The School of Applied Social Sciences was established on 1 August 2010 to create a dynamic inter-disciplinary grouping, bringing together staff in Community Education, Geography, and Social Work. It also hosts the National Office of the Centre for excellence for looked after children in Scotland (CELCIS) – a national Centre of Excellence. The School builds on the existing, international reputation in research, teaching and knowledge exchange across its professional and academic disciplinary areas.

The School carries out high quality, international-level research across a broad range of theoretical and empirical areas, with particular expertise in:

• Children, young people and families;
• Cities and sustainability, including the Sociology research initiative;
• Community care and community development;
• Community education;
• Criminal justice and youth justice;
• Ethnicity, migration and society
• Globalisation, communication and democracy
• Professional education

In the most recent National Student Survey, the three School undergraduate programmes included in the survey achieved high overall satisfaction with the course: Social Work – 95 per cent; Geography – 93 per cent; Sociology – 92 per cent. The quality of the teaching was rated particularly highly across all three programmes.

The School of Applied Social Sciences also provides a lively post-graduate environment. Post-graduate research degrees and research training are organised through the Faculty Sustainable Communities.