Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Animation

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

An international relations degree will help you to gain appreciation of how states, international organizations, and non-state actors interact on the global stage. This course is about using theories and models to best explain and understand power in the world, why the world is the way it is, and how we can change it. This takes place at all levels, from individuals to whole global systems, and understanding this allows us to question what we think we know, what we think matters, and how we can develop a better world. Supported by knowledgeable and passionate staff, you’ll start by looking at the core critical and emancipatory theories of International Relations and their underlying methods.

You’ll get a broad grounding in the key issues of today’s world and the contested historical development of world politics; studying topics informed by staff research such as terrorism, security studies, human rights, cultural politics, and many others.

A wide variety of options means that you can pursue your own interests – with things becoming increasingly flexible as you progress through the course, and in your final year, you will engage more directly with current academic debates and contemporary political developments.

We place a heavy emphasis on employability and offer valuable practical skills training, including advanced analytical approaches, which many employers look for when offering placement opportunities. This, alongside the possible opportunity to study abroad – with all the experience that it brings – means that an International Relations degree opens doors to a range of interesting and rewarding career possibilities.

You can also combine international relations with another subject and broaden your outlook still further, and in your third year, you may have the opportunity to take a placement year with an employer or study abroad, broadening your horizons and boosting your employability.

Whatever the purpose and whoever the user, web design marries the technical with the creative. The pioneers and leaders in this industry over the past 20 years have been both talented developers and left-field thinkers – a combination of creativity and code that has helped shape the modern digital experience.

As a Web & User Experience Design student, you will be part of a vibrant, multi-disciplinary creative community at our School of Digital Arts (SODA). With an innovative curriculum that ignores the narrow limits of any one discipline, you’ll have ample opportunity for collaborating with fellow SODA students – whether they’re studying games, photography, animation or sound design (to name a few). It’s an approach designed to mirror the real working practices within the creative industries, but it also lets you find the cross-over areas and creative directions that interest you most. And, just as you’ll learn industry practices, you’ll also use industry tools – developing your skills in an environment that has been designed, built and equipped with the latest technologies.

More than a purpose-built creative school, we also boast a globally renowned creative setting. Manchester is home to the second-largest media and creative sector in the UK, with a huge range of production companies, digital agencies and media businesses, from national broadcasters to innovative start-ups. As such, it’s not only an ideal city for your education in web and UX, but a perfect place to take your first steps as a professional. Here, you can learn from some of those at the forefront of the discipline, build your network and secure your career in the media, games or digital tech industries.

Our human biosciences degree combines academic theory with applied practice. You’ll develop a broad understanding of the human biosciences and their significance in the contemporary world – and how you can apply that knowledge in the workplace.

You’ll study human function and structure in depth, the causes of abnormalities in humans and the consequences of human action. Typical areas of study include human physiology, cells and molecules, human neuroscience, and infection and immunity. In our specialist laboratories, we’ll also train you in the various scientific techniques used to study human biology.

Group study brings vital teamwork and communication skills, while in your final year you’ll get the chance to focus and develop your academic interests through an independent piece of laboratory-based research or a dissertation.

The degree will also launch you on a professional path and by the time you’ve finished you will have partly met the academic and experience requirement for membership of the Royal Society of Biology and Chartered Biologist (CBiol) status.

Placement options

The course offers real flexibility, as you will enrol on the three-year course and then decide if a placement is right for you once you have started your studies. If you opt to undertake a placement, your course will normally be four years full-time. Placements are not guaranteed or included as part of the course, as you would be required to source your own placement if you would like to undertake one.

This course is at the forefront of production design and manufacturing practices and brings together students from creative and technical backgrounds, to foster original approaches to product design for manufacture. It supports you to explore and develop personal design methodologies and philosophies, and locate these within a deep understanding of historical, contemporary and future design practices, and wider social and cultural contexts.

You will undertake core units, delivered by production design specialists, consisting of design theory and practice lectures, material and manufacturing workshops, group seminars, individual tutorials, live external projects, and research study trips. Practical design development is supported by extensive hand and machine workshops for wood, metal, ceramics, glass and plastics, and digital workshops for laser cutting and large scale CNC routing.

Optional units facilitate innovative cross-disciplinary opportunities, supporting the development of collaborative working with students from within the material making and manufacturing cluster of MA/MSc/MFA Craft and MA/MSc/MFA Textile, and across the wider postgraduate design community. There are cross-faculty options to study within the faculty of “Science and Engineering”, acquiring advanced 3D CAD skills for industrial production, and utilising the latest advanced 3D printing processes. The Manchester Metropolitan Business School option addresses commercial aspects of design, enabling students to locate their ambitions within a defined financial model.

You will able to explore and challenge all aspects of product design, embracing opportunities for innovation across markets and production levels, from one-off making and batch fabrication, to flexible digital manufacture and high volume industrial production.

MA Contemporary Curating explores the notion of exhibition practice in contemporary culture and considers curatorial methods and strategies in the context of the gallery and museum, as well as in projects such as biennials, public artworks and commissions. The course considers ways in which different kinds of artworks and projects are mediated through the exhibition process.

The shifting relationship between artist-institution-curator-critic/writer forms a central element to the course. The course also explores the potential of seeing curating as something that can be applied to different forms of knowledge: publications, symposia, events and interventions.

BA (Hons) Filmmaking is a practice-based course giving you the creative freedom to develop your voice through the dynamic language of film.

Our learning environment incorporates a unique mix of digital art and film school philosophies, empowering you to express your ideas and stories through narrative fiction, documentary, artists’ moving image and new media. You will specialise in original ideas from unique perspectives, with the potential for your work to be screened in international venues.

Studying at the School of Digital Arts means learning beyond the usual limits. You’ll be part of a vibrant creative community that spans a range of disciplines, from photography and animation, to music and sound design. It’s an environment designed for collaboration – a place where you can push the boundaries of filmmaking, explore the directions that interest you most and develop a broad skill set made for today’s digital arts and media sector. Here, you’ll have access to a vast range of specialist resources and purpose-built facilities, as well as a wealth of opportunities for developing your professional skills, from work experience placements and industry competitions to guest lectures and collaborations with organisations.

The UK film and television industry is a global success story and Manchester is the perfect place to write your own chapter. It’s a major media city, second only to London. The likes of the BBC and ITV are on our doorstep at MediaCityUK, while the city is also home to a thriving, bustling digital production sector, from innovative start-ups to established production companies. For today, that means you’ll have the chance to work on live industry projects – developing practical skills and valuable experience. For tomorrow, that means you’ll graduate in one of the most exciting cities in Europe for starting a career in the creative and digital industries.

Placement options

SODA Placement Year
As part of your studies with SODA, you will have the chance to take a year working on placement within the industry. During your year, you will spend at least 36 weeks working within an organisation in the industry, developing workplace skills, practical understanding and genuine industry experience.

There is an increased need to visually communicate fashion-based ideas. This requires a creative who has a clear appreciation of and experience in developing fashion concepts, understanding and dealing with the associated critical pathways and the practical means by which to communicate. On this course, you will be encouraged to critically evaluate and creatively respond to these conditions and define your own new role within fashion.

You will be interested in the way fashion is consumed (beyond wearing it) and the opportunities this presents for developing innovative visual practice-based work. Fashion is changing due to many external factors such as digital platforms and media, and issues around sustainability. There are also changes in the role fashion plays and how it has become increasingly an exciting area for inter-disciplinary exploration within design, culture and society. At the heart of this are the new ways that fashion is becoming explored, extended, designed and consumed.

We will develop you to be a highly creative fashion visionary, with an emphasis to engage, explore, question, visualise, illustrate, develop and communicate fashion concepts, trends, products and ideas through publication, exhibition, art direction and styling.

This course will challenge your perceptions, ideas and understanding of sport coaching and development. You’ll journey into the world of sport, exploring the key theories around the subject and developing the practical skills to put them into action.

Our sport coaching and development program has been designed to build your knowledge in a broad range of areas, from coaching practice and techniques, to sport history, sociology and sport development.

Study at Manchester Met and you’ll be supported throughout your degree by an experienced team of academics, with access to subject experts and practitioners who work within the coaching and sport development sectors. You’ll learn in world-class facilities, including Platt Lane Sports Complex and our new £26m Institute of Sport building.

With our extensive network of national and regional sports organisations, you will also have the opportunity to learn in an applied setting through securing work placements within and outside the UK, helping to lay the foundations for your future career.

Games design offers a route into a form of entertainment that’s not only one of the world’s most popular but is also constantly evolving, innovating and redefining its own boundaries. In short, the games industry is an exciting place to be and our BSc (Hons) Games Design course can offer your route into it.

Throughout the course, you’ll find an activity-led approach focused on the practical processes of making games. So, with our support you’ll build up a strong portfolio of games and game-like artefacts. As you progress, you’ll have the chance to pursue the specialist areas of the discipline that interest you most, and with cutting-edge assessments like our ‘Game a Week’, you’ll also build up your abilities as a games designer. Then, in your final year, you’ll not only work solo on your own game, but also work on a large-scale game through a series of smaller projects within a simulated game studio.

The School of Digital Arts offers the perfect setting for that kind of collaboration. That’s because our innovative curriculum paves the way for the same cross-disciplinary teamwork you’ll find in the professional digital sector – by working with students in sound design, animation and media production as well as students from our Department of Computing and Mathematics. The result is an environment that fosters creativity and helps you build a varied, well-rounded skillset. And, because SODA is purpose built with industry-standard facilities, you’ll leave us equipped with industry-standard technical skills too.

As a Games Design student, you’ll find Manchester offers both the perfect backdrop for your studies and an ideal launching pad for your professional ambitions. It’s not only home to a rich heritage of games publishing, but today has the largest media and creative sector outside London. On our doorstep, you’ll find a globally recognised web and UX sector, as well as renowned CG, visual effects and VR/AR agencies and at MediaCityUK in Salford, the BBC’s digital and games teams. All in all, it provides a range of opportunities for a graduate ready to make a statement in the world of games development.

Placement options

SODA Placement Year
As part of your studies with SODA, you will have the chance to take a year working on placement within the industry. During your year, you will spend at least 36 weeks working within an organisation in the industry, developing workplace skills, practical understanding and genuine industry experience.

With our human physiology degree, you’ll develop both a strong theoretical and a practical understanding of physiology, with a particular focus on physical activity and health. You’ll look in-depth at the human body – from the cellular level to the whole person – through specialisms like molecular biology, neuromuscular physiology, cardiovascular science and human movement science.

You’ll also get up to speed with the latest theories about how the body responds to movement, exercise and nutrition. In our high-tech laboratories, you’ll learn how to monitor and scientifically investigate the various physiological systems as bodies come under stress from illness or our environment.

The degree combines the department’s life and health sciences teaching strengths with our internationally regarded research expertise.

Placement options

The course offers real flexibility, as you will enrol on the three-year course and then decide if a placement is right for you once you have started your studies. If you opt to undertake a placement, your course will normally be four years full-time. Placements are not guaranteed or included as part of the course, as you would be required to source your own placement if you would like to undertake one.