Master of Arts in History

at Anglia Ruskin University - Cambridge Campus United Kingdom

Examine real-life case studies to piece together the inner workings of serious crime, and the methods used to police it. You’ll gain the skills and knowledge needed for many careers in criminal justice, such as the Police, youth justice, the Home Office or border agencies

• Study with a school ranked 8th in the UK for Criminology (The Guardian University Guide 2018)
• Feel supported by our close community of students and staff, including dedicated social media groups
• Learn from professional criminal justice practitioners through lectures, workshops and other activities
• Take part in events including field trips, guest lectures and our end-of-year Criminology Conference
• Join forces with PIER, our Policing Institute for the Eastern Region, with links to local and regional forces and policing bodies and chief officers at local and national level

Focusing on serious crime, you’ll explore the practice and theory of criminal activities, including how crime is detected and policed, methods of social control, and sanctions.

By examining different theoretical standpoints, you’ll form an understanding of various Western legal and social traditions and how they compare to each other.

You’ll investigate issues such as organised illicit trade and criminal enterprise, using case studies of criminal activities including financial crime, human trafficking, and violence prevention.

Our modules will let you specialise in other areas of interest too, such as the nature of violence, terrorism, and policing transnational crime.

Most of your teaching will take place in research-seminar format to allow you to develop critical thinking, but your learning will also be supported by lectures, guest speakers and debates. You’ll have a chance to contribute to our research seminar series, and take part in our annual criminology study trips abroad.

Do you want a career that gets to the heart of society’s problems and changes people’s lives? Gain the skills to identify key social challenges, and analyse and identify policies used to address them on this interdisciplinary Masters course.

• Choose to take a work placement as part of your Major Project, with support from the course staff and the Employability team
• Study in Cambridge, a hub for exchanges on social welfare and policy reflected in the many networks and events, including the Festival of Ideas and Festival of Being Human
• Learn from a Course Leader who is a specialist in research and teaching in an international context
• Study on a course with a truly global outlook, from its multicultural students to its focus on international issues
• Attend guest lecturers by key figures in policy-making and field trips to national and international organisations like Chatham House, Oxfam and UNICEF

Why study social welfare and social policy?

• Studying social welfare and social policy will allow you to focus on the areas of most importance to people’s lives, including education, housing, health, and criminal justice, giving you the skills and understanding to make a difference to people’s lives at local, national and international levels.
• It will prepare you for many careers in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including community organisations, charities, social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations, as well as governmental or academic institutions.

What will you do on the course?

• How can issues such as child labour and trafficking be overcome through global initiatives? Can changes to local policy do anything to stop domestic violence or knife crime?
• On our Masters course, you will explore these and many other issues, comparing different strategies and policies across different countries, and from the perspective of many different disciplines, including politics, criminology and psychology.

Why study social welfare and social policy at ARU?
Our Master’s course attracts multicultural students with a variety of backgrounds from sociology to business studies, and health to the Arts.

Whatever their background, our students are all enthusiastic about making a difference to their communities by improving human rights and living conditions. This might include changing how their society handles issues such as gender equality, prisoners’ rights, children’s education, or environmental protection, among others.

The international dimension of our Masters course will also make you an attractive candidate for potential employers – you will be used to working alongside people from different backgrounds, as well as exploring social issues from the perspective of different cultures.

New technologies and changing platforms mean there’s a growing demand for people with the skills to develop creative digital content across social media and many other digital platforms with a specialist understanding of user experience and design and emerging technologies like VR.

Whether it's for businesses, charities, arts organisations and beyond, our BA (Hons) Digital Media Production degree will give you a transferable toolkit to take you on your digital journey. The course will help you develop your artistic vision and technical abilities, while giving you research and analytical skills to strengthen your creative ideas.

As a BA (Hons) Digital Media Production student at ARU, you’ll develop your digital design and visual communication skills. Our teaching staff and technicians will help you explore, and keep up to date with new industry developments, in areas such as interactive design and animation; video production; digital photography; web design; mobile apps; sound design; physical computing; user experience and interfaces; motion graphics; Virtual Reality; 360 film-making and other technologies.

On our Sport and Exercise Science degree course at ARU, you’ll explore the scientific principles and techniques that underpin health, wellbeing and sporting performance.

Sports and exercise scientists can work at all levels, from the general population to elite performance – and our course prepares you for that.

You’ll study the nature of the human machine: how this operates when engaged in sport and exercise, and how to interpret and evaluate its responses.

Our students are based in the Cambridge Centre for Sports and Exercise Sciences. Here, you’ll learn to work safely and ethically as a sport and exercise scientist in our laboratories. There’s the chance to hear from world-leading guest speakers too, through our Excellence in Sports seminar series; and to take part in training opportunities, such as working as a strength and condition coach or as part of the student led Physiology testing consultancy team.

Use our superb crime scene rooms to learn the skills of a crime scene examiner, as well as industry-standard technology such as 360-degree camera and technology systems. The crime scene rooms feature video and audio CCTV so you can be assessed and receive valuable feedback.

We’ll help you to understand the practical aspects of crime, and how they affect everyday investigations. You’ll look at different types of crime – from burglary through to murder – and find out how these are investigated by the Police, and how other agencies such as fire and rescue contribute to investigations.

As a BSc (Hons) Crime and Investigative Studies student at ARU, you’ll learn not only how to process a crime scene but also how to investigate a crime from scratch. We’ll consider all the processes involved through modules including Forensic Scene Examination.

Our three-year degree course is accredited by the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (CSFS) and explores traditional investigative methods used by the Police, as well as newer approaches such as evidence-based policing. You will also learn how to present professional reports in both a policing environment and within a court of law.

As well as benefitting from our tutors’ knowledge, you’ll attend guest lectures from visiting professionals and get an understanding of the workplace through visits to places such as the Crown Court, and other field trips.

On our Media and Communication degree you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of our data-driven society and contemporary media environment. You’ll explore issues such as digital media theory, identity and representation, politics and popular culture. You’ll learn to analyse and debate the latest theories and discover the impact of media on all our lives such as the role of ‘Fake News’ and the ethical responsibility of journalism in a 'post-truth' age.

Working in our specialist facilities, you’ll also get hands-on and engage with media production including documentary filmmaking, photography, and digital publishing; creating apps, podcasts or new online platforms.

Choose to study abroad for one semester and get funding to cover the cost, and hone your skills through work placements. You can also choose to take an optional placement year.

As a BA (Hons) Media and Communication student at ARU, you’ll be able to focus on particular areas of interest, such as social media, TV, music, journalism, popular or subculture. You’ll also have the opportunity to carry out a work placement, or produce a commissioned product, in the area of your choice as you prepare for a career in media-related roles, including film, TV, photography and social media, broadcasting, production, post-production, digital content creation and journalism.

On all of our modules, you will work with industry-standard equipment and software, including Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and After Effects.

You’ve always liked the idea of helping people. Of supporting them to make positive changes in their lives. Our British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited Psychology with Clinical Psychology degree course can help you do just that.

Together, we’ll explore the main principles of psychology, with a strong focus on clinical and developmental psychology, mental health, and therapies and interventions. You’ll also develop the scientific, analytical and research skills you need to become a psychologist.

By studying psychology at ARU, you’ll immerse yourself in the science of mind and behaviour – and take the first step towards a career as a chartered psychologist.

Our BSc (Hons) Psychology with Clinical Psychology degree will help you understand people: their behaviour, emotions and thoughts.

It will also broaden your understanding of illness and healthcare, as you consider the links between psychological disorders and people’s overall health and wellbeing. We’ll look at how you can assess the whole person through observation, interviews, tests and research. We’ll also learn about treatments in areas such as clinical psychology and cognitive neuropsychology.

You’ll learn from expert tutors who are actively engaged in research work. And you can take advantage of our specialist facilities too, including laboratories for measuring electrical activity in the brain, eye movement, psychoneuroimmunology, emotions and communication, psychometrics, and much more.

Outside of the lab, there’s the chance to join weekly seminars from guest speakers and take an optional placement year.

After graduation, you’ll be ready to continue your professional training and prepare for a career in clinical psychology.

As a BA (Hons) Digital Media Production student at ARU, you’ll develop your digital design and visual communication skills. Our teaching staff and technicians will help you explore, and keep up to date with new industry developments, in areas such as interactive design and animation; video production; digital photography; web design; mobile apps; sound design; physical computing; user experience and interfaces; motion graphics; Virtual Reality; 360 film-making and other technologies.

Accredited by TIGA, our Computer Games Art degree will allow you to develop art skills relevant to the fast-moving computer games industry. You’ll gain 3D computer games skills including modelling, texturing and animation, enabling you to create characters, environments and more.

During your studies, you’ll discover how you can use your visual research, creative experimentation and technical development to forge a career as a computer games artist. You’ll learn how to plan your designs by creating concept art before bringing them to life using interactive software such as Unity 3D.

ARU is the place to be for studying Computer Games Art. The East of England has 135 active games companies, with Cambridge home to developers including Jagex, Frontier Developments and Ninja Theory, who are currently building a new base on Newmarket Road complete with a gaming pub.

Our Computer Games Art course scored 92% for ‘The Teaching on my Course’ in the National Student Survey 2019.

By studying Computer Games Art at ARU, you’ll get the chance to improve your prospects with live briefs and guest speakers from tech giants like Sony, Jagex and Frontier.

Our flexible modules allow you to explore different aspects of digital art, helping you specialise and future-proof your career. And with TIGA accreditation, this course gives you a badge of excellence to show future employers too.

We're also partners with the Global Science & Technology Forum, giving you access to cutting-edge research materials.

During your time at ARU, you’ll receive ongoing support to find placements and work experience relevant to your Computer Games Art and you can take an optional placement year. In recent times, ARM, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Frontier and Just Flight have all offered internships and work opportunities to ARU students.

As a BA (Hons) Film Production student at ARU, you will be supported by award-winning, lecturers whose work has been screened on all the major UK television networks, as well as at multiple international film festivals. They have won Emmys, HUGOs and BAFTAs and continue to practice.

With their encouragement, you'll produce a rage of programmes and films which may ultimately be as prize and film festival worthy as recent student work. Our second year documentary, Tertiary Sound was officially selected for the BFI London Film Festival and in competitions like the Royal Television Society (East) Student Awards, our students have a growing tradition of success. In 2019, ARU Film Production students scooped up Best Drama, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Camera, Best Sound and Best Writing at the RTS (East) student awards, cementing the course’s reputation as a national centre of excellence.

You’ll have access to a series of guest lectures and workshops led by industry professionals where you’ll learn more about industry practices, receive invaluable advice and have an opportunity to network with visiting film and programme makers.