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Why study Religious Studies at Wolverhampton?

Our Religious Studies course is a well established and resourced course with an innovative and evolving curriculum which includes professional placement opportunities.

‌The course is innovative in the extensive engagement with the local religious environment in Wolverhampton. Many religious communities are within walking distance of the campus and allow for sessions to link the classroom and community. In each year of the course students have an opportunity for a volunteering placement in a range of settings: a school, a religious based organisation, or another employer.

Religious Studies can be studied either on its own as a specialist degree, or jointly with another subject (see choices below). We also have the option for you to study Religious Studies with Foundation Year.

Choose to study it with one of the following:

Employability

This is an ideal course for students who want to go on to do a teacher training course in Religious Education. The majority of our graduates have taken this path and become successful teachers, with a responsibility for RE in the primary sector or as RE specialists in secondary schools. This specialist course content enables you to cover all the subject knowledge requirements for a Secondary RE PGCE in the areas of world religions and philosophy of religion/ ethics.

In addition the course is based around a Professional Development Award, to enable you to gain this award as part of your degree study. The volunteering opportunities in each year of the course provide experiences of placements in schools, religious organisations and other relevant settings. You are also encouraged to engage in personal development planning, to ensure that you take all opportunities to develop your potential. This covers skills required for learning, accessing and processing information, presentation skills, and working with others.

This development of your language competences to graduate level, together with practical engagement with local religious communities provides a good foundation for employment in the public sector. Social, religious and learning identities are an important aspect of many people’s lives, and possessing an understanding of them is highly relevant to the caring professions, social services, community work, the police, nursing and a wide range of business activities.

The central strand of technology running through the course means that you will be digitally literate and have a good understanding of the design and presentation of materials for different audiences.

Meet the Team

You will be taught by staff with a background in Secondary RE teaching, who are able to link learning to the knowledge and skills required for teaching. Our team of staff have a proven and respected research and publications record.

Dr Stephen Gregg and Dr Opinderjit Takhar are the core Religious Studies staff. Dr Takhar has experience of teaching and management for secondary Religious Education and both are involvement in national RE organisations.

NameContact DetailsTeaching and Research Interests

Dr Stephen E. Gregg

s.gregg@wlv.ac.uk

 Religion in contemporary society and method and theory in the Study of Religion, particularly lived/vernacular religion.

Dr Opinderjit Kaur Takhar

O.Takhar@wlv.ac.uk

 Eastern religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, as well as a practical module on fieldwork in Religious Studies and an inter disciplinary module on South Asia.