Bachelor of Science in Anthropology

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

Using mathematics to solve industrial and commercial problems has led to vital breakthroughs for human advancement. Mathematical models underpin engineering, the applied sciences, computing and many aspects of business and management today. If you have a skill for mathematics and statistics and a flare for management then this could be the course for you. The combination of skills developed on this course will open doors to a wide range of careers.

This course focuses on how mathematics can solve industrial and commercial problems. You’ll develop a broad knowledge of general management alongside applicable skills and knowledge in mathematics and statistics.

Follow the four-year Professional Placement degree programme and you‘ll benefit from our extensive experience in helping students to find well-paid work placements with blue-chip companies. Our sandwich students find that their mathematical and transferable skills are in demand in many sectors, both in the UK and abroad.

Areas recently offering placements include: accountancy, aviation, banking, defence, finance, insurance, IT (software development, network management and design), management (public and private sector), marketing and telecommunications.

This programme will meet the educational requirements of the Chartered Mathematician designation, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, when it is followed by subsequent training and experience in employment to obtain equivalent competences to those specified by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for taught master's degrees.

Our Advanced Engineering Design MSc degree is described as ‘the doorway to industry’. It is for high-calibre, ambitious engineering or science graduates who wish to gain expertise in developing complex, multidisciplinary engineering design.

The focus of the course is to provide you with advanced theory and skills to give you the essential expert knowledge needed for a career as an advanced designer, a design team leader or a researcher in innovative engineering design working in a computer assisted environment.

You will learn how to design products requiring embedded intelligence and comprehensive engineering analysis, and will be taught by a team of highly regarded academics who will give you a thorough grounding in engineering design.

Throughout your postgraduate engineering degree, you’ll have access to well-equipped design studios and computers for your exclusive use, and will benefit from the latest computer aided engineering software packages.

The Design Experience project gives you experience of the whole design process in an industrial environment – from initial concept to final design and manufacture, and presentations, seminars, discussions and guest speakers from industry make this a special learning experience.  

Part of your course will also involve group projects, furthering your ability to work in a team. Recent group projects have included the design of electric vehicles, and the design of smart jigs and fixtures. 

We run regular industry liaison events and this is your chance not only to showcase your innovative engineering design projects, but also network with key engineering and technology professionals.

Brunel’s Advanced Engineering Design MSc degree is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This means your degree will put you on course to gain Chartered Engineer (CEng) status in the UK. It can be studied either full-time over one year, or part-time over two years.

Psychology is an exciting subject to study as we are still looking for answers to questions about the human mind and consciousness. At Brunel, you will have the chance to immerse yourself in the accepted theories of psychology as well as the latest research that is expanding our knowledge.

Our Psychology degree is accredited by The British Psychological Society and can be studied full-time over three years. We also offer it as a four year course which is unique in offering two six-month work placements or you can carry out a one year placement within a single environment.

Work experience while studying is a great asset, whether you choose to continue your studies in psychology or seek employment. You will know what it’s like to apply your skills in the workplace, which builds confidence and is attractive to employers. Recent placements have included the Institute of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital and Holloway Prison.

The course will help you to develop specific skills and practical methods before allowing you to tailor your studies to your own interests in the final year by selecting modules and writing a dissertation. This prepares you for the more self-directed study of a masters and specialisation in a particular field should you choose to pursue it.

Brunel offers access to extensive laboratory and technical facilities including brain imaging facilities (fMRI, EEG), psychophysics, and eye tracking. A good understanding of the equipment you may use in your work placement or in research is a useful skill to have for the future.

As an accredited psychology course, should you graduate with a 2:2 grade or higher, you will be eligible to apply for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society. Membership will be key if you choose to pursue postgraduate training and become a psychologist.

If you have a passion for theatre and would like to learn how to bring your ideas to life on stage, Brunel’s Theatre course will equip you with specialist skills in a range of performance genres while you grow your knowledge of theatre history and theory.

Blended learning is a feature of the course which includes a mix of theatre making practical classes together with theoretically focussed content to help inform your artistic choices.

Alongside developing your analytical and study skills, you’ll discover ways of expressing yourself and building your confidence along the way.

The course has compulsory modules and numerous optional modules that you can choose from within the Theatre degree. You can opt for a wide selection of modules on the main degree or focus your studies through a specialised degree pathway in Acting, Musical Theatre or Physical Theatre.

Please click below for more information on modules offered throughout the course for each pathway.

Theatre BA pathway module table
You will be supported by a personal tutor who is also your academic seminar tutor and you will be taught by staff who are cutting edge academics and industry specialists. You’ll learn in our Antonin Artaud Performance Centre which includes a main theatre and two studio theatres, in addition to a suite of rehearsal and recording studios.

As we’re close to central London, we regularly organise trips to see productions at places such as the Barbican, the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and Sadler’s Wells and participate in workshops with ground-breaking theatre companies all as part of your course.

Far from being just knowledge of the past, studying issues related to important world events, defence, security, intelligence and strategy are not only insightful, they’ll be highly valued in a troubled world by employers within these fields, and beyond.

A varied set of core modules will take you into scope of studying history at University, whether you’ve got a history qualification or not. Modules like ‘What is History’ which uncovers the themes and tools used by historians and ‘Total War in the Modern Era’, chronicling key wars and their influence, will help prepare you for the more specialist modes to follow later in the course.

A wide range of optional modules in years two and three will help you decide where your interests lie in preparation for your final year project, including the option to study intelligence and security taught by experts in the University’s internationally renowned Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS).

Along the way, you will build a toolkit of transferable skills gained through evidence gathering, analysis, problem solving, drafting and communications, which can be applied to a wide range of industries within the public and private sector.

Opt for a placement year and you’ll be adding a year’s experience in a job role and industry sector that will help to show future employers where you might be a good fit for their organisation. Your placement doesn’t have to be related to history and you’ll get plenty of support from staff and resources in the University’s Professional Development Centre.

Studying military and international history at Brunel has many advantages. Situated in London, the course has established links to world-renowned archives and libraries based in and close to London, including the Caird Library (National Maritime Museum), The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum, among others.

Additionally, the original WWII operations bunker used by Sir Winston Churchill on the former RAF Uxbridge is a walk away from campus where Brunel students regularly volunteer.

You only have to turn on the news or open a newspaper to see how differently the nations of the world are governed. What is democracy and democratisation? How has US foreign policy changed in the last 20 years? What is globalisation?

Politics is an exciting and dynamic subject, simulating debate and offering insight in how the ever-changing world around us works. It’s also a degree that can demonstrate your intellectual acumen and understanding of world affairs, which will be an asset in so many fields of work.

As well as providing a foundation in the approaches and theories of politics and international relations, through this degree you will develop your understanding of the importance of politics in a globalising and integrating world.

Whether you’re studying modern Africa, imperialism or Trump’s foreign policy, you’ll not just learn about politics, you’ll be analysing politics using the tools of political science and philosophy to help deepen your understanding and critical thinking.

Opt for a placement year and you'll gain work experience that is highly valued by employers. Brunel students have secured placements in the Environmental Audit Committee, the House of Commons, Directorate of Gender Affairs, HM Treasury and the Competition Commission, to name only a few.

You can also opt to take part of your degree abroad in one of our partner universities in Europe, or participate in an exchange programme to China or the USA to study politics in a different part of the world whilst experiencing a new culture.

Brunel is a dynamic university choice for your politics course. You’ll be taught by politics experts who are often called on to comment on radio and television. The Brunel campus has hosted the filming of BBC’s Question Time and is a political hub during local and national elections.

Brunel politics graduates enter diverse careers. Many of our former students go into politics and the civil service and some are currently at GCHQ and military intelligence. Others work in the public and private sector like the NHS, international banks, business consultancy, law, NGOs and the media. Whichever route you chose, an international politics degree with Brunel will set you up for a successful future.

On this Business Computing BSc degree course, you get to specialise in eBusiness, learning about how software and IT systems can support business transactions and drive sales. Through a mixture of theory and real-world practice, you’ll learn how to determine a dynamic mix of processes, which allow information delivery systems and users to carry out business effectively and efficiently. You’ll come to intuitively understand how an organisation’s information systems need to adapt to the changes and developments natural to growth and progress.

In addition to the compulsory business computing content you will learn about the underlying models and latest approaches used by companies in building successful eBusiness platforms.

Our course is designed for flexibility, so if you’re not sure which route you want to go down, you can select modules and specialise gradually during your time with us. You can transfer between Computer Science and Business Computing up to the start of Level 2, then should you wish, you can choose a specialism up to the start of Level 3.

We know that when you graduate, you’ll be working on large projects. That’s why one third of each year of our programmes is project-based. On Levels 1 and 2, you’ll build a software solution in a team, and in your final year you’ll carry out an individual project. You’ll also have the opportunity to showcase your projects at the annual Made in Brunel (Software Innovation) event, with awards presented by the likes of Cisco, Sky and Xerox.

As part of your degree course, you’ll have the chance to take a year-long work placement between your second year and third year. We’ll support you in finding that all-important paid professional experience, in the UK or abroad. The feedback we’ve received is that those who have taken a placement are much more likely to find a job for which their degree was a formal requirement as it gives you a competitive advantage. Recent graduates have gone on to work for well-known names such as Accenture, Toshiba, Microsoft, British Airways, O2, and Barclays.

Our programmes are accredited by the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP). The accreditation also allows you to apply for professional membership of the BCS after you have successfully completed your degree. 

The department has been awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze, recognising our dedication to the advancement of gender equality in STEM subjects. We now have an ongoing three-year action plan to further implement strategies and improve our practices. As part of this endeavour, Brunel’s Women in Engineering and Computing mentoring scheme provides our female students with invaluable help and support from the industry.

Opt for a one-year work placement while you study to gain real-world technical and soft skills which will set you apart from the competition after you graduate from your Computer Science degree.

• All of our undergraduate computing courses come with the option of undertaking a year’s placement out in the industry. This means that you have the opportunity to experience a real working environment and develop your softer skills like presenting, negotiating and working to a specific brief and tight deadlines.
• A dedicated placement tutor from the Professional Development Centre will work with you to help secure your work placement, which could be in market, product or research development areas. Previous students have taken their placement year in companies such as Microsoft, BMW, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, and Xerox.

Our global temperature has increased to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. What is the impact of this and what will happen if it continues to rise? Studying Environmental Sciences at Brunel will give you the foundation you need to pursue a career that makes a difference to our planet.

At Brunel you’ll develop your scientific skills in the classroom, laboratory and through field work. You’ll attend residential field trips in the UK and abroad. Our current trips take students to Dorset and Tenerife.

Your first year will bring together many different disciplines. You’ll use physical, chemical and biological knowledge to develop an understanding of the Earth’s environment.

Your course is based on the 15 “most wanted skills” identified from a national employer’s survey by the Natural Environment Research Council. This means that in addition to studying scientific topics, you’ll learn to use computer programs such as GIS, you’ll perform data analysis and be trained in areas such as public engagement, communication, leadership and teamwork.

You'll also have the option to carry out a placement as part of your degree, giving you the experience to create a stand-out CV. The Environmental Sciences BSc offers a unique compressed degree where you can carry out two placements within your three year degree during summer vacations, where you’ll earn a graduate level salary. You can also carry out a one year placement between years two and three, as part of a four year degree.

Working with and for young people in the developing world offers an exciting career full of challenges and rewards. Our Children, Youth and International Development MA is a varied course with a global perspective which will help equip you for roles in international development organisations, government ministries and global agencies.

You will acquire a breadth of knowledge that will enable you to critically evaluate research, policy and practice in the area of children, youth and development. You will also discover the differing disciplinary perspectives on childhood and youth by studying modules from related disciplines.

As you journey through the course, you also will acquire the skills necessary to design and undertake your own research.

Opt for the 'Applied Learning' module and you will have the opportunity of a short placement (one or two days a week for ten weeks) with an organisation that works in the field of children, youth and international development.

Examples of the ‘Applied Learning’ placements previously undertaken include:

• Action Aid – on a campaign targeting exploitation in the garment industry
• Anti-Slavery International – on a project to eradicate caste-based bonded labour
• Basti RAM – planned lessons for a Global Citizenship project
• BookAid International – helped build up an evidence base for Book Aid’s international programmes
• Commonwealth Secretariat – on the CS’s Youth Programme in Uganda
• International Refugee Trust – development of the online classroom about refugees
• National Deaf Children's Society – developed international exchanges for deaf young people
• Oxfam – mobilised UK school children to get involved in Oxfam campaigns
• Project Hope – several placements including designing a survey on youth experiences, and developing leaflets to help South African adults to identify signs of mental illness
• The Mouth That Roars – helped children in London and Saudi Arabia to create videos through which they communicated their everyday lives to each other

Additionally, an Erasmus agreement exists between the Brunel MA and the MPhil in Childhood Studies at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research (NOSEB) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.

The agreement allows two students from the MA to spend their second term (January to May) at the Trondheim centre. Erasmus students do not pay tuition fees at NOSEB and are entitled to a grant (€375/month) to cover any additional costs.

What's happening inside our cells? What's happening at a molecular level? The bringing together of biology and chemistry allows scientists to use chemical knowledge to understand biological problems.

At Brunel, we understand that your specialist knowledge should be built on a sound grounding of all the areas of biomedical sciences. This means that your first year will cover areas such as the human body, biochemistry and research skills. As you continue through your degree you'll study specialist areas that will teach you about the various biochemical pathways and how they may be altered during specific human diseases.

And if you change your mind about your specialist area, don’t worry. The flexibility of our course at Brunel means that you can switch to another specialist pathway in the second year or even take the general Biomedical Sciences BSc.

The Royal Society of Biology has awarded its accreditation to all of Brunel’s biomedical sciences BSc courses. This means that you can be confident that your degree will prepare you for the working world – and your prospective employers will know this too. You'll receive a one year’s membership as an Associate Member once you graduate, integrating you into the sector with access to key contacts and up-to-date knowledge.

In your final year you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to our research programmes in cellular and biochemical pathways, the regulation of gene expression, DNA repair and immunological responses to microbial infection. This will give you first-hand experience of real-world laboratory research and prepare you for your future career.

Graduate with the confidence and experience you need to make a great start in your career by choosing to do a biomedical sciences placement.

• A placement lets you gain valuable experience that will put you ahead of the rest when you’re looking for employment. Like some of our former students, you can potentially spend a year working at some top companies such as Mars, Parexel and Astra Zeneca.
• If you’re looking for the experience of working further afield in biomedical sciences, there are also opportunities to work abroad where you can flourish in an exciting new culture. Recent opportunities our students have benefited from have included laboratory work in Sicily, a cytogenetics company close to Milan or working for Bayer in Berlin.
• The opportunities are endless and the experience you’ll get will be enlightening as well as rewarding.