Master of Science in Molecular Biotechnology

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

Our Creative Writing course explores and develops your creative writing practice. We offer a stimulating and supportive place in which to explore your ideas, hone your craft and understand a wide variety of texts. Our creative writing modules are taught by lecturers who are themselves award-winning practitioners and who bridge the gap between creative and academic approaches to writing. They include:

• Poetry lecturer Dr Wayne Holloway-Smith, winner of the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and Seamus Heaney Prize nominee.
• Fiction and Non Fiction writer, Dr Lorna Gibb, author of five books, winner of the Granta Memoir prize and shortlisted for the Sperber Biography prize in the US.
• Dramatists Simon Vinnicombe and Drew Pautz, with writing credits that include the whole gamut of scriptwriting, from work in current production as feature films to Eastenders to the Old Vic and Royal Court. They have international reputations with performances, in original and translated versions, in Canada, Europe and the United States.
• Fiction and non-fiction writer, Helen Gordon, a former editor of Granta, with two acclaimed books and numerous short publications.

Over the three years you can choose specialist creative writing modules in poetry, creative non-fiction, drama, short story writing and prose fiction. As well as fostering your own creative writing skill, you will study a huge range of different texts, both literary and commercial, to gain understanding of what makes a piece successful as well as have an overview of the industry marketplace.

Recent successes for our students include short stories published in Bandit and AnotherLenz magazines and poetry published in Rising and international magazine Poetry London.

In your first year, an underpinning core module, Becoming a Writer, will introduce you to genres and forms and examine the universalities of dialogue, plot and language. A second core module, Identity and Contemporary Writing, presents some of the most exciting new writing as a model for your own work, while optional modules enable you to specialise in writing for the screen, develop your critical skills with texts in different genres, or explore twentieth century culture and society.

Other core modules will develop your writing practice in creative non-fiction, short stories, poetry and writing for the stage, while a range of options will allow you to choose between literary analysis, 20th century English literature or writing a historical documentary.

For your final year, your particular creative interest can be channelled into a long piece of writing, which can be poetry, prose or drama. This work will be discussed and reviewed in tailored workshops that will allow you to both explore and develop your own voice. The third year also offers a wide range of core and option modules that look at different fiction genres, including fantasy, crime, horror and romance, as well as writing serial drama, late Victorian literature, and exploring the lives of women from a historical perspective.

Top reasons to study Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire:

• The opportunity to develop and explore your writing skill in an encouraging and supportive environment.
• A brilliant team of lecturers who are all recently published writers in their own field and can use their industry experience, as well as their academic skill and knowledge, to nurture your talent.
• A flexible course of study with a wide range of options to choose from, allowing you to focus on the topics that interest you most.
• Careers development helping you to understand the practicalities of how to get published.
• The chance to study at a University with a Gold Rating for Teaching.
• A dedicated (and free!) writing academy before the academic year starts to help with the return to learning, if you have been away from education.

Agriculture faces many challenges, not least coping with the rising demand for food, biofuel and other products by an increasing population combined with the demands for a more sustainable industry. Food security is key and requires the reconciliation of efficient production of food with reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.

The MSc Environmental Management for Agriculture course examines agriculture activities and their potential to impact both positively and negatively on the environment. It explains how environmental management systems, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment and environmental impact assessment can be used in the farm situation.

This course aims to use environmental management to deliver sustainable agricultural management. Students will gain a holistic understanding and the interdisciplinary training to identify on-farm environmental risks and the knowledge and skills needed to develop answers.

The specialist core modules have been designed to ensure understanding of the issues, where the science is balanced with the practical demands of the farm/producer/grower. You will develop the expertise required for a career in research, development, policy, or within the advisory sector relating to sustainability in farming systems, the food supply chain, environmental management and rural development, or to apply their skills in agriculture. 

The structure of the MSc Environmental Management for Agriculture course is based on five core modules, a research methods module and a supervised research project related to the field of agriculture, and a choice of 3 optional modules. Students will begin their studies, for both full-time and part time students, with a core module in Sustainability and Environmental Systems.

This course is accredited by IEMA, a professional body for people working in environment and sustainability. This course entitles students to FREE student membership for the duration of the course and on successful completion you qualify for GradIEMA. Graduate membership is a launch-pad for future leaders within environment and sustainability and offers a range of benefits to support you throughout your career. You can then ‘fast track’ to Practitioner Membership (PIEMA) following successful completion of the work-based assessment of competence.

The course has also been accredited by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) which means that whilst students are enrolled on the programme they are eligible for complementary student membership with that institution. Upon graduation, students will be eligible to apply for graduate membership.

A degree in English Literature and Media will help you grow from passionate reader into a critical thinker and literary scholar, while learning how to apply similar skills of analysis to other representations of the world, through cinema, television, magazines, the internet, and the ways in which people communicate with each other.

On a degree in English Literature and Media, we’ll introduce you to writers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from your own, and also help you explore more familiar literature in ways that challenge your preconceptions. This means you’ll study literature written in English by writers from all parts of the globe, whose voices are relevant and important in our modern world. We’ll also develop your critical awareness of the media, sharpen your practical skills and get your career off to a flying start. In a fast-paced, multifaceted media world, people with the ability to write, design and harness new technologies are in high demand.

You’ll be taught by academic staff who bring fresh thinking to our accessible, engaging courses. Some are active researchers of international standing who bring their own passion for their discipline into the classroom; others are dynamic teachers with extensive industry experience.

Whatever your taste in literature, there will be something to interest and provoke you. From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Jane Eyre, from Paradise Lost to Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, we’ll broaden your literary horizons and hone your critical thinking.

A core Literature module in your first year will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. Alongside this you can choose to revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations; or to deepen your understanding of Gothic writing by tracing its origins back to the Romantic era.

In your second year you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the twentieth century. You’ll also have the opportunity to consider ways of reading that go beyond textual analysis or historical context, such as understanding literature through the political or ideological lens of Marxism, feminism and post-colonial theory.

You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your literary study to reflect your own interests. Themed options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, Renaissance tragedy, European crime fiction, literary adaptations and the culture of print in the 18th century.

Your study of English Literature will enhance your ability to analyse and synthesise complex ideas, and to express yourself clearly in both written and spoken English. These skills will be hugely beneficial to your study of Media, especially when coupled with practical skills which help to prepare you for your future career. Design your own app proposal, create a hard-hitting ad campaign, build a brilliant website and craft an inspiring feature article -- all supported by our industry- experienced team. Working across different platforms and for different audiences, you’ll develop a packed portfolio that will demonstrate your skills, adaptability and ambition.

But you’ll need more than practical know-how to get published. So, we’ll develop your understanding of the global media industry, its influence on society, the legal and ethical contexts of your work and the impact of emerging technologies.

This course gives you the latest skills needed to work in the cutting-edge field of sports therapy. You’ll learn how to assess injuries, apply treatments (such as sports massage, electrotherapy and joint mobilisation), learn pitch-side injury management and design injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes.

You’ll also study the underpinning theory of practice: anatomy, clinical biomechanics, exercise physiology, sports nutrition and psychology. Our students enjoy access to specialist labs and high-tech facilities, such as our dedicated sports injury clinic, and take valuable clinical placements in a diverse range of sport and exercise environments.

• The degree in Sports Therapy is an ideal course for those who wish to train in the prevention, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of sporting injuries.
• We offer a sandwich year enabling you to go on a full year placement to gain invaluable clinical experience with professional sports teams, either within the UK or overseas.
• We have specialist labs for: Physiology, Biomechanics and Sports Therapy. You can also make use of the University’s Hertfordshire Sports Village at the de Havilland campus. 

Additional opportunities include

• Visits to observe human dissections,
• Massaging at events such as the London Marathon
• Presenting research at national conferences.
• First aid cover at events such as the Women’s Rugby World Cup and Various sports events
• Pre-season testing with Saracens and Northampton Saints
• Sandwich Year and Work Placement opportunities
• Specialist paramedic input onto sports trauma modules
• Personal tutor scheme
• HSE First Aid at Work
• Level 2 Certificate in Gym Instructing
• Opportunities to support research

This course is ideal if you have an interest in technology and software development and how they can be applied to benefit individuals and organisations.
Core topics include foundations of computation, programming, multimedia, networks, databases, operating systems, software engineering and professional issues. In addition, you’ll choose from a wide range of specialist modules to tailor your degree to your interests. As well as gaining an understanding of the wider context in which systems operate, you’ll develop your communication and team-working skills. Thanks to the nature of this degree, you’ll develop the broad skills many employers are looking for while keeping your career options open.

You will be taught the fundamental principles of the subject, which will be illustrated with current real-world technologies and applications wherever possible.

This course explores the digital domain, including multimedia platforms, mobile devices, and augmented and virtual realities, and establishes a rich, hybrid area of study for the 21st century. By using practice-based approaches and theory-led methodologies, the programme aims to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to become part of the digital revolution.

In this rapidly expanding field, you'll learn how digital media are produced and have the opportunity to explore areas such as web-based content, mobile apps, interactive advertising, responsive objects and environments, networked information and social-media systems, interactive video, live performance technology and digital art installations.

Digital Media Design is an award targeted towards students interested in experimenting with new interactive technologies (for example, augmented and virtual reality), creating web-based content (web-design, smartphone applications etc.), becoming experts in designing user experiences (interface layout, interface navigation, visual communication, branding), creating environment responsive public installations (projection mapping, multi-screen presentations) and creating augmented and virtual reality applications.

Exploring a combination of various digital mediums, platforms and skills, this degree has an emphasis on employability and strong industry links to keep the course up-to-date and relevant, build connections, and shape students into tomorrow's professionals.

Tourism is a career that can take you anywhere. Our course is recognised by the Tourism Management Institute (TMI) and is ranked inside the top 20 of the Guardian University League Table 2018 for tourism, hospitality and event management. It explores the latest trends and practices within the industry, examining the impact tourism has on destinations, as well as the sector’s sustainability, cultural influences and community engagement. You’ll also have the chance to take a six-month internship at Walt Disney World, Florida, and study at the University of California Riverside in an exclusive partnership with the University of Hertfordshire.

You can also study a language with this course. You can be awarded the degree ‘with language’ in the title if you choose to study a foreign language in all years of study.

Partnerships and opportunities
As part of our enterprise and employability focus, we give you many options to gain work experience. You can undertake internships during the summer, engage in multiple work shadowing opportunities, and take on a year long placement between your second and third year. Our students have completed placements with a wide variety of businesses, such as Walt Disney, Rent-a-car Enterprise, TUI Travel, Thomson Cruises, Mundy Cruising, Wendy Wu Tour Operator, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays, Hilton Worldwide, Heathrow Airport and EasyJet.

Many students also choose to broaden their horizons through our study abroad programme in second year with one of our partner universities in Europe, North America or Australia. Some combine their language study options with a half-year of study in the language home country and then a further half year work placement in the same country. Without a doubt, they come back with excellent skills in a second language in addition to fantastic memories, experiences and career skills.

Our partnership with Walt Disney World Resorts and the University of California Riverside gives our students the chance to study and work in the United States of America on this fantastic internationally renowned programme.

You may also be interested in the following courses:

• Event Management
• International Tourism Management
• Event Management and Tourism
• Event Management and Marketing

5 Reasons to Study BA (Hons) Tourism Management:

• The course is recognised by the Tourism Management Institute (TMI) and is a key partner of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA)
• You will get to study real world case studies and have the opportunity to visit an overseas destination
• The course gives you the opportunities to do a work placement in small or large corporations, developing key employability skills, both domestically and internationally
• All students have the option to study abroad.
• You will develop key tourism management and business skills at a leading international business facing University on a course ranked 5th in the UK for Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management.

Our Politics and History programme gives you the opportunity to study current challenges in national and international politics while gaining an understanding of the wider historical context of our modern world. 

The course brings together the two naturally close disciplines of Politics and History through a focus on political history. Studying history and politics in tandem will develop your ability to understand how people lived and thought in the past, and the ways in which they act politically in the present.

You’ll study with a top history department – we’re ranked first in the country for the social and cultural impact of our research - and be taught by political historians working at the cutting edge of their research disciplines.

Alongside core politics modules in your first year introducing you to contemporary British politics and international relations theory, you’ll study history modules that will give you an insight into the making of the modern world, such as campaigns for freedom and equality and America from Hamilton to Trump. 

Modules devised for this joint degree such as Political History: Milestones, Change and Continuity provide a bridge between history and politics. In your second year you’ll continue this interdisciplinary approach with a module on Nation and Identity, which examines the growth of new states and the political landscape of interwar Europe.

Just as an historical approach brings breadth and depth to your study of politics, the theories of political science you’ll study in our core politics modules will give you the analytical tools to explore the implications of major historical events, alongside their socio, economic and political impacts. 

In your final year, you demonstrate your research skills by producing a dissertation on a topic of your choosing. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad, while others have worked on women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th -century London. You’ll also have the option to follow an oral history project, or study modules ranging from the challenges and opportunities of Brexit, to terrorism and security, to the politics of gender.

Our Politics and History programme gives you the opportunity to study current challenges in national and international politics while gaining an understanding of the wider historical context of our modern world. 

The course brings together the two naturally close disciplines of Politics and History through a focus on political history. Studying history and politics in tandem will develop your ability to understand how people lived and thought in the past, and the ways in which they act politically in the present.

You’ll study with a top history department – we’re ranked first in the country for the social and cultural impact of our research - and be taught by political historians working at the cutting edge of their research disciplines.

Alongside core politics modules in your first year introducing you to contemporary British politics and international relations theory, you’ll study history modules that will give you an insight into the making of the modern world, such as campaigns for freedom and equality and America from Hamilton to Trump. 

Modules devised for this joint degree such as Political History: Milestones, Change and Continuity provide a bridge between history and politics. In your second year you’ll continue this interdisciplinary approach with a module on Nation and Identity, which examines the growth of new states and the political landscape of interwar Europe.

Just as an historical approach brings breadth and depth to your study of politics, the theories of political science you’ll study in our core politics modules will give you the analytical tools to explore the implications of major historical events, alongside their socio, economic and political impacts. 

In your final year, you demonstrate your research skills by producing a dissertation on a topic of your choosing. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad, while others have worked on women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th -century London. You’ll also have the option to follow an oral history project, or study modules ranging from the challenges and opportunities of Brexit, to terrorism and security, to the politics of gender.

Our BA History and Philosophy gives you the opportunity to study two subjects that will help you to make sense of the world around you. Through our diverse and inclusive History curriculum you will learn about an array of cultures and identities.  What links our work is our focus on people’s history and everyday lives. This is represented strongly in our first year programme, which will give you an insight into the making of the modern world through exploration of beliefs, magic and medicine, campaigns for freedom and equality, Africa and the world, and America from Hamilton to Trump.

In your philosophy modules, you will be introduced to a variety of philosophical issues ranging from the nature of reality, knowledge and mind, to questions about how we should live, what we should value, and what would be the best way of organizing society.

Throughout your degree, the common link between the two disciplines will be the development of analytical skills. As historians you will learn to analyse historical documents and debates among historians, while in Philosophy you’ll assess the arguments of others, arriving at your own conclusions on deep, important issues. 

These analytical skills, honed over the course of your studies, will benefit you in the final year, if you choose to write a dissertation. This extended piece of work, available either in History or in Philosophy, will grow out of a topic that interests you. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad. Others have worked on the history of jiu jitsu, women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th-century London.  And Philosophy students have worked on the ethical issues of playing video games, the nature of the imagination, and environmental philosophy and the obligations of the state.

We give you: 

• An exceptional History team, conducting world-leading research (REF 2014), and a Philosophy team ranked in the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide (2017 QS rankings). 
• Stimulating, innovative courses - History students reported almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course (2018 National Student Survey)
• A flexible program of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting and the scope to write a dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate
• The opportunity to expand your horizons by studying abroad at the end of your second year
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities