Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Management with Professional Placement

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

This course will address the specific challenges and opportunities of the luxury sector and is the perfect choice for students that see their future careers with premium, high-end and luxury brands.

We enable you to become a confident leader and an innovative thinker, learning how to approach brands and decide their place within the market. You’ll learn how luxury brands are managed in the international marketplace, as well as looking at branding from producer and consumer perspectives.

What's covered in this course?

The course encourages you to develop the skills and competencies of future managers in the Luxury Industry. To do this, you will be capable of making management decisions at both a strategic and at a tactical level, emphasising the complexity and dynamics of business and management and an awareness of the nature of the various factors which influence management decisions.

The School provides a unique setting for students to observe their peers, taking advantage of the proximity of fashion and textile design students at the Parkside Campus and the School of Jewellery in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

The course encompasses numerous field trip opportunities so that you can reflect on your developing knowledge in relation to professional practice and the luxury industry.

There is commonality with other courses such Fashion Management, Luxury Jewellery Management and Global Media Management and you will benefit from shared lectures and practice where possible. Access to interactive digital technology will increase students’ ability to debate and share experiences in a global context and therefore integrate knowledge from different cultures.

Our BA (Hons) Illustration degree course aims to give those with a passion for image-making and illustration the skills they need to capture and communicate ideas through pictures. We celebrate the challenge of finding your individual visual voice through experimenting, risk-taking and critical reflection. You will also explore how your work can be applied across a wide range of contexts, from commercial work to personally-driven projects.

This course provides an opportunity to development a wide range of transferable skills and design process knowledge that is highly desirable to employers.

What's covered in this course?

Our challenging and exciting Illustration course will help you develop new skills and different ways of thinking, enabling you to find your own individual, visual voice and prepare you for the ever-changing creative industry.

The course celebrates the synthesis between illustration and all the other visual communication subject disciplines, leading to the development of strong student collaborations that again aims to reflect industry practice.

We support a lively creative community, encouraging the value of peer learning. This learning is supplemented by an integrated workshop programme that provides the opportunity to work alongside, and be informed by, industry experts from a wide range of disciplines.

Join us at Birmingham City University and study Digital Forensics in the UK. Our BSc (Hons) Digital Forensics course gives you access to study in our specialist Digital Forensics labs, all equipped to industry standards and run the latest software, meaning you can experience the most current technology and prepare yourself for the working world.

With digital forensics playing a critical role in the world of modern criminal investigations, studying Digital Forensics with us will help you develop the practical and professional skills needed by employers in the digital forensics, cyber security and law enforcement sectors.

The course covers the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data recovered from computers and digital devices to establish factual evidence. Our dedicated specialist Digital Forensics Laboratory hosts professional digital forensics tools, including EnCase, FTK, XRY, Cellebrite and other industry-standard tools. You will also develop the necessary legal, expert witness and professional skills required by employers..

Our postgraduate Fashion Promotion course is highly vocational and an ideal choice if you want to work in fashion communication and the promotion of fashion companies, goods, events and brands.

The course attracts students from all disciplines from around the world, and we urge you to enrich your perspective as a global citizen, through expanding your cultural horizons in a stimulating multi-cultural environment and helping you to become a global graduate equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.

Your learning environment will encourage you to become an adaptable, flexible and knowledgeable graduate, equipped to pursue a career in the fashion industry. Many of our graduates go on to start up their own, or even develop existing family businesses.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit-bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

Our pioneering MA Arts and Education Practices course focuses on the exploration of educational models at the intersection of practice, teaching and pedagogic theory.

The only Arts Education MA in the UK based in a School of Art, we provide a unique platform for the art educator. This setting helps to facilitate an innovative community of experienced and aspiring art educators, welcoming those willing to critique current practices to ask not only how we should teach art, but also how art can teach us.

What's covered in this course?

Our students come from diverse phases and sectors in the field of art and design education and the expanded fields of gallery, community and self-organised educational practices. Through the course individual perspectives and experiences meet with those of your peers providing you with the stimulation and challenges that different perceptions can bring. We seek to evolve a dialogue through direct experience and engagement with the arts and their value as taught subjects, both within the institution and outside of it.

Our taught modules strengthen your subject knowledge and connect you with contemporary creative and educational practice.

MA Arts and Education students follow a core modular structure that explores the past, current and future practice of arts education. You can personalize your learning through your choice of an optional module and pursue your interests within the expanded field of arts education through research and practice.

The structure of the course enables you to focus your research within the context of your own creative field and workplace. Through this study you build independent research leading to your major project that can be focused through educational models, workshops, creative practice and encounters that inform and are responsive to art educational contexts.

The course offers opportunities to connect with and expand your knowledge of your creative field through collaboration, live projects and visits that explore educational situations and projects.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit-bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviors at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

Want to study a Master’s in management in Birmingham? Our MSc Management and Entrepreneurship course is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The Management and Entrepreneurship MSc is a challenging but highly rewarding pathway that will provide an innovative gateway into starting your own business, as well as helping you develop a legitimate business plan that you can use to start your company. Our Management and Entrepreneurship course teaches you the fundamental skills and attributes you need to become a successful entrepreneur.

You will work in internationally diverse student teams, collaborating to deliver effective and professional reports, reflecting the professional practice of international management. Throughout the course, the course team will give you the support you need to realise your potential, and we look forward to working with you to develop your knowledge, understanding and skills for the career of your choice.

What's covered in this course?

At Stage One you’ll become adept at strategic and tactical business decisions, developing core skills in key areas, including finance, people management, operations and marketing. You will examine the key challenges faced by global businesses, to fully appreciate the complexity and dynamics of leadership and management practice. This will see you broaden your skills in organisation, communication and working with others, particularly within an increasingly culturally diverse business context.

Stage Two develops your specialist knowledge, understanding and skills via the New Venture Creation module which specifically focuses on the applied aspects of entrepreneurial activity. In parallel, you will also learn about strategic management and develop your skills in research practice to prepare for your major project.

The Stage Three module of Entrepreneurship in Practice is a lecture and seminar series of specialist topics giving real-world practical insights into entrepreneurship practice. You will explore critical issues faced by entrepreneurs, such as entrepreneurship capital, buying a business, succession planning and start-up marketing. You will be given the option to develop your business concept into a substantial piece of research and business plan via the Entrepreneurship Project module. You will be able to self-appraise and reflect on your entrepreneurship skills at all three stages of the course.

Want to start a career in criminal investigation? Our Criminology, Policing and Investigation University course has close ties to the West Midlands Police Force.

Our degree offers an in-depth study of policing and criminal investigation, helping you develop your understanding of criminological thought, as well as historical, political and practical applications. This course offers a varied yet focused choice of subjects through which you will be able to develop your interests within the specialised field of criminology.

What's covered in this course?

Within this course, students will explore the who, what, where, why and when of criminology. That is the understanding of who and why people commit crime, where crime takes place, and the motivations for different crime types.

This is done through a range of exciting and engaging modules which are taught by expert lecturers who are well published in the field. In this course we explore the concept of policing and how different countries have chosen to manage crime. We use a variety of trips, guest speakers and specialist workshops to give students a wide range of understanding of policing.

Specialist facilities include the interviewing suite, which allows students to simulate police interviewing environments for both suspects and witnesses, with access to tape recording and video playback analysis.

You will benefit from well-established links with a variety of external bodies, including police forces, charities, pressure groups, criminal justice agencies, criminal rehabilitation probation service and prisons.

Design and visualisation plays a key role in many of today’s businesses and organisations. From designing complex animations, brand identity, 3D products, virtual interiors, landscape, architectural visualisation and new conceptual designs, employers look for graduates with creativity and knowledge-based software skills.

You can choose to study from a variety of cross disciplinary MA modules in which to learn how to apply design visualisation techniques and strategies. Choose from areas such as product design, interior design, graphic design and various other specialisations.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit-bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

A law degree is an important first step into a career in law, as well as an important foundation on the route to many other careers, and Birmingham City University is a long-established provider of legal education to the Birmingham legal community and beyond.

This course has been developed to enable anyone wishing to qualify as a solicitor or barrister to undertake this first, important academic stage of their career. To achieve this, the course has been designed to align with the subjects that you will need to study further in order to successfully undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), while also meeting the requirements of the Bar Standards Board for an undergraduate law degree.

What's covered in this course?

The study of law is both academic and practical, and therefore both of these are important elements in the LLB (Hons) degree at BCU. Theory and academic study are important on an LLB, but so too is the application of that knowledge, and so our LLB (Hons) degree offers plenty of opportunity for you to develop the practical lawyering skills, as well as the transferable skills enhancing your employability, that graduates will need when entering the workplace.

The different pathways on the LLB course will allow you to make decisions regarding the direction in which you want to take your studies, with named degrees in Law with American Legal Studies, Law with Business Law, and Law with Criminal Justice, as well as a broad range of optional modules ranging from more theoretical topics through to those aimed at the practical application of the law in real-world situations.

You will also have the opportunity to put those skills to practical use, both in the local community and beyond. Whether that is through our programme of placement opportunities with local providers such as Citizen’s Advice and various legal advice charities, through opportunities in the local legal community, or via BCU’s own Law Clinic, established to serve the local community from our City Centre campus, there are plenty of options available to you. You can also apply your legal knowledge further afield, through our US internship programme which has been placing students with attorneys throughout the US for over 20 years.

A professional placement year is also available, between years 2 and 3 of the degree, offering further opportunity for you to put your knowledge and skills to practical use, and thereby enhancing your CV further.

By focussing on the development of a range of transferable skills, the course employs numerous innovative assessment methods, going beyond the typical forms of written academic assessment.

You are also encouraged to engage in extra-curricular activities to support your learning, with student societies such as the highly successful Mooting Society. Furthermore, you will have the ability to engage with the wider Birmingham legal community through our connections with the Birmingham Law Society, the largest regional law society in the UK.

Looking for Sociology courses in Birmingham? Our BA (Hons) Sociology degree allows you to take a year-long placement in industry, gaining invaluable experience before you graduate.

Sociology helps us make sense of the societies in which we live and our place within them.

As one of our longest established courses, you’ll benefit from a programme of study taking an in-depth look at contemporary sociological issues that has been honed over several decades.

What's covered in this course?

You’ll explore and question social norms and discover the complex issues behind day-to-day routines and social practices.

We explore patterns and processes of inequality, examine the structure and dynamics of social hierarchies and power relations and ask why and how people shape their identities and practice their lives. We encourage you to explore how sociological knowledge can connect individuals and how it can provide you with the skills needed to participate in debates not just about what society is but how it could be.

Through the links we’ve developed with work-place organisations such as local School Academies, Citizens Advice Bureau and Woman’s Aid, we help support you to make professional contacts and to apply your studies to real-world situations when taking part in voluntary work or on placement. We also enjoy close links with the city of Birmingham itself, a diverse community perfect for sociological examination.