Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counselling

at University of Bolton United Kingdom

The University of Bolton’s MSc Social Care, Health and Wellbeing is designed to prepare future leaders for the health and social care sector. The social, cultural and political climate has an enormous impact on the lives of vulnerable people in our society, influencing the care they receive and the life chances they experience. This postgraduate course is designed to develop your awareness and understanding of these factors while cultivating your leadership, critical analysis and communication skills. We focus on supporting you to integrate these ideas with your knowledge of social care, health and wellbeing, helping you to achieve career success and champion the uniqueness of individuals, carers and their families.

The aim of this course is to extend your already considerable professional skills and knowledge with specialist modules that deepen your understanding of areas such as equality and diversity, integration and collaboration in health and social care, and the importance of engaging with service users. Our expert team will help you gain critical reflection, analysis and evaluation skills that support your ability to determine the impact of professional interventions in social care and health services.

Combining this knowledge with the principles and techniques of academic research and investigation will help develop your evidence-based practice, and grow your skills in evaluating options and formulating creative solutions to complex problems. Studying leadership and management styles, theories and frameworks will support you to become more actively involved in the planning, delivery and transformation of social care and health services.

Overall, our aim is to help you gain the professional and transferable skills to move forward in your career, improving the services you provide to individuals and their communities.

Highlights

• Our students are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds – sharing the individual and unique educational insights and perspectives of your peers helps to enrich your learning experience.
• We promote research and critical enquiry helping you learn to make sound, evidence-based independent judgements.
• We have an excellent record of working with NHS, social care and community-based services, enabling us to offer postgraduate programmes that are responsive to employer and service user needs.
• Modules on this programme combine concepts and knowledge from across the divisions of health, community and early years, fostering a dynamic multi-professional approach.
• On successful completion of this course you’ll be awarded an MSc Social Care, Health and Wellbeing from the University of Bolton.

Key Features

• Face-to-face sessions and one-to-one support is offered by our team of highly experienced, enthusiastic and dedicated experts.
• Staff and students from across our Faculty of Health and Wellbeing work closely together. By studying alongside people from related specialisms and sectors, such as youth, community and early years, you can benefit from a wider range of knowledge and experience that supports cross-disciplinary thinking and inter-professional working.
• Our academic team is actively involved in social care, health and wellbeing research, helping you to explore issues from a robust research-informed knowledge base.
• Specialists in the field of social care and health will be invited to join us as guest speakers and lecturers, offering you first-hand live examples of current practice.
• Our highly experienced team will support you as you develop critical thinking and research evaluation skills and apply these during your independent master’s-level project.

The BA (Hons) Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Professional Practice (Top-up) provides a valuable way to use your existing qualifications and knowledge to obtain a degree at the University of Bolton. You’ll have the chance to study a balanced combination of current educational policy and issues, and draw in relevant aspects of sociology, philosophy and psychology. It’s a great opportunity to explore in-depth some of the key current issues affecting education in the UK and abroad.

By thinking about how we learn, we’ll guide you in an exploration of how formal learning, alongside acquired knowledge, shapes our lives, interests and value structures. We’ll also encourage you to research and analyse a range of educational practices, reflecting on your own and others’ experiences of education. This will help you think critically about teaching, learning and assessing and how education is perceived and received.

Highlights

• This course offers you the opportunity to use your existing qualifications and knowledge to obtain a University degree by completing only one year’s extra study.
• Small class sizes mean more keenly focused attention on your learning needs and strategies for success.
• Our experienced professional and approachable tutors will guide and support you throughout your course, delivering online sessions and offering attentive one-to-one support.
• You’ll be studying at a University known for its supportive atmosphere, and get to study alongside students from a variety of backgrounds, each with an individual and unique perspective on education.

Key Features

• You’ll have the chance to take on a systematic and reflective study of education that’s illustrated and informed by the diversity of teaching and learning approaches in different sub-sectors of education.
• You’ll reflect on your current roles and responsibilities to build on the experience you’ve gained in educational settings and learn from the learning and teaching you’ve observed.
• Our teaching draws on your own experiences of learning as a starting point for understanding the formal educational process. You’ll be expected to contribute to research and discussion through critical reflection on your own education and by listening to the experiences of others.
• On successful completion of this course, you’ll be awarded the BA (Hons) Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Professional Practice from the University of Bolton.

At the University of Bolton’s School of the Arts we offer creative, student-focused courses that are valued by employers, and underpinned by the knowledge and industry experience of our high quality staff. We frequently update our programmes to ensure they keep up with new and emerging trends and provide you with the tools and techniques you will need to progress into your chosen area of employment.

Our Animation and Illustration degree offers commercial understanding, and gives you the opportunity to develop high level technical skills and knowledge. You’ll be encouraged to develop professional standards in the creative use of a wide range of illustration, animation, and digital software programmes. Building on an introduction to the basics of animation and illustration, the second half of the course offers you increasing levels of choice to specialise in either area, exploring digital and experimental means of image making.

You’ll be taught by a diverse team of highly experienced, professionally and academically qualified, staff. They have extensive experience in the animation and illustration industry and have worked for several broadcasting companies including the BBC and Granada Television.

Highlights

• Our Art courses are placed in the top ten in the UK for student-to-staff ratio by the Guardian University League Tables 2020, so you have access to individual tutor support and small group teaching.
• If you want to specialise in pursuit of a specific career destination, such as digital animation or children’s book illustration, you can do so.
• You’ll be encouraged to enter national and international competitions, including the Penguin Random House Design Award, Channel 4 E Stings and the Macmillan Prize for Illustration.
• We’ll invite you to participate in study visits to animation festivals, galleries, museums, exhibitions and conferences. In the past, these have included The Bradford Animation Festival, Thought Bubble, Alice in Wonderland at the Portico Library, Manchester Art Gallery and Tate Liverpool, and the Manchester Animation Festival.
• Students have also benefited from trips abroad and have visited, in previous years, Barcelona, Berlin, New York, Paris and Tokyo. There is also an opportunity for a limited number of exceptional graduates to exhibit at Design and Art Direction in London.

Key Features

• You’ll have access to industry-standard equipment in our five dedicated studio spaces equipped with Apple Mac computers and scanners. Much of the coursework involves the creative use of animation, illustration and graphics software.
• The course is broad-based and you’ll explore character design, story boarding and narrative techniques with traditional and digital animation and illustration for screen and print.
• There is a visiting speaker programme so you can benefit from discussions with industry professionals in the sector. We’ll also support you to develop transferrable skills for the work place such as problem solving, team working and interpersonal skills.
• You’ll be encouraged to create a portfolio of work and have the opportunity to present your work to the public as part of the Bolton School of the Arts final-year Creative Show.
• In addition to the taught modules, which are mostly simulated live briefs, there are opportunities to work on live projects for clients from inside and outside the University.

The global games industry continues to grow. Worth over $137 billion in 2018, this value is predicted to rise to over $180 billion by the end of 2021*. Games offers lucrative careers at the cutting-edge of technology and talented games programmers are always in demand in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Offering a broad education in games programming, design, development and technology, our Games Programming degree emphasises the technical aspects of game production. We aim for you to become a skilled programmer and you’ll use C++, the principal programming language in the games industry, at each stage of the course. We assume no prior knowledge of programming but a good knowledge of mathematics, especially algebra, will help you succeed on the course. We’ll guide and support you throughout your studies to help you master object orientated programming and design techniques and learn about advanced programming data structures and algorithms for game development.

Games and interactive applications are becoming more cinematic in look and feel so we teach maths and physics in a very practical way to help you learn to create 2D and 3D environments where behaviour and movement looks realistic. You’ll also have opportunities to gain experience of multi-platform programming and artificial intelligence techniques used in the development of efficient and robust games.

Highlights

• University of Bolton games graduates have been enjoying careers in the games industry for longer than most – we were one of the first UK universities to offer games courses.
• We’ll help and support you to develop a portfolio of work that demonstrates your skills in readiness to impress potential employers.
• Team working skills are essential so you’ll have opportunities to work with students from our Games Design and Games Art courses on projects that mimic the multi-disciplinary teams found in the industry.
• Our Game Jams are great opportunities to build your social network and practice your programming and problem solving skills.
• We collaborate with games development companies on beta testing, offering you the chance to test upcoming games before they go to market. Previously, students have even got their names mentioned in game credits.
• Industry experts from the leading games studios in the UK, along with Bolton graduates now successful in the sector, are regularly invited to give guest lectures on aspects of games development.

Key Features

• Teaching staff on the games courses have a vast range of industry experience and an extensive network of contacts in the games industry.
• The course covers both 2D and 3D game environments and game engines for traditional gaming (PC and console), mobile gaming (cloud, social and casual) and virtual reality gaming, along with game play analysis and hardware specification.
• We organise studio visits and field trips to games development companies, and will encourage and support you to undertake work experience and industrial placements.
• We design the course assignments and projects so that they mimic industry pipelines and standards to give you a real feel for a career in the games sector.
• Our dedicated games labs feature high-specification hardware and industry-standard software.

Whether you’re seeking to forge a career as a solicitor, barrister, costs lawyer, legal executive or conveyancer, or aspire to work in sectors such as business management, the civil service, politics, HR or finance, our LLB (Hons) Law is an excellent choice.

Our experienced team will guide you as you explore the sources of the law in England and Wales, how it is made and developed, the institutions within which that law is administered, and the personnel who practice law. You’ll study the law as it regulates the functions of the state, the relations between private individuals, and the ownership and control of land and other property. You’ll also be able to choose additional legal areas that are of interest to you or your career aspirations.

We’ll support you to develop the skills required to practice law; for example, you’ll be expected to take part in mooting debates (a mock legal hearing where points of law are argued) in our purpose-built courtroom. We’ll challenge you to develop sought-after critical reasoning, communication and advocacy skills, along with valuable transferable skills such as analytical thinking, practical problem-solving, presentation, negotiation skills and teamwork. Overall, our dedicated team are focused on helping you gain the skills employers value along with a deep and critical understanding of the law.

Highlights

• Your study will be based on the requirements defined by the Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) and the Legal Training Review (LETR), which represents the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives (CILEx) for the initial or academic stage of training to practise in the legal profession. The JASB is responsible for making sure that all Qualifying Law Degrees meet a nationally recognised standard. At Bolton, we are gratified that our law degree meets that high national standard.
• The University of Bolton’s Legal Advice Centre launched in September 2019, where law students are guaranteed a work placement (of at least one semester) and can put their acquired skills into practice by assisting members of the public with their legal enquiries.
• Few law schools have their own courtroom. Our state-of-the-art Moot Law Court gives you the opportunity to apply your academic and forensic skills to practical situations in front of your peers.
• We have our own dedicated Law library, as well as a specialised law librarian. Online legal database resources are available via Lexis Library and Westlaw and we use the virtual learning environment, Moodle, to create an interactive learning environment.
• We maintain strong partnerships with local law firms and other legal service providers, facilitating work shadowing opportunities and regular visits by guest speakers. We also run the prestigious annual Ryder Lecture series and are home to the Centre for Contemporary Coronial Law.

Key Features

• We offer a deep understanding of the fundamental legal principles, concepts, values, rules and techniques, establishing your knowledge and understanding of the doctrines and principles which underpin the law of England and Wales.
• Our research active academic law staff offer you access to expertise in a range of disciplines, including alternative dispute resolution, commercial, employment, European, family, healthcare, intellectual property, international and judicial reform.
• We’ll guide you in the use of research data, including primary sources such as legislation, EU law, case law, and secondary source materials such as government reports, white and green papers, and refereed journal articles.
• You’ll be encouraged to gain practical experience of presentation, argument and applying legal method skills as you take part in mock interviews, moot debates and negotiations.
• We recommend that you join the University of Bolton’s Student Law Society, which offers access to work placement opportunities, presentation skills development sessions and court trips.

Professional recognition

• Your study will be based on the requirements defined by the Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) and the Legal Training Review (LETR), which represents the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives (CILEx) for the initial or academic stage of training to practice in the legal profession.
• The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board have accredited the University of Bolton for the purposes of the solicitors’ and barristers’ academic stage requirements.
• The JASB is responsible for making sure that all Qualifying Law Degrees meet a nationally recognised standard. At Bolton, we are gratified that our law degree meets that high national standard.

In our ever-changing world, novel ideas can create new businesses, help them grow faster than ever and develop new industries overnight. We aim to prepare you to lead these changes. The University of Bolton’s MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation will build your knowledge in the three key areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and business development and help you gain the skills and self-confidence to showcase your worth. Our expert team will work to nurture your entrepreneurial mindset so you can realise your entrepreneurial potential.

Innovation for everyone
Entrepreneurship and innovation play vital roles in knowledge creation and exploitation to generate value and drive sustainable economic, social and organisational development. Organisations are increasingly seeking people with the ability to spot and take advantage of new opportunities so entrepreneurial and innovation skills are highly sought after. It doesn’t matter what your background or area of expertise is, this course is open to everyone with entrepreneurial drive and the desire to innovate.

Be the change
The need for professionals who can create and grow innovative companies and sustainable social enterprises has never been greater. We also want to prepare you to bring innovative insights into existing organisations so they can better respond to the complex challenges facing our society. Many business executives link the success of their businesses to innovation and as a result, put a lot of emphasis on it. Not only does it allow organisations to stay relevant in the competitive marketplace, but it also plays an important role in economic growth. Our MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation is designed to help you develop the high-level skills and critical competencies you’ll need to become a successful innovator and an entrepreneur who can build ethical and sustainable businesses.

Study in one of the most innovative regions in the UK
The North West of England was a powerhouse of the industrial revolution, and Greater Manchester remains at the heart of innovation in the UK today. MediaCityUK is an international hub for innovation, technology, and creativity and has been chosen as a base by over 250 media and digital businesses. Moreover, industry heavyweights like Google, Amazon, Freshfields, LLP, the BBC and Microsoft have opened offices in the Manchester area. Overall, the diverse industry base and the region’s growing population offer rich opportunities for those with innovative ideas coupled with the skills, knowledge and self-belief needed to build a new business from the ground up. As a graduate of this master’s degree, you’ll be well placed to thrive in this environment.

Supporting you to become the ‘complete package’
To succeed as an entrepreneur, you’ll need a combination of high-level business development expertise coupled with essential interpersonal and thinking skills, such as persuasion, negotiation, critical thinking, collaborative working and problem-solving. We draw expertise from across the University to ensure you gain the vital mix of hard and soft skills necessary for career success. In addition, our extensive links with regional and national employers offer opportunities for masterclasses, networking and individual industry-based projects. Overall, this course supports you to develop extensive knowledge of innovation and entrepreneurship, coupled with essential skills for business and leadership. Together these attributes will take your CV to the next level.

Would you prefer to complete your course over a longer time? We also offer this course with a duration of 18 months full-time or 24 months part-time. For full-time study, please visit our MSc Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Extended course search web page for details and to apply. Alternatively, for part-time study, please visit our MSc Entrepreneurship and Innovation course search web page.

Highlights

• Dr Selva Pankaj, the author of ‘Thinking into Character – A Proven Methodology for the Creation of Success & Self-Fulfilment’, is a valued partner of the University whose work will support you in the development of business and career planning, confidence and knowledge.
• We use small group and tutorial teaching, so you have the opportunity to benefit from the excellent and often personalised support offered by our teaching staff.
• Contemporary research findings are woven into our teaching and this is supplemented by colleagues from our enterprise lab who are on hand to offer practical support throughout the programme.
• Our industry?engaged staff have strong links with organisations across the range of public, commercial and industrial sectors, offering opportunities for industry masterclasses and lectures, joint projects, and networking.
• This MSc is part of the University of Bolton’s ‘Career Development Masters’ suite, offering shared modules that give you a wide business perspective. Inspired by the graduate training programmes of major companies, these modules will help you develop high-level employability and transferable skills and apply them in your career.

Key Features

• Course materials are available online, allowing you to prepare work at home and make the most of the highly interactive in-class tuition.
• Teaching and supervision are delivered by dedicated staff chosen for their expertise and experience in fields relevant to entrepreneurship, innovation and your professional development needs.
• We regularly invite guest speakers with varied and extensive experiences in industry and practice, enabling you to benefit from their knowledge and mentorship.
• You’ll benefit from opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and network building with students from our other Career Development Master’s degrees, including the Human Society, Data Analytics and Technologies, Professional Practice and Creative Industries courses.

There are over 2250 active games companies in the UK, with over 95 in the Manchester area alone*. Our Games Art degree was designed after consultation with industry experts from a number of these companies and aims to prepare you for a career creating interactive worlds and charismatic characters for the games industry.

Taking an intensely practical approach that is designed to mimic the working environment found in the games industry, we’ll work to develop your understanding of the creative and technical possibilities of games art. Our studio-based course will guide you from the basics of digital art, through character and environment modelling, texturing, lighting, level design and concept art, to the latest technologies in traditional and handheld game art.

We share your passion for games and offer a supportive atmosphere where you can show your work and respond to critiques, which may come from staff, your peers or guest experts from industry. These sessions help you learn to develop your ideas and improve your presentation and communication skills ready for a career in this ever-growing industry.

*Ukie, June 2018, UK Games Map - http://ukie.org.uk/research/ accessed on 22 August 2019

Highlights

• Interdisciplinary projects with students from our other games courses give you opportunities to learn the vocabulary, production pipelines and work cultures of these disciplines along with valuable team working skills.
• We collaborate with games development companies on games usability testing, and offer you the opportunity to test these upcoming games before they go to market. Previous students have even had their names mentioned in the game credits.
• Our dedicated games labs feature high-specification hardware and industry-standard software, including Wacom Cintiq drawing screens, Pixologic Zbrush, Autodesk Maya, and Substance Painter/Designer.
• Our Game Jams are great opportunities to build your social network and practice your team working, problem solving and project management skills.
• In our portfolio modules, you can focus your project on the area of games art in which you wish to specialise, giving you the chance to create a large portfolio piece for your showreel.
• During your final year, you’ll work with students from our other games courses to produce a complete game demo that will be available for industry employers to view at the end-of-year degree show.

Key Features

• University of Bolton games graduates have been enjoying careers in the games industry for longer than most – we were one of the first UK universities to offer games courses.
• Our dedicated games tutors have a vast range of industry experience and an extensive network of contacts in the games industry. Members of our team have worked in AAA studios, run their own studios, authored books and are actively conducting research.
• Team working and collaboration are essential for games industry success, so we encourage you to work on games projects in interdisciplinary teams with students from our other games courses.
• We organise studio visits and field trips to games development companies, and will encourage and support you to undertake work experience and industrial placements with relevant studios.
• Industry experts from the leading games studios in the UK, along with Bolton graduates now successful in the sector, are regularly invited to give guest lectures on aspects of games development.
• We’ll help and support you to develop a portfolio of work that demonstrates your skills in readiness to impress potential employers.

You are unique and we want to help you gain the skills and self-belief to showcase your worth and realise your potential. The University of Bolton's MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries: Extended course focuses on helping you learn to compete with confidence for your dream job or build your own successful business from the ground up. We’ll guide you as you gain a strategic blend of academic, analytical, creative and professional skills. As a graduate of this course, you’ll possess an impressive all-round combination of creative practice, commercial awareness and business-relevant knowledge. Overall, this course offers you the opportunity to develop projects in your specialist area of creative practice coupled with essential skills development for business and leadership that will take your CV to the next level.

Gain the skills and confidence to achieve your career ideals
The creative industries are highly competitive so we want to help you stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Throughout the programme, we’ll use tried and tested, research-informed coaching and training methods to support your development of key skills that are highly relevant to the creative industries. These will range from postgraduate-level skills in research, problem-solving, professional presentation and synthesis to interpersonal and business-relevant skills such as innovative thinking, collaboration, leadership and project management, the effective use of technology, public speaking and professionalism. Together, these will help you to develop your profile in your chosen creative industry and ensure your work reaches your desired audience.

Pursue your own creative practice
Our expert team will support you to develop your unique body of creative work, express your creative style and refine your practice. We’ll support you as you learn to design, plan and deliver projects that are as individual as you are. We’ll guide you as you set and achieve your own personal, academic and professional goals, helping you to develop and demonstrate an original and distinctive approach to your specialised creative area. We’ll work to stimulate your creative thinking and enhance your professional practice through a challenging programme of study which promotes critical self-awareness.

Strengthen your understanding of context
To use your knowledge to best effect, you need a sound understanding of context. To inform your creative practice, you’ll explore historical and contemporary concepts and theories relevant to the creative industries and artistic practice during this course. In addition, you’ll also need an in-depth understanding of the commercial and professional creative industries environment you wish to join. This course will help you identify the creative practice, employability and transferable skills you’ll need to gain entry to your chosen field and support you to develop those very skills.

Mastering your vision
You’ll have the opportunity to independently plan and deliver a professionally relevant project at master’s level. This is known as the Professional Dissertation and may take a variety of forms such as a large-scale technical or creative project that results in an online or physical exhibition, a live project working with industry or in the community, an event or a publication. For many students, this is the most exciting element of the course and the culmination of their studies. It will allow you to demonstrate the full range of your skills and knowledge and impress potential employers, clients or collaborators.

An ideal course for graduates and professionals of creative industries
This course should appeal to (but is not limited to) graduates and professionals in areas such as Animation, Art and Design, Creative Writing, Dance, Fashion, Fine Art, Games Art and Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Media, Performance, Photography, Special and Visual Effects, Textiles and Surface Design.

Would you prefer to complete your course over a different timeframe?
We also offer this course full-time over 12 months or part-time over 24 months. For details of the 12-month course, please visit our full-time MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries course search web page. Alternatively, to find out more and apply for the 24-month course, please visit our part-time MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries course search web page.

Highlights

• Dr Selva Pankaj, the author of ‘Thinking into Character – A Proven Methodology for the Creation of Success & Self-Fulfilment’, is a valued partner of the University whose work will support you in the development of business and career planning, confidence and knowledge.
• You may choose to focus on a single discipline or combine several areas of practice to follow an interdisciplinary route. When you successfully complete the master's, your degree title will be chosen to reflect the focus of your studies.
• Our industry?engaged staff are practising artists, writers and performers. You'll benefit from our strong industry links with a range of arts, cultural and creative organisations across Greater Manchester and the North West region, offering opportunities for industry masterclasses and lectures, joint projects, and networking.
• You'll be able to make use of industry-standard specialist facilities across the University of Bolton's Faculty of Engineering, Arts and Creative Technologies to develop high-quality creative outputs.
• This MA is part of the University of Bolton’s ‘Career Development Masters’ suite, which offers shared modules designed to give you a wider business perspective, including tax self-assessment, invoicing, intellectual property and risk assessments, as well as knowing how to start a business and to take advantage of opportunities for enterprise development.

Key Features

• Teaching and supervision are delivered by dedicated staff chosen for their expertise and experience in fields relevant to your creative practice and professional development needs.
• We offer an engaging programme of visiting speakers and practitioners that gives you opportunities to network with and learn from successful professionals working in the creative industries.
• We'll offer you opportunities for interdisciplinary work and collaboration, to take part in live projects and to showcase your work to the public and potential employers or clients.
• You'll benefit from our strong industry links with local and regional arts, culture and trade organisations, studios, galleries, games and film FX companies, publishers, manufacturers and companies specialising in creative art and design practice.
• Your final master’s degree title will reflect your specialist area(s) of practice (please note that the final award title will be selected in agreement with the University within the parameters specified in programme documentation). For example, if your specialist area of practice is Media Production, you could graduate with a degree called MA Media Production for Creative Industries.

Congratulations. You’re considering a career in the world’s most in-demand profession*. Concerned with the building and maintenance of software systems and other computer-based solutions, software engineering is a truly global activity. By examining all elements of the process – from initial understanding of the problem to be solved, through analysis, design, and development, to testing, documentation and maintenance – this degree offers you a focused education in software engineering, ready to impress potential employers.

Our dedicated staff team offers a balance of academic rigour, industrial experience and advanced technical expertise. We will support you to explore the underlying principles of software engineering, while helping you gain knowledge and practical experience of the latest technologies. You will be encouraged to appreciate both the technical and human aspects involved in areas such as the lifecycle of software systems, software design, systems analysis, programming, database specification and design, and system security.

In addition to technical knowledge and expertise, you will have opportunities to gain experience in team working, communication and presentation, problem solving and time management. Our focus is on helping you develop industry-relevant knowledge and skills, so that you are well prepared for a career in software engineering.

Highlights

• Our dedicated staff team have a wide range of professional experience, industry knowledge, technical expertise and academic credentials, offering you a variety of perspectives and broadening your horizons.
• We prefer to keep lecture and practical classes relatively small, so that you have plenty of opportunities to us ask questions and get help, as well as benefit from the ideas and support offered by your classmates.
• We have well-established links with the software engineering industry, and continually monitor and update the course to make sure the content is industry-relevant and introduces you to the latest thinking and innovations.
• We are committed to helping you develop your employability and career network. You will be encouraged to attend guest lectures that enhance your learning, help you make contacts in the industry and contribute to your professional development.
• By designing the course assignments and projects so that they mimic industry pipelines and standards, we aim to give you a real feel for a career in software engineering.

Key Features

• We offer a warm and friendly environment for your studies, with relatively small class sizes, purpose-built teaching facilities, and excellent student support and library services.
• We want to work with you as an individual, giving you access to the help and support you need to succeed.
• Our dedicated IT suites feature high-specification hardware and industry-standard software.
• Many of our computing facilities can be accessed across the internet, allowing you to work on your assignments whenever and wherever you choose.
• We will help and support you to develop a portfolio of work that demonstrates your skills in readiness to impress potential employers.

Our BA (Hons) Creative Writing degree explores ‘how to put the best possible words in the best possible order’. Your imagination is boundless and we’ll help you to focus and control your ideas to give them shape, energy and structure. Our dedicated team of professional writers and lecturers will guide you on a journey through the worlds of prose, poetry and drama, and contemporary creative practice.

We’ll nurture and support you in exploring the rich, expressive potential of the English language and your development of the crafts of writing. Alongside this, we’ll examine, from a writer’s point of view, a wide range of creative work in various forms. Small group teaching and one-to-one support are central to our approach, allowing our expert team to offer personalised guidance that’s tailored specifically for you.

You’ll have opportunities to refine and develop your skills at every stage, from initial concept, through planning, background research and first drafts, to editing, re-writing and self-critique. The final year combines the creative, the critical and the practical. You’ll write a significant piece of creative work: a calling card script, collection of poetry or an extended piece of fiction; you’ll research and analyse a chosen area of creative practice; and you’ll undertake a work placement in an area associated with your individual career goals. Throughout the course, you’ll gain confidence, skills and knowledge, preparing you for a successful career in a multitude of industries.

Highlights

• The Guardian University Guide 2020 ranks the University of Bolton as second in the UK for the study of English and Creative Writing.
• Also, our Creative Writing courses are top in the North West and second in the UK for student satisfaction according to The Complete University Guide 2020.
• Our dedicated lecturers are active professional writers and researchers whose work continues to be published, or produced on stage, screen or radio. They bring this wealth of expertise and practical knowledge to their teaching.
• We have excellent industry contacts and strong links with external creative organisations such as publishers, production companies, theatres, libraries, art galleries, schools, funding bodies and arts development agencies that allow us to offer work experience placements in a wide variety of settings.
• In particular, our partnership with the nationally acclaimed Octagon Theatre, Bolton means you have opportunities for privileged access to rehearsals, dress rehearsals, professional actors and directors, and discounted tickets for productions.
• In your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to enter the Octagon Student Prize. Awarded annually for outstanding achievement in writing drama, the winning piece is given a professional presentation with practitioners.
• We’ll encourage you to submit your work to our ISSN recognised literary magazine ‘The Bolton Review’, and to our annual poetry competition.
• The annual New Writing Showcase offers you a chance to perform your work at the Bolton Octagon Studio or similar venue.
• As a Creative Writing student, you'll be eligible to enter work for the Carcanet Poetry Prize and for the And Other Stories Fiction Prize.

Key Features

• All our lecturers are professional writers and researchers who’ve produced and continue to publish poetry, prose, plays and papers with national and international periodicals and imprints.
• Experimentation is encouraged and you’ll be introduced to many different types of writing, from creative to critical, to help you develop your voice and gain awareness of the enormous variety of careers that creative writing skills support.
• We offer a friendly and supportive intellectual community. You’ll be encouraged to get to know your peers from other subjects such as English, Theatre and Media, Writing and Production, with whom you’ll be participating in a variety of external creative events and/or collaborative projects.
• There’ll be guest lectures from professionals from all aspects of the writing industry: producers, scriptwriters, poets, novelists, agents, publishers, promoters, and directors. Names you may recognise such as Sally Wainwright, Patrick Ness and Jenn Ashworth have given presentations in recent years.
• ‘Live Literature’ is our well-established, vibrant series of readings from published poets, fiction writers and playwrights, held in conjunction with Bolton Library and Museum Services.
• We’ll work to help you develop a range of skills alongside your writing that are highly valued by employers, such as creative thinking, problem-solving, communication, team working, time management, research and critical analysis, IT, cultural awareness and lifelong learning.

Professional recognition

• The University of Bolton is linked via creative partnerships with Bolton’s own Octagon Theatre and Carcanet, a leading and prize-winning poetry publisher based in Manchester. The university is currently fostering links with South Yorkshire’s leading literary development organisation, The Poetry Business.
• Writers and lecturers who teach on the course have established links with a variety of media and organisations, including The Guardian, The Poetry Society, NAWE, The British Council and Arts Council England.