Creative Writing and Social Policy (with Foundation Year) BA (Hons)

Liverpool Hope University

This is a four year degree taught at our Hope Park campus. The Foundation Year aims to develop your skills so that after a year, you will be equipped with the necessary skills needed for studying the full BA Hons degree programme.

Please note that Combined Honours degrees at Liverpool Hope University are split 50/50. This means both subjects will be studied equally.

Creative Writing Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope will give you the chance to experience the joys of crafting the written word. The degree focuses on developing you as a writer of poetry and prose (fiction and non-fiction), broadly within the field of literature (poems, short stories, novels, long-form essays). Some professional writing - reviews, blogs and articles for different kinds of media - is also studied. Our focus on creativity and employability means you will be able to produce engaging, innovative and marketable texts.

By studying Creative Writing, you will be empowered with an enhanced command of your craft, increased confidence in expressing your thoughts and emotions, an understanding of the values that inform your writing practice, and the technical skillset to deliver your work to various audiences. Your writing will be enhanced by studying under celebrated writers and academics, as well as developing a range of workplace skills to prepare for fulfilling careers.

The degree will often challenge you and ask you to reach beyond your own experience and interests into those of contemporary and historical communities. Using these as creative stimuli, you will be required to reflect upon social contexts, power, and how truth and justice can be communicated or miscommunicated through creative writing. By the end of the degree, you should have a wide appreciation of forms, genres and applications. Included in the degree are field trips to Wales, and Liverpool museums and galleries, which provide material for writing exercises as well as widening your student experience.

Social Policy Social Policy explores the ways in which welfare provision is delivered in society, exploring who is eligible for support and who provides it. Our Social Policy degree is multidisciplinary in its approach and draws on ideas from sociology, economics, politics and geography. It explores issues such as inequality, ill health and wellbeing, child welfare, employment and unemployment, educational opportunities, disability, homelessness, family policies, mental health, globalisation, crime and immigration.

Studying Social Policy at Liverpool Hope University allows you to explore the answers to questions such as; should the state be the main provider of welfare and what roles should the private profit making or voluntary sectors have? How should scarce resources be allocated in society? How can we understand different approaches to welfare delivery across different historical periods in British society? Why do women and minority ethnic groups experience greater levels of disadvantage? How have welfare systems developed in different countries?

The degree draws on an experienced team of lecturers who are published in the social sciences and are experts in social policy. The School is also a member of the national network of Social Policy course providers and benefits from engagement with national subject debates. There are fieldtrips to enhance your learning, and we also have annual research days where leading academics, civil servants and politicians come to talk about various social problems and social issues.