Master of Science (Hons) in Computing and Information Technology

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.

Digital Transformation is an innovative MSc degree course designed for those who want to pursue careers as managers and leaders in implementing technology-based information systems solutions and managing technological transformation within organisations.

What's covered in this course?

Digital Transformation Specialists must understand the complex relationships between people, information, processes and technology in order to support business with digital development. The course will equip you with the requisite multi-dimensional skillset necessary to help organisations unleash their potential to thrive in an inclusive digital society aligned with the innovative application of digital technology to transform organisations, industries and societies.

You will learn:

• Strategic IS Planning: How to develop a strategic IS/IT plan that is aligned to the strategic information needs of the business.
• Enterprise Systems: How to manage the business processes to support the organisation to gain competitive advantage, improve performance, reduce operational cost, implement efficient business processes, and improve real-time decision-making capabilities via Enterprise Systems (ES), which incorporates ERP, CRM, SCM, and so forth.
• Technology Optimisation and Integration: How to analyse the current business IT status, plan technology solutions and develop a roadmap for legacy systems migration.
• Digital Change Management: How to address the socio-technology challenges of leveraging value from the IS/IT in the digital society using agile methods. This involves making sense of the business requirements in order to ensure the end products will solve the business problem.
• Business Intelligence and Technology Entrepreneurship: How to manage and apply a range of visualisation tools to analyse and make business sense of data lakes, and to exploit data to construct informed business decisions.
• Principles of Project Management: How to deliver strategic value within an organisation and ensure the project (or business solution) is completed on time, within budget, within scope and at the desired performance level.
• Individual Master’s Project: A practice-based module working in collaboration with an organization or research-based project within the Socio-Technical Systems Research group to apply multi-disciplinary skills to design innovative solutions to the challenges of digital transformation.

The BA (Hons) English degree course combines the creative and the critical, the personal and the social, the historical and the contemporary.

In the School of English, you will be taught by respected academics and practitioners offering a diverse range of modules in literary studies, linguistics, creative writing and drama. Your degree will allow you to tailor your studies to your individual interests and career aspirations with both a local and global outlook.

What's covered in this course?

English as a discipline continues to be relevant to the lives we lead and is central to a wide range of contemporary and social contexts. It is this fact on which the School has built its philosophy and approach to English as a subject, which has interdisciplinary reach beyond its own boundaries.

Identifying how language works in practice, engaging with multiple forms of communication, examining how language and literature engage with societies and cultures past and present, and the place of English in a global context, are all vital aspects in understanding how the discipline connects with the wider world, enabling you to focus on the production, interpretation and negotiation of meaning and to understand the world from a variety of perspectives.

You will benefit from student-focused and research-informed teaching in a friendly and supportive learning environment where you will be taught by respected academics and expert practitioners who foster a community of experimentation, innovation and inclusivity.

Our graduates are characterized by their extensive subject knowledge, critical thinking and intellectual curiosity, reflected in the skills and abilities that enables them to adapt to a wide range of career paths and employment opportunities.

The School is committed to contributing to the cultural life of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. We do this through working closely with partner colleges and schools, by maintaining close links with cultural institutions such as the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG), and by working with agencies such as Writing West Midlands. In all of this we seek to widen participation and provide opportunities for the community to engage with the discipline and the University.

We live in a time of rapid social, economic and environmental change. Demand for housing is increasing, but not enough new homes are being built. Not only that, home ownership is out of reach for a lot of people. The type of housing we need is changing, and this course will give you the opportunity to meet these challenges head on.

Design for Future Living aims to develop exciting and innovative design thinking, questioning preconceptions about how society lives now and into the future. Developed in collaboration with TV architect George Clarke’s Ministry of Building, Innovation and Education (MOBIE), the course places you at the forefront of the next generation of designers tackling the design and delivery of new homes. You could break new ground through an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to designing for future living.The course prepares a new model of creative, skilled and disruptive designer with knowledge of home, digital technologies and creative design.

Business Operations Management is a very popular management subject and leads to highly valued roles within the global job market due to the increasingly high value placed on it by industry.

It exists in every business no matter the size and industry, and it plays a key role directly affecting business performance and global economics. For example, as retail businesses transform their practices in the digital era with online shopping, the logistics industry is currently experiencing huge growth which is forecast to continue well into the future.

Professional Placement option

For our Global Business Operations degree, you will have the opportunity to take the Professional Placement version of the course, which 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 and transferable skills. The placement experience will allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.

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

Our MSc Management and Marketing course teaches you the fundamental skills and attributes you need to become a successful manager and marketer. You will learn how to negotiate the challenges and issues that international businesses face, as well as having the option to learn how to become adept at marketing.

You will experience working in internationally diverse, team-based projects, collaborating to deliver professional reports and presentations as part of module assessments. These assessments will reflect 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.

Professional Placement option

For our MSc Management and Marketing degree, you will have the opportunity to take the Professional Placement version of the course, which 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 and transferable skills. The placement experience will allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.

Looking for a business marketing course in Birmingham? Our BA (Hons) Business with Marketing degree offers the opportunity to take a year-long sandwich placement in industry.

The course upholds the values of the principles for responsible management education (PRME) defined by the United Nation. It aims to educate future business leaders for a sustainable future.

Our course will equip you with the practical skills and enterprising attributes, enabling you to make an immediate impact on business organisations. You will be able to develop a wide range of cognitive and intellectual skills, together with competencies specific to business and enterprise.

You will be working with academics with specialist knowledge and industry practitioners while studying with us. Our supportive and empowering learning environment will further facilitate your learning journey by providing additional through learning mentors and study buddies. The course will provide you with the opportunity to develop specialist marketing and business skills, and key transferable skills, all of which will help you stand out when it comes to securing employment.

Looking for a career in a rapidly growing sector? The BSc (Hons) Accounting and Islamic Finance degree, the first of its kind in the UK, will see you graduate with the skills the finance industry requires.

The Islamic Finance industry is a fast-growing industry that has developed rapidly within a few years from a niche industry to a global force to be reckoned with in the international arena. Based on a number of moral and legal principles of Islam, the Islamic finance sector grows at 15%-25% per year, while Islamic financial institutions oversee over $2 trillion.

Islamic finance has emerged as an effective tool for financing development worldwide, including in non-Muslim countries. As a result of this rapid growth, individuals and financial organisations find themselves with limited knowledge of its unique and profound nature, leading to a significant skills shortage, which potentially offers graduates a range of global opportunities.

Our Accounting and Islamic Finance course will introduce and develop your knowledge in the various specialised areas, as well as giving you a solid foundation in traditional accounting, giving you the skills need to move into a wide variety of careers after graduation.

Through a variety of modules, including Islamic Economics, Principles of Islamic Finance, Islamic Finance for Non-Profit Organisations, and Islamic Banking and Capital Markets, you’ll learn about the ethos, principles and practices of Islamic Finance, which are not only ethical, sustainable and motivated to achieve socio-economic justice, but also link with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

There will be opportunities to gain work experience in countries where Islamic Financial Services are being set up, or where they are established but in need of qualified staff. This will provide you with opportunities to gain industry experience, giving you the edge when it comes to competing in the graduate jobs market.

The LLM International Business Law meets the current demand for specialist knowledge and skills in a rapidly expanding field. The course provides you with the opportunity to explore the legal regulation of the world of international business, and you will acquire knowledge and understanding of the aspects of substantive and procedural law.

You will study all the key areas of International Business Law:

Core taught modules:

• International Corporate Law
• Transnational Commercial Law
• Corporate Criminality and Tax Evasion
• Advanced Legal Research Methods

Two optional modules from the list below:

• International Intellectual Property Law
• Conflict Resolution in Business
• Global Comparative Competition Law
• Corporate Compliance
• Comparative International Corporate Insolvency Law

LLM Masters Stage:

• Dissertation/Live Project/Placement

The MSc User Experience Design course will provide you with in-depth theoretical knowledge and hands-on practical experience in designing, developing, and evaluating digital products across a range of platforms and state-of-the-art technologies. The course places a strong emphasis on the development of professional technical skills that are in high industry demand and will position you well for careers around the field of user experience (UX).

What's covered in this course?

The course has been designed to support graduates from a wide range of disciplines (including those with technical and non-technical backgrounds) who wish to specialise in the area of user experience (UX) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The key topics taught on the course include interaction design (techniques for user-centered design), front-end development (using industry-standard development environments), visual design (creating interfaces with strong aesthetics), accessibility (methods for supporting inclusive design), and usability testing (collecting and analyzing data via user evaluations). You will also have the opportunity to consider and create user experiences for technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, eye gaze tracking, speech interfaces, mid-air gesturing, haptic systems, and brain-computer interfaces.

The course philosophy is focused around industry and research-led activities, supported with assignments that are closely aligned to the development of essential knowledge and technical skills used in practice. You will therefore have the opportunity to work closely with academics, researchers, and industry partners on real-world project briefs thus supporting you in developing a strong portfolio of work (which is essential for gaining employment in this field). The course will also provide opportunities to collaborate with academics based in the School of Computing and Digital Technology’s Mixed Reality and Human-Computer Interaction research group to work on cutting-edge research projects.

Graduates from the User Experience Design course will be well placed for industry roles that are in high demand including front-end developers, user experience designers/developers, information architects, usability consultants and UX researchers, web designers/developers, and interaction designers.

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 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.