Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Games Development with Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Our BA (Hons) Product Design and Craft course has a material-led, experimental philosophy that pursues a thinking through making approach to design, supporting the development of personal creative agendas. Through a program of study that explores our understanding of the material world, you will learn how to be a designer and maker of objects that enhance our daily interactions. You will develop essential skills in creative thinking and design strategy, and then apply these to challenge how you design for product and for craft.

You will discover how to design and produce objects that embrace both traditional handmade approaches and contemporary machine and digital manufacturing. Through creative experimentation, we strive to give ideas a material voice, as the thinking behind an object and its material execution are of equal importance. Your design work will also look to address a diverse range of areas including social issues, global awareness and local demand by considering the objects you design and the materials and processes you use. This course will enable you to explore strategies, materials and processes so you can develop creative and professional skills to support a sustainable career in design and craft making.

Sport and exercise are more sophisticated than ever before. From the impact on our bodies to the impact on our communities, our understanding of the subject is growing every day. With that growth comes a whole range of specialist fields and niche subjects, not to mention a variety of career paths. This master's course can prepare you for those possibilities, offering the mix of critical thinking, expert knowledge and professional skills vital for new areas of health, exercise intervention and sports education.

This combined honours course will give you the practical language skills while also developing your understanding of the social and cultural environment in which it is spoken. You’ll also study units ranging from consultancy to enterprise, helping you find your calling in international business.

Business
This degree includes everything you could want from a business degree, from expertise in our research areas of sustainability, strategy, and enterprise to events like our leadership series of guest lectures.

French
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 Met will give you the opportunity to learn from native speakers. Our languages department have created their own multi-cultural 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.

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

If you take French as a major or equal subject you will be required 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 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.

If you choose to major in Business all our courses still offer optional four-year placement and exchange routes, where you have the opportunity to spend your third year studying overseas or on industrial placement working for a company, after which you will return to study for your final year. You can make a decision on whether to follow this route at the end of your first year of study.

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.

The world around us is changing – and our environmental science degree will help you understand how. You’ll learn the skills and knowledge to measure, model and assess environmental change and its impact. Developed with employers, including environmental agencies and private businesses, this is a program with real-world relevance, built around developing the techniques and expertise you’ll find in the workplace.

The course combines aspects of physical and life sciences, helping you build an understanding of environmental issues today. You’ll also gain a wide range of practical and analytical skills, working in the lab and the field. By the time you graduate, you’ll be able to collect, process and analyse data from a range of sources across different scientific disciplines – giving you the understanding to make informed recommendations in a professional context.

Our computer games development degree is designed to turn you into a games programmer and designer – from the word go you’ll be hands-on, designing and programming games as you prepare for an exciting career at the cutting-edge of interactive digital content.

In our state-of-the-art facilities, you’ll develop traditional computer science skills, such as programming and maths for computing, as well as specialist games development and design techniques. You’ll also study all types of games software, from the programming of game components, to high-level development tools such as Unity and Unreal Engine. At the same time you’ll be learning about game logic and architecture, the production of game objects and environments, and the processes used to design and develop games in industry.

We’ve designed the course to ensure direct relevance to the computer games industry and to provide you with opportunities to showcase your work to potential employers. Throughout the course you’ll build up a portfolio of work that you can showcase when you come to apply for games development roles in industry.

With hackathons, gaming events and lots of opportunities for work experience to hone your skills, by the time you leave us you’ll be well on your way to becoming a player in the action-packed world of computer games.

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.

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

English:
English is a well-established humanities discipline, which explores the role of the written word in defining and transforming human experience. The modern discipline of English is rooted in the study of literature and the language in which it is written. Students of English can expect to study all major periods and forms of literature and to learn how to analyse literary texts by drawing on disciplines such as history, sociology and politics. The study of English develops strong critical thinking and communication skills, attributes that are highly valued in humanities graduates by employers. 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. The Creative Director is Carol Ann Duffy DBE (Poet Laureate 2009-2019). You will develop the necessary skills in critical thinking and communication that are of value to graduates entering a wide array of career paths.

Spanish:
Proficiency in modern languages will 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 Spanish at Manchester Met 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.

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

Businesses and governments rely on economists to help them examine issues, identify trends and deal with financial uncertainty. By studying our BA/BSc (Hons) Economics degree, you’ll explore how organizations and individuals invest and allocate their resources.

Throughout the course, we’ll challenge you to think about choices people make and how those decisions affect every aspect of our lives. You’ll explore everything from employment to distribution of wealth, government spending to international trade.

Please note that all students will apply directly to the BA (Hons) Economics. After studying BA (Hons) Economics in the first year, you can choose to continue on the BA (Hons) Economics, or transfer to BSc (Hons) Economics through the second and third year of study.

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.

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.