Course Delivery

DSPI students undergraduate

Your teaching for our undergraduate paper follows the Oxford tutorial system. You will be tutored by faculty members and fully trained DPhil students. The course is accompanied by a lecture series, which runs for eight weeks in Michaelmas term. 

Social Policy paper 

The paper explores the nature and development of social policy and welfare, alongside contemporary policy problems and challenges. The key framework for analysis is the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ – the shifts in the relative importance of the state, the market, the voluntary sector and the family. The course focuses on Britain, but seeks to set the British experience in comparative perspective. 

What you will cover

You will study compulsory topics in weeks 1-4, including:

  • Introducing Social Policy and the 'Welfare State’
  • The Changing Nature of the Welfare Mix
  • Worlds of Welfare
  • Analysing Social Policy

In the second half of the course you will select four topics from a range of subjects that might include:

  • Social Policy and Ageing
  • Poverty and Social Exclusion
  • Health and Health Policy
  • Education Policy
  • Family Policy
  • Housing and Homelessness
  • Labour Market Policy
  • Area-based initiatives