Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in International Relations

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Based at the Manchester Metropolitan University Q-Step Centre in the Department of Sociology, this MSc approaches the study of quantitative methods in an innovative way. Right now, there is a demand for graduates with quantitative skills, and it is a demand our students are equipped to meet. Students studying on this MSc will be ready to pursue a career involving quantitative research skills within a diverse range of organisations. Students will also be prepared for doctoral study, which requires advanced skills on quantitative methods recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and other research councils.

The course focuses on the development and application of key quantitative methods and analytical techniques. It focuses on the use of quantitative methods within real-world contexts and a key aim is to develop graduates' career-ready skills in this field.

Manchester Met’s Q-Step Centre is recognised as a centre for excellence in the teaching and training of quantitative methods, with a national and global reputation for its pedagogy. It has innovative research partnerships with a range of local organisations, and the community research projects run by the centre look to build on current knowledge to develop new strategies, aimed at empowering and transforming communities.  You will be taught by research-active academics from Q-Step and other multidisciplinary research centres including Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU), Manchester Centre for Youth Studies, Big Data Centre in Sociology Department and this real-world research feeds directly into what they will be taught. The international research experience of the centre is embedded into the course content and delivery of the course is enhanced by incorporating cross-comparative survey data in lab activities and assessments. You will also have the opportunity to do your dissertation in collaboration with projects being carried out with these centres' international research partners. You will also be exposed to a variety of different perspectives and views within the discipline through lectures, seminars, talks and workshops delivered or co-delivered by international experts.

Placement options

• Placement-based dissertation, in which you will produce a piece of research on behalf of one of our partner organisations. We will help your source your placement.
• We work with over 25 partners across Greater Manchester to provide students with placements across diverse sectors.

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.

The fashion landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before and the need for sustainable and innovative fashion garments, ranges, and business models has never been more urgent. Conscious approaches to both the design and realisation of a fashion product is therefore critical.

The MA Fashion Design Technology programme is aimed at students who are ready to challenge traditional fashion industry systems and want to become the catalyst for positive change in their specialism. Technology and human-centric design are at the heart of the programme. The use of technology drives the creation of new, original products and allows for experimentation beyond material resources.

Students will have the opportunity to systematically question existing ideals in response to social, ethical, cultural and political issues. They will use innovative development methods to generate alternative, creative and experimental design outputs for both self-directed briefs and industry-led ‘live’ projects.

Whilst studying on this programme, students will have access to an extensive suite of cutting edge, industry-standard machinery and specialist software, highly qualified and experienced staff, and a network of global professional partners.

Graduates will be equipped to design and manufacture innovative fashion prototypes, products and ranges for specific target markets that impact positively on society and the future of the industry they are joining.

Our best defence against disease isn’t a new therapy, wonder drug or technological miracle. It’s knowledge. On our MSc Clinical Biochemistry course, you will gain the technical skills and in-depth understanding to explore, harness and add to that knowledge.

It’s a master's course that offers both a theoretical understanding of clinical biochemistry concepts, together with the practical techniques to apply those theories in research - equipping you for practice at specialist level.

You’ll study a range of units, taking a systematic approach to disorders, developing expert analytical techniques and exploring the essential concepts around general, specialist and diagnostic clinical biochemistry.

You’ll also complete an independent Research Project, building professional-level research skills. This is your opportunity to explore the issues that fascinate you – making the most of our extensive links with hospitals across Greater Manchester to conduct research in clinically relevant areas in a real-world context.

Throughout this clinical biochemistry master's course, will have the support of an expert team and access to specialist laboratory facilities.

If you're interested in the way in which we communicate and how it can influence people, studying linguistics will help you unravel how language is inextricably linked to who we are. Linguistics is a popular course taken on its own or in combination with English or a modern language. It is devoted to the scientific study of natural language and concerned with how languages evolve, are structured and what they have in common. It also studies how languages are acquired and used.

Our program enables you to develop a sound knowledge of both theoretical and applied perspectives. It places emphasis on English, with examples from other languages where appropriate. The core elements of the course teach you about sentence structure (syntax), meaning (semantics and pragmatics), forensic linguistics, and phonetics and phonology. You will also learn about language use and variation in different social contexts, the media, and intercultural settings. Communicating effectively, critical thinking and developing rigorous analytical skills are valuable assets in the job market and are transferable to various professions.

In French, emphasis is placed on communicating effectively and developing transferable skills such as translating, interpreting, and interview techniques and the practical language classes embrace speaking, listening, reading and writing.

If you take French as a major or equal subject you will have the opportunity to spend your third year abroad in France. If French is your minor subject, the course will be three years with no study abroad.

Placement options

• If French is your major or equal subject, you will have the opportunity to spend year 3 studying in France and we will assist you in choosing from a wide choice of partner universities where you can study.

Studying politics allows you to know what is happening today, how change is enacted, and how you can be a part of it. The principal focus of the degree is power relations between individuals, social groups and nations – so it is one of the most exciting ways to understand why things are the way they are. You’ll study a broad range of social and public policy areas and explore fundamental issues that affect communities in the UK and elsewhere, including: emancipatory political thought and theory, international politics, digital politics, and ‘issue’ politics such as environmentalism and climate change.

The course is underpinned by both the research specialisms of the staff who will teach you and a wide variety of options mean you can pursue your own interests, depending on what you choose to specialise in – with things becoming increasingly flexible as you progress through the course. In the final year, you will engage more directly with current academic debates and contemporary political developments.

We place a heavy emphasis on employability and offer practical skills training, including advanced analytical approaches, which many employers look for when offering placement opportunities. This, alongside the opportunity to study a foreign language or do an exchange abroad, means that a politics degree opens doors to a range of interesting and rewarding career possibilities, as well as providing you with a much better understanding of what is happening right now.

You can also combine politics with another subject and broaden your outlook still further. 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.

Placement options

Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world.

Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist program of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.

The Combined Honours program offers you an opportunity to study two subjects at degree level.

English:
English explores the role of writing in defining and transforming human experience. Creative writing is a contemporary art practice which expresses that experience.

At the Manchester campus, the English department has access to a community of internationally renowned writers and critics through the Manchester Writing School, one of the most successful of its kind in the UK. It boasts over 95 published graduates and its Creative Director is Carol Ann Duffy DBE (Poet Laureate 2009-2019).

Against this backdrop you will examine major periods and forms of literature, learning to analyze literary and media texts by drawing on wider humanities disciplines. Creative writing students will develop the craft of writing, learning to read as a writer and collaborate with artists across the creative spectrum. Both approaches develop the necessary skills in critical thinking and communication that are of value to graduates entering a wide array of career paths or establishing practice.

French:
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. Studying French at Manchester Metropolitan University will give you the opportunity to learn from native speakers. Our languages department have created their own multicultural community, including British, exchange and international students, along with foreign language assistants, allowing you to be absorbed into the everyday use of your chosen language.

The University has been providing professional language courses for more than 30 years and our staff are nationally, and in many cases internationally, recognized experts in their field. Our strong local, national and global links will help to enhance your study and future employment opportunities.

Placement options
If you take French as a major or equal subject you will spend your third year in France and we will assist you in choosing from a wide choice of partner universities where you can study.

Our BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering degree provides a strong theoretical and practical foundation for those looking to open the door to one of the many career opportunities available to mechanical engineers. With project-based learning throughout, you’ll develop the transferable skills and multidisciplinary awareness that are highly valued in industry.

In your first year, you’ll get a grounding in the fundamental principles of applied mathematics and engineering sciences. What’s more, you’ll also get straight into the practical side of things, with a design-and-build challenge.

You’ll develop scientific and analytical skills as you study specialisms like solid and fluid mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics and engineering mathematics. And with project work that’s rooted in our research and shaped around industry, you’ll learn how to apply those skills to real-world engineering.

This mechanical engineering degree is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partly meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.

Placement options

All of our degrees offer the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. If you choose to go down this route, your degree will take one year longer, with the third year spent working in industry. These optional placements not only give you the opportunity to develop your core skills and learn about how a business really operates in your industry, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work. We offer a range of services to help you find the right placement, including employer presentations, advice and placement fairs.

With a toolkit that mixes the creative and the technical, an animator does all this and more. Whether working in the artistic or commercial worlds, animators produce the moving images for anything from film and broadcast media to digital platforms and video games. Our BA (Hons) Animation course brings together key aspects of contemporary professional animation practice to help you prepare for an exciting range of careers, from animation to concept art to games development.

As an animation student you will be part the School of Digital Arts, a vibrant community that offers the chance to explore every aspect of what it means to work in the digital arts. You will work across a range of creative practices – just as the professionals do – to collaborate on cross-disciplinary group projects, alongside photographers, sound engineers, filmmakers, games and media professionals. And, just as we mirror industry practices, we also work with industry-standard tools – learning within a brand new, purpose-built building that comes equipped with the latest emerging technologies for animation, filmmaking and more.

Manchester offers an ideal setting as an animation student. A global, creative city, it has a long-established history of animation and is home to Cosgrove Hall Films – creators of numerous children’s animations and whose company founders were both students of Manchester Metropolitan University. Today the city has a thriving industry, with a significant TV, film and digital production presence at MediaCityUK, which is home to the BBC, ITV and a host of independent media companies, all of which offer you some inspiring opportunities.

With a course that’s built on our local heritage and that makes the most of our industry links, you’ll have the chance to develop the skills, build the network and gain the experience that rewarding careers are made from.

Placement options

SODA Placement Year
As part of your studies with SODA, you may 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.

SODA Study Year Abroad
You can choose to spend an academic year studying with an approved partner university overseas, developing your core skills while demonstrating your initiative by engaging with a challenging curriculum at a foreign institution. This offers practice credits from the host university, after you’ve completed Level 5 of your SODA program.

If you take the four-year placement route, Year 3 will be spent on placement.

The world of business can be exciting, challenging and unpredictable. Strong management skills are in high demand to help teams navigate difficult times and make the most of new opportunities.

Of course, you’ll need to learn the theory and context to build a career as a manager or consultant. But we believe it’s how you apply that knowledge that really matters. This course is all about practical solutions to real-world problems.

Optional internship year

If you choose to take the optional one-year internship, you’ll do so once you have successfully completed your taught units. The internship takes place over 36-48 weeks – you will be supported by our Placement Office, who have extensive contacts with the industry and over 25 years of experience of helping students to find placements.

The Placement Office advertise a variety of opportunities, support and advise on the application and recruitment process and continue to support you whilst you are away from the University.