Master of Science in Advanced Mechanical Engineering

at Durham University United Kingdom

The MA Social Research Methods is part of a suite of advanced postgraduate methods-based courses delivered across the University faculties. The MA aims to provide core accessible and inclusive cross-disciplinary advanced research methods training across the social sciences with specific subject-specific training in research practices related to a chosen field of social policy, criminology, sociology or social work.

The course will equip you with the research and employability skills required to transition successfully to enhanced careers in academia, commercial companies, public sector, non-governmental organisations or other sectors. This degree will provide academic rigour and coherence, whilst allowing a degree of flexibility and choice within the chosen course in terms of disciplinary focus and advance research approaches.

The course covers conceptual and practical underpinnings and implications of research, looking at various research techniques and the rationale behind them. It will enable you to develop essential skills in both quantitative and qualitative work and to apply those skills to social research in a particular subject area (criminology, social policy, sociology, social work).

The MSc Sociology will enable you to gain an advanced and critical understanding of how to apply sociological theories and perspectives to contemporary issues and social transformations. Through a range of engaging learning approaches, you will be invited to explore the interrelationships of power, social divisions, social diversity and social inequality and their application to social action and public sociology.

To do this, the course draws directly on active research specialisms in the Department of Sociology (gender, violence and abuse; health and social theory; education and social inequalities; and communities and social justice). This is supported by developing your own advanced understanding and application of approaches to researching these topics, including the methodological, epistemological and ethical issues inherent in sociological research, activism and public engagement in contemporary societies.

We operate a modular system where you will study six modules each year. The Biosciences MBiol four year degree is designed to allow you more choice between modules in each year so that you can follow specialised routes within Biological Sciences, or address specific areas of interest, as you progress.

Recommended module combinations (“routes”) allow various themes of specialisation, although these still allow choice at each level, we have specified recommended routes corresponding to the following subject areas:

• Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Biomedical Science
• Cell Biology
• Genetics
• Ecology and Environmental Science.

This is a two-year course, which trains graduate students to be conservators of archaeological and museum objects. You will learn to research, analyse, preserve and care for a wide range of artefacts and you will learn how to make decisions to help safeguard this material for the future. The course is intended for those who wish to become practicing artefact conservators, or who want to work in the fields of artefact research or collections care. Graduates of the course now work in a wide variety of museums as well as large heritage organisations, such as the National Trust and English Heritage.

Course participants are drawn from a wide range of disciplines. However, manual dexterity, a basic knowledge of chemistry and the desire to work with museum objects are all essential prerequisites. The first year consists of 11 months intensive teaching in Durham. The second year is typically an industrial placement in a conservation laboratory at a major museum or heritage organisation. Fees in the second year are approximately 35% of the initial year.

Durham is one of the leading physics and astronomy departments in the UK, enrolling around 170 students each year. The dedication to our teaching and research consistently puts us high up in all the league tables. While studying here you will benefit from the buzz and creative environment of a large research department and join a dynamic and focused intellectual community. Our research ranges from fundamental elementary particle physics and cosmology to more applied topics in which we collaborate closely with industry.

We offer degrees in Physics, Physics and Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics, all of which are accredited by the Institute of Physics. Our course structures have been designed to provide flexibility in your final choice of degree course. The three-year BSc degree is aimed at those mainly interested in a degree in Physics as a preparation for a career not necessarily in the Physics area.

Our four-year MPhys degrees will suit those looking for professional training leading to research in physics or a physics-related career. The first year of the BSc and MPhys degree courses in Physics, Physics and Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics is identical, and it is possible to select modules in your second year such that you need not make a firm choice of course until the end of the second.

The study of philosophy at Durham does not follow one particular school. The Department is unique in the UK in its wide-ranging expertise in anglo-American analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. Each of these has its own distinctive set of issues and approaches to resolving them. We also have special expertise in the philosophy of science, and social science, and the history of science and medicine. So at Durham, you will follow one of the widest-ranging philosophy degrees in the country.

At Durham, you will have the opportunity to study Philosophy as a Single Honours degree, or with another subject including: English, Psychology, Politics or Theology. Philosophy can also be combined in a Joint Honours degree within the Natural Sciences degree or as part of a Combined Honours degree.

Philosophy is a new subject for many students, so in your first year you follow a range of introductory courses, introducing the fundamental philosophical subject areas.

Durham is one of the leading physics and astronomy departments in the UK, enrolling around 170 students each year. The dedication to our teaching and research consistently puts us high up in all the league tables. While studying here you will benefit from the buzz and creative environment of a large research department and join a dynamic and focused intellectual community. Our research ranges from fundamental elementary particle physics and cosmology to more applied topics in which we collaborate closely with industry.

We offer degrees in Physics, Physics and Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics, all of which are accredited by the Institute of Physics. Our course structures have been designed to provide flexibility in your final choice of degree course. The three-year BSc degree is aimed at those mainly interested in a degree in Physics as a preparation for a career, not necessarily in the Physics area.

Our four-year MPhys degrees will suit those looking for professional training, leading to research in physics or a physics-related career. The first year of the BSc and MPhys degree courses in Physics, Physics and Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics is identical and it is possible to select modules in your second year such that you need not make a firm choice of course until the end of the second year.

This course provides you with the systematic knowledge and intellectual tools to critically review developments in the theory and practice of international relations. It will enable you to evaluate in a sophisticated and critical fashion concepts, theories and paradigms within the broad field of international relations, drawing lessons from empirical studies involving both quantitative and qualitative investigations.

You will develop the ability to deploy research strategies and methods in an appropriately advanced fashion to critically evaluate current research and advanced scholarship. Each study route aims to provide advanced knowledge and understanding of the dynamics, including cultural and local political and ideological factors, which shape the contemporary international relations of the area.

The course also provides an opportunity for studying international relations in comparative and historical perspective taking account of regional specific political and economic factors.

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.

This MSc course is aimed at UK and international students who are seeking access to cutting-edge behavioural science research, advanced training in quantitative methods, and instruction in the application of behavioural science principles to everyday problems faced within the public, private, and third sectors.

The MSc has been designed to provide you with an understanding of factors that impact behaviour, including the role of ‘nudging’ in behaviour change, and the research and analytical skills to enable an analysis of business problems from a behavioural perspective. It will provide you with a wide range of knowledge (both of a theoretical and a practical nature) and transferable skills including various professional ways of disseminating knowledge.

This course will prove valuable for those intending to enter the public, private, or third sector, including business, charities and government, local authorities and international organisations, by providing you with the tools to apply behavioural principles to problem-solving and decision-making in these domains. It will provide behavioural insights to help individuals build confidence, influence others, think and cooperate inter-culturally, set and achieve goals, negotiate mindfully, and teamwork effectively.