Master of Arts in Product Design

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Interested in being an influencer in a major corporation? Or mentoring people to overcome challenging situations at work? Or perhaps you want to coach leaders of charities and public organizations?

Business psychology is an emerging topic in the working world. Performance, excellence, talent management, mental health – they’re not just buzzwords, they’re driving a new approach to doing business.

This unique course lets you combine your interests in human behaviour and business operations. You don’t need any psychology or business knowledge when you join us – just curiosity and a willingness to learn. We’ll go over everything from scratch, introducing you to the business environment, and helping you develop the academic and professional skills you’ll need to succeed.

Study abroad
Instead of a placement, you'll have the opportunity to spend up to a year overseas, studying with one of our partner institutions across Europe, or beyond. Go abroad in the third year of your degree, and you’ll not only learn about other cultures, improve your language skills and discover more about yourself – you’ll also boost your career prospects. Having first-hand knowledge of another country’s cultures and traditions can take you far in a range of careers. And, by going abroad you’ll also demonstrate the kind of independent spirit and adaptability that many employers want.

Drama and Contemporary Performance at Manchester School of Theatre is all about your development as a theatre artist, performer, thinker and professional, in a city with a vibrant theatre and performance scene.

With a focus on cutting-edge practices across contemporary performance and dramatic theatre, the program combines artistic practice and academic enquiry, and draws on established local, national and international networks.

Working with leading theatre academics, artists and professionals, you will be part of a close-knit course community, working in one of the most vibrant sectors of a city internationally acclaimed for its creativity.

MA 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.

Designed for qualified doctors, physiotherapists and osteopaths with clinical experience, you’ll study the prevention, diagnosis and management of sport and exercise related medical conditions and injuries.

You’ll choose specialist units that fit with your interests and career aspirations and have the opportunity to gain additional professional accreditation, qualification or membership with external professional bodies. This includes Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME).

The majority of this course is delivered at The Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (MIHP). You’ll have the opportunity to use world-class facilities, such as the environmental chamber, 3D performance capture hall, and the laboratory spaces for specialist exercise testing. You’ll perform practical sessions such as biomechanics and aerobic capacity tests.

You’ll learn theory in seminars, exploring cases and developing the specialist knowledge needed to support your career path into sport and exercise medicine. Topics you might consider include injury diagnosis, nutrition for sports, sports psychology and physiotherapy to help athletes get back into competitions, and performance enhancement.

To ensure our curriculum is relevant, our course theme lead is Prof John Rogers. We also have guest lectures from industry professionals who are experts in their field of practice. Past guest lecturers on this course include Adrian Gardner (Head of Performance at Warrington Wolves Rugby League), Chris Rosimus (Head of Nutrition at The Football Association), John Hartley (First Team Physiotherapist at Aston Villa Football Club) and Aaron Green (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with English Touch Association).

Manchester has been identified as one of the major games industry hubs outside of London* (*source: 'A Map of the UK', Nesta, 2020). As home to organisations such as Gameopolis, the city is a driving force for building and coordinating the future of the games industry.

With our MSc in Computer Games Development, you’ll gain the skills required for an exciting career within this growing industry, both here in Manchester and beyond. You’ll learn the core essentials of programming for games and you’ll conduct playtesting sessions and user research to ensure that your games are fun, impactful, and that they effectively reach their target audience.

You will also complete a masters project. While you’ll have plenty of support along the way, it’s a solo research project designed to develop confidence, autonomy and self-sufficiency – qualities that can take you far in the workplace.

By the time you complete your masters, you’ll not only have the technical knowledge, you’ll also have gained key employability skills such as team working, communication, project management and negotiation skills. With the mentorship of passionate games-focused staff at Manchester Met, you will be able to build a refined and diverse portfolio, to help you work towards securing a job in the games industry.

Photography offers an exciting range of career paths and specialisms and this course provides the perfect starting point for them.

You will have the opportunity to discover and push the boundaries of current practices and approaches. You’ll discover how photography can be used to tell powerful stories and communicate your personal interests within cultural and industry contexts. You will also have an opportunity to explore a wide range of different subject areas such as fashion, documentary, editorial and commercial photography. Throughout the course you will have the chance to experiment in a purpose-built studio, darkroom and digital facilities.

As a Photography student you will be part of the broad, dynamic creative community at the School of Digital Arts. As such, you will have units and classes taught across all our courses, with the chance to collaborate on projects with animators, sound designers, games developers and a range of other media-focused students. It’s an approach designed to mirror the cross-disciplinary practices you’ll find in the professional world, while giving you the chance to explore the creative directions that interest you most. Matching that professional approach, our purpose-built school provides professional-standard tools – a brand new creative playground for producing photographic work at the cutting edge of emerging digital technologies. It’s a school and a course designed to give you the vital industry and artist networking, technical and creative skills to prepare you for a career in the photographic and related industries.

Manchester offers a fantastic backdrop for it all. Studying here puts the country’s second-largest media and creative sector on your doorstep, with a globally recognised photographic industry and a substantial animation, film and digital/tech sector. At MediaCityUK, there’s a mix of national broadcasters and independent operators, while the city is home to a wide range of major media businesses. Manchester has a dynamic artistic and cultural scene that houses some of the best public and independent museums and galleries in the UK . So, whatever path you want to pursue in photography – or in the wider media, arts and digital tech industries – Manchester offers all sorts of opportunities for building a network, gaining experience and making a great start in 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.

The School of Digital Art's (SODA) MA Photography course provides a dynamic opportunity for you to test, push and extend the current boundaries of the photographic medium. You will explore photography through the medium’s rich critical and technological contexts, and develop your creative practice in line with your individual interests and professional ambitions.  

As an MA Photography student you will be part of SODA, where you will study in an environment that is purpose-built for today’s fast-moving creative and digital sectors. It will offer boundary-breaking and cross-disciplinary learning opportunities that reflects modern project-based working practices. It offers the opportunity to collaborate with a dynamic creative community of sound designers, filmmakers, games developers and more. SODA is also home to staff from a wide range of disciplines, who are research active and experts in their chosen area and who enjoy well-established links to the wider creative media, arts and digital tech industries.

In addition to established photographic technologies, you will also have access to a wide range of new digital equipment and facilities, including photographic studios, sound studios, green screen spaces, moving image studios and immersive spaces and technologies.

During the program, you will develop professional links with the creative community and industries both locally, nationally and internationally. For students and creative media professionals alike, SODA is well-positioned within Manchester as a great place for building a network and developing your research and practice in the media, games and digital tech industries.

The combination of digital and physical technologies that is driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is changing our world. Our MSc Engineering Project Management offers the opportunity to develop management skills to implement technical strategies in projects across the engineering sector.

This course explores specialist challenges to the key objectives of innovation and sustainability in the delivery of new engineering systems, products, enterprise and services for Industry 4.0.

Throughout this course, you’ll develop specialist skills for the management of multidisciplinary projects along with techniques to manage the operational and developmental phases of product and system life cycles.

Our teaching staff come from a range of professional backgrounds with active networks in various sectors, from manufacturing engineering and environmental industries, to railways and built environment. Together, this multidisciplinary group will help you to become a rounded professional, ready to apply for engineering management roles in organisations globally.

Our MA Applied Criminology has been developed to offer real-world knowledge and experience, offering you the opportunity to consider criminology in practice, both in criminal justice and applied research.

Our team includes former justice practitioners and researchers at the cutting edge of research and evaluation in areas such as youth justice, drugs and criminal justice policy. The experience and contacts this brings has given us the opportunity to develop a vibrant, applied curriculum including options of study in criminal justice policy, practice and theory, as well as the opportunity to undertake a placement in a relevant organization. You will also cover research methods and carry out your own research.

We have devised this course to suit people working in, or planning to work in, criminal justice and related areas, as well as those looking for an academic career; there is no requirement that students should have previously studied criminology.

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.