Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English and Multimedia Journalism with Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

The world of digital media is a rapidly changing one that rewards hard work and creativity – if you’re looking to plug yourself in, we’re here to help.

This is a degree made for inquiring and creative minds – and it’s especially geared to those seeking careers in creative digital industries. Study with us and you’ll explore the creation, manipulation and processing of digital content for new communication and media technologies. But you’ll also go further behind the scenes – looking at the social science and theoretical frameworks beneath this content production.

Supported by a team of committed and enthusiastic lecturers and researchers, you’ll be encouraged to find your own creative identity and express yourself through a variety of digital content, media and genres, including documentary, photography and much more. You’ll also acquire a range of business planning and research skills that will boost your employability in today’s multiplatform digital environments.

Creating art for games is both specialised and rewarding – a mix of technical know-how and creative thinking that can make a huge impact on the look, feel and experience of any computer game. A game artist can create entire living and breathing virtual worlds, dynamic animated characters and beautiful atmospheric effects in one of the most challenging and exciting roles in the creative industry. Our BA (Hons) Games Art course offers this mix, with core skills and vital understanding that will equip you for your future career in the games industry.

While it’s a specialist course offering a specialist skill set, being part of the School of Digital Arts (SODA) offers the unique opportunity to work with others from across our broad creative community. By working in collaboration with students of photography, animation, sound design and more, as well as students from the Department of Computing and Mathematics, you’ll get a taste of the kind of cross-disciplinary teamwork that’s essential in the fast-moving digital sector. It’s not only a creative environment, but a well-equipped one too. SODA has been purpose-built to develop industry-standard skills, so it offers industry-standard facilities – giving you every opportunity to get to grips with professional-grade development and design technology.

Just as SODA provides a vibrant, dynamic environment for studying games art, Manchester provides an exciting, creative setting. The city is not only home to one of the largest media and creative sectors outside of London, but also has a rich history of video games creation, from Ocean Software in the 1980’s to TT Games and much more today. On our doorstep, you can find renowned CG, visual effects and VR/AR agencies like Flipbook and Carbon Digital, not to mention the BBC’s entire digital and games teams. In short, it’s much more than an exciting city for students, for qualified, well-rounded game artists, Manchester can provide the perfect launch pad for a rewarding career.

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.

Politics is the study of power and how power operates in all its forms: through individuals, structures, internationally and domestically. Its principal focus is on power relations among individuals, social groups and nations. Philosophers specialise in critically making sense of ourselves and everything around us. Their currency is rigorous argumentation about subjects from consciousness to the nature of power relations themselves.

The Joint Honours degree will provide you with the skills to explore the philosophical and political landscape of human consciousness throughout time and place. You will gain a critically informed grasp of political and current affairs, seeing beyond the news headlines to the real issues of politics. By studying this course, you will be strongly equipped to understand ideologies and be in a better position to comment upon and understand what the politicians are really saying.

A wide variety of options means that you can pursue your own interests - with things becoming increasingly flexible as you progress through the course. We also offer opportunities to learn with a language from your second year of study. With practical skills training, including advanced analytical approaches, as well as possible opportunities to study abroad - with all the experience that brings - this degree opens doors to a range of interesting and rewarding career possibilities and provides the skills to progress to higher research programs.

Proficiency in modern languages can give you the competitive edge in the global jobs market. In both the private and public sectors, there is demand for professionals with strong language skills who can work in culturally diverse environments. We have created our own multicultural community, including British, exchange and international students, along with foreign language assistants, allowing you to be absorbed into the everyday use of foreign languages.

We have been providing professional language courses for more than 30 years. Our strong local, national and global links will help to enhance your study and future employment opportunities. If you study French as a major or equal subject you will be required to spend a year abroad. The experience of being immersed in another culture for several months is one our students find both beneficial and rewarding. They return having made new friends, experienced new places and having grown in confidence.

This course places language learning within the wider context of French studies including culture, society, literature, film and history. The language units emphasise communicating effectively and developing transferable skills such as translating, interpreting and interview techniques, with practical language classes embracing speaking, listening, reading and writing.

TESOL is a practical branch of applied linguistics and it will help you understand language learning and teaching approaches, as well as the English language itself. You will develop a new understanding of different types of communication and other cultures.

This course will help you improve your own fluency and accuracy in other languages. You will gain experience of how to help learners of all abilities to become fluent English speakers and you will be taught by highly qualified and experienced practitioners who have taught across the world. All of these skills will give you a head start if you decide to take a further qualification such as CELTA or Trinity Certificate TESOL.

Placement options

If you take French as a major or equal subject you will have the opportunity to spend your third year in France and we will assist you in choosing from a wide choice of partner universities or other approved organisations where you can study or work. After this, you will return to Manchester Met for your final year.

MFA Fine Art provides a stimulating environment in which you will be guided to develop your creative aspirations, reach a critical maturity, and gain the self-confidence and skills that will enable you to work as a successful artist.

The course is studio practice-driven and relies on experimentation and critical reflection supported by individualized mentoring, lectures, seminars and group critiques. It emphasizes the articulation of ideas, development of working methods and the realisation of independent work. Seminars are structured to investigate a broad range of themes relevant to the practicing artist and provide a rich diet of inspiration.

MA Architecture and Adaptive Reuse is a programme about existing buildings, situations and places, and how over time these structures and locations can be encouraged to evolve, sustain new uses, and accommodate new users. Students on the course will investigate strategies for adaptive reuse - strategies that are not applied as a reaction to current conditions, but in anticipation of future changes.

Adaptation is now at the forefront of architectural practice; two of the most pressing challenges in the 21st century are climate change and urbanisation. Given that already more than half of the global population live in urban environments, and by 2050, it is projected that over 70% of the world population will live in cities, all societies need to be able to accommodate growth while at the same time, reducing consumption. The existing building stock needs to become both more efficient and more resilient.

Students will investigate the four main aspects of sustainable reuse - environmental, societal, inhabitation and economic – while also exploring heritage, history, memory, community, and the influence these factors have on remodelling activities. They will look at the impact that context and the environment have upon projects, while developing an understanding of some of the technical issues including construction, environmental control, and materials in order to make creative and appropriate proposals for new users of buildings. Students will also examine specific examples of adaptive reuse, theories of reuse and explore strategies for the conservation and adaptation of the existing environment.­­

The specialist workshops within Manchester School of Art and the University of Manchester will provide students with opportunities to explore materiality, fabrication, and the realisation of ideas. Studio teaching is research-informed and underpinned by design research methodologies and engagement with industry.

MFA Painting provides a discipline-led environment in which to develop your practice in contemporary painting. Through a strong focus on your individual studio practice you will engage in the most significant current debates on painting and the histories from which they emerge. The MFA Painting will encourage you to question the boundaries of your practice, embracing current ideas of ‘expanded painting’ and painting being ‘beyond self’ alongside questions posed within the more typical parameters of the picture plane and modes of representation.

MFA 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.

Whether it’s a successful start-up or a blue-chip company, every organization across the globe needs people with strong business skills.

Studying business with law presents you with a world of opportunities. With an understanding of the legal structures that any business has to navigate, you’ll be a valuable addition to many large organizations. With strong business knowledge and skills, you’ll also be ready for a range of management roles in the legal sector.

You’ll learn fundamental skills like team-working, strategy and commercial awareness, get the benefit of excellent industry links and build the entrepreneurial skills that make great leaders, and great careers.

Law underpins our society. A law degree gives you a unique insight into everything, from the economy to the criminal justice system. And it gives you a huge range of skills that will last you throughout your career.

The LLB (Hons) is your passport to a rewarding future – whether you have ambitions to be a solicitor, barrister, academic researcher, or a business person.

Discover your niche
We cover all the subjects you need to know; tort, contract, criminal law and property law – you’ll get a thorough grounding in the essentials.

And, thanks to our teaching team’s wide range of specialisms, from families to sports, we offer exciting optional units beyond the core curriculum. Interested in gender issues? We have one of the leading experts on trans rights, Professor Stephen Whittle OBE.

Practise your skills
Mooting is a key part of any legal education. Our mock courtroom is the perfect place to develop your confidence and fine-tune your performance. You’ll have classes and extra-curricular activities there, and you can even use it for your final year project.

Ready to test yourself in the real world? You can work with a qualified solicitor offering pro bono services to local people. You might join the Business Law Café offering advice to local SMEs, or maybe you’ll help someone with legal advice and support they wouldn’t normally be able to afford.

Placement options

As part of our full-time LLB degree, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for a work placement year. It’s a chance to apply the academic knowledge you’ve learned in the classroom to a real, professional workplace, while getting the industry experience that will show potential employers that you’re ready to get to work after you’ve graduated.

Our placements team will be ready to help, but it’s your responsibility to be proactive and apply for opportunities. And, because the placement jobs market is so competitive, we recommend that you start researching companies and opportunities during your first year, so you’re ready to start applying when your second year kicks off.