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

at Aston University United Kingdom

What will I learn?
You’ll gain a detailed understanding of businesses in an international context, enabling you to work for a leading global firm or operate across borders with your own company.

The course covers the entire process of starting a new business venture, from the initial idea to international expansion. It will help you to identify and develop business opportunities and teach you how to check the feasibility of a venture using key frameworks and tools. It will teach you business growth strategies and what funding options are available to entrepreneurs.

You’ll also appreciate how enterprises can vary in terms of their mission, from commercial ventures aiming to maximise profits to social enterprises who prioritise social wealth creation. We also explore entrepreneurship in the context of family business and corporate intrapreneurship.

By choosing Neuroscience at Aston University, Birmingham, you’ll study with leading academics to ask the big questions about our brains, and what happens to the nervous system when people have neurological, psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders.

Neuroscientists study the development and function of the nervous system. This includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerve cells throughout the body. They investigate what happens when people have disorders by focusing on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions.

This interdisciplinary science liaises closely with other disciplines such as mathematics, linguistics, engineering, computer science, chemistry, philosophy, psychology and medicine.

Study a BSc (Hons) Economics and Politics degree course at Aston University and tackle some of the most challenging, controversial and real-world issues facing governments, business and the wider society today.

What you’ll learn
On this degree course, you’ll have the opportunity to explore political topics going beyond the UK and Europe, covering North America, South Asia, China, Japan or the emerging global powers. You will acquire the ability to analyse and understand political problems, socio-cultural change and political institutions and structures.

On the economics side, you’ll develop an ability to investigate a range of political and economic issues, and gain a sound understanding of how economic and political issues are often closely interrelated in today’s globalised mass society. You’ll become familiar with a range of tools needed to solve a variety of complex economic problems, and develop research and analytical skills, equipping you with highly relevant, adaptable skills that are transferable across whatever career path you choose.

An integrated placement year offers the chance to apply your learning in a work placement in the UK or overseas. Whether you choose to focus on politics or economics, Aston’s strong links with employers around the world mean you will have a wide range of options to boost your employability and explore the world of work. Unlike some other universities, the placement year at Aston is not a ‘bolt-on’ year, it is an integral part of your degree and in your second year we’ll make sure you’re ready to get the most from this opportunity. You'll receive plenty of help and advice in finding your placement and specialist support and supervision from the University during your placement.

You will also have the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of individual work in the form of a dissertation on an agreed topic of your choice.

Studying Biomedical Engineering at Aston University, Birmingham will place you at the forefront of delivering great solutions for solving some of the world’s biggest medical problems. 

Bridging the gap between health, medicine, and engineering, studying biomedical engineering at Aston University gives you the hands-on skills, knowledge, and experience to help create the healthcare practices of tomorrow.

As a biomedical engineer, you will have the skills, flexibility, and knowledge to be involved in a wide number of activities such as developing innovative devices and delivering expert services directly to patients.

Enhance your learning with an MEng year
Our optional integrated MEng year allows you further to develop your knowledge and skills. You’ll spend the year completing an internship, work placement, or in an employment setting while studying master's level modules via distance learning.

Students are responsible for gaining their own internship, work placement, or employment, with the support of the University careers service. An average mark of at least 50% needs to have been achieved in the third year of the program to enter the MEng (you can convert to this program at any time during the BEng).

A Business Management and English Language degree from Aston gives you the chance to combine in-demand commercial and leadership skills, alongside theoretical knowledge and understanding of the English language, how it works in business, and its role in the workplace.

What you’ll learn
You will be taught by lecturers who are internationally recognized researchers in fields such as leadership communication, marketing, economic development, multi-national enterprises, forensic linguistics, language and gender, and TESOL.

With a professional placement year as one of its key features, the program is geared towards increasing your employability by providing you with the knowledge and skills required of professionals working in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Digital electronics and computer systems are significant in commerce, industry and the home, and have an ever increasing impact on the way we work and live. To gain the competitive edge over its global rivals, British industry and commerce needs trained computer systems engineers with skills in both hardware and software who can assess, harness and influence the growth of information technology.

Our Electrical and Electronic Engineering MEng course is designed to stretch our top students and includes a 12 month industrial placement. It gives you the opportunity to study electronics and computer science more deeply than at BEng level while also gaining valuable industry experience.

What you’ll learn

The first two years of the MEng are taught alongside the BEng degree and you’ll gain a solid grounding in software engineering and computing systems, complemented by engineering expertise in digital electronics and telecommunications. To build a bridge between hardware and software specialists you’ll study computing and electronics with single honours students from the electronic engineering and computer science subject groups.?

In the second and final year, you’ll be able to choose options that enable you to specialise in preparation for your future career. These options include digital system design, telecommunications systems, optoelectronics and signal processing.

The final year is taught alongside our master's programmes and you can choose options from the stream that most interests you, including communications, sensing, computing or electrical power. You will also undertake an in-depth project, based on your areas of specialism.

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.

Understand some of the biggest debates in society and gain an in-depth knowledge of social processes, organizational dynamics, and inter-group relationships that could make a difference to society in a range of careers.

What you’ll learn
Sociology at Aston is about real-life experiences and how they relate to bigger social problems. 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 analyze what impact official politics has on such processes, how politics is intertwined with the profit-making aims pursued by big corporations and how their combined interests dominate our social imaginations. We assess public policy responses and where they are problematic.

Our teaching is informed by our research. 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. Our teaching is constantly updated in light of our research findings.

A Business Management and English Language degree from Aston gives you the chance to combine in-demand commercial and leadership skills, alongside theoretical knowledge and understanding of the English language, how it works in business, and its role in the workplace.

What you’ll learn
You will be taught by lecturers who are internationally recognized researchers in fields such as leadership communication, marketing, economic development, multi-national enterprises, forensic linguistics, language and gender, and TESOL.

With a professional placement year as one of its key features, the program is geared towards increasing your employability by providing you with the knowledge and skills required of professionals working in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

You’ll undertake and apply marketing analyses using appropriate marketing theories and techniques, whilst gaining knowledge and an understanding of the concepts, principles, and application of theories relating to leadership within organizations.

The MSc Marketing and Leadership 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 develop your knowledge of the concepts, principles, and theories relating to leadership within organizations. It will teach you how to apply the strategic role that leadership can make within a wider organizational context.

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.