Social Research MSc - 2026/7

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Social researchers work in a variety of different contexts, including dedicated social research organizations, local and central government, commercial organizations, charities and NGOs. There is a vibrant and innovative academic community of social researchers. Across these settings, social research offers an essential means of understanding and addressing contemporary social challenges and of formulating effective, evidence-based responses.

Graduates of the MSc Social Research will be multi-skilled and creative, reflexive and critical thinkers, equipped to work in a variety of contexts. To that end, the MSc in Social Research focuses not only on research methods as techniques, but on embedding these techniques in a broader critical understanding of how and why we do research and within an appreciation of the full cycle of research from design to dissemination for diverse audiences. The MSc Social Research has been developed with an appreciation that students have varied career goals. We have therefore designed the programme with reference both to the Economic and Social Research Council¿s Postgraduate Training and Development Guidelines and the entry level of the Government Social Research Technical Framework as benchmarks for the scope of training on offer.

This programme draws on a significant track record in social research training. The Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey has been offering Masters degrees in this field for over 40 years. The Department has been home to the Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) Networking Project since 1994, and this underpins our delivery of cutting-edge training in software support for qualitative analysis. Departmental research groupings in Digital Societies and in Innovations in Methodology feed into the ongoing development of programme provision in emerging methods.

This programme is aligned to the University of Surrey¿s Five Pillars of Curriculum Design and design, namely (in alphabetical order), Digital Capabilities, Employability, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Resourcefulness & Resilience, and Sustainability. Specifically, these pillars are covered in this programme in the following ways:

Digital capabilities underpin contemporary social research, and the ability to make confident, critical and creative use of digital technologies is therefore fostered throughout the programme. Students learn to use an array of digital technologies to support information gathering and the research process and all students will be introduced to a variety of software for social data analysis. Students will also become confident in use of statistical software, qualitative data analysis software and social network analysis software according to the specialist modules that they choose.

Employability Students graduating from this programme may engage in social research in a wide variety of contexts including government, commercial and non-profit sectors and further academic research. The knowledge, skills and dispositions developed within the programme are designed to equip students to enter careers across these settings or to proceed to further academic research. Specifically, the programme has been designed with reference to the content criteria for a social research methods degree according to the Government Social Research scheme (2023) and to prepare students for entry to doctoral programmes according to the Economic and Social Research Council¿s Postgraduate Training and Development Guidelines (2022).

Global and Cultural Capabilities. Social research is intrinsic to the understanding of social inequality and diversity. The programme is taught in an interactive and collaborative way drawing on materials from a range of global and cultural contexts. Students are encouraged to share their experiences, to reflect on their assumptions and to take an imaginative approach to the understanding of ethical issues in research, in the interests of developing reflexive and engaged social researchers who will work sensitively with the communities impacted by their research.

Resourcefulness & Resilience Social researchers frequently encounter unexpected challenges and novel situations. No standard research designs suit all situations. It is therefore essential that students on this programme be prepared to be resourceful and resilient, to adapt their research designs and analyses in appropriate and ethical ways. Throughout the programme students are encouraged and supported to undertake small scale research exercises, developing their abilities to respond to the challenges of research and building up to the final dissertation that showcases their ability to design and conduct research with the support of an experienced supervisor.

Sustainability Social research is a vital route towards understanding and responding to social and political inequalities and hence an important part of the pathway towards sustainability. Most notably, within the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Goal 16 sets out ¿to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels¿. In its focus on social research for real world policy and practice and for policy evaluation the MSc Social Research equips students to respond directly to this challenge.