Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Music and Sound Design with Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Psychology is the science of human behaviour and mind. It is concerned with individual psychological processes and the social context of how we think and interact with the world around us. Forensic psychology applies these processes and knowledge to legal domains, helping shape how the police, courts, prisons and probation services understand and react to victims, witnesses and offenders.

Forensic psychology practitioners assess and work with offenders, work with victims and witnesses to crime, and give evidence in court. They might carry out risk assessments on offenders with mental health issues, work with children with anti-social behaviour or create treatment plans to help rehabilitate offenders.

Our course covers all core elements of psychological study as required by the British Psychological Society (BPS), from lifespan development, neuropsychology, and research methods, to social, critical and abnormal psychology. As well as developing a thorough understanding of key psychological research, theory and principles, you’ll also explore a wide range of topics focusing on theories of crime, victimisation and psychology in legal contexts; including offender behaviour, eyewitness testimony, jury decision-making, police investigations, and the assessment and treatment of offenders.

From the written word to the silver screen, this joint honours course explores the middle ground between two of the world’s most important storytelling forms.

It is a fascinating combination of English literature, with its centuries-old roots, and the relative modernity of cinematic studies. Taught by staff that are internationally renowned writers and critics in a friendly, supportive and intellectually challenging environment, you'll study English literature in all its major forms - prose, poetry and drama - and cinema, in its large and small screen incarnations.

The film modules are grounded in close textual interpretation and the analysis of style, genre, historical context, and the politics of representation. As such, you’ll focus on key film genres, key directors, numerous film movements and national cinemas. With the sheer power, reach, longevity and endurance of American filmmaking over the last 120 years, much of the study of film focuses on 'Hollywood' style cinema, but you’ll also look at less commercial film-making from around the globe, challenging and pushing the medium to its limits.

You may have opportunities to study abroad and, if you wish, to do your third year as a placement - in Britain or abroad. And in your final year, you'll get a chance to explore your interests in depth with a substantial piece of project work that presents a thesis, building on the knowledge and skills you've been developing over previous years.

Our lively department is staffed by internationally renowned writers and critics, and there's a strong research culture, creating a learning environment that is both supportive and intellectually challenging. Manchester is a creative hub, with one of the biggest creative sectors in the UK, and along with our extensive cultural links both in the city and further afield, you’ll be ideally placed to begin building a creative network for the future.

This course is a popular joint honours combination which brings together two subjects with highly complementary approaches and interests. Study English and history and you will explore a wide range of sources and representations that enhance our understanding of the world around us, both past and present.

As well as offering a balanced combination of core and option units rooted in each of the two subjects, this course has been designed so that your growing knowledge and skills in each subject will help you to develop a distinctive perspective, and strengths, in the other. During year 1, for instance, you will study the history of Manchester as a radical city on the History side of the joint curriculum, and the various ways in which it has been represented in literary and cultural texts on the English side. As you do so, you will be developing foundational skills and subject knowledge in the study of each discipline.

You may also have the opportunity to study abroad and, if you wish, to take your third year as a placement – in Britain or abroad. In your final year, you will have a chance to spread your wings with a substantial piece of project work, presented in a thesis, building on the skills you've been developing over previous years.

The English and history subject groups are staffed by internationally renowned writers and academics, and there’s a strong research culture, creating a learning environment that is both supportive and intellectually challenging. We pride ourselves on our excellent teaching and highly positive student feedback. And with our extensive cultural links both in Manchester and further afield, you will be in the right place to begin building a network for your future.

Placement options
You may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. It is an opportunity to develop core skills and explore how this course can relate to the graduate world. It shows employers that you’re ready to get to work.

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.

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.

Understanding the power play of international relations is the key to unlocking the secrets of success on the global stage. In addition, studying history will help you to understand how the past affects every aspect of our lives - from the language we speak, to the politics of race, gender, religion and identity.

This Joint Honours degree will provide you with the skills to explore the social and political landscape of human consciousness throughout time and place. You will discover how people lived, and how they perceived and interacted with the world around them. Investigating past events, you will encounter war, injustice, new frontiers, political upheaval, ancient civilisations, invasions, conspiracies, catastrophes and revolutions. You will gain a firm grasp of the core theories of International Relations and their underlying methods. You will get a broad grounding in contemporary government and world politics, including the changing nature of the modern state system.

A wide variety of optional units means that you can pursue your own interests – with units becoming increasingly flexible as you progress through the course. With practical skills training, including advanced analytical approaches, and all the experience that brings – this degree opens up doors to a range of interesting and rewarding career possibilities and provides the skills to progress to higher research programs.

BSc (Hons) Fashion Marketing equips students with the essential skills needed for a career in this exciting field of fashion. The increasingly competitive world of fashion relies on good marketing strategies to succeed. Students from this course will learn all aspects of fashion marketing in a global and circular economy. From a small business start-up, to the luxury brand catwalk, students will study a diverse range of subjects with industry experts, collaborations and self-directed study choices.

Marketing teams plan and design all communication between the brand and the customer, directly influencing the number of items sold and therefore the profitability of the business. Throughout this program, there is particular emphasis on the circular economy, and the influence that sustainable business models have on the environment and on the relationship with the customer.

Students will learn about interactive fashion marketing, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, personalised fashion marketing, micro-influencers, sustainability, and user-generated content.  Underpinning this is a thorough knowledge of the fashion industry, the product development process, and the local/global socio-economic influence on fashion and the marketing message.

Placement options

• Students can study the BSc (Hons) Fashion Marketing course on a 3 years full-time basis or with an optional placement year between the second and third year which extends the duration to 4 years.

Music and sound design is a field that mixes the artistic and the technical to produce the vital ingredient for a range of media. On the one hand, it’s a discipline of creative composition and emotional interpretation. On the other, it’s about harnessing the latest technology and studio techniques to produce compelling music and sound content. Our course offers the chance to learn both sides, letting you explore your creative passions while equipping you for a career in the fast-paced digital arts and media sector.

The School of Digital Arts aims to prepare you for a career in the creative sector. It’s home to a dynamic community that spans skills and approaches, creating a space for collaboration and experimentation. And, as well as the human element, this is a space for technical skills, equipped with industry-standard tools and technology.

More than a purpose-built school, we also have the perfect setting. Manchester is a city at the forefront of the creative and digital sector in the UK (second only to London), home to a wide variety of broadcasters, creative agencies and media businesses. More importantly, it’s also one of the world’s musical capitals – much like Detroit and a handful of others. This is a city known around the world for its thriving, distinctive music scene.

Study with us and you’ll have the chance to tap into this vibrant city, making the most of our links with Scruff of the Neck, Louder Than War and other key promoters, labels and venues, not to mention youth music organisations, DJ educators, schools and cultural producers. With the chance to learn from, and connect with, these key figures and organisations, we offer the chance to study in a city that provides an ideal starting point for building your network, developing your experience and starting your 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.

Product designers at Manchester Met explore why, examine how, and ask ‘what if?’ We are investigative and critically responsive to human and global needs, developing innovative design-led solutions that connect the consumer experience of products, systems and services. As a product design student, you will be creative with purpose, gaining critical understanding of the emergent issues affecting design across society and culture, learning how to be a designer of products that enhance functionality, interactions and relationships with people and the places we inhabit.

 You will develop essential skills in creative methods, research, design thinking, prototyping and design strategy, applying design intelligence to the creation of new product opportunities and solutions. You will discover how to design products that embrace both traditional and contemporary approaches to production and manufacturing, generating value through the application of materials, processes, and technologies. This course will enable you to produce innovative crafted design solutions and develop the creative and professional skills required to support a sustainable career in product design.

Product Design at Manchester Met builds on the success of our previous programme, BA Three Dimensional Design, which has produced influential and award-winning graduates including designer and architect Thomas Heatherwick, jeweller Ruth Tomlinson and ceramicist Joe Hartley.

Muscle and bone. Brains and biochemistry. The fuel we consume and the air we breathe. Develop an expert understanding of the systems and organs that make humans tick. Our MSc Human Physiology course offers a detailed look at physiology, letting you explore the fundamental systems of human life.

On this master's course, you’ll build advanced knowledge of different systems or specialisms. You will not only learn how our bodies work, but you’ll also develop the key techniques and technologies for investigating normal and abnormal physiology. From the lab-based work that helps to develop new treatments and therapies to the clinical care that touches (and saves) lives.

You will have the opportunity to deep dive into a topic of your choice with an independent research project. You will be able to tackle the issues that fascinate you – exploring areas that match your personal interests and career ambitions.

Explore inequalities in childhood and the factors that can nurture or disrupt child development. Analyse the critical frameworks for understanding relationships such as attachment theory. Critically examine the evidence base and use of practices in children’s services.

Designed for people with an interest in working in children’s services and education facilities, this course will encourage you to explore how to promote positive mental health for young people across a variety of settings.

You’ll develop your practical psychological skills in assessment, formulation and intervention planning, as well as your awareness of yourself as a practitioner.

Some of the topics you’ll study include psychological theories (such as Bowlby’s attachment theory) and how developmental, societal and environmental challenges influence all aspects of young people’s lives. You’ll also learn how to identify and nurture protective factors.

You’ll have a series of guest lectures throughout this course, especially throughout specialist units, to help you understand how the theory you learn in the classroom applies to the practice setting.

Guest lectures include experienced clinical and educational psychologists who contribute to a number of training programs, as well as specialist speakers with a focus on trauma, creative therapeutic approaches and the development of novel trauma-informed services to help you explore career options.

For this course, you’ll usually complete a service-based dissertation that informs service development or specific interventions for children, young people or families.