Master of Science in Animal Behaviour

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Good journalism is essential to a functioning society. This course is designed to give you all the valuable skills and knowledge needed to work in the diverse and fast-moving environment that is modern journalism and media.

Our core units will give you a solid foundation in the principles and practice of good journalism, and you’ll learn how to cover stories for print, web, TV and radio, and how to adapt a story from one medium to another.

You'll then have the opportunity to develop a specialism and graduate with a bracketed degree title. Depending on your specialism, you could graduate with:

• MA Multimedia Journalism (Data)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (Magazine & Longform)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (Broadcast)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (International)

You’ll be taught by accomplished media professionals with backgrounds and connections in BBC TV and radio; local, regional and national newspapers; and online news, so you can be sure you’re learning at the forefront of industry thinking and practice. And you’ll have the chance to develop your own industry connections through our placement opportunities, introducing you to the real working environment and enhancing your employability.

Marketing has changed with the arrival of the digital era. Today, any business can operate on an international scale via different online channels. With so much competition, connecting with customers has never been more important.

This industry-accredited master's offers you the chance to explore the latest thinking and techniques in this rapidly changing field.

You'll look at both traditional and digital marketing principles and strategies, as you develop an in-depth understanding of the marketing role in organisations of all shapes and sizes.

You’ll also examine the issues and opportunities in marketing, strategy and consumer behaviour.

Whether you want to attract visitors to Blackpool or manage hotel staff in Barbados, tourism is full of exciting opportunities. And in the aftermath of the global pandemic, the sector is becoming more innovative than ever.

With input from leading organisations like ABTA, Qantas, Visit Manchester and TUI, we’ve developed a range of modules directly relevant to a career in the tourism industry. You’ll explore key questions like what makes an attractive destination? How can marketing be applied in different markets? Which management strategies get the best out of employees? And you’ll put your ideas into practice, working on real world briefs for real organisations.

Develop skills for life
Tourism is big business. To succeed in this competitive market, organisations need managers with strong business acumen and the creative flair to come up with innovative ideas. Here at Manchester Met, we’ll help you develop both.

You’ll build essential skills like analysing financial statements and planning budgets. You’ll study operational models, learn the theories behind human resource management, and can even add a new language to your repertoire. Then, to turn you from a competent manager to a brilliant one, we’ll help you think creatively, strategically and globally. You’ll discover how to apply your broad set of skills to any challenge your future business or employer might face.

Uncover inside knowledge
The course content covers a huge range of topics – but it’s the teaching team that will bring it to life. They’ll use their contacts, their latest research and their experiences working in the industry to inform their teaching. You’ll always be up to date with the latest insights, whether it’s new theories of tourist behaviours, or how businesses stayed agile throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

With our links to top employers and leading organisations, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to expand your network through work experience or special events like guest lectures. And with the option of studying abroad or spending a year on placement, you can expand your horizons even further.

Placement options

Our BA (Hons) International Tourism Management degree offers the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. Opportunities are available worldwide with a wide range of companies, from boutique hotels to five-star deluxe properties, gastro pubs to Michelin star restaurants, and cruise liners to theme parks.

A year out not only gives 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.

Our BEng (Hons) Biomedical Engineering degree offers the chance to harness engineering principles to tackle medical issues. For technical thinkers and born problem solvers, it’s a degree that offers the practical skills and cutting-edge understanding to pursue a future in a highly specialised field.

From start to finish, it’s a degree with a hands-on approach: with us, you’ll learn by doing. Even in the first few weeks, you’ll tackle a team-based design-and-build challenge to help you get settled into the subject. Then, at the end of each year, you’ll finish off with a major project – your chance to turn learning into action.

Along the way, you’ll explore a range of topics – from key engineering concepts, design techniques and digital manufacturing processes, to biological systems, anatomy and physiology – while gaining practical experience of the latest technologies, like 3D printing and rapid prototyping.

The course then culminates in a major individual project, capturing all you’ve learned. It’s not only a chance to demonstrate your professional-standard technological skills, but also a career-boosting opportunity to showcase your work at our degree show. Put simply, by the time you graduate, you’ll have what it takes to make a mark in biomedical engineering – not just for today, but for years to come.

The world of business is always evolving – adapting to new technology, moving with geopolitical events and reacting to the shifting financial climate. But there is one constant: people. Growth, change, success – it’s only possible with a well-managed workforce, no matter what the industry or sector.

By focusing on the human element of effective business leadership, this is a course that offers vital transferrable skills, providing the first steps of a range of career paths. You’ll leave us equipped to pursue roles across a vast range of sectors in a wide variety of disciplines.

We’ve built an impressive network with industry experts and major employers – sharing understanding and opportunity. For us, it means keeping our expertise at the cutting edge of business and human resource management. For you, it means learning from leading professionals from organizations like PwC and AJ Bell. Plus, if you opt for a third-year placement, it’s a network that can open doors to the sort of employers where you can turn classroom theory into workplace practice.

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.

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.

From evolutionary development to environmental stimuli, animal behaviour is shaped by a range of factors. This masters course is your chance to explore them all – not only developing the theoretical principles of behaviour, but also learning how to harness these principles to tackle real-world animal welfare and conservation issues.

It’s an area that covers a diverse range of disciplines, from a strong numerical approach in the classroom to a practical approach in the lab and in the field. While the course is built around strong core units, it also offers the flexibility to explore specialist areas, such as genetics and GIS.

Above all, this is a course that offers the chance to study animal behaviour up close. As well as a field trip to Poland, Ecuador or Tanzania, your dissertation project could take you to Kenya, the Philippines or Mauritius (not to mention sites across the UK) for your research.

As well as expert analytical abilities and practical research techniques, you’ll leave us with an in-depth understanding of animals physiology, and how experience and environment combine to create behaviour – everything you need to pursue a range of career paths, from animal management to education or further research.

From ragworms and rhinos to locusts and lemurs, the animal world is an ever-changing and always fascinating place to explore. On our BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and Conservation degree you can delve in and discover it all – developing an understanding of the vast range and huge importance of animal behaviour.

With us, you’ll consider the drivers of different types of animal behaviour, looking at the interaction of genetics, evolutionary history and present-day environments. You’ll also investigate how and why behaviour changes over an animal’s lifetime, from genetic and hormonal factors to the physiological and environmental mechanisms. You will be equipped with the tools needed in conservation and will study real-world examples of how species and their habitats can be conserved.

Through a blend of laboratory and fieldwork, we’ll show you how to record behavioural data and use professional-grade software for its analysis – vital tools in improving the welfare and management of domestic, wild and zoo populations. Our animal behaviour course 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. This will be subject to national and international travel restrictions.

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

There are few aspects of business more fundamental than people: they’re a vital ingredient of any organisation. It’s down to the HR professionals to deal with a vast range of business-critical issues, shaping workplace policies like redundancy, maternity leave and rewards, and supporting strategic decisions on areas like recruitment.

The best HR professionals have an in-depth understanding of how organisations operate and what the business objectives are – helping them advise employees and partner with the business.

We’ll help you explore the latest thinking in the subject, starting with first principles of managing people, analysing information and understanding behaviour. From there, you’ll expand into topics like managing across cultures and leading change. And, in your final year, you’ll also be able to pick your own subject as a research topic.

By the time you graduate, you won’t just have extensive knowledge of the role, you’ll also have a deeper understanding of the business and legislative landscape. In other words, you’ll leave ready to start your career in the world of HR.

Placement options

Our BA (Hons) Human Resource Management degree offers the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. It’s an opportunity to develop core skills, explore your career goals and discover about how your industry really functions – and shows employers that you’re ready to get to work.

Our Business School Placement Team is ready to help. They offer a wide range of services, including employer presentations, advice and placement fairs. They’re well connected, with an extensive network of relationships with placement employers locally, nationally and internationally. But it’s also up to you – the more proactive you are about applying for placement opportunities, the better.

A degree in English and American literature offers the opportunity to study writers and writing from cultures both united and divided by a common language.

Reflecting the varied and flexible nature of English and American literature, this course enables you to explore both in equal depth, as you look at how writers from the entwined cultures have reflected and shaped the worlds around them.

You’ll explore English literature in all its major forms – prose, poetry and drama – and from all periods since the Renaissance. At the same time, you’ll look at literature from the USA, from its inception to the present day, relating it to key social and historical contexts, while considering American writers’ enduring struggle to articulate national identity.

The course engages with a range of theoretical perspectives on literature and culture, drawn from English and American Studies, and related disciplines. But, crucially, it also recognises that American literature is integral to, rather than separate from, the study of literature in English.

You may have the opportunity to spend a year expanding your horizons, either studying abroad with one of our partner universities, in the US or elsewhere, or working on placement within industry in Britain or abroad.

In your final year you will get the chance to explore your interests in depth with a substantial piece of project work presented as a thesis, building on the knowledge and skills you've been developing over previous years.

Our lively department is home to internationally renowned writers and critics, 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'll be in the right place to begin building a creative network for your future.