Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Politics and Sociology (Placement year)

at Aston University United Kingdom

Study a BSc (Hons) History and English Literature degree course at Aston University to grow your understanding of the world we live in and learn about the past to build a better future for all. Make the most of your potential by combining your studies in global contemporary history with English literature, and completing an integrated placement year for a flying start to your career.

What you’ll learn
Working closely with experienced historians, you’ll have opportunities to study topics such as nationalism, state-building and inter-state relations; the history of war and peace; religious and ethnic conflict; trauma and memory; and issues of globalisation in the present that can only be understood by looking to the past. For example, you’ll learn how the British Empire helped to create the NHS, why Britain voted to stay in the EU in 1975 and why Margaret Thatcher became the first pop star of British international relations.

Engineers are in demand and our Electrical and Electronic Engineering course will provide you with the analytical skills, design expertise and flexibility you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. Our courses are developed in collaboration with a wide range of industry sectors to give a broad but relevant degree so teaching won’t just be standard lectures and you’ll be encouraged to discover how science fiction becomes fact. Designing your own products and working with cutting-edge equipment will be a core part of the course.

What you’ll learn
You’ll begin by covering the fundamental principles of the field, such as digital and analogue electronics, computing, mathematics and project management.

In the second and final year, you’ll specialise by selecting from a broad range of career-focused options, including systems analysis, data acquisition and control, digital system design, telecommunications systems, optoelectronics and signal processing. In your final year you’ll undertake an in-depth project, based on your areas of specialism.

You’ll have access to an extensive network of computer facilities throughout your course, including high performance PCs for industrial standard ECAD, Unix workstations and a large number of embedded processors for lab work. These resources are complemented by specialist electronics, telecommunications and networked laboratories and research facilities.

You may choose to spend your third year in industry and we can support you to find a paid, professional placement of direct relevance to your studies. This placement will give you invaluable practical experience in a real work environment and further enhance your career prospects.

Develop your skills in the various methods used to analyze big data sets and build a career in this exciting area where your knowledge and experience will be in high demand. This course also features the opportunity to undertake a professional placement in its second year. 

What you’ll learn 

You’ll gain a thorough grounding in the fundamental concepts to understand the data lifecycle, including problem formulation, data collection and cleaning, exploratory data analysis and visualization, statistical inference, and decision making. A range of methods will be covered including algorithmic and computational modeling and statistical machine learning. 
 
You’ll also undertake a research project on a subject of your choice, where you’ll apply the knowledge you’ve gained to produce high-quality independent work. 

This exciting new course equips you with everything you need to take on design leadership roles.

What you'll learn

In this four-year program, you will achieve a Bachelors's degree and a Master's degree. If you choose to take a year in the industry the course length will be five years.

You will gain a grounding in the principles of design management in technology, manufacturing, and concept development, combining both theoretical and practical skills training alongside the relevant industrial experience. Plus, you’ll develop the skills necessary to stimulate design entrepreneurial activity, brought to life by our up-to-date and professionally focused curriculum.

Develop your specialist knowledge, build on your experience and become better equipped to contribute to entrepreneurial activity and develop your own fledgling enterprises.

If you choose to take a year in the industry, you’ll be able to develop your learning and showcase your skills, improving your employability through real work experience, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the roles and career paths that best suit your interests and skills.

Develop your understanding and application of core theories in marketing analytics and how different methods can inform strategic decision-making and interventions in a breadth of business settings.

The MSc Marketing and Analytics will develop your understanding and application of core theories in marketing. You will learn how to undertake and apply marketing analyses using appropriate marketing theories and techniques, which will allow you to make appropriate strategic and operational marketing decisions.

The course will also help you develop the ability to make strategic decisions by advancing your understanding and application of how business analytic methods can support interventions in the decision-making process of organizations. 

This course aims to provide a program of study that meets your needs if you are a local, national or international student, enabling you to learn by the exchange of experience as well as formal academic study. It is designed for recent graduates and those already in employment. 

Understand information systems and how they empower business operations and develop technical skills in building and maintaining ICT systems and project management skills that are in huge demand.

Understand information systems and how they empower business operations and develop technical skills in building and maintaining ICT systems and project management skills that are in huge demand.

This course has been developed in collaboration with our industry partners. This ensures that we’re providing you with the specialist skills needed for business analysis and information system roles, which in turn will enhance your employability.

Our teaching staff are committed to sharing their knowledge and expertise to provide you with the highest quality of education. You’ll be taught by leading academics with a variety of specialisms in the field of information systems and business analytics. The School is also made up of several former students of the course, who have gone on to gain PhD qualifications and return to help deliver the course. You can be sure to benefit from their expertise and experience.

The Aston MBA will encourage you to think like an entrepreneurial leader from the start, challenging you at every stage, to personally and professionally develop, through a highly practical, experiential approach to learning.

This is not just a course. This is a new perspective to enhance your future career.

You will approach complex challenges through real-world business problems that you will be tasked with solving. You will think like a business leader, working through challenges by understanding how different functions interact in order to identify solutions for both big and small organisations.

This means, you will cover a broad range of business topics through a hands-on learning experience, equipping yourself with an extensive understanding of how businesses operate in today’s fiercely competitive global commercial environment.

You will discover cutting-edge leadership concepts and frameworks, and put them into practice with applied exercises and real-life business projects. You will develop your ability to inspire and lead enterprises, and be a force for positive change within organisations.

Working independently as well as part of a team, you will identify where your skills need to develop in order for you to personally and professionally develop. You will be exposed to team coaching principles, developing your own personal development plan, as well as have plenty of opportunities to network with, and hear from, industry leaders.

When you study economics at Aston, you will be looking at some of the most challenging and controversial issues facing society today, including the gender pay gap and how human behaviour is linked to global warming.

What you’ll learn
You will learn about economic theories and build on your analytical and mathematical skills in order to understand how economics is used to solve a breadth of issues in business and wider society.

You’ll learn about the principles of micro and macroeconomics, mathematics and statistics in economics, econometrics and competition policy, as well select modules to tailor your learning to your areas of interest.

Through case studies, real-world examples and challenges, you’ll explore economics in an applied context and your placement year gives you an opportunity to develop your employability skills. 

Study the MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Translation Studies at Aston University to pursue a career in teaching English to speakers of other languages and gain additional expertise in translation theory and practice to give your career a head start.

What you’ll learn
The core TESOL modules cover the practical and theoretical background to TESOL/English Language Teaching (ELT), helping you to foster a principled approach to pedagogic practice. You will study how the English language works and put your learning into practice with real classroom teaching. Through English teaching, you will develop a deeper understanding of the key principles of classroom activities and will be able to evaluate different approaches to teaching and learning.

On the Translation Studies strand of the degree, you will study the translation industry in-depth and gain a thorough understanding of translation theories and strategies so that you are able to take on an informed, critical approach to translation practice. You will also become familiar with the most popular and cutting-edge computer-assisted translation tools in the market, including translation memories, machine translation, and localization tools, and develop expertise in multilingual specialized translation. You will also have the opportunity to work towards SDL Trados certification (the world's leading translation software solution).

What you’ll learn
You will study literature, culture and history and explore the style choices of films, digital fiction, Instapoetry and Twitterfiction, alongside more traditional modes of text. We will equip you to critically engage with a variety of texts across both literary genres and periods, and you’ll be able to develop your skills as a writer through our Creative Writing module.

At Aston University, sociology is about real-life, everyday experiences. Our research-led teaching brings social theory to the study of pressing issues in the modern age, such as migration, climate change, welfare, crime, health and sexuality. We focus on key contemporary issues, social policy and decision-making, global trends and international comparisons.

On the sociology strand of the course, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of social processes, organisational dynamics and inter-group relationships. We explore the social constraints we encounter in our everyday lives and how they are reinforced by class, race, religion and gender. To understand how these issues perpetuate existing inequalities and unequal life chances, we analyse how politics is intertwined with the profit-making aims pursued by big corporations and how their combined interests dominate our social imaginations. When learning about contemporary topics such as inequality, racism, health, migration, sexuality, identity, education, the media, crime and climate change, you will be taught by experts in these fields.