Social Media Ambassador Charandeep explains why she chose BCU.
I chose to study a joint honour award in Sociology and Criminology at university because I honestly did not know what I wanted to go into with my career. Through a vast amount of research that I conducted, I was able to find many routes that I could go down with this degree, including education, community roles, prisons, and within legal disciplines. These are just some of the sectors that the degree allowed me to go down and thus, I saw it as a great opportunity to study it at BCU.
From my first to final years, there were a range of different modules that I studied. The module that I most enjoyed in my second year of studying Sociology and Criminology was the module named ‘Race, Racism and Ethnicity’. This module provided an insight into the racial inequalities of society, alongside the historical and contemporary debates, while also delving into governmental policies and approaches that have been put forward to address these issues further.
The assignment consisted of an essay, and I was also given the opportunity to choose which question I wanted to answer. The question that I had chosen was based upon liberal multiculturalism as an approach towards promoting equal citizenship in contemporary Britain. Through my research and guidance from lectures, the module opened my eyes to social and political contexts across the world including belonging, human rights, migration, and intersectionality. I also found it very enjoyable, especially with the independence I was given to take control of my own research and collect further evidence to support my own points of view.
In addition to this, some of my modules also allowed me to collaborate with other students on my course. For example, in one of our presentations, we were tasked to choose a topic and produce a research study upon this phenomenon and how it can be prevented in the future. It was great to be able to have the freedom to explore issues in society that really relate to us as individuals and that which we found the most intriguing. The topic we had chosen to look into was the social, political and economic ideals surrounding climate change and the way in which global warming is produced by humans. My course mates and I produced a presentation to lecturers explaining the important points of climate change and ways it can be prevented through political efforts.
Initially, the seminars, which were online at the time, were very interactive as my lecturer had utilised a range of resources such as Padlet and breakout rooms on Microsoft Teams. On Padlet, we were able to consolidate our learning from the lecture by creating a timeline of the historical elements of race, racism, and ethnicity, while also using the breakout room feature on Microsoft Teams. My course mates and I were able to debate each side of our argument, which was also helpful towards the assignment and receiving feedback upon discussions, allowing learning, and teaching from not only my lecturer but also each other.
For these reasons and many more, choosing to study Sociology and Criminology at BCU was a great decision!
