Master of Science in Creative Advertising Strategy

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Whatever the brand, whatever the market and whatever the media, successful advertising comes down to a combination of creative thinking, commercial awareness and strategic insight. The kind of people who excel in the industry don’t just offer exciting ideas, but also have an excellent eye for detail, a flair for communication and an instinctive understanding of their audience.

You'll learn about consumer behaviour, brand management and digital marketing communications – to name a few areas. You’ll get to grips with the media landscape, exploring integrated campaigns that balance traditional and digital channels. Put your creative abilities to the test, turning your own ideas into memorable advertising and learn how it all fits in to a greater marketing strategy designed to build brands.

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.

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.

The fashion landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before and the need for sustainable and innovative fashion garments, ranges, and business models has never been more urgent. Conscious approaches to both the design and realisation of a fashion product is therefore critical.

The MA Fashion Design Technology programme is aimed at students who are ready to challenge traditional fashion industry systems and want to become the catalyst for positive change in their specialism. Technology and human-centric design are at the heart of the programme. The use of technology drives the creation of new, original products and allows for experimentation beyond material resources.

Students will have the opportunity to systematically question existing ideals in response to social, ethical, cultural and political issues. They will use innovative development methods to generate alternative, creative and experimental design outputs for both self-directed briefs and industry-led ‘live’ projects.

Whilst studying on this programme, students will have access to an extensive suite of cutting edge, industry-standard machinery and specialist software, highly qualified and experienced staff, and a network of global professional partners.

Graduates will be equipped to design and manufacture innovative fashion prototypes, products and ranges for specific target markets that impact positively on society and the future of the industry they are joining.

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.

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 way we communicate with, reach and engage customers has changed dramatically in the digital age. As such, opportunities for careers in digital marketing are growing all over the world.

Accredited by the Institute of Data and Marketing, this is a specialist course designed to develop your knowledge and skillset in evidence-based, applied digital marketing strategy and campaign planning. We welcome students from all over the world, who have a passion for digital and want to develop their professional practice and enhance their marketing career prospects.

You’ll develop your knowledge and skills through a mix of collaborative teaching and group workshops with industry-skilled, research-active academics, live client briefs and specialist guest lectures.

The latest insights from industry
This course is designed around the latest advancements in the digital environment with units that allow you to develop specialist digital marketing skills, highly sought after by employers.

Taught by experienced digital experts, you’ll gain unique insights and the vital skills needed to succeed in this rapidly expanding sector.

A world of opportunity
Outside the course, our internship and networking opportunities will offer you the chance to put your skills to the test and to make valuable contacts.

Whatever your preferred career direction, in-house, agency or freelance, studying with us will help you find your passion and ensure you have the knowledge and skills to succeed as a strategic digital marketer.

Optional internship year

If you choose to take the optional one-year internship, you’ll do so once you have successfully completed your taught units. The internship takes place over 36-48 weeks – you will be supported by our Placement Office, who have extensive contacts with the industry and over 25 years of experience of helping students to find placements.

The Placement Office advertise a variety of opportunities, support and advise on the application and recruitment process and continue to support you whilst you are away from the University.

Zoos play a crucial role in animal conservation. Whether they’re carrying out important research into animal behaviour, taking part in breeding programmes, educating the public or advising policymakers, they are important players in international conservation.

Study our masters in Zoo Conservation Biology and you can play your part too, as you develop expertise in the science which underpins the management and maintenance of captive populations and explore the links with species conservation on a worldwide scale.

The main core unit is Zoo Conservation, which we deliver with the help of our partners at Chester Zoo – giving you access to the zoo’s collections and facilities. Within the course, you can participate in a field course in Poland, Ecuador or East Africa or apply for a three-month work placement at a zoo or aquarium. Other core units, delivered at our Manchester campus, include practical techniques and analysis, statistics and research design and organismal genetics. Amongst a wide range of option units, you’ll also have the chance to specialise in subjects like species recovery and behavioural biology.

This all then feeds back into your research project, where you’ll combine your own data collection with background research and data analysis, and communicate your findings in a comprehensive dissertation.

In the changing world of contemporary filmmaking, there is an increasing range of possibilities for future storytelling across different media and platforms. The School of Digital Art's (SODA) MA Filmmaking course explores filmmaking within a wide range of professional contexts. This includes a distinctive focus on short form filmmaking, spanning narrative, documentary, artistic and technological practices across a range of platforms.

You will be encouraged to develop an authorial voice using a wide range of creative, conceptual and technological approaches to communicate your ideas and observations. Working with established techniques and experimental and disruptive production processes, you will have the opportunity to develop specialist skills whilst exploring a range of interdisciplinary and collaborative working methods within the SODA.  

As a Filmmaking student you will be based within a cutting-edge, purpose-built building, equipped with the latest emerging technologies to enable you to develop industry-standard skills for creating and researching content across the latest digital platforms. It’s a place that will offer the opportunity to collaborate with a dynamic creative community of sound designers, photographers, games developers and more. SODA is also home to staff from a wide range of creative disciplines, who are research active and experts in their chosen areas and who have well-established links to the wider creative media, arts and digital tech industries.

During the course you will also 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.

In French and Spanish, emphasis is placed on communicating effectively and developing transferable skills such as translating, interpreting, and interview techniques. Practical language classes embrace speaking, listening, reading and writing. We offer a wide choice of subjects, which may include society, cinema, culture and linguistics.

Both languages can be studied post A2 level. You can study either French or Spanish from beginners level in the first year by taking a fast track option (please note, you cannot do beginners level for both languages).

The course is taken as an equal honours route. You will have the opportunity to spend your third year abroad in France and 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 have grown in confidence. After this year, you return to the University to study for your final year.

Placement options

• You will have the opportunity to spend your third year in France and Spain or Latin America, and we will assist you in choosing from a wide choice of partner universities where you can study.