Bachelor of Science in Chemistry

at Durham University United Kingdom

Our specialist BSc Finance degree places considerable emphasis on the key quantitative and analytical skills needed to pursue a career in finance and financial markets. The degree prepares you for a career in the financial environment by providing a technical curriculum to strengthen the link between academia and practice. The BSc Finance enables you to acquire a critical understanding of theories, empirical evidence and practical application whilst maintaining a rigorous academic underpinning. In particular, you will learn about corporate finance, investments, financial institutions and the vast array of sophisticated financial products traded in today’s global financial markets. Furthermore, you will develop the quantitative techniques needed to analyse, in depth, financial data and financial securities.

Durham’s Psychology and Anthropology Departments pride themselves on excellence in both teaching and research. The breadth of complementary research strengths across the two Departments means that you are guaranteed to be taught by staff who are actively engaged in the interaction of psychological and anthropological approaches, and are leading figures in their field of research.

In Anthropology, you will use perspectives from human biology, cultural evolution, animal behaviour, and human evolution to illuminate inquiry into the mind and behaviour of past and present human and primate populations. You will learn how anthropology and psychology provide complementary and contrasting perspectives on what it is to be human, as well as a variety of quantitative and qualitative ways of addressing major questions. The interface of anthropology and psychology explicitly integrates intercultural, international and global issues. For example, in anthropology’s traditional focus on cultural diversity and the burgeoning recognition of psychology’s need to address cross-cultural issues and move away from studies biased by Western Educated Industrialised and Rich (WEIRD) samples.

The degree provides the opportunity to develop extensive subject-specific, interdisciplinary, and transferable skills. The course follows the British Psychological Society(BPS) guidelines with an extensive range of options in the final year, drawing both from work in fundamental scientific research and in applied areas of psychology and anthropology. You may choose to take modules that deepen your understanding of a smaller number of anthropologically and psychologically relevant topics or choose to take a more broad and varied selection. Several coherent pathways – for example in animal behaviour, infant and child development, and health – are possible, using complementary modules from the two departments.

Excellent research facilities are available, including a virtual reality suite, developmental testing facilities, and EEG labs (in psychology), as well as extensive collections of fossil hominin casts and material culture artefacts from around the globe, a sleep lab, hormone lab, and field station for primatology in South Africa (in Anthropology). You are encouraged to get involved in research being carried out by your lecturers, thus gaining a deeper and more hands-on understanding of the issues you are learning about in your degree, and adding to your contextual experience.

The MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies is an interdisciplinary MA run by Durham's Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), with support from the History Department. The MA is suitable for students whose undergraduate training is in Archaeology, Classics, History, Literature/Languages, Philosophy, Theology, or other related disciplines.

The main aim of the course is to prepare you for doctoral research in the study of the medieval and early modern past by offering outstanding interdisciplinary training to equip you with the skills you need for your future career. It is taught by specialists who are members of IMEMS, primarily from the departments of Archaeology, Classics, English, History, Modern Languages and Cultures, Philosophy and Theology.

You will become part of the vibrant research communities both within departments and IMEMS. In particular students become members of the Medieval and Early Modern Student Association (MEMSA), which organises regular seminars, conferences and social events.

The MSc Business Analytics course is intended to provide premium Masters-level education and training in relevant areas of contemporary business analytics in a supportive research-led interdisciplinary learning environment.

The broad aims are:

• To develop advanced and systematic understanding of the complexity of data, including the sources of data relevant to business, alongside appropriate analysis techniques
• To enable you to critically review and apply relevant business analytics knowledge to practical situations
• To develop a critical awareness of current issues in business analytics which is informed by leading research and practice in the field
• To develop a conceptual understanding of existing research and scholarship to enable the identification of new or revised approaches to business analytics practice
• To develop creativity in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established, advanced techniques of research and enquiry are used to develop and interpret knowledge in business analytics
• To develop the ability to conduct research into business analytics issues that requires familiarity with a range of business data, research sources and appropriate methodologies and ethical issues
• To develop advanced conceptual abilities and analytical skills in order to evaluate the rigour and validity of published research and assess its relevance to new situations
• To extend the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, using a range of media.

Our innovative MSc Accounting programme sits within Durham’s portfolio of Masters programmes. A one-year full-time programme, it provides an opportunity for you to develop an in-depth understanding of the theory and practice of accounting as well as the critical thinking skills so valued by employers. The MSc in Accounting covers key accounting topics including financial statements and their preparation and analysis, the practical limitations of financial reporting, contemporary and evolving practice in financial and non-financial accounting and reporting, management information for decision-making, and the practice and concepts of auditing.

This is an ideal programme to choose if you’re looking to pursue a career in accountancy. The programme is intended for graduates in any subject or discipline; no previous study in accounting is necessary. Accounting undergraduate students, or students who have completed a professional accounting qualification may find some content of this programme overlaps with their prior learning.

This course aims to bring you, in 12 months, to a position where you can embark with confidence on a wide range of careers, including taking a PhD in Mathematics or related disciplines. There is a wide range of taught modules on offer, and you will also produce a dissertation on a topic of current research interest taken from your choice of a wide range of subjects offered.

Our MSc programmes in Economics will give you the opportunity to equip yourself with the necessary skills and knowledge to pursue a career in economics and related disciplines.

The programme consists of a set of core and elective modules, culminating in a practice-based business project or a research-based dissertation.

Core and elective modules:
Core modules provide a foundation of essential knowledge and understanding.

• Advanced Macroeconomics
• Advanced Microeconomics
• Public Choice
• Public Economics

In broad terms, Sociology seeks to understand the relationship between individual people and the wider cultural and institutional contexts within which they live. In doing so, it strives not only to make sense of social and cultural systems but also to bring about transformative social change, drawing upon the systematic study of social issues to challenge inequalities and to inform the development of effective, evidence-based policy and practice..

The curriculum at Durham is informed by our core research themes, including: education and inequality; health and medicine; violence and abuse; and social justice. Alongside these and other substantive topics, you will study sociological theory and its development through to the present day, as well as learn the craft of sociological research and analysis.

As well as gaining detailed knowledge of sociological issues, you will also develop a wide range of transferable skills valued by graduate employers, including how to assemble and evaluate different kinds of evidence, how to turn evidence into an effective argument, and how to design social research and analyse different kinds of data.

The degree is based on a modular structure, you will be required to take the equivalent of six modules (some of which may be ‘double modules’) within each year of study. Over the course of the degree, modules become increasingly focused on specialist topics and issues, with the chance to undertake a sociological research project on a specific topic of substantive interest in the final year of study.

This degree balances fundamental knowledge and practical application in order to provide you with both specialised and transferable skills that are greatly valued in the marketplace. The course emphasises from the start both programming and mathematical skills that allow in the later years engagement through your 'Individual Project' with cutting-edge research being done in the department.

This Economic and Social Research Council approved MA provides training in research methods with a focus on methods used by researchers in anthropology. At the end of this course, you will be well-prepared to go on to do research in Anthropology or a related discipline. Most students expect to move on to a PhD.

The course includes training in qualitative and quantitative methods needed by researchers in social sciences and draws on expertise within the Department of Anthropology to provide specialised training in either sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of development or cultural evolution (depending on your chosen pathway). It is affiliated to the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership, which offers funding to British and European Union students interested in taking the course preparatory to moving on to a PhD at Durham.