Sociology is the study of the social lives of humans, groups and societies, sometimes defined as the study of social interactions.

Psychology deals with individual perception, cognition, attitudes and behaviors, whereas Sociology focuses on groups, institutions (such as family and religion), society, culture (including language and values) and how these impact individual and group behaviours. Sociology therefore covers a wide spectrum of topics and issues ranging from youth, emotions, food, religion, family, deviance, law, and ethnic identity, to work and organisations. However, you may choose to specialise in one or two module clusters in Sociology.

Social Work uses different disciplines to help solve individual or social problems. Not surprisingly, one of the main disciplines it borrows from is Sociology. Indeed, Sociology provides a good understanding of the social and cultural context that explains the problems handled by social workers. A parallel would be to think of Sociology as like Physics or Mathematics, while Social Work is like Engineering. However, I would like to emphasise that the applications of Sociology extend far beyond Social Work. This is reflected in the fact that our graduates can be found and are doing well in a wide range of careers: media and communications specialists, journalism, human resource management, survey or marketing consultants, and policy research and planning.

Sociology has been given the title "queen of the social sciences" for good reasons. It provides a solid foundation and comprehensive framework for understanding the social world we live in. The term "social" includes the cultural, political, and economic dimensions as well. Anyone who plans to work with people and in organisational contexts would therefore find Sociology rather useful. You would also discover that Sociology as a major goes well with most of the other disciplines and minors offered by FASS.

We are an established brand name. We have been around since 1965, the year of Singapore's independence. We have continued to attract good quality professors and students. We have more than 30 staff in different areas of expertise. Correspondingly, we are able to offer a wide range of modules. This cannot be matched elsewhere in Singapore. One more thing, we work hard on our curriculum to make it always fresh and relevant. We are serious about training, but our approach is fun, and encourages hands-on, participative learning. We also mobilise our industry connections and alumni networks to make available more internships to students. And yes, we have produced many cohorts of alumni who are making a difference in Singapore or elsewhere in the world.