Master of Science in Strategic Marketing and Customer Experience Management

at University of Buckingham United Kingdom

International relations impact our everyday lives; through war and terrorism, climate change, migration and the clash of great powers, such as China and the United States. At Buckingham we provide students with the methods for understanding international relations and the tools for resolving global challenges and conflicts. You will study key concepts and theories and then apply these to countries and regions of the world, such as Latin America, China, the Middle East and Europe.

Central to the Buckingham experience is small group teaching and a problem-centred approach. Lectures themselves are interactive, with classes normally no larger than 50 students and tutorials – which the forum for group discussion – typically having eight students. Lectures and tutorials are taken by regular staff, who are experts in their field, and not by graduate teaching assistants. And academics have an open door policy, so if you have problems or simply want to discuss further what has been presented in class you are welcome to do so. This is why Buckingham ranks so high in student satisfaction.

Buckingham is also strongly committed to free speech, as evidenced by its consistent awarding by Spiked magazine of “green” (“has not restricted or regulated speech”).

Flexible Honours
Make your degree as unique as you! If you choose International Relations (Flexible Honours) you’ll have the freedom to tailor your International Relations 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 International Relations. At every stage, your Personal Tutor will be on hand to advise and guide your choices.

The BSc Biomedical Sciences is a unique 2-year programme taught on the Crewe campus awarding graduates of this course a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences degree.

Biomedical science focuses on how cells, organs and metabolic systems function in the human body. Through this understanding of health and disease processes, new treatments and therapies can be created or developed, which makes it a very dynamic and exciting field of study.

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.

The BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (3-year degree) combines the three important subjects of Philosophy, Politics and Economics. What makes it different to PPE offered in other universities is its integrated character, with a special focus on explaining how human behaviour shapes economic and political institutions.

In the Philosophy strand, you will take an Introduction to Philosophy module and study the Philosophy of Mind. In addition, there will be more specialised modules in political theory: Introduction to Political Theory; Freedom; Evolution and Human Cooperation. And students will receive a grounding in the Philosophy of Social Science.

The Politics element of the degree focuses on area and country studies, with a particular emphasis on political order and security challenges. Those challenges vary from region to region but typically take the form of political violence (war, terrorism and organised crime), mass migration and economic instability. Students are encouraged to approach these problems from a number of disciplinary perspectives. For example, the study of Latin America would consider the historical, cultural and economic determinants of the region’s politics.

The Economics element of the PPE programme covers the core areas of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. But in addition, there is an emphasis on the interaction between Economics and Politics. Students also receive a strong grounding in mathematics and quantitative methods.

Another distinctive feature of the degree is that two modules – in Politics and Philosophy – will be based on a series of lectures by prominent academics and public figures. These are taught in London (travel and other expenses will be covered in the fees).

LLB Law with Business Management (2-year + one term degree – September entry) combines the study of law with that of business to develop knowledge and skills that will boost your legal career. The Business Management component contextualises your legal knowledge within a business framework and reinforces that legal knowledge, for example deepening understanding of company law and commercial law. However, if you are not interested in qualification as a lawyer, it provides an excellent foundation for careers in banking, the civil service and management.

Law with Business Management also satisfies the necessary first step for qualifying as a lawyer in various common law jurisdictions, including Canada, Nigeria, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.

For those interested in qualifying as a solicitor in the UK, Law with Business Management provides you with thorough preparation for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam 1 (SQE1), enabling you to choose the accelerated SQE1 preparation courses after graduation. Our innovative and diverse law curriculum also contributes to preparation for the practice-orientated SQE2, both SQE1 and SQE2 being necessary for qualification as a solicitor.

For those UK and international students wishing to qualify as an English barrister, Law with Business Management also satisfies the academic component of Bar training,  the necessary first step to qualifying as an English barrister.

Buckingham Law School also offers a broad range of extra-curricular opportunities to develop your professional skills and experience of legal practice. These opportunities include the possibility, between the first and second year of your LLB, of a sandwich year placement with a professional organisation.

We often accommodate the particular requirements needed to practise in various common law jurisdictions other than the UK. If you are an international student from one of these jurisdictions, we are happy to discuss what subjects you must take to qualify.

The Business Management component of the degree develops skills in solving business problems that are transferable, organisationally and internationally, across business environments. We teach business and management as live subjects, incorporating practical and real-life projects to enhance learning and produce graduates equipped to meet the needs of commerce and industry. This approach is often highly participatory and may involve visits to selected companies to complement classroom activities.

Our LLB with Business Management graduates who gain a second-class honours degree, or higher, are guaranteed a place on our LLM programme in International and Commercial Law. This opportunity greatly enhances specialist knowledge and enables our students to acquire two degrees in only three years.

BA History is one of the five most popular subjects among UK university students, and with good reason. Having a historical perspective enables people to make sense of today’s rapidly changing world. Employers like it because history teaches you to think for yourself, to work under pressure, and to construct a coherent argument from the evidence. Historical research has never been more exciting than it is today, with the internet making available so many treasures from the archives.

This BA History programme has been carefully designed and fine-tuned by Buckingham’s team of experienced and high-calibre historians. It offers an outline and conceptual modules which concentrate on the period from 1800 to the present day – though we do study some earlier periods too from the 1500s onwards too.  It covers, in particular, empires, the rise in political polarisation, World Wars and the shaping of our modern political systems, whilst considering the relationship between ideology and the historical process.

Students progress to study the history of history and to reflect on historical method. In the last part of the course, we study historical documents and texts and develop research and writing skills through a long essay and a dissertation. So the programme not only teaches history; it also teaches you to think historically and to research and write history.

History Flexible (BA) Honours option
Make your degree as unique as you! If you choose BA History (Flexible Honours) you’ll have the freedom to tailor your History 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 History. 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.

The MA in Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy degree combines elements from our existing Security and Intelligence MA and our Diplomacy programmes. Like all of our MA programmes, a diplomacy degree aims to help to prepare graduates for careers in foreign and other ministries, international organisations, international journalism and global civil society organisations or for further research. Areas of study include intelligence and international security since 1939; intelligence, tradecraft and machinery; case studies in intelligence success and failure; international law and diplomacy; foreign policy analysis; global diplomacy; security challenges and other global issues. The modules are taught intensively in lectures, seminars and small group tutorials; they assume little prior knowledge but rapidly bring students to an advanced level of understanding. Buckingham is a small academic community and students have personal and frequent access to their instructors. The programme is also suitable for those without a specific career aim in mind but who wish to acquire an advanced understanding of these subjects.

The BSc Psychology with Spanish first-year covers two Psychology modules per term and the third module from another department (for breadth). In the second year, it concentrates on Psychology alone, studying the same modules as the Psychology major students, together with several new more specialised modules.

This popular and exciting degree programme offers an excellent basis for anyone wishing to go into a psychology-related career.

A foreign language is always an excellent skill to have, and the BSc Psychology with Spanish is great study option for anyone interested in psychology who wants the opportunity of learning another language to a high level.

BA International Studies allows you to study the world  from different perspectives: political, economic, historical and legal. It enables you to understand the interconnectedness of everything. A graduate in International Studies will have a sophisticated grasp of our shared world and the flexibility to find solutions. This is an asset prized by major employers.

A key feature of the global economy is the rapid adoption of new technology. Technology has proved to be an agent which encourages cooperation across national boundaries. Technological developments in transport, telecommunications and computing have encouraged economic changes such as the decline in barriers to trade, the internationalisation of financial markets, the rise of global companies, and a massive increase in the volume of international trade in goods and services. These trends have been accompanied by political developments such as the rise of regional trading groupings of countries, international efforts to agree about common legal and technical rules to govern business dealings, arguments about ‘tax competition’ between countries, as well as increasing concern about the environmental consequences associated with world economic development. Enormous social tensions arise as these international forces come into conflict with long-established ways of doing things in every country. Political and social systems are in a continuous process of adjustment to an increasingly open world.

The BA International Studies course at Buckingham gives you an opportunity to learn about these fundamental problems. With students coming to Buckingham from over 80 countries, it is an ideal environment to learn about matters of international concern and to discuss them with people from differing cultural backgrounds.