Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Human Geography with Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Our BSc (Hons) Zoology degree offers an interdisciplinary approach for studying the subject. You’ll cover a wide range of different issues and topics, examining the molecular biology, genetics and physiology of animals, while discovering the ways these areas have shaped animal evolution and behaviour and how systems biology brings together these areas.

Whether you pursue areas like animal evolution and behaviour, movement physiology and ecology, the genetics of animal populations, or population biology of tropical animals, you’ll find a practical focus to your studies. You’ll learn a wide range of field, laboratory and analytical skills, which are not only vital for the study of zoology, but will prove invaluable for your future career.

And, while our laboratories and equipment are excellent, we know that there’s no substitute for learning in the field – so you may have the opportunity to take part in field courses and project work in Europe, Africa and South America.

Our zoology degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons, either studying with one of our partner universities overseas, or working on a placement with a business or non-governmental organisation.

Placement options

The four-year placement route gives you the opportunity to spend your third year on a placement with a relevant employer, such as a conservation or environmental body, zoo or animal welfare organisation, or with local government or a molecular diagnostics company. It’s a great chance to gain experience, build your network and develop transferable skills – all of which can boost your career prospects.

The four-year study abroad route gives you the opportunity to study overseas during your third year in Europe, North America or Australasia.

Delivered in collaboration with leading industry professionals, including our partners for this MA, Comma Press, this course will equip you with the knowledge and skills for a variety of careers in publishing.

You will explore the complex anatomies and eco-systems of the publishing industry and its markets in the UK and internationally, as well as the trends, innovations, opportunities and challenges facing this rapidly changing profession.

Through the duration of the course, you will gain a working knowledge of the business of publishing, examining the structures of a range of organisational models, from major corporate brands to small independent outfits; and you will develop an understanding of the different stages, roles and skills involved in the publishing process, and the different publishing formats and platforms available.

Physical geography offers the chance to understand, investigate and model the physical interactions and processes that influence our environment and landscape. Study physical geography at Manchester Met and you’ll examine modern environmental phenomena and the long-term evolution of the landscape. You’ll explore Earth’s dynamic nature – not just looking at how it changes, but also how much it has changed over time – and you’ll investigate human impacts upon it, particularly in terms of past and future climate change.

While you can learn a lot on campus, there’s no substitute for seeing the physical landscape for yourself. As part of our program, we regularly engage in fieldwork, from day-long trips to residential trips across the UK and overseas. Being in Manchester also means you’ll have plenty to explore on the doorstep, with four national parks within a couple of hours’ drive. You can even spend a year developing your professional skills working on a placement, or broadening your horizons by studying abroad with the four-year route.

With our BSc (Hons) Chemistry degree, we blend laboratory study with classroom learning to ensure you graduate with a balanced understanding of the subject, from inorganic and organic chemistry, to physical and analytical chemistry.

We’ve worked to shape our curriculum around industry needs and developments, so we’ll equip you with the skills and strengths that employers want. And, while the units you’ll study provide a well-rounded understanding of the subject as a whole, you’ll also have the flexibility to focus on those areas that interest you most – developing the knowledge, experience and skills you’ll need to fulfill your professional or academic ambitions. As such, we cover a wide range of specialist areas, including physiochemical processes, materials chemistry, drug discovery, green chemistry, catalysis, computational chemical modelling, spectroscopy, and synthetic chemistry.

Our chemistry degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons, either studying with one of our partner universities overseas, or working on a placement in industry.

Placement options
The four-year placement route gives you the opportunity of spending your third year on an industrial placement. The Department of Natural Sciences offers help with finding a suitable placement and experience has shown that placements can lead to improved performance in the final year and improved employment prospects after graduation.

Through this course, you’ll explore 21st century food manufacturing and develop your understanding of how the biochemical properties of food components influence how foods taste and feel, and how they impact nutrition and health.

You’ll explore sensory evaluation, food law and how global trends in trade, regulation and policy influence the sustainability and wider impact of the food chain. You’ll also consider topics such as modern production and analytical technologies, functional foods and labelling legislation, and how to ensure that foods are nutritious and safe to eat.

Technical skills are vital to the food industry and they’re an important part of this course. In our dedicated food technology and biochemistry laboratories, you’ll have practical sessions in areas of food production, evaluating the sensory properties of foods, microbiological quality, and the chemical and physical analysis of foods.

You’ll also complete a food development project where you’ll create your own innovative foods, working on everything from marketing and sensory analysis to legal requirements – and you’ll create your product too.

Past projects include beer made from waste patisserie products, functional yoghurts for elderly consumers, and sustainable vegan ice cream made with tiger nuts.

Proficiency in modern languages will help you to gain a 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 multi-cultural 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 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 study Spanish you will be required to spend a year abroad in Spain. 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 Spanish 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.

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.

BA (Hons) Fine Art is a studio-based program that provides students with the platform to confidently enter the professional world of the artist and arts professional. Students will actively investigate universal approaches and practices in contemporary fine art that will test their knowledge, creativity and understanding. The program is taught by professional artists that are actively engaged in contemporary practice and will therefore will encourage students to explore the broader social, political and community context to define a personal mode of study that will equip them to continue their development post-degree.

The wide range of teaching approaches, facilities and opportunities will support students to acquire skills and varied methodologies that allow them to either specialise or engage with a pluralistic approach to exploring fine art.  The diversity of content creates a distinctive group of students that engage with and question a divergent range of approaches to studio practice and externally engaged projects.

Students also have the opportunity to develop their practice within an international context through the international exchange program, national and international study trips and the acquisition of foreign language skills. There are opportunities to engage in the contemporary art world through study trips, exhibitions, student exchange programs, visiting artists' lectures, specialist masterclasses and gallery talks at The Whitworth.

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.

With the rapidly changing nature of social and digital media, content needs to be designed strategically, engagingly and at pace.

Our BA (Hons) Future Media Production offers the skills and understanding to work at the forefront of the creative and digital sectors. It’s a course that will equip you with the tools to design, create, manipulate and deliver engaging digital media content for a wide range of audiences.

The course brings together key aspects of contemporary professional media practice, learning beyond the narrow confines of any single discipline. As such, you’ll learn alongside and collaborate with artists and designers across a range of exciting projects – laying the foundations for industry networking, technical and creative skills that will prove vital for a professional future in the creative media industries.

As a student at the School of Digital Arts you will work in an environment that is purpose-built for today’s fast-moving creative and digital sectors – offering boundary-breaking, cross-disciplinary learning that reflects modern project-based working practices. It’s a place that offers the opportunity to discover your passions and explore your role through collaboration within our dynamic creative community of animators, sound designers, filmmakers, games developers and more. And, just as it’s home to a cutting-edge creative community, it has the facilities to match. This means that you can develop industry-standard skills for creating content across the latest digital platforms.  

Just as SODA offers the perfect place as a creative student, Manchester provides the ideal setting. It’s a globally renowned and intensely creative city, second only to London as a hub for the UK’s media and creative sectors. The nearby MediaCityUK is home to major media and television businesses including the BBC and ITV, along with a host of independent operators, while the city also hosts a substantial animation, film and digital/tech sector. For students, it makes this a city for learning industry-relevant knowledge and workplace-ready skills. For budding creative media professionals, it makes the city a starting point for building a network, gaining experience and embarking on a career in the media, games and digital tech 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.