Undergraduate

BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care

On this page

• Description
• Planning your studies
• Career relevance
• Courses
• Learning outcomes
• Credit for previous study elsewhere
• Classification of your degree
• Regulations
• How to register

Description

This degree is designed to enable you to develop a sound and critical understanding of policy, theory and practice in health and social care. It will help you to develop as an independent and reflective learner in the context of health and social care provision, policy and practice.

You will examine the context and processes of change in yourself, in groups and in services, including new ways of working across agencies and professional boundaries. By the end of your studies you’ll be able to evaluate your own and others’ roles in the context of policy developments, engage in developing strategic solutions and recognise and value diversity and difference. You will also understand how ethical, legal, social, economic and political factors influence the provision and development of services, and you’ll have developed the critical and analytical skills needed to engage in the development of evidence-based practice.

Planning your studies

From 1 January 2010 there will be a time limit for completion of this degree. If you’re going to complete the degree after this date, you will need to obtain all the 360 credit points required for the degree within a 10 year period from the start of the first course to the award of credit for the last. If you have an award of transferred credit counting in your degree in recognition of study you successfully completed elsewhere, the 10 years will start from either the date the study that led to that credit transfer was completed or the start-date of your first OU course counting to this degree, whichever is the earliest.

If you’re new to study or to the OU, we recommend that you start with An introduction to health and social care (K101). If you complete that successfully you’ll have a firm foundation for future studies as well as credit points to count towards your degree.

If you hold a Diploma in Social Work or a Diploma of Higher Education in a relevant subject and are a qualified health care professional (e.g. nurse, social worker, midwife, occupational therapist, health visitor), you might be able to qualify for this degree by taking only 120 points at Level 3. Please see the full description of the Shortened BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care (B22) top-up route.

You can register your intention to study for this degree when you reserve your place on individual courses, or you can ask us at any time to link courses that you have already studied towards the degree. This gives you the flexibility to delay your decision or to change your mind as your studies progress. You must include at least 120 points from OU courses that have not been counted in an OU diploma or other first degree you have been awarded. If you have graduated with an OU BA or BSc degree without honours this requirement is reduced to 60 points.

Career relevance and employability

All the courses in this degree put emphasis on crossing professional boundaries with a focus on the perspectives of the service-user. This means that it’s closely attuned to priorities in the health and social care sectors and the NHS modernisation agenda. The degree will be of interest to anyone who works, or has a particular interest, in health, social work or social care in the statutory, voluntary or private sectors. Ask our Student Registration & Enquiry Service for the careers publication OU study and your career if you want to find out more about the process of career development and about sources of careers information and guidance.

For planning your next career steps, visit the OU Careers Advisory Service.

There’s more information about the career relevance of degrees on the national HE Prospects website.

Courses

For this 360-point honours degree you require:

60 points from the following compulsory course:

Or the discontinued courses K100, KZX100

And at least 60 points from the following optional courses:

And at least 60 points from the following optional courses:

Or, subject to the rules about excluded combinations, the discontinued courses K301, K302

And 120 points, which can be taken from any of the courses above or from the following optional courses. At least 120 points in total for the degree must be at Level 3:

Or, subject to the rules about excluded combinations, at Level 2 the discontinued courses E242, K201, K205, K214, K223, K256, K257, K258, K259, K263, K267, SK220, at Level 3 the discontinued courses D311, K321

*K307 and K303 are an excluded combination – you can only study one of these courses

To complete the 360 points needed for an honours degree, the remaining points up to a maximum of 60 points can be from any OU undergraduate courses. You must ensure that you have the required number of points at each level. However, you may wish to consider choosing from the following courses, which are particularly relevant to health and social care:

• Challenging obesity (SDK122) (15 points)
• Diabetes care (SK120) (15 points)
• Foundations for social work practice (KYJ113) (60 points)
• Understanding cancers (SK123) (15 points)
• Understanding cardiovascular diseases (SK121) (15 points)

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:

• Knowledge and understanding
• Cognitive skills
• Practical and professional skills
• Key skills

Read more detailed information about the learning outcomes, and how they are acquired through teaching, learning and assessment methods.

Credit for previous study elsewhere

If you have already completed some successful study at higher education level at another institution we may be able to give you credit for this study that you can count towards this Open University qualification. You can find out more on our Credit Transfer site. If you make a successful claim for transferred credit it may affect your choice of courses so you are advised to investigate this option as soon as possible.

Credit transfer details for this qualification:

• Essential Information Sheets - BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care

Classification of your degree

On successful completion of the required number and type of courses you will be awarded a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science (Honours) Health and Social Care degree. Your honours degree will be classified either as first-class honours, upper second-class honours, lower second-class honours or third-class honours. The class of degree is determined by the best grades you achieve in 240 points from the courses above Level 1 listed above. At least 120 of those points must come from courses at Level 3. You will have the opportunity to attend a degree ceremony to collect your award certificate.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the Award Regulations and the Student Regulations.

Award Regulations

• Introduction to the Award Regulations
• BA/BSc (Honours) Health and Social Care
• Schedule A to the Award Regulations

Student Regulations

The Student Regulations (including the Code of Practice for Student Assessment and the Code of Practice for Student Discipline) are available on our Policy Documents for Students website.

How to register

To register for this qualification, read the description and check you meet any specific requirements (for example, some of our qualifications, require you to be working in a particular environment, or be sponsored by your employer). Then select the course you wish to study first and ensure it is suitable for you before following the registration procedure for that course.

About this page

An undergraduate qualification in Health and Social Care.

Study explained

Credit points

- show how much study is required to complete a course or qualification. One credit point represents roughly 10 hours of study.

Level

- indicates how difficult a course is. Undergraduate study starts at Level 1.

Financial support

- find out if you qualify for support with your fees with our eligibility checker.

Study explained

- all you need to know about studying with the OU.

Got a question?

Contact an adviser in our Student Registration & Enquiry Service
Email or call +44(0) 845 300 60 90

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