Master of Science in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Design with Placement (Thick - Sandwich)

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

The Brunel Automotive Engineering BEng gives students with a passion for motor vehicles the specialised expertise they need to become professional engineers in the fast-moving automotive industry.

Along with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, including maths, engineering science and design, you’ll gain an in-depth knowledge of the technical workings of current and future automotive systems.  

You’ll study all aspects of automotive development and manufacture from vehicle design and performance to engine and transmission systems to materials, structures and safety.

You’ll also get hands-on practice troubleshooting engineering problems that inevitably arise during the construction and testing processes.

Your education will profit, too, by your access to the work done at our Centre for Advanced Powertrain and Fuels (CAPF). One of the largest and most active engine research groups in the UK, CAPF focuses on minimising pollutant emissions and improving fuel efficiency while maintaining performance levels.

In your final year, along with studying specialist topics taught at master’s degree level, you’ll take part in a major group project to design, manufacture and test an automotive product, typically aimed at low-carbon use. This will give you valuable experience working in a team-based environment and on-the-job opportunities to develop your leadership and management skills, competencies sought by employers.

A current project concerns the use of mechanical kinetic energy recovery to help eliminate the feel of turbocharger lag in future fuel-efficient road vehicles.

Throughout your studies you’ll have use of our modern, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, which comprise our motorsport workshop, and 24-hour access to industry standard specialist software for engineering design at dedicated computer clusters on campus, so you’ll have the opportunity and equipment to explore ideas and tackle problems.

Our automotive engineering BEng course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). We offer two study options. You can choose three years full-time or four years full-time with a one-year professional placement that will allow to put what you’ve learned to use in real-world situations.

If you start on the full-time course, you can transfer to the professional development option, which includes the placement, at any time before the end of Level 2.

In the rapidly evolving automotive industry, demand for engineers with the technical and managerial skills to excel is on the rise. Your Brunel BEng will give you these and equip you to play leading roles in industry and public service.

This course can be studied 4 years full-time or 5 years full-time with placement, starting in September.

Mechanical and Automotive Engineering students have the opportunity to take part in a work placement and get first-hand professional industrial experience – a great advantage in the workplace.

• Students are encouraged to take the sandwich course and benefit from a high-quality, paid, work placement which develops both academic and work-related skills. Your placement will give you valuable experience and help you to understand the industry.
• The placement in industry is taken between Levels 2 and 3 for at least 44 weeks. This time will help you to gain professional competencies and can count towards becoming an Incorporated or Chartered Engineer (CEng). Our students have experienced placements in government departments, the motor and automotive industries, and multinational manufacturers.
• Each student has a mentor from the Mechanical and Automotive Engineering department, and an Industrial Tutor from Brunel’s Professional Development Centre. They are on hand to ensure that the placement yields the best possible experience for your personal and professional development. You also benefit by learning from a mentor with industry experience and a tutor who regularly checks that you are properly supported.

Our Digital Design and Branding MSc degree is a modern, hands-on course that combines digital technology and creative design. It has been designed to equip you with advanced knowledge and practical skills required for a creative role in the digital branding industry.

You’ll develop deep understanding of advanced digital design practices within the context of branding.

Our modern, industry standard digital media facilities include a green screen and post-production studio, motion capture, sound and photography studios, 4K digital cinema cameras, and a dedicated render farm. You'll have independent access to exclusive PC and Mac computing workshops and benefit from the latest industry standard specialist software for graphic design and image/video editing, 3D animation, digital compositing and rich interactive content creation. There's also the opportunity for you to use our immersive virtual environment laboratory. This includes an immersive dome (planetarium) set up for Brunel by the National Space Centre in Leicester, and is one of only a few in the UK!

There are guest lectures covering lots of different digital media topics and the visiting lecturers provide advice on how to structure your portfolio and showreels. Speakers include creative and design directors, user experience designers, 3D graphic supervisors, as well as mobile and web developers.

Visits are arranged to TV and photography studios, and post-production houses. There’s also the opportunity to go to conferences and this is your chance to build networks with key industry experts. In addition, you have the advantage of Brunel’s close location to London for trips to exhibitions celebrating the creative industries.

Our digital design and branding MSc can be studied full-time over one year or part-time over two years.

A calendar highlight is the BrunelDigital degree show hosted on Brunel’s one London campus. Exhibiting your creative work at this event is a great way for you to connect with leading creative technologists and showcase your talent.

By specialising in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), you will learn how to understand the user experience (UX), and to use the insights you gain to help build systems that better meet the user’s needs. Through a mixture of theory and real-world practice, you’ll learn how to assess organisational problems and apply solutions. We’ll teach you 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.

Featured modules include software development and management, usability engineering and process modelling, e-business, and social media. Other Web 2.0 technologies and simulation modelling also feature.

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.

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.

The games design industry, in the UK and worldwide, is growing and there is a demand for skilled and well-educated professionals to take gaming to its next level. Brunel’s Digital Games Theory and Design MA course will give you a comprehensive understanding of digital games and the techniques and principles used in their design.   

You will engage in, and experiment with, practical games design and develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of the advanced academic study of games and their theoretical, artistic and technological perspectives. You will also engage in the practice of making games and explore the factors that shape the games industry.  

No previous experience with programming or an art background is required for this course, just a passion for games. You will learn how to create your own practical designs, how to communicate your ideas to an audience, how to create games design documents, and you’ll also explore games studies. 

You will have opportunities to make connections with other games design cohorts and industry experts. And we will encourage you to participate in extracurricular activities such as game jams and game-related networking events. These are all activities that introduce you to the broader social culture of the digital and creative world and are vital to being successful in the games industry. 

The course is run by staff who are seasoned games designers, internationally published scholars and pedagogical experts. They will share their enthusiasm and understanding of the nature of the video game industry, the importance of networks and the skills needed to create innovative games for the future.   

Learn what role the media plays in shaping our society and influencing peoples’ thoughts and behaviours by studying our exciting Sociology (Media) BSc.  

By adding media studies to your study of sociology, you’ll be able to explore and specialise in areas such as the social impact of new media, the internet and other information and communications technologies, media discourse, media policy and regulation.

The first year is designed to offer you a solid base in theoretical and methodological innovations in sociology and media. You will explore the similarities and differences in the methodologies used in sociology, media, and communications. The focus of study is upon all aspects of societal relations: it’s personal, social and cultural dimensions.

As you progress through the course, you will be able to choose modules you are interested in to actively shape and apply your learning to the issues you wish to interrogate. In your third year, you’ll work on a dissertation focusing on an area of interest of your choice. Your dissertation can be a theoretical or practical dissertation, so you can work to your own strengths.

Depending on the modules you choose, you may have the option go on fieldtrips where you will be able to apply your learning to current issues and broaden your theoretical imagination. Previous fieldtrips have included: Barbican; British Board of Film Classification; London Migration Museum; Museum of Comedy; Museum of London; regeneration areas (e.g. Spitalfields, Smithfield); and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As you’ll be taught and supported by academics who are not only experts in their field but are actively engaged in research, you’ll develop skills that can be applied from the classroom to the workplace. They know the industry inside out, so you know you are learning from experienced professionals who will bring their unique insights into the classroom and will ensure your learning is up-to-date.

Gain an insight into life after your studies by putting your learning into practice by opting for a one-year work placement or two short placements for six months at a time. You will graduate with valuable work experience to enhance your employment prospects and will be able to develop an understanding the working world. We have excellent links with a wide range of notable external organisations, so you will have the opportunity to apply for high quality placements across London.

Some of our sociology and media students have undertaken placements in a variety of companies including the political research unit at the Conservative Party Campaign HQ, the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Prince’s Trust, the Crime Statistics Unit at the Home Office, Citizens Advice Bureau and the Department of Work and Pensions.

This is a broad-based degree which will enable and encourage you to specialise in areas which particularly fascinate you. As a graduate of this dynamic degree, you will leave us with various transferable skills that are key to the contemporary employment market. 

What makes some nations rich and others poor? Are there some places on earth you just wouldn’t want to live? Is it just economics and leadership or are deeper factors at work? If you’d like to explore the answers to these questions, this course is for you.

Within the core spine of your Global Challenges degree, you will take an in-depth look at issues such as climate change, sustainable development, migration, terrorism, inequality and poverty and how they affect the world we live in. Alongside this, with the Social Cohesion pathway you will delve into the pressing need to address social wellbeing.

Looking at the multiple challenges of economic hardship, unemployment, terrorism, and mass human migration, you will address the causes and consequences of social inequalities, and the ways in which they can be tackled.

In your first year you will explore global issues like capitalism, poverty, social injustice and social infrastructures as you start you to think critically about the influence of power in social inequality.

In your second year you will focus on social cohesion and social wellness and how it relates to the challenges associated with the migration of displaced peoples and the role cyberculture and cybersecurity. In your final year, you will study social conflict as you explore war, violence and human rights violations.

Throughout your course you will build your ability to work in teams as you build skills in project management, debates, presenting and team pitches. A third year Enterprise Project will help to bring all these skills together as you work on a group project with a real organisation.

You have the option to apply for an internship at the end of your first year and can take a one-year placement between years two and three, giving you valuable work experience and a step ahead for your career when you graduate.

At the end of the course, your knowledge of social issues and your problem solving capabilities will allow you to follow a career with a focus on making change for good.

Anthropology offers a unique and powerful means for understanding cultural and social diversity in the modern world. It considers issues which can lead to mind blowing revelations about how individuals and cultures experience life differently.

Anthropology is concerned with contemporary issues such as multiculturalism, identity politics, racism and ethnic nationalism, changing forms of the family, religious conflict, gender, and the political role of culture.

It also addresses perennial questions about human nature, such as: ‘What do we have in common with each other cross-culturally?’ and ‘What makes us different?’.

If you are intrigued by these questions and want to study a discipline that will enrich your everyday life as well as equip you for a great variety of occupations, anthropology is the right course for you.

Our rigorous program gives you the freedom to choose one of our pathway options early on:- 

• Anthropology BSc 
• Anthropology (Childhood, Youth and Education) BSc 
• Anthropology (Development, War and Humanitarian Assistance) BSc 
• Anthropology (Global Health) BSc

A special feature of the course at Brunel is the opportunity to do fieldwork placements anywhere in the world according to your anthropological interests.

Fieldwork is excellent preparation for work and a chance to make useful contacts and will help to add greater meaning to academic studies.

Around half of Brunel’s anthropology students carry out a placement or fieldwork abroad, in places as wide ranging as India, Nepal, Australia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica.

Recent UK placement destinations include the Royal Anthropological Institute, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Amnesty International and the Department of Health.

Examples of dissertation titles based on fieldwork findings have included work in a Nepalese monastery, a South African women’s refuge, the Police Complaints Authority (on the Stephen Lawrence case), as well as in schools and charities.

Outside of classes, you can look forward to a one of the most cultural diverse campuses in the UK with opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

Additionally, Brunel’s anthropological student society arrange class trips to places like the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, and the campus’s London location makes it ideal for exploring places like the British Museum in Central London.

Take advantage of real-life work experience to gain a competitive advantage on your anthropology degree.

• You have the option to undertake two six-month placements, or a year-long placement whilst studying one of our anthropology degrees.
• If you opt to go on two six-month work placements, then you can use the first one to help determine an area of interest to you in the future. You have the freedom of choice when looking for placements and can be based locally for one and go abroad for the second one.
• You’ll have support from day one of your anthropology course from your personal tutors and the Professional Development Centre in finding a suitable work placement according to your interests. They can range from working in a church, in a museum to supporting charities on-sites and studying a local community within a village.
• This invaluable experience will not only build your confidence but also provide you with a platform to showcase your project management, organisational and creative skills in the workplace.
• Some of our students have completed their placements in Guatemala, London, Malaysia and Morocco which really gives a global perspective.
• Fieldwork can also be conducted as volunteering to give you a real insight into cultures and communities. For example, one of our students did charity work in Cambodia and enjoyed experiencing different cultures and working with a range of people from different backgrounds.

Our Music BA degree has been designed to develop your particular interests in music-making. It aims to equip you with a solid grounding in the craft of creativity which reflects the diversity of musical styles and genre in today’s world.

In your first year you will gain a strong understanding of composition, performance and musicology. You will also be introduced to sonic arts and sound recording. Your peer group of musicians will discuss, review and give you constructive feedback on your musical activities.

You can choose from a range of optional modules in your second year and final year. This means you develop your own bespoke pathway during your music course, and this prepares you for your chosen career in the music world. Examples of specialist options you could choose include orchestration and arrangement, and taking sonic art to the stage, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

You will be taught by some of the leading figures in today’s contemporary music comprising composers, performers and musicologists. They are performing, composing and writing books, and have strong connections with the music community in London, the UK and in Europe. This opens up opportunities for you to collaborate with them and work together on installation projects and a huge variety of creative projects.

Our music facilities include a fully sound-proofed recording studio for rehearsals, and performance spaces and practice rooms equipped with grand pianos, drum kits and amps. Access is available to an editing suite with Mac computer workstations where you’ll work on your music using industry standard music making software.

During your time at Brunel, you’ll benefit from guest lectures delivered by leading figures in the music industry who give advice on music promotion and how to get a gig. In addition, you have the advantage of Brunel’s close location to London’s exciting music scene for planned trips to music concerts, festivals, galleries, and museums.

Our music undergraduate degree can be studied full-time over three years, four years with a placement year, or part-time over six years.

We encourage the placement year option. This time in the music industry helps you to further prepare for the world of work and you’ll have a year’s worth of invaluable professional experience when you graduate. If you decide to go on a music work placement year, you could find yourself working at record companies, TV companies, or teaching music in a school.

You’ll have the opportunity to showcase your musical talent before you graduate alongside external musicians. There are a variety of performances hosted by Brunel including concerts, recitals and ensembles where you’ll be able to network and gain feedback on your creativity from the visiting music artists.

The Brunel Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences with Business Studies BSc is a unique joint honours programme that combines a strong foundation in the sciences behind sport and exercise with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the business administration and management processes sought by professional organisations.

For the sports science portion of your degree, you’ll study how the human body works on physiological, biomechanical and psychological levels and how this can be applied to improve athletic development and performance and prevent injury. You’ll develop the skills to monitor, evaluate, and enhance sport and exercise performance in laboratory and field settings and to design and conduct experiments.

The business element of your course will focus on key business disciplines including management, organisational behaviour, marketing, change management, entrepreneurship and small business ventures.

In today’s fast-growing sport and exercise market, the skills and knowledge of both the sports sciences and the world of business that you’ll gain from your Brunel degree will make you a preferred job candidate to employers across the industry.

You'll also have the opportunity to carry out a placement as part of your degree, that will give you the chance to put the theory you’ve learned into practice. Our Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences with Business Studies BSc offers two placement options: you can choose to carry out two placements during the summer vacations within the three year degree, or a one year placement between years two and three, as part of a four year degree.