Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Criminology and Security Studies with Professional Placement

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

The global sports market is estimated to be worth between £400 billion and £500 billion and is growing at a significant rate year on year.

Over the past decade there has been a huge increase of career opportunities in the global sport sector that require graduates with the skills, attributes and experience to thrive in such a dynamic industry.

What's covered in this course?

This undergraduate course will provide the academic expertise needed to help students develop an exciting professional future.

Combining theory and practical application this course will draw heavily from practising sports leaders to cover multiple aspects such as technology and digital innovation, marketing, events, operations and analytics. Internships, placements, project fieldwork and workshops will enable students to start a career the second you begin your university degree.

This innovative and on-trend course will give you the skills, experience and insights to develop a career in the growing area of sport management alongside a qualification from the CMI (Chartered Management Institute).

Our MA in Multiplatform and Mobile Journalism is a cutting-edge course designed to give you the video, online, audio and social media skills needed to work within a growing number of jobs in the media and beyond.

Accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, you’ll study under internationally renowned course leaders in a city with a vibrant cultural sector. You’ll learn exciting new skills in online and broadcast journalism, interactivity and data journalism, social media storytelling, and multimedia production.

The applied nature of our BSc (Hons) Economics degree prepares you to work as an economist, or in a related role which is concerned with the study of the economy and its impact on society and the natural environment.

Economics is a major social science which informs major challenges faced by our societies today, including inequality, environmental sustainability and economic policy. Economics draws on and influences other social sciences and humanities and it is also a core business discipline which is integral to understanding organizational behaviour, strategy and corporate performance.

The unique offering of this course lies in its use of a pluralist approach to teaching, which will empower you to understand the relevance of competing economic theories and their application in your daily life and in your future workplace.

The course will provide you with a firm foundation of economics to interpret, analyse and question diverse economic theories and policies in a real-life context. To do so effectively, this course equips you with a vast analytical toolkit, which includes mathematical and statistical analysis, critical thinking, qualitative techniques and proficiency in a range of industry-specific software packages that are relevant to the Economics profession. You will also learn how to communicate results and ideas concisely to a variety of specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Economics is a global subject. You will be encouraged to look at situations from an international perspective. You will apply the knowledge learnt in the course to examine global events and look at how different economic ideas help us understand and address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change and the impact of new technologies on the economy and society. Moreover, your course will be delivered by a multinational team of experts. Your classmates will also come from a variety of countries and cultural backgrounds. Finally, we offer you a study abroad opportunity: you can study for one term overseas in one of our partner universities.

Looking to study a criminology degree at University? Our BA (Hons) Criminology course is supported by our close links with local criminal justice organisations, including West Midlands Police Force.

Make sense of the world of criminal justice by getting the big picture perspective on crime, punishment and victimisation.

This course aims to develop knowledge and understanding of the core schools of criminological thought, their historical and political foundations and practical application.

What's covered in this course?

Our curriculum offers you a variety of subjects, through which you will be able to develop your interests before focusing on specialized fields within Criminology. The course also utilises guest speakers, external visitors as well as unique assessments to enhance students understanding of the discipline.

The course's real-world applications are supported by its close links with local and national criminal justice agencies, including police forces, charities, pressure groups, criminal justice agencies, criminal rehabilitation, probation service and prisons.

The course is delivered by expert staff in the fields of policing, security studies and criminology, and you will also enjoy regular guest lectures from highly influential voices in the discipline.

Want to enter the exciting world of property? Discover our BSc (Hons) Real Estate course. This degree is for you if you are interested in the study of the built environment and in the acquisition, disposal, management and valuation of land and buildings.

This real estate course has been developed in the UK in accordance with the requirements of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the leading international professional body for surveying, our course meets the needs of potential employers in the public, private and third sectors. You will complete your undergraduate degree with the most current and relevant insights.

What's covered in this course?

You will gain a detailed understanding of real estate, alongside learning to make an expert analysis of the processes of its ownership, development, occupation, valuation and management. You’ll also examine economics and finance, property valuation and management, development, construction, urban planning and law, ensuring you are equipped with the attributes you’ll need for a successful career.

The course integrates technological, financial, legal and management issues, and you will connect the theories and practice of real estate to a range of real-life case studies, helping you understand the complex world of property.

 We will prepare you for a career in real estate, developing your collaborative skills and ensuring you are not only able to practise effectively within the global real estate industry, but that you are also sensitive to the needs of the diverse cultures that you come into contact with in your work.

Especially relevant for the would-be chartered surveyor, this course offers a detailed study of the built environment alongside an expert analysis of the acquisition, disposal, management and valuation of land and buildings.

Future Media is a postgraduate MA program that does what it says:

• Future is finding your future and exploiting future developments in the digital marketing and advertising industry.
• Media is acquiring your digital media skill-set amongst evolving trends and emerging technologies.

The MA Future Media program combines agency practice with industry insights and academic methods. It's been a proven pathway to success for our graduates since 2012 and is now a winning formula for the 2020s.

What's covered in this course?

Our courses ensure you gain real-world experience and knowledge so you can hit the ground running when you graduate. In your year on the program, you’ll be planning digital marketing and advertising campaigns with digital agencies, developing brand and product promotions with clients, making mobile, social and virtual content with leading industry professionals and building new user journeys with emerging technologies and state-of-the-art resources.

You’ll tackle challenging briefs in diverse teams with industry partners to build your proficiency: MA students tend to choose broad, strategic and creative roles. Either way, we’ll give you the tools you need to realise your ambitions.

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.

Interested in security sector jobs in Birmingham? Our BA Criminology and Security Studies course covers a range of topics, from war and conflict to counter-terrorism.

Our degree will equip you with a wide range of knowledge about both national and international politics and intelligence. It will also show how politics can impact both security and insecurity in Birmingham and the United Kingdom.

What's covered in this course?

In your second and third years, this wide knowledge base will be built upon as you specialise in your learning. Your knowledge of the core ideas in Criminology will be re-enforced throughout these two years, and you will learn more about topics such as the role of MI5 and MI6, extremism, terrorism and counter-terrorism, the Middle East and conflict in the modern world, and International Relations.

Together these two years will provide you with a well-rounded knowledge of the political and historical issues which are leading to continued conflict and instability in the world today. This is an exciting and dynamic course whose modules directly reflect what is happening around the world and which is at the cutting edge of current scholarship.

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.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, our BA (Hons) Marketing with Consumer Psychology degree gives you the practice-based skills needed to succeed in the ever-changing discipline of marketing.

This approach not only gives you the marketing knowledge needed but also the personal skills employers demand, allowing you to make an immediate impact upon graduation. This experience is further enhanced by the opportunity to undertake a yearlong placement.

Businesses value marketing more than ever due to its ability to identify opportunities, shape experiences and drive profits. It is an ever-evolving discipline, constantly responding to changes in technology and consumer behaviour.

To be successful in this exciting area not only requires a depth understanding of the core principles, but also relies on having the acumen and practical abilities to apply and adapt this knowledge in a wide variety of scenarios. This in-demand course has been designed to give you the practical and professional skills that employers seek through our practice-based learning approach.

Our MA in English Literature is taught by a team of distinguished critics, scholars and creative writers, all working at the cutting edge of their disciplines. As well as developing your skills as a critical thinker, you will join a thriving intellectual community, and benefit from a range of guest seminars and masterclasses, many of which are organized through our Institute of Creative and Critical Writing.

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.