School of Law and Social Sciences

The School of Law and Social Sciences is a highly regarded, multi-disciplinary school which provides a range of professionally recognised and valued qualifications across a wide range of subject areas including law, librarianship and information studies, social sciences and social work. 

We are proud of having a created a positive and supportive learning environment which ensures students are future ready and prepared for the opportunities and challenges associated with rapidly changing workplace environments. 

Our students graduate confident and ready to undertake their future roles, whilst being proudly equipped with the skills and knowledge required to add value to our society. Our success in doing this is reflected in student feedback, employer feedback and graduate employability. 

Through consultation and partnership working with relevant industry, professional and regulatory stakeholders, we ensure our courses are topical, relevant and applicable; not only to the needs of the organisations who may employ you but also to the needs of those who access services and support from those organisations. 

Our courses will prepare you for a wide range of employment options in the private and public sectors including the legal profession, social work, health and social care, child and public protection, library and information management related roles, justice services, community care, human resources, public relations, police, and community development. 

In addition to our degree and post-graduate courses, we have developed an extensive portfolio of short-courses, professional development qualifications and post-qualifying awards. These have been carefully designed to enable participants to maximise their career development and progression. 

Alongside the professional employment and development opportunities offered by the school, there is also opportunity to further your academic interest and profile through engagement with research. The school is proud to be both research active and research enabled with staff who are passionate about and skilled in research activity.

Expert teaching

Our teaching is delivered by a dynamic team bringing together a blend of professional experience, expertise and academic excellence to provide students with a stimulating and enjoyable education. Many staff maintain active links to professional practice which ensures that student learning remains aligned to changing professional and social contexts.  

Across our courses, we recognise the need to provide teaching, which is not only responsive to professional demands, but which also takes account of the uniqueness of students as individual learners. We adopt creative and imaginative approaches to teaching including the provision of lectures, interactive workshops, seminars, tutorials, inter-professional learning, placements and practical activities including simulated learning experiences. 

Awards and Recognition

• 2nd in the UK for teaching quality in Social Work (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024).
• 1st in Scotland and top 10 in the UK for student experience in Sociology (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024).

Placements

Placements are an excellent opportunity for you to gain real world experience and to apply the knowledge and skills you have developed throughout your studies.

Through effective partnerships with key stakeholders, we are proud to have developed an extensive range of placements across the northeast of Scotland and beyond. 

All placements are great opportunity to gain valuable experience, build relationships with future employers, enhance your CV and increase your employability for when you graduate. 

We provide placements at the forefront of practice and in a range of settings for our BA (Hons) Law and Management, BA (Hons) Social Work and Pg/MSc Social Work students.

For those courses where placements are a regulatory requirement, our practice learning provisions align with these requirements and support the professional development of students. 

Affiliations and Industry Links

We are proud to be associated with many leading organisations, institutions and professional bodies. Together they will help you to enter the workplace better equipped to manage the opportunities you are presented with:

• The Law Society of Scotland
• The Faculty of Advocates
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
• Energy Institute
• North East Scotland College
• Scottish Social Services Council
• British Psychological Society
• British Sociological Association
• Institute for Research and Innovation in the Social Sciences
• The Care Inspectorate

About our research

At the School of Law and Social Sciences we promote a vibrant and diverse research community where our sustainable, inclusive and interdisciplinary research environment supports researchers addressing local and global challenges. Our esteemed staff and research students are from all corners of the globe, bringing unparalleled expertise and global perspectives.

We excel in policy-based, theoretically informed and applied research across law, the social sciences, journalism and information management. We encourage research collaboration with public, private and third sector organisations for the purpose of creating societal benefit. We offer a wealth of doctoral research opportunities including discipline-specific and interdisciplinary fields, as well as professional doctorates, all fostering innovation and excellence in academia.

Research Blog

Visit our blog to keep up to date with the latest research at the School of Law and Social Sciences:

Research Events

Areas of expertise

Our areas of expertise span several disciplines and are built around four key interdisciplinary research themes:

• Environment, Energy and Sustainability
• Living in a Digital World
• Health and Wellbeing
• Inclusive and Creative Societies

Research on each of these broad themes could be discipline-specific (e.g. information science, law, psychology, social work or sociology) or interdisciplinary. We employ diverse research methods ranging from quantitative to qualitative options to conduct theoretically informed empirical and policy-focused research. 

Law

Our researchers in law are adept at the use of traditional legal research approaches such as doctrinal, comparative and socio-legal research. Current research covers a wide spectrum of law disciplines in both public and private law. Among these are healthcare law, extradition, criminology, European Union Law and European Human Rights. Our research staff also have expertise in construction law, contract law, energy law and policy, and environmental law. The law team are renowned for their expertise in dispute avoidance and resolution, maritime law and the law of the sea and employment law and will welcome research proposals from prospective students in these areas.

Psychology

Our research in psychology covers a broad range of areas including cognitive psychology, health psychology and social psychology. Our staff employ varying research methodologies to examine issues such as multiculturalism, online communities and movements and mental health and wellbeing.

Social Work

Social work research is interdisciplinary and seeks to engage and address a wide range of national and international topics including those that are referred to as societies wicked problems. We are actively engaged in researching topics related to international social work, structural inequality, public health, mental health, children and families, early years, leadership and management in health and social care, service evaluation and redesign, and eco-social work. We are committed to making an impact in society, ensuring that social work thrives as an academic discipline and its voice contributes to critically addressing issues of social justice, equality, social reproduction, and socio-economic concern.

Sociology

Researchers in sociology examine issues around collective violence, peacebuilding, post-conflict societies, development, environmental change, energy and corporate social responsibility. There is also significant expertise within cultural sociology, theoretical sociology and the sociology of health.