Bachelor of Arts in International Studies - (Accelerated)

at University of Buckingham United Kingdom

The degree provides a firm grounding in diplomatic theory and practice. It covers the history and operation of diplomacy; the causes of conflict and strategies for conflict resolution; the nature and operation of international organisations, including the United Nations and its agencies; the development and global role of supranational organisations, especially the European Union (with an emphasis on its external policies); global political communication, including the media and new forms of communication; the practice of great power politics. It is taught from the Centre for United Nations Studies.

The Director of the of the Centre for UN Studies is Mark Seddon – a former Senior Communications Adviser to the President of the UN General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and former speechwriter to UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-moon former & Director of Communications, UN Special Envoy, Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown. He is also a former UN Correspondent for al Jazeera English TV. The Deputy Director is Dr. Paul Graham – Previously taught at Glasgow University and has published work on John Rawls (Rawls, Oneworld Publications, 2016) and an important textbook – (with John Hoffman), Introduction to Political Theory (Routledge, 2015). He has an interest in questions of global justice and conflict resolution.

The Centre’s Deputy Director is Dr. Paul Graham. Paul previously taught at Glasgow University and has published work on John Rawls (Rawls, Oneworld Publications, 2016) as well as “Introduction to Political Theory” (with John Hoffman) (Routledge, 2015). He has an interest in questions of global justice and conflict resolution.

You will encounter the canon of great authors, from Shakespeare onwards, but you also study themes like Film, Gender, and Empire. In other words, the degree combines traditional and contemporary aspects of the subject. Buckingham’s unique tutorial system makes for highly personalized teaching. If you’d like to try out a tutorial, come along to one of our free taster sessions.

What is Buckingham English?

• It is an encounter with the complexity and beauty of great literature
• It aids you on your journey to becoming a professional-level writer, able to write fluently and well in any context
• Like philosophy, it teaches you to argue and debate your ideas
• As a central liberal arts subject, it is a clear space to address the big questions of meaning and existence

We don’t think that formal essays are always the best way of assessing how students understand a subject, so you will find that you have opportunities to write a book review, reportage, poems and short stories, even part of a screenplay. You will learn a number of skills, not least how to write fluently and persuasively. As a result, our graduates go on into a range of careers in media, teaching, publishing, academia, business, and marketing.

Single or Flexible Honours
Make your degree as unique as you! If you choose English Literature (Single or Flexible Honours) you’ll have the freedom to tailor your English Literature degree to reflect your interests and passions by combining it with a wide range of other subjects taught here at the University. This means that when you graduate you will have a highly personalised degree that will suit you and your aspirations perfectly.

If you choose Flexible Honours you have the freedom to select up to a third of your modules from the whole range of what is taught at the University. This means you can mix and match lots of different subjects ?with English Literature or focus solely on English Literature. At every stage, your Personal Tutor will be on hand to advise and guide your choices.

BSc Psychology with Business Management looks many important aspects of business, such as human resource management, ergonomics and aptitude testing. Indeed all psychology students take a course called Business Psychology, which all business students also study. This combination is an excellent choice for anyone wanting to go into business or industry.

BSc Psychology with English Literature looks at the discoveries and hypotheses of psychologists who over the last 100 years have been enriching the study of English literature, either as a way of understanding the mind of the artist or of the characters they create. Studying BSc Psychology with English Literature at Buckingham as with English Literature as your minor subject, gives you the chance to ‘apply’ the insights which the scientific study of individual and group psychology provides to a range of powerful and enigmatic works of literature, from the plays of Shakespeare, through the Gothic and Romantic projections of the late 18th-century, to the short stories and novels of British and American women writers writing in a post-Freudian universe.

Both subjects require the close analysis of texts (spoken, written, uttered) and the discipline of clear report and essay-writing. Their combination in this programme gives you the imaginative scope of an arts programme with the vocation and professionalism of a Bachelor of Science degree.

This strategic marketing MSc will be invaluable to anyone wishing to pursue a career in marketing (e.g. marketing management, brand management, customer experience and customer service management).

In today’s global, digital world, effective strategic marketing puts the customer and their needs at the centre of decision-making, and a clear focus on customer experience is a critical part of this.  An understanding of this need for customer-centricity is at the core of our MSc in Strategic Marketing & Customer Experience Management.

This leading-edge programme is designed to be totally relevant to today’s organisations, exposing you to managerially relevant theory and practice, which will be of value in real-world business contexts.  The programme will provide you with the knowledge, understanding and skills required to help firms address the marketing challenges that lie at the heart of their business.

This programme provides an in-depth understanding of how firms can develop compelling value propositions, within the context of the strategic marketing planning process, and then how to deliver these value propositions across the customer journey, creating a positive customer experience.

In addition, the programme will enable you to examine the concept of service from many perspectives, by exploring service systems as well as service leadership, along with the critically important area of managing employees in a service-focused culture.

The programme also provides an understanding of consumer behaviour and digital and social media marketing – essential knowledge in this complex, digital world where consumers increasingly expect a seamless omnichannel experience throughout their customer journeys.

Additionally, a practical research methods module will set you up to embark on a dissertation, which will give you the opportunity to ‘deep dive’ into an aspect of the programme which is particularly inspiring.

The University of Buckingham’s Master’s programme in Country House Studies offers the opportunity to pursue research at Master’s level in any one of a wide range of country-house-related topics: from explorations of individual houses and their architects and decorators, to studies of their social and political use, and the role of the country house in literature and film.

Individual research topics are closely focused; but the approach of the course is to encourage students to investigate the interconnections between the country house’s multiple facets and roles, rather than to examine it in exclusively architectural-historical terms. Recent dissertations have surveyed, for example, the Baroque mural in country house decoration; the use of music in the country houses during the 1650s; and the professionalisation of the sale of country estates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The choice of subject area is ultimately the student’s own.

The MA is awarded solely on the basis of the dissertation (there are no ‘exams’), and the relationship between you and your supervisor is therefore at the heart of the course. The maximum length for the MA dissertation recommended by the School of Humanities is 25,000 words (or approximately 75 pages at line-spacing of 1.5), excluding notes and references. Student and supervisor meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to discuss, plan, and review the dissertation as it develops through the year.

BSc Psychology with French gives you the skill of another language which is a great advantage to have excellent. The BSc Psychology with French course is a great option  for anyone interested in psychology who wants the opportunity of learning the french language to a high level. See our course Psychology pages for further information on what the Psychology part of the degree will cover.

Our BSc Psychology degree is designed to give you a head start in your career as a psychologist or in people-centred employment; covering all the core content you would expect from a British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited degree, in addition to exciting optional modules in the second year.

By choosing to study BSc Psychology at the University of Buckingham, you’ll benefit from a committed team of lecturers who genuinely care about the people they teach. Students will learn through Buckingham’s unique tutorials, which are in addition to lectures and seminars. These sessions ensure that you are not just a face in the crowd, your tutors will get to know who you are and encourage you to engage in debates and discussions. During tutorials you will develop your knowledge about psychology and regularly practice skills that are important for employability. If you’d like to try out a tutorial, come along to one of our free taster sessions.

As a student, you will learn core theory and have the opportunity to study the eight areas of practitioner psychology, enabling you to make an informed choice on your future career as a psychologist. In addition, we have modules in distinct areas of study such as creativity and cyberpsychology. As one of the only two-year BPS accredited BSc Psychology degrees in the UK, you’ll be able to fast track your career within this popular field, or opt to consolidate your learning through postgraduate study once you have graduated.

This programme is accredited as conferring eligibility for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the BPS (British Psychological Society), provided the minimum standard of a Second Class Honours is achieved.

The University of Buckingham’s one-year MA by research in the History of Art: Renaissance to Modernism gives an overview of the development of Western art and its leading artists and movements and offers students the chance to study in depth an approved topic of their choosing. A supervisor will oversee each stage of the research, whether that be into such subjects as Renaissance portraits, aspects of the Baroque, Impressionist techniques or postwar British art, offering not just art historical guidance but information about research techniques and dissertation structure. The aim is to produce a 25,000-word dissertation that sheds new light on the topic.

This groundbreaking programme is London-based and directed by the art historian Michael Prodger. The course will be supplemented by a series of ten guest seminars presented by an internationally distinguished group of art historians, artists and gallerists.

The guest speaker seminars will be held at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE.

Each seminar (approximately 70 minutes, beginning at 18:30) is followed by a post-seminar dinner, for those who wish to attend, where there will be an opportunity to continue the seminar discussion in an informal environment. The cost of the post-seminar dinners is included in the tuition fees.

This postgraduate research degree is offered by the Centre for Research into Expertise Acquisition, Training and Excellence (CREATE) hub at the University of Buckingham. The main focus of this centre is the exploration of the drivers of excellence in performance (whether cognitive, creative or practice-based). We are engaged in a number of external collaborative projects in the areas of creativity and performance, and also work with internal colleagues in the School of Computing and the Medical School. Key topic areas we explore include:

• Insight and creativity
• The drivers of performance excellence and expertise development (e.g. in music, theatre, puzzle-solving, board-games and medicine)
• Hobbies, motivations and characteristics of niche populations
• Psychology of music, choreography and dance
• Time perception and those with ‘natural’ time-keeping abilities

This programme leads to the award of an MSc (Research) in the area of the Psychology of Creativity and Performance Expertise. In addition to completing a 25,000 word thesis within a topic area relevant to the hub, you will gain wide knowledge of the broader field through guided self-study topic areas and research skills workshops. This will mean that you develop an in-depth knowledge of the psychology of creativity and performance expertise, which is informed by current issues and advanced research.

As a result of your studies, you will develop a strong knowledge base and core transferable skills which will enable you to become an independent researcher in your field, and will provide you with a solid foundation for further study and/or employment.