Knowledge and understanding

By the end of the programme, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of systematic inquiry, and of the role of social policy research and its relationship to evidence-based practice;
• Demonstrate an understanding of research philosophies as well as competence in the development of research strategy, design and methods;
• Demonstrate awareness of and commitment to ethics in social research, and the ability to design and implement research that fully respects these ethics;
• Identify and critically analyse the use and quality of research in social policy and administration, including the organisational contexts within which students work;
• Demonstrate an awareness of minority, disability, and gender issues, particularly in research, and an understanding of how to develop user involvement research practices.

Skills

By the end of the programme, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate capacity for empirical inquiry and critical thinking, and a commitment to your use for service and organizational improvement;
• Critically evaluate and synthesise existing social policy literature and evaluate its relevance for theoretical and practical problem solving;
• Source relevant statistical data in social policy and particularly in the area of relevance to you;
• Demonstrate an understanding of different research philosophies, designs and methods, and competence in those areas relevant to your chosen question;
• Operationalise social problems and meaningfully connect the theoretical and empirical dimensionsof research;
• Engage with service users when undertaking research;
• Debate social issues, drawing on the literature as well as your research and work experience;
• Communicate research outputs to a wide audience, including scientific journals, policy makers and colleagues;
• Start and successfully complete a research study and to write up the findings in line with the University's guidelines.