University home > Unit and programme catalogues in 2020/21 > Programme catalogue > Faculty of Arts > Centre for Innovation > Social Policy with Innovation (BSc) > Specification
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Programme code | 1INOV025U |
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Programme type | Single Honours |
Programme director(s) |
Ann Padley Programme Director (Innovation)
Sebnem Eroglu-Hawksworth (Social Policy contact) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
School/department | Centre for Innovation |
Second School/department | School for Policy Studies |
Teaching institution | University of Bristol |
Awarding institution | University of Bristol |
Mode of study | Full Time |
Programme length | 3 years (full time) |
This degree programme combines and in-depth specialism in Social Policy with the development of knowledge, skills, capability and competence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Students undertaking this course will spend 220CP studying Social Policy to gain a solid discipline strength whilst spending the other 140CP of their time applying that knowledge to innovate and translate their ideas into plans for a wide variety of ventures and enterprises, both social and commercial.
Administrations across the globe are experimenting with approaches derived from participatory co-design and service design to improve public services, compliance and regulation. These are being particularly looked to at a time of competing financial constraints and growing demand in public services. With the increasing mixed economy of welfare, a veritable policy design industry has developed within and on the margins of government; some funded or part funded by large philanthropic foundations. Many design agencies with their roots firmly in industrial design, have seen the "potential" and are now stretching their offer to include "social design" or even "humanitarian design".
Design methods, skills and approaches have been identified as useful and of interest to policy because of the way they emphasise people's experiences rather than the system's priorities. Talk of the need for more "user-centred" design in policy making surprisingly seems to go largely unquestioned considering its rather thin evidence base. Equally, the drivers for the design within policy making may be considered as further encroachment of neoliberalism and market logic. This all adds up to vibrant and exciting space for students to critically explore the relation between Social Policy and Innovation. More, it would provide students with hands on experience of working with design innovation methods should they pursue a career in Social Policy.
The distinctly social and political perspective that the students will bring to the innovation cohort will also challenge the individual needs based orientation that runs throughout much design thinking. They would also support and bring a new socially and culturally embedded perspective to the "social enterprise" that excites many of the current innovation students.
A Social Policy degree teaches skills which are invaluable in innovation. The students will learn how to understand and frame social problems, formulate and consider implementation of policy as well as develop social research skills. Social Policy encourages a situated and contextual approach, often blending the organisational, policy, technological and human dimensions. The study of Social Policy teaches the working and impact of marginalisation, equality of opportunity and oppression. The degree in Social Policy with Innovation will give students the unique opportunity to combine these core skills and knowledge with a comprehensive training in entrepreneurship and innovation to enable them to create their own programmes and start to reimagine innovation from within a policy setting.
This programme aims to:
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1.Acquisition of core knowledge and understanding is through lectures, seminars, classes and workshops together with regular course work in the form of essays, presentations and projects involving analysis of data. 2.Throughout the learner is encouraged to undertake independent study both to supplement and consolidate what is being taught and to broaden and deepen their individual knowledge and understanding of the subject. This independent study will include the reading of academic texts and journals, public documents and internet material. 3.Advanced knowledge is acquired through individual supervision and one-to-one tutorials as part of the preparation of the student's dissertation (Social Policy) /project (Innovation) 4.Acquisition of knowledge and understanding for innovation, design and entrepreneurship occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials 5.Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition 6.Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship 7.Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback |
Methods of Assessment | |
1.Throughout the programme there is a combination of formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment is given through marking unit course work essays, feedback on student presentations and on a variety of work done in classes. During preparation of the dissertation regular meetings between student and supervising tutor include feedback on the student's work in progress. 2.Summative assessment is through a combination of unseen written examinations (1-9) assessed extended essays (1-8) and a critical analysis of a piece of published research (9,10). 3.In addition students have the option to produce a 10,000 dissertation based on an original investigation (9,10 and a selection of 1-8, depending on the research question addressed). 4.Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations, reflective accounts of practical work and learning, iterative and agile practice-based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1.Intellectual skills are being developed through the teaching and learning programme outlined above – and in particular learners are exposed to this form of analysis in the lecture programme. 2.Acquisition of 1 & 2 are further developed by discussion of key issues, summarising key points from reading and unit course work unit essays. Acquisition of 3 & 4 is developed by the above plus training in research methods and data analysis (mandatory unit), one-to-one discussion with academic supervisor of student dissertation and dissertation empirical work. 3.Acquisition of 4 is developed by one-to-one discussion with academic advisor of a student developed research plan and empirical work. 4.Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials. Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition. Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback. |
Methods of Assessment | |
1.Formative assessment of intellectual skills is through unit course work unit essays, feedback on student presentations and on a variety of class work. 2.Summative assessment of intellectual skills is through unseen written examination or assessed extended essay. Skills relating to the planning, performance and reporting on a programme of original research are assessed by the optional Social Policy dissertation/ Yr 4 innovation project. 3.Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations. 4.Reflective accounts of practical work and learning. 5.Iterative and agile practice-based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges. |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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1.All learners receive initial guidance on how to identify, locate and use material available in libraries and elsewhere. Comprehensive bibliographies are provided for each course unit at the outset, as are guidelines for production of coursework essays and extended essays. Workshops are given in the use of on-line databases for literature searching. the final year dissertation is supported by a series of workshops which enhance and extend these skills. 2.All units require regular written work and feedback is concerned with enhancing the learners' powers of expression (2&3). Skill 5 is acquired through experience of learning to manage time and meet deadlines which are all given at the outset of each unit (for eg. Handing in essays and completing the dissertation to time). Skills 3& 4 are developed in seminars, classes and workshops, which rely on facilitated discussion and interaction as well as individual or group presentations. Skill 12 is largely developed through elements of taught units and individual learning to consolidate these skills. Skill 7 is achieved through self-reflection on course work unit essays, in comparison with tutor's feedback on essay, and discussion with personal tutor. It is also developed in some units by self and peer appraisal of class presentation. Workshops provide support for students' own personal and professional development. 3.Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials. 4.Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition. 5.Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship. 6.Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback. |
Methods of Assessment | |
1.ormative assessment of skills 1-3,6&7 is through course work unit essays, feedback on student presentations (in particular the presentation of the student's own dissertation work at dissertation conferences). 2.Summative assessment of skills 1 to 3 is through unseen written examination or assessed extended essays through submission of the dissertation. Skill 6 is assessed by the ability to meet the deadlines set for assessment. 3.Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations. 4.Reflective accounts of practical work and learning. 5.Iterative and agile practice-based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges. |
Statement of expectations from the students at each level of the programme as it/they develop year on year.
Level C/4 - Certificate |
Students are expected to acquire the foundations on which to develop appropriate expertise in line with the aims and objectives of the course. They will acquire familiarity with the main themes and key concepts of Social Policy and the character of the discipline. They will develop an understanding of debates on issues of central importance to Social Policy including human well-being, inequality and disadvantage. They will have grasped the analytical tools necessary to work in the discipline. The expectation is that their work may require substantial direction from tutors at this stage with guidance on the development of study skills. They will also have gained an understanding to how design and systems thinking can be applied to problems to innovate and unearth novel and creative solutions whilst gaining experience in working in multidisciplinary teams. |
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Level I/5 - Intermediate |
In Year 2 students are expected to expand the range and depth of their knowledge in core areas of the discipline and their capacity to evaluate material using a variety of critical perspectives. They acquire an overview of key fields of study and appropriate methodologies, a strong conceptual basis for later theory and substantive units. Students will extend their analytical skills, their ability to structure their work and present it fluently. They will be encouraged in group work skills through active participation in seminars/clinics. They are expected to be developing a capacity for self-directed learning (for example, through the researching and writing of essays and coursework assignments). Students will be expected to critically reflect on past and present case studies and develop further their transdisciplinary working to real world digital and creative client problems. They will be encouraged to broaden their perspective beyond subject provisions within Social Policy with Innovation and take either an open unit or a unit from the Bristol Futures programme. |
Level H/6 - Honours |
At level 6 students are expected to broaden and deepen their knowledge through their study of specialised subjects, the units being more closely linked to staff research interests developing the conceptual and methodological approaches used in more complexity. Students will be expected to develop further their ability to gather and assimilate information from diverse sources, to synthesise these in an appropriate way and to engage in sophisticated critical evaluation of Social Policy texts. Students will be encouraged to make their own critical judgements and to develop greater independence and organisation of relevant material. They will further extend individual and group work skills and their IT capabilities. Within the transdisciplinary group project, the students will be expected to innovate for their own chosen problem by exploring the potential of new technologies to enable disruptive innovation to change the way people work and live. They will be supported by mentors and coaches to explore how their proposed solutions may be turned into an enterprise. |
The intended learning outcome mapping document shows which mandatory units contribute towards each programme intended learning outcome.
For information on the admissions requirements for this programme please see details in the undergraduate prospectus at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/ or contact the relevant academic department.
Workload Statement
In common with the rest of the University, units in the Faculty of Arts
adhere to the credit framework which sets out that 20 credits normally
equates to some 200 hours of student input. Some of this time will be spent
in class, with the remainder divided between preparation for classes and
preparation for, and completion of, the assessment tasks. Some of this
activity may occur within the University’s online learning environment,
Blackboard, which you may use to prepare wikis, to interact with other
students, to download tutorials or to receive feedback.
Assessment Statement
Please select the following link for a statement about assessment. This is University of Bristol access only.
https://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/current/under/assessment.html
Students studying across the different specialisms on the innovation degrees come together as a cohort to learn and apply design and systems thinking for digital and creative innovation and put it into practice their working in transdisciplinary project teams. Students in their second year expand on their understanding of how to design to meet real human needs, learning from past and present success and failure case studies to help them think about future opportunities. The transdisciplinary project work in the second year works with real world clients where students develop empathy for the people they are designing for, explore solutions, iterating to develop an unexpected range of possibilities, and create prototypes to take back to the client to test with real customers or users. In their third-year students explore innovative and disruptive ideas, changing the way people live and work. Students will learn about different ways to generate ideas, ranging from brainstorming to crowd-sourcing, exploring project opportunities and creating prototypes to test with real people. Alongside this, students will learn about different kinds of enterprise that can be used to take forward their ideas supported by mentors and coaches.
This is a transfer-only programme for students who are not able to progress onto the third year of the integrated master’s programme or who do not wish to complete the four-year integrated master’s programme but wish to continue with a bachelor’s award.
This programme is available by transfer only.
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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Design and Systems Thinking for Innovation | INOV10001 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Transdisciplinary Group Project 1: Being Human | INOV10002 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Social Policy Past and Present | SPOL10034 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
Key Concepts, Theories and Ideologies in Social Policy | SPOL10033 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-2 | |
Comparative and International Policy Studies | SPOL10035 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-2 | |
Critical Skills for Social Scientists: Social Policy | SPOL10026 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
Certificate of Higher Education | 120 |
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided.
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