Subject benchmark statements
Subject benchmark statements provide a means for the academic community to describe the nature and characteristics of programmes in a specific subject. They also represent general expectations about the standards for the award of qualifications at a given level and articulate the attributes and capabilities that those possessing such qualifications should be able to demonstrate.
This subject benchmark statement, together with the others published concurrently, refers to the bachelors degree with honours.
Subject benchmark statements are used for a variety of purposes. Primarily, they are an important external source of reference for higher education institutions when new programmes are being designed and developed in a subject area. They provide general guidance for articulating the learning outcomes associated with the programme but are not a specification of a detailed curriculum in the subject. Benchmark statements provide for variety and flexibility in the design of programmes and encourage innovation within an agreed overall framework.
Subject benchmark statements also provide support to institutions in pursuit of internal quality assurance. They enable the learning outcomes specified for a particular programme to be reviewed and evaluated against agreed general expectations about standards.
Finally, subject benchmark statements are one of a number of external sources of information that are drawn upon for the purposes of academic review* and for making judgements about threshold standards being met. Reviewers do not use subject benchmark statements as a crude checklist for these purposes however. Rather, they are used in conjunction with the relevant programme specifications, the institution's own internal evaluation documentation, together with primary data in order to enable reviewers to come to a rounded judgement based on a broad range of evidence.
The benchmarking of academic standards for this subject area has been undertaken by a group of subject specialists drawn from and acting on behalf of the subject community. The group's work was facilitated by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, which publishes and distributes this statement and other benchmarking statements developed by similar subject-specific groups.
The statement represents the first attempt to make explicit the general academic characteristics and standards of an honours degree in this subject area, in the UK.
In due course, but not before July 2003, the statement will be revised to reflect developments in the subject and the experiences of institutions and academic reviewers who are working with it. The Agency will initiate revision and, in collaboration with the subject community, will establish a group to consider and make any necessary modifications to the statement.
This statement is © The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education 2000.
It may be reproduced by educational institutions solely for educational purposes, without permission. Excerpts may be reproduced for the purpose of research, private study, or review without permission, provided full acknowledgement is given to the subject benchmarking group for this subject area and to the copyright of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
Electronic storage, adaptation or translation of the statement is prohibited without prior written agreement from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
* academic review in this context refers to the Agency's new arrangements for external assurance of quality and standards. Further information regarding these may be found in the Handbook for Academic Review, which can be found on the Agency's web site.
Academic standards - Sociology
1. Defining principles
1.1 The benchmark information on the threshold standard for an Honours Degree in Sociology sets out the abilities and skills expected of an Honours Graduate in Sociology. The purpose of this information is to assist:
- higher education institutions in designing and approving programmes of study in Sociology;
- external examiners and academic reviewers in verifying and comparing standards;
- students and employers who seek information about higher education provision in Sociology.
1.2 This document sets out the proposals for the benchmark information in Sociology. It is a framework for understanding and developing the subject as taught at undergraduate Honours Degree level. Only the Benchmarks are requirements. Everything else in the document is be considered as guidance and recommendation. The statement focuses on five major aspects concerning programmes leading to Sociology Honours Degrees:
- the nature and extent of Sociology associated with the Honours Degree;
- the essential knowledge and understanding of Sociology that should be covered in all study programmes leading to an Honours Degree in Sociology;
- the skills and abilities to be developed in students through the study of Sociology at Honours Degree level;
- recommendations concerning teaching, learning and assessment of the knowledge, skills and abilities required in an Honours Degree in Sociology;
- the criteria for the threshold and typical levels of attainment.
1.3 It is recognised that there will always be good intellectual reasons for extending and enlarging the views set out in these guidelines. No specification of the scope and nature of the subject can be fixed for all time.
1.4 The Benchmark Statement applies to Honours Degrees in Sociology or Combined Honours Degrees where Sociology comprises at least 50% of the curriculum in the final or Honours year. It will be for Institutions of Higher Education to decide if other degrees they provide, eg, in Criminology or Cultural Studies, fall within the scope of this Benchmark and to determine its applicability to Honours Degrees where Sociology forms less than 50% of the curriculum in the final or Honours years.
1.5 It is expected that all such programmes will address the following areas of sociological knowledge and understanding:
- key concepts and theoretical approaches that have been developed and are developing within Sociology;
- an awareness of social context, of the nature of social processes, and of social diversity and inequality;
- an understanding of the value of comparative analysis;
- an understanding of the relationship between individuals, groups and social institutions;
- an understanding of the role of culture in social life;
- an understanding of the social processes underpinning social change;
- an understanding of the nature and appropriate use of diverse research strategies and methods in gaining sociological knowledge;
- an understanding of the relationship between sociological argument and evidence;
- an awareness of the distinctive character of Sociology in relation to other forms of understanding, such as its relation to other disciplines and to everyday explanations;
1.6 Details of the aims, objectives and content of individual programmes in Sociology will be found in the programme specifications or other documentation produced by Institutions of Higher Education.
1.7 The threshold sets out the minimum level of performance acceptable for graduation. It is necessary to demonstrate achievement in the stated areas of performance by the time the award is made.
1.8 The specifications and criteria set out in this document are intended to provide a broad framework within which providers can develop their own Sociology programmes. The Benchmarks specify the learning outcomes - the abilities, competencies and skills - that an Honours Graduate in Sociology will have acquired through their study of the discipline. The document does not specify mode of study or the learning methods by which the student is enabled to achieve the outcomes, as it is intended to be used in conjunction with Institutions' own teaching/learning policies. The content of the curriculum through which the learning outcomes are developed will also be the responsibility of individual providers.
1.9 The learning process and curriculum, however, should be designed in such a way as to provide evidence that the student has been given the opportunity to attain the required benchmark standards in all areas of performance. The assessments must be designed to enable students to demonstrate that they have achieved an appropriate level of achievement in the required areas. How students are taught and accredited is determined by individual Institutions of Higher Education. Recommendations are, however, made concerning teaching, learning, and assessment methods.
2. Nature and extent of the subject
2.1 Sociology as a discipline is concerned with developing a knowledge and understanding of the social world from a distinctively 'social' point of view. Its focus is on the relations that connect individuals, groups and institutions. When it looks at the characteristics, understandings and practices of individuals themselves, it does so from the standpoint of their relations with others.
2.2 The fact that so many Sociological concepts are qualified by the addition of the adjective 'social' is no empty gesture. It is an explicit declaration of the characteristic scope of Sociology and of its demarcation from other disciplines. It is a core Social Science discipline that feeds many other areas of study concerned with the human world. It necessarily stands in a close relationship with other Social Science disciplines, but maintains this distinctive concern for the social dimensions of human interaction. It informs debates about what is going on in society through discussions within Sociology itself, through other disciplines, and in the public media.
2.3 An understanding of the distinctively social features of human life is largely a product of the 19th and 20th centuries, but Sociology is not restricted to the study of modern societies. A sociological perspective, once attained, is fruitfully employed in historical and comparative studies of changing forms of human life. Sociology seeks to understand how societies, institutions and practices of all kinds came into being, how they are currently organised, and how they might change in the future.
2.4 Specialisms within Sociology necessarily change as its objects of study are themselves transformed. The discipline constantly alters also in relation to the diverse and changing social contexts in which sociologists work. This means, too, that the boundaries of Sociology and its relations to other disciplines are constantly shifting, while old specialisms decline and new ones develop.
3. Subject knowledge and understanding
3.1 Change is intrinsic to social life, and this impels Sociology's characteristically dynamic character. There is a lasting concern for a number of overarching issues, though these are themselves subject to recurrent re-appraisal. These include the relationship between individuals and groups, action and structure, biography and history, social institutions and culture, the underpinnings of social order, social inequality and conflict, diverse cultural practices, and the causes and consequences of social change.
3.2 Sociology is both theoretical and evidence-based.
3.2.1. As a theoretical discipline, its concerns relate directly to the other Social Science disciplines. Its concerns also relate to those of Philosophy and Political Theory, as well as to practical ethics and to social, public. and civic policy. No single theoretical framework should dominate the discipline, and there are numerous, legitimate, sources of theoretical diversity. What is essential to the subject is that students learn to appraise theories and to assess them in relation to evidence.
3.2.2. As an evidence-based discipline, Sociology insists on the scrutiny and evidenced reassessment of everyday understandings of the social world. It is a discipline in which theoretical considerations and epistemological skepticism are combined with an appreciation of the need to establish firm grounds for our knowledge of the social. It employs a wide diversity of research strategies and methods, many of which are shared with other disciplines, and it shares broad generic skills with many other areas of enquiry. Its distinctive ways of knowing and understanding, however, are rooted in sociological perspectives and insights.
3.3 Sociology is a reflexive discipline that aims to develop a critical awareness of the social world. Those who study the social world are, at the same time, members of that world, and Sociology aims to encourage self-reflection on the nature of our knowledge of the social
3.4 Sociological knowledge provides a basis for examining social, public, and civic policy.
3.5 Sociology graduates should understand the distinctively social standpoint of Sociology and the explanatory value of social analysis. This necessarily includes familiarity with the analysis of a variety of forms of human interaction, from micro to macro, their interconnections, and their dynamics.
3.6 Students of Sociology should be able to appreciate the use of Sociological insights. The systematic connection which Sociologists make between the individual and the social is an important expression of this. Understanding the role and significance of theory and evidence in the discipline is also a key element in subject knowledge and innovative thinking in Sociology.
4. Subject skills and other skills
At undergraduate Honours degree level, students of Sociology are expected to develop a wide range of different skills and abilities including the ability to work autonomously, the ability to make independent judgements, and the ability to work in groups. These may be divided into three broad categories:
- general cognitive abilities and skills;
- discipline-specific abilities and skills, defined as core capacities within the discipline of Sociology itself;
- transferable skills that may be gained by studying Sociology.
4.1 The study of Sociology enables students to acquire a number of cognitive abilities and skills. These may be acquired in a range of teaching and learning situations, enabling students to develop competence in:
- judging and evaluating evidence;
- appreciating the complexity and diversity of social situations;
- assessing the merits of competing theories and explanations;
- gathering, retrieving, and synthesising information;
- making reasoned arguments;
- interpreting evidence and texts;
- developing the ability to reflect on their own accumulation of knowledge.
4.2 The range of discipline specific abilities that students would normally be expected to develop during their undergraduate programme include:
- the ability to formulate and investigate sociologically informed questions;
- competence in using major theoretical perspectives and concepts in Sociology, and their application to social life;
- the capacity to analyse, assess, and communicate empirical sociological information;
- the ability to identify a range of different research strategies and methods and to comment on their relative advantages and disadvantages;
- the ability to conduct sociological research in a preliminary way;
- the ability to undertake and present scholarly work;
- the ability to understand the ethical implications of sociological enquiry;
- the ability to recognise the relevance of sociological knowledge to social, public, and civic policy.
4.3 Sociology students should have access to the opportunity to develop further transferable skills in the following areas:
- learning and study skills;
- written and oral communication skills in a variety of contexts and modes;
- statistical and other quantitative techniques
- information retrieval skills in relation to primary and secondary sources of information;
- communication and information technology skills;
- skills of time planning and management;
- group work skills.
5. Learning teaching and assessment
5.1 Students studying for an Honours Degree in Sociology should have access to a range of supportive learning resources including: academic staff who are themselves engaged in scholarly activities; a range of paper and electronic resources including texts, monographs and journals; computing resources including hardware, software, and the necessary technical support.
5.2 There are a number of distinctive features of sociological knowledge which have implications for learning and teaching.
5.2.1 Because Sociology seeks to generalise on the basis of evidence, it is neither purely deductive nor purely descriptive. Theorisation has to be disciplined by evidence, and interpretation has to be guided by the development and testing of theory. Accordingly, students should be given the opportunity to acquire capacities of thinking in both abstract and concrete terms, and the opportunity of relating one to the other.
5.2.2 Bodies of evidence quite often appear to be, and indeed may actually be, consistent with alternative interpretations embodied in rival theories. Sociology students are required to weigh up the relative strengths of alternatives according to such considerations as consistency with evidence, logic, fit with other supposedly established findings, and breadth of explanatory power. Learning situations should provide students with the opportunity to rehearse their own ideas and to revise them.
5.2.3 Sociological knowledge is often contentious and may reflect current social, public and civic disputes. Accordingly, Sociology students need the opportunity to develop awareness of their own values and an appreciation of how alternative values impact upon rival interpretations of evidence.
5.3 There are a variety of ways of advancing student learning. Lectures can be an effective means of defining an area of study and the major issues and evidence that have to be addressed in relation to it. Student learning is also advanced in seminars, workshops, computing laboratory classes, tutorials, visits to external sites, and group and individual projects. Students should have the opportunity to gain experience of working together in groups and to practice a range of transferable skills. Much student learning is in the form of guided study where students will make use of a range of learning materials and resources. Study is often centered on reading books and journals, supplemented by additional materials including electronic ones. In some cases, the balance may be different and students may make greater use of self-instructional packages on the web and other forms of distance learning.
5.4 Detailed and clear documentation is an obvious support to teaching and learning. Students should have access to information that specifies learning outcomes, a description of the topics to be covered, available resources, and information on assignments and their submission deadlines. The provision of this information is a valuable means of encouraging students to prepare for and to participate in discussions, and it provides students with useful guidance for promoting independent learning.
5.5 Assessment is a crucial component of student learning. Assessment is necessary to monitor student progress, motivate learning, provide feedback and grade students. Assessment methods can be varied to reflect the diversity of provision and can be geared to assessing desired learning outcomes. Programme Teams might take a strategic view of how this can best be attained over the curriculum as a whole. Assessment can be designed to allow students to demonstrate their learning according to explicit and transparent criteria. Assignments should be returned in a reasonable time and provide students with constructive feedback.
5.6 Assignments that are not formally assessed provide students with valuable opportunities to take risks with their ideas. There should be opportunities for students to practice (and perhaps be tested) in transferable skills such as team working, library and archive searching, addressing an audience, time keeping, and a range of IT skills.
5.7 There should be the opportunity for students to undertake assignments that require the exercise of initiative in their definition, design and execution. This may for example be attained by means of a project, dissertation, or long essay.
6. Standards
The benchmarks for Sociology may be achieved in a number of ways and are compatible with a diversity of curricula and a variety of modes of assessment. Thus it is not assumed that the benchmarks necessarily map onto specific modules or units within a programme of study. The benchmark statements have a double function: they enable the performance of individual students to be benchmarked in relation to specific learning outcomes; and they provide a framework within which whole programmes can be reviewed. In this context, it should also be noted that the statement of threshold and typical achievement may have different implications for the review process. The threshold statements describe the minimally acceptable standards that students must achieve to secure an Honours degree. The descriptors of typical achievement are less finely calibrated and describe the expected performance of the average student of Sociology at Honours degree level in the UK.
6.1 Subject knowledge and understanding
| Benchmark | Threshold achievement | Typical achievement |
| 6.1.1 An understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches that have developed and are developing within Sociology. | Able to describe a range of key concepts and theoretical approaches within Sociology. | Able to describe and examine a range of key concepts and theoretical approaches within Sociology and evaluate their application. |
| 6 .1.2 An awareness of social diversity and inequality and of their impact on the lives of individuals and groups. | Able to recognise patterns of social diversity and inequality. | Able to provide an analytical account of social diversity and inequality and their effects. |
| 6.1.3 An understanding of the value of comparative analysis. | Able to recognise and illustrate the use of comparison in Sociology. | Able to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the use of comparison in Sociology. |
| 6.1.4 An understanding of the social nature of the relationship between individuals, groups and social institutions. | Able to recognise the nature of social relationships between individuals, groups and social institutions. | Able to analyse the nature of social relationships between individuals, groups and social institutions. |
| 6.1.5 An understanding of the social processes underpinning social change and social stability | Able to recognise the processes that underpin social change and social stability. | Able to examine the processes that underpin social change and social stability. |
| 6.1.6 An understanding of the nature and appropriate use of research strategies and methods in gaining sociological knowledge | Able to identify diverse research strategies and methods, and illustrate their use in gaining sociological knowledge. | Able to examine a range of research strategies and methods and assess the appropriateness of their use. |
| 6.1.7 An understanding of the relationship between sociological argument and evidence | Able to recognise and illustrate the relationship between a range of sociological arguments and evidence | Able to evaluate the relationship between sociological arguments and evidence in a range of contexts. |
| 6.1.8 An understanding of the distinctive character of Sociology in relation to other forms of understanding, such as other disciplines and everyday explanations. | Able to recognise ways in which Sociology can be distinguished from other forms of understanding | Able to analyse ways in which Sociology can be distinguished from other forms of understanding. |
| 6.2 Cognitive abilities | ||
| Benchmark | Threshold achievement | Typical achievement |
| 6.2.1 Appreciating the complexity of human behaviour, social situations and events, and assessing the merits of competing explanations. | Able to describe contrasting interpretations of events. | Able to assess a range of perspectives and discuss the strengths of each for the understanding of events. |
| 6.2.2 Gathering, retrieving, and synthesising information. | Able to gather and summarise information. | Able to draw on materials from a range of sources and demonstrate an ability to synthesise them. |
| 6.2.3 Reviewing and evaluating evidence. | Able to cite evidence and make judgements about its merits. | Able to draw on evidence to evaluate competing explanations. |
| 6.2.4 Developing a reasoned argument. | Able to contrast points of view and discuss them. | Able to evaluate the viability of competing explanations in explaining problems and to draw appropriate conclusions. |
| 6.3 Discipline Specific Skills | ||
| Benchmark | Threshold achievement | Typical achievement |
| 6.3.1 An ability to understand the nature of sociologically informed questions. | Able to recognise sociologically informed questions. | Able to formulate sociological informed questions. |
| 6.3.2 Ability to report empirical sociological research findings | Able to summarize the findings of empirical sociological research including the ability to identify the methodological framework used. | Able to summarize and explain the findings of empirical sociological research, including a critical assessment of the methodological frameworks used. |
| 6.3.3 Ability to use different methods of sociological enquiry | Able to practically apply basic research tools in a preliminary way | Able to practically select and use appropriate research tools. |
| 6.3.4 Ability to investigate sociologically informed questions. | Able to undertake a preliminary investigation of sociologically informed questions. | Able to gather appropriate information to answer sociologically informed questions. |
| 6.3.5 Ability to identify the ethical issues in social research. | Able to recognise the ethical dimension of social research. | Able to analyse the ethical implications of social research in a variety of applied research settings. |
| 6.3.6 Ability to undertake and present scholarly work. | Able to identify and select from appropriate sociological sources and present the conclusions in an appropriate sociological format. | Able to discuss sociological topics with appreciation of theory, evidence, and relevance to current debates and to present the conclusions in a variety of appropriate sociological formats. |
| 6.3.7 Ability to examine the relevance of sociological work to issues of social, public and civic policy | Able to identify and select sociological work relevant to given social, public, and civic policies | Able to identify and comment on the value of sociological work with regard to social, public and civic policy issues |
Sociology benchmarking group membership
Professor P A Abbott (Chair) University of Teesside
Professor J Bailey Kingston University
Dr J Chandler University of Plymouth
Dr S Delamont Cardiff University
Mr J P Gubbay University of East Anglia
Dr L H Jamieson University of Edinburgh
Dr M Leonard Queen's University of Belfast
Ms E S Lyon South Bank University
Dr R J Mears Bath Spa University College
Mr C Middleton University of Sheffield
Mr L Murphy Deloitte and Touche
Professor J P Scott University of Essex
Dr H A Thomas University of Surrey
Professor F Webster University of Birmingham
Judith Mudd (Secretary) British Sociological Association
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