About us

Welcome to the School of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton.

We offer a lively and stimulating environment for study, and have a tradition of welcoming UK, EU and overseas students and staff to our ever-growing community of social scientists, thereby building on our reputation as a premier destination for social scientists.

The School of Social Sciences can be found in the Murray Building (58) on the University of Southampton’s main campus at Highfield. This means that our students have easy access to all University facilities such as the recently renovated Hartley Library; the sports centre, gym, and swimming pool; the Students’ Union; the student shop, hairdressers and travel centre; the banks, bookshop and post office; the Uni-link bus interchange; and the Student Services Centre offering advice on accommodation, fees, funding, immigration and visas. The Highfield campus is within walking distance of the University’s Halls of Residence.

One of our many strengths is the high calibre of our academic staff, many of whom are internationally renowned and bring with them years of international experience in their chosen field. You’ll find details of staff backgrounds, research interests, and current projects in the Staff pages for each division.

Did you know...?

  1. Across the School, more than 50% of the research was judged to be either internationally excellent (3*) or world-leading (4*). All of our units of assessment improved upon their performance in the last (2001) RAE.
  2. Our teaching and research expertise covers ageing, demography, economics, international relations, politics, social policy, social work, sociology, and statistics
  3. Several of our divisions are amongst the leading departments in the UK in terms of research output and expertise
  4. The majority of our divisions run programmes which the ESRC recognises as research training providers
  5. Our Social Statistics and Demography division has been awarded 25 ESRC quota studentships for 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11 – one of the highest figures for any social statistics or demography department in the UK
  6. One of the UK’s most recognised and influential research centres is housed in the School of Social Sciences – NCRM, the hub of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods
  7. We run regular seminar series related to research being carried out in each division. Seminars offer our postgraduate students opportunities to present papers on their research, and to meet with guest speakers from other institutions or organisations
  8. Our students have access to some of the latest and most advanced statistical software packages on the market such as STATA/MP, Minitab, SAS and SPSS
  9. One of our research centres, Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI), is one of the largest groups of statisticians in the UK and involves more than 50 academic, research and support staff
  10. We are home to innovative interdisciplinary research centres such as the Centre for Global Health, Population, Poverty and Policy (GHP3), Child Well-Being Research Centre, Centre for Citizenship, Globalization and Governance, Work Futures Research Centre, Centre for Population Change and the Centre for Research on Ageing.