Master of Arts in Urban Design

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

Do you want to be a design thinker? Is your goal to use a design strategy to transform businesses, cultures, and lives? Alternatively, do you want to develop your own design business? If your answer is yes, then this course is for you!

This course invites designers and non-designers to apply design thinking and business-speak to create innovative and purposeful outcomes. On this course, you sharpen your strategic edge through expanding your entrepreneurial and business capabilities. If you are a non-designer, you learn to be a creative thinker.

You bring the knowledge from your past education and practice, combine them with the subject knowledge of design management, and create solutions that are not just aesthetically pleasing but also functional, viable, and purposeful. The course brings excellent networking opportunities for you to facilitate knowledge building and collaborative learning.

On this postgraduate course, we teach you the interdisciplinary issues that design managers work with, such as business, marketing, technology, and art. Immersed in practice, you acquire the skills and the confidence to manage and lead a project. You are encouraged to push the boundaries and to put forward new, improved ideas that are innovative and purposeful.

Design thinking, design strategy, creativity, research, and problem-solving are applied extensively to all the modules. You undertake projects individually and in a team, where you learn communication, management, and interpersonal skills. You work with industry partners with the utmost professionalism. You pursue an industry-based inquiry, which may be a placement. And, you acquire and apply people management, client management, and project management tactics while working on industry projects and teams.

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.

The BSc (Honours) Accountancy degree at Birmingham City Business School will equip you with the skills and knowledge that you will need to become a professional accountant.

The course provides a valuable insight into the worlds of accountancy practice, commerce and industry, underpinned by principles of good governance and ethical decision-making.

Delivery of the course is flexible and includes a blend of lectures, workshops, field trips and online learning. The modules, which feed into the course, are broad, covers key current topics such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help you to appreciate accountancy from a range of perspectives. Ultimately, decision-making in accountancy, calls for one to exercise judgement and intuition and this course helps you to strengthen that judgement.

This will prepare you for a long-term financial career as an accountant, allowing you to progress in many financial and related roles as well as the accounting profession. We create graduates who possess a global outlook, with the conceptual and applied knowledge in the field of accounting that will enable them to make a positive impact on society.

Developed in partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), our MMus in Orchestral Performance are for advanced level string players considering professional orchestral auditions and on the brink of a professional career.

In addition to one-to-one specialist tuition, you will spend a significant amount of rehearsal time in the CBSO alongside one or more dedicated host players who will act as mentors. You may also be offered opportunities to play at the back of the section to gain further experience. In addition to developing your technical facility, musicianship, interpretative skills and stylistic awareness, you will expand your knowledge of orchestral repertoire, learn how to prepare for rehearsal in the most efficient way, develop strategies that will help you to integrate within your section, and build confidence in preparing for orchestral auditions.

You will also participate in additional performance activities within the Conservatoire’s String Department and the wider Conservatoire, including performance classes, masterclasses, orchestra and chamber music.You'll have full access to our superb £57 million facilities, including our Concert Hall, 150-seat Recital Hall, our black box performance space known as The Lab, and more than 70 practice rooms, ensemble rooms and workshops; all acoustically designed to provide a music-making environment that is world-class.

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.

The MSc Advanced Computer Science program intends to develop your competence in using tools and techniques for producing computer systems solutions, from a sound mathematical and scientific base while appreciating the professional responsibilities and quality needed by industry.

What's covered in this course?

The course is designed to cover a number of advanced computing topics in computer science, namely, ontological engineering, service-oriented design, database design, data engineering, and mobile-application development. In addition, you will receive a solid grounding in research methods and project management before undertaking an individual project that provides an opportunity to demonstrate technical and general employability skills in preparation for career progression. More specifically, the individual project simulates typical graduate workplace tasks that require in-depth knowledge and skills in a specific area of computer science. This will include consideration of wider issues and the ability to manage activities and resources, as well as generate, implement and report on solutions to meet task objectives.

Throughout your masters in computer science, you’ll be supported by our expert teaching staff, all of whom have a wide range of research and industrial experience in areas such as intelligent systems, mobile computing, Semantic Web, machine learning and software engineering, which they use to enhance the curriculum.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement option 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.

Our MA Black Studies course aims to build on the success of this pivotal course. Since its emergence Black Studies at BCU has been one of the most high profile and successful research activities since 2014 in the faculty. We have produced highly rated and world-leading research, secured research funding and hosted some foundational research activities.

This course will be well suited to those already in employment as well as those wanting to develop specialist knowledge and build on transferable skill sets which will boost their employability and career options to working within education, local and national government, criminal justice, media, the arts and advocacy organizations. We have links with the public, private and voluntary sector organizations in local community, national and international settings. Engagement with stakeholders is a fundamental part of the final project; which further enhances students’ personal and professional development and networking skills.

The MSc in Real Estate Management course is an interdisciplinary Master’s program that fuses economic, social and environmental perspectives within a framework for identifying, assessing, designing, delivering and evaluating effective real estate interventions and responses.

What's covered in this course?

Our program reflects synergies with the Master’s courses in Planning Built Environments and Environmental Surveying in order to create a program that works across the whole built environment profession and disciplines.

The program focuses on the interaction between business and legal processes on property ownership and management. It integrates technological, financial, legal and management issues as they relate to property matters.

The theoretical underpinning of the course is rooted in real estate which stresses the need for interdisciplinary approaches and solutions.

This course will help you to connect the theory and practice of real estate to a range of real-life case study challenges. It will give you a framework of knowledge, skills and tools to start understanding the complex world of property, whilst supporting you to become an independent learner and reflective practitioner.

Our program builds on applied academic research and contemporary real estate practice. The course design and delivery utilises our expertise across real estate, sustainability and planning and also brings in external experts and practitioners to address key challenges and opportunities within practice.

Our real estate degree courses are designed and developed with support from relevant professional bodies (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) and local professional individuals and practices. Owing to the need to meet these professionally-set learning outcomes, there is little choice in modules within these programs, although it is possible to begin to specialise with dissertation and project topics.

The Construction Project Management MSc prepares you for complex construction projects in a constantly changing globalised industry. Such an industry calls for skilled professionals who can deal with the challenges ahead.

What's covered in this course?

Accredited by RICS and CIOB, this course gives you a broad yet rigorous grounding in the fundamentals of organising and managing construction projects, and provides you with the knowledge and skills needed as a project manager. Our Construction Project Management postgraduates are highly sought-after and have secured positions with companies such as Turner & Townsend, Miller Construction and Acivico.

The MSc Construction Project Management course will enable graduates with degrees in surveying, construction, architecture, civil engineering and real estate to enter the construction management profession. Practitioners with extensive construction work experience but without a first degree will also be considered, subject to entrance exam and interview.

The course gives you a broad knowledge of the challenges of a changing construction industry. You’ll cover law and contract, sustainability, business management, project management and innovation. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is embedded in the course for integrated project delivery.

Want to study a health psychology Master’s in Birmingham? Our MSc Health Psychology is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

With the shifting emphasis in governance and health-related policy papers, health psychology continues to grow in popularity.

Communities are dynamic and always changing, so our understanding and support of health, wellbeing and behavioural changes needs to be considerate of all diverse groups. On our BPS accredited MSc Health Psychology course, you will study a range of techniques and methods, ensuring you graduate with the skills you need to be a competent, knowledgeable health psychology practitioner.

What's covered in this course?

We will provide you with a detailed understanding of the key theoretical and applied issues in health psychology. These include the key psychological theories and applications which support behaviour change, addressing disease prevention and enhancing health and wellbeing, managing health, health promotion and health interventions, and self-reflection on your own learning and development.

Contemporary health issues will be put into context at local, national and international levels, exposing you to issues which cover the globe as well as local areas.

You’ll be taught how to submit a research ethics proposal, which will address a health issue with the use of psychology. You will also learn how to complete a mini systematic review, which will provide a rationale for your health psychology project, and how to evaluate and conduct analysis. You will also enhance your skills in communication, presentation and group work.

Our BA (Hons) Fashion Design degree course will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in the fashion industry and have the chance to take part in exciting work placements, with companies such as Ted Baker, Mary Katrantzou, Paul Smith, Topshop and River Island.

You will learn to work with different design systems alongside staff who have valuable industry experience with a range of recognised brands. Each year, a selection of our final-year students showcase their final year work to industry leaders at events such as Graduate Fashion Week and New Designers in London.

What's covered in this course?

The course equips you with the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes to succeed in a wide range of careers in the fashion industry.

Your first year will introduce you to a number of fashion topics, helping you to develop a good foundation of fashion knowledge and skills, in both design and technical areas.

Your second year helps to strengthen your personal and professional development in relation to your own career goals. You will also have the opportunity to take part in the international Erasmus exchange program, spending a semester at an international institution.

An optional placement year takes place between years 2 and 3, providing an opportunity for an internship in industry.

Your final year, gives you the opportunity to specialize in women’s or menswear.  You will focus on your own individual area of practice and produce garments that reflect your personal direction as a creative fashion design graduate.

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.