Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Advertising and Marketing Communications

at University of Bedfordshire - Luton Campus United Kingdom

Marketing graduates, with understanding of the dynamics of modern business marketing, are highly employable, and this professionally-accredited degree will ensure you are up-to-date with developments in communications, digital and social media as well as essential business functions like finance, HRM and operations.

Marketing embraces psychology, consumer behaviour, management, innovation, sociology and popular culture and is central to life in the 21st century.

After studying buyer behaviour, marketing data analysis, branding, competition, and media and communications, you will combine it all in practical assignments.

Why choose this course?

• Learn from staff with extensive industry experience as you engage with real marketing projects
• Study the latest marketing developments ensuring you graduate with up-to-date knowledge
• Develop your career opportunities with an optional placement and links to industry practitioners
• Gain knowledge of marketing and communications areas including management, marketing in contemporary contexts, marketing data and international business
• Explore a range of potential career options including sales, brand management, business development, market research, communications and customer liaison
• Benefit from studying a degree accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), with an optional placement (sandwich) year.

In each year of study, you will be involved in  practical marketing projects from real companies and you will interact with professional practitioners, allowing you to engage with theory and practice and encourage you to make links between your studies and workplace practice.

This provides you with an understanding of modern business marketing and will ensure that you are up-to-date with developments in communications, digital and social media, as well as business functions like finance, HRM and operations.

Our professionally-accredited course will provide you with the opportunity to take the Introductory Certificate in Marketing qualification awarded by the renowned Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), with further exemption opportunities for the CIM Professional Certificate and CIM Professional Diploma.

After graduation, this could provide a great way to start your marketing career and save you time and money towards your professional marketing qualification

If you’re interested in a career in forensic science, we have a crime scene for you! A unique mix of biosciences and criminal psychology, our degree course offers you the opportunity for practical forensic processing in our crime scene facility.

Technological advances have made the role of the forensic scientist – the expert who collects, preserves and analyses evidence - increasingly important in crime investigation, and also in other fields such as archaeology.

The course starts with an introduction to psychology and the sciences relevant to forensics, followed by more detailed applied forensics including the preparation of evidence for court, pathology, medical physiology and haematology. You’ll also study the most recent advances in DNA analysis, toxicology, criminal psychology, and fire and explosive analysis.

Why choose this course?

• The Forensic Science team includes international experts in the psychology of criminal behaviour and forensics experts from a variety of operational backgrounds
• Our teaching is rated as ‘Excellent’ by the QAA and the team is part of a highly experienced department that has run biological science courses for over 30 years
• You’ll study in a specialist forensic laboratory, with key laboratory skills incorporated into most of the taught units, especially your final-year research project
• You’ll learn the skills and techniques needed to evaluate a real-life crime scene in our scene-of-crime lab, designed to resemble an 'normal' flat
• There’s the option to take the course over four years and include a year’s work placement (see below) to gain experience and industry contacts
• If you’d like to step-up into higher education, you can take an introductory Foundation Year (see below), which guarantees entry to the Undergraduate course

    "Studying forensic science with Bedfordshire has been an awesome, inspiring experience, with lecturers who are specialists with industry experience in the areas they teach. I highly recommend anyone wishing to study this subject with Beds to 'Go 4 it'."

The MSc Social Work provides you with the opportunity to gain a professional qualification in social work at masters' level. This is a generic social work qualification that equips students with the skills, ethical principles, deep knowledge, critical awareness and reflexivity needed to pursue a career in social work in any field.

Successful students are eligible to apply to the social work regulator Social Work England SWE for professional registration.

On this practice-based social work course, your studies will be supervised by experienced practitioners, and you can expect an induction, a protected workload and a study day most weeks while on placement.

All placements are under constant development with our employer partners, and you may be eligible for a Social Work bursary administered by the NHS Business Services Authority

Why choose this course?

• Study the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary for social work practice at qualification level with adults and children in the private, voluntary and independent sectors.
• Explore the role of social work, its inter-relationship with other disciplines and the ethical base for practice where initiative is balanced with accountability to employers, the profession, service-users and carers.
• Develop a deep and systematic understanding of current theoretical and methodological approaches and acquire the skills necessary for analytical research-informed practice.
• Gain skills in critical reflexivity and emotional literacy which underpin collaborative social work practice and proactive professional development.
• Benefit from classroom and placement activities which will enable you to develop collaborative and communication abilities that can be applied to complex problem-solving tasks.

Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), this course offers students a rewarding career path. In addition to gaining a postgraduate qualification, successful students will be eligible to apply for professional registration with the Health and Care Professions Council and when registered will be able to pursue a professional social work career in a range of settings.

On this practice-based social work course, your studies will be supervised by experienced practitioners, and you can expect an induction, a protected workload and a study day most weeks while on placement.

Success in the media industry means creating powerful products that communicate with their target audiences through a constantly evolving range of media platforms. This course gives you the skills and insider knowledge needed to make that success happen.

Producing media content is an exciting, up-to-the-minute form of social communication, strongly influenced by cultural, economic and political factors. To create innovative, effective communications across a range of platforms, you must be able to combine media theory with practical production skills.

This broad-based course focuses on the production process while giving you the theoretical grounding you need. So you study practical units such as digital design, making sound and images, film-making and experimental production, combined with units ensuring your understanding of media theory and research, digital cultures and future digital production.

Why choose this course?

• Access to a wide range of professional production equipment including broadcast-standard TV and radio studios, green screen and 360 production
• Study with industry-experienced, research-active tutors
• Explore the latest world-class research through the Research Institute for Media, Art and Performance (RIMAP)
• Participate in and contribute to student festivals and competitions, building your experience and your portfolio
• Develop portable skills in communications and team-working, increasing your employability
• Benefit from a course that opens up careers in television production, digital media production, journalism, teaching, advertising, media and PR
• Take the course over four years and benefit from a year’s placement in industry (see below), gaining experience and making contacts for the future.
• If you need to step up into higher education, start with a Foundation Year (see below) which guarantees entry to the undergraduate course

This course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The course, for graduates with a background in electronics, was designed with industry experts and is ideal for those aiming to enter a range of specialist careers in digital electronics or communications.

Gain advanced theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in digital communications, signal processing, electronic circuits and microprocessors, as well as an understanding of engineering best practice and how to apply it in real-life scenarios.

The course will provide you with academic and technical skills to analyse, synthesise, interpret and make sense of modern electronic systems. It will enable you to meet the demands of tomorrow’s engineering society.

Why choose this course?

• Study in an electronic laboratory environment, gaining valuable hands-on experience as well as opportunities for industry connections including National Instruments, Rhode & Schwarz and Axis Electronics
• Explore topics including applied microwave and optical communications, systems engineering, embedded sensors, controllers and energy, advanced digital signal processing, microprocessor architecture and embedded hardware, advanced digital communications, wireless sensor networks, optical communications and other exciting emerging technologies such as energy harvesting
• Develop practical skills in laboratory sessions in which you will build and work with your own electronic devices
• Gain skills and insight into a fast-changing area on a course accredited by the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET), making you well-prepared to enter a demanding and exciting industry
• Benefit from developing expertise and understanding of professional standards to allow you to access careers like electronic systems design, as a development engineer, in software design, as an embedded systems engineer, a communications engineer, product support engineer, technical consultant or further study on an MSc by Research, MPhil or PhD

This course will further develop the knowledge and skills acquired during your undergraduate studies by enhancing your ability to understand the financial risk frameworks within a business and management context.

Along with the knowledge of financial markets, financial regulation and risk management required comprehending the operations and assessing the risks facing businesses, you will also further develop the necessary quantitative, research, and presentation skills required for a successful career.

Besides focusing on specific areas of financial markets, financial regulation and risk management, this course offers you a contextual understanding of the environment in which businesses operate and the place of financial risk management within a business.

There are six entry points through the year. This allows you to start at a time when it is most suitable for you.

In its structure this course recognises the importance of regulation in underpinning the world of financial reporting and its varied impact on published results and capital markets.

At the same time we realise that although knowledge of economic and finance is a necessary condition when trying to understand the world we live in, it needs to be applied in a concrete way in order to avoid consuming itself in analysing theoretical models.

Therefore, this course is structured in a way that uses risk management and financial theory as the driving force and at the same time it links its concepts with other pillars of knowledge through the holistic approach the global economic and financial environment require.

In this course you will acquire the skills and knowledge you will need to give your career in international social welfare and social development a global perspective.

Your studies will provide a broad level of understanding by exposing you to a variety of ways in which social welfare and development issues are approached in diverse contexts, including in the Global South.

Overall, the course focuses on social issues with an international dimension and includes topics such as human rights, social justice, human trafficking and humanitarian aid as well as on the intercultural competence and skills needed to work effectively in international contexts.

Why choose this course?

• Study, compare and evaluate different welfare regimes and indigenous responses to human need within a framework of equality and social justice
• Explore the ethical aspects of your subject including attention to power and anti-discriminatory practice
• Develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of the knowledge, theoretical and ethical underpinnings and approaches to international social work and social development in diverse global contexts
• Gain an in-depth knowledge and critical appreciation of research models and methods, and acquire a high level of skill in evaluating and undertaking research while working within a robust ethical framework
• Benefit from a programme that will give you the core skills, initiative and professionalism necessary to carry out direct work with clients in a range of settings, for example working for NGOs, governments, the UN or voluntary organisations.

This course offers global perspectives, theoretical foundations, ethics and practice skills equipping social welfare and social development professionals to respond effectively in diverse country contexts and make global-local connections. It aims to enable students to develop cultural competence and the ability to work effectively in different global contexts.

You will develop critical thinking, enquiry and analysis skills in response to human need encouraging reflectiveness, increasing self-awareness and questioning of models of practice. You will also develop team working skills as you will be exposed to multi-disciplinary and culturally diverse working, both through collaboration with other students and observing practice in community-based projects.

The course aims to equip students with the skills to carry out research and to understand the implications of research for practice. It also provides the opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge of a specialist subject of your own choosing.

The practice skills element of the course enables students to apply theory to practice and to develop the core skills, initiative and professionalism necessary to carry out social welfare work in a range of settings including through NGOs, government or voluntary organisations.

While teaching you all the essential skills you need to work creatively as an animator - including visual thinking, model-making, 3D design, digital illustration and time-based media – this wide-ranging course also gives you the confidence to respond to briefs, create independent projects and work collaboratively within the creative industries.

Our Animation BA (Hons) is based in narrative and storytelling for short-form film, the moving image industry and communication design. Students work on live briefs, submit for national competitions and work on projects with our expert academic team.

You learn your craft through practical workshop sessions, sustained practice in the studio, some work-related learning opportunities with ‘live briefs’, one-to-one tutorials, seminars, demonstrations and independent research. All your instruction takes into consideration professional and work-related practices.

In the first year, we introduce the key skills in animation, building a close relationship between practice and theory. In your second year, you work more independently, taking ownership of your creativity and its outcomes.

At the end of the course, you take on a creative project of your own, demonstrating your insight into the critical, cultural and professional contexts in which your work is placed.

Why choose this course?

• It enables you to study, develop and apply critical enquiry skills to a wide range of key ideas and contemporary professional practice
• Practical learning activities give you the opportunity to tackle visual problems and explore ideas relevant to animation
• It builds your understanding of animation’s different contexts, and its wider global impact on social, environmental and political issues
• It equips you with the knowledge, experience and understanding of design environments you need to communicate and present ideas and work to audiences in a range of situations
• It gives you the skills to work effectively with others, through collaboration, collective support and negotiation
• It offers insights into professional practice that will prepare you for a future career in the creative industries as well as the world of work generally
• You have the option to take your degree over four years and include a fee-free placement year in industry when you can gain practical experience, build your CV and make valuable contacts

The course follows a hands-on practical approach, where you will work on a number of games and related creative technology projects over the duration.

The creation and production of computer games has grown to become a huge industry. According to the Entertainment Researchers Association UK consumers spent over £4.2 million on games in 2020, far more than was spent on video (including streaming services) and more than double that spent on music. As a result, there is a growing need for talented individuals to fill technical and creative positions in the sector.

The course is part of the Creative Technologies cluster in the School of Computer Science and Technology and is closely related to the degree course BSc (Hons) Computer Animation and Visual Effects which shares some of the teaching and technology.

In addition to the £40 million STEM building, you will also have the chance to work in our specialist creative technologies and game development labs, and use a range of cutting edge technologies such as motion capture, green screen, VR and XR to develop your practice and build a professional portfolio.

In the first year, you will learn a variety of relevant techniques including, programming or 2d graphics for games and learn to research the market and generate ideas for original games – you will also be involved in making games from the start and will develop your game ideas into playable demos.

From the second year onwards, you’ll select an area of specialism from Games Programming, Games Design or Games Graphics

Why choose this course?

• Learn how computer game assets such as environments, character models and animation are created and integrated into code
• Study in passionate, dynamic groups as you get to grips with commercially relevant software tools such as 3ds Max and Visual Studio
• Develop your team working and project coordinating skills as you produce code and software
• Gain experience with motion capture rigs, facial scanners and 3D sculpting
• Explore the latest developments in mobile, tablet, web and social media gaming
• Challenge yourself by solving complex problems and presenting new game concepts and ideas
• Benefit from personal development planning which will help you research companies, discuss your future plans and apply for jobs

The MSc Mechanical Engineering is aligned to the University’s development of a new STEM building, and a developing relationship with The Welding Institute based in Cambridge. This course development will bring together postgraduate taught courses with a new exciting research centre development to offer a distinctive offer in which students will undertake field trips in a state-of-the-art engineering and business facility whilst benefiting from access to state-of-the-art facilities in our new STEM building in Luton.

Why choose this course?

• Study in Cambridge with an opportunity to work with cutting-edge business
• Explore the latest technologies and techniques for mechanical engineering
• Have the potential to complete a project on an industrially relevant topic