educational psychology.

The School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies is an interdisciplinary research and teaching environment. Our lively community of scholars brings together world-leading sociologists, political scientists, theorists, empirical researchers and talented students to address the complex issues of our increasingly globalised society through innovative, imaginative and relevant research, education and debate.

Through a portfolio of funded research, publications and public engagement activity, the school’s cutting-edge research connects directly with the issues facing our global society such as international relations and security, ethnicity and migration, gender, global development and cultural and social theory.

Our leading experts work at the intersection between sociology, politics and international relations delivering conceptual, empirical and policy-relevant research, and attracting research funding from organisations such as the Leverhulme Trust, the European Union, the Department for International Development and the British Academy.

Our students investigate contemporary social and political issues with leading academics through an extensive range of study programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels. The school’s cosmopolitan student body actively contributes to our vibrant scholarly community, participating in research seminars, reading groups, visiting speaker lectures and conferences.

The University of Bristol Law School is one of the largest and most successful in the UK, with an outstanding reputation for teaching and research.

We offer qualifying law degrees, specialist taught Masters and postgraduate research opportunities which equip students with the skills and attributes for successful careers in the legal profession and beyond. Studying in the iconic architectural surroundings of the Wills Memorial building, our students also benefit from research led teaching, study abroad options in Europe and the Far East, an excellent law library, opportunities to debate and enter moots, and pro bono work options with the Innocence Project, the Law Clinic and the internationally-renowned Human Rights Implementation Centre.

Ninety per cent of the school’s research was recognised to be of international quality in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008. Supported by a range of funders such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Legal Services Commission, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the European Commission, our research experts advise, publish and conduct world-leading research in a wide range of legal and socio-legal fields, including commercial law, criminal law and justice, family law, property, employment law, legal theory, international law, human rights, socio-legal methods, the law of obligations, and public law.

The School of Geographical Sciences straddles the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Social Science and Law bringing together the physical and human dimensions of the world in which we live. It is a unique combination of physical scientists, life scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars, studying some of the most important challenges facing society.

The school has played a major role in some of the most important geographical innovations over recent decades, including leading developments in quantitative social science and the ‘cultural turn’ in sociospatial theory. It is the only geography department to feature in the top category of all Research Assessment Exercises to date.