Master of Arts in Autonomous Systems

at University of Plymouth United Kingdom

The UK leads the world in the creative industries and we offer the only MA Design programme in the country that allows you to specialise in key areas that are right for you. Do you want to imagine and plan the spaces, objects and experiences of tomorrow? Do you want to enhance your skills in a fast-paced sustainable environment and progress into the design industry? New design tools are available to us now, so we can plan our preferred futures, design is evolving, play your part in that future.

“Design requires bridging the ‘knowing-doing gap.’ The tools of the designer, is about getting out into the world being inspired by people, to learn with our hands, our minds and our hearts, creating stories and joining forces with people from other disciplines, these are ways to widen the impact of what we do.” Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO. OBE

This versatile and dynamic primary education degree with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is the ideal preparation for a successful and rewarding career in primary teaching, enabling you to embark on your teaching career straight after finishing your studies. Building on long established partnerships, you will have ample opportunities to learn with experienced practitioners. From the start of the course you will work in a range of schools gradually building up confidence and expertise.

Have you considered

• BEd (Hons) Primary (FS/KS1 with QTS)
• BEd (Hons) Primary (SEN with QTS)

Key Features

• Skills and subject knowledge: this carefully structured course will provide you with the skills and subject knowledge required to teach all the National Curriculum subjects through working with experienced and passionate tutors in interactive and practical teaching sessions.
• Subject focus area: you’ll also be given the chance to select a curriculum area to focus upon in years two and three and link this subject to your final-year research dissertation. The comprehensive primary programme ensures you are well-equipped to teach across the curriculum, but also offer additional skills in a chosen subject area, thereby enhancing your employability
• Curriculum focus areas: final qualification can have a curriculum focus linked. Current subjects offered are Mathematics, English, Science, Music, Art and Design, Geography, History, MFL, Religious Education, Physical Education, Computing, Design & Technology
• Close links to the Master of Education (MA Ed): this link enables students to achieve enhanced career progression in a profession in which masters level attainment is increasingly valued.
• Work based learning opportunities: students benefit from a wide range of placement types within our Partnership of over 500 schools and other settings, from single days to extended block placements to develop and consolidate QTS standards.
• Professional identity: from the very start of the programme you are considered as a teacher in development. The programme supports you as you develop your professional standards and identity.
• Research-informed teaching: not only are all modules enhanced by tutors’ active research interests but students are immersed in a research culture and benefit from learning about the advantages of researching their practice first hand.
• Student support: within the Plymouth Institute of Education there is a strong ethos of support for all students. Your Professional tutor will actively engage with you throughout the BEd programme to offer guidance and support in both academic and pastoral terms.
• OfSTED recognised: recent inspection rated the Primary ITE provision at Plymouth as good in all aspects, with particular strengths in the partnership led elements of the programmes and the quality of the graduates.

In a world ever-increasingly in flux – economically, environmentally, socio-culturally – there’s an ever greater need for architects able to think creatively, critically and strategically. You’ll be supported in a design and research-led critical inquiry, testing your work in the public domain through live projects in the UK and overseas. You will develop your own sense of praxis, while exploring the potential of architecture to generate more sustainable, inclusive and resilient places.

Our course is fully validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) to the requirements at Part 2 level. Within six months of degree completion, 100 per cent of our graduates have found professional employment in the UK, Europe and Asia* – with award-winning architects such as AHMM, Allies and Morrison, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Hopkins, John McAslan, Keith Williams, Make, Nicholas Hare and Walters and Cohen.

Key Features

• Our school was described as ‘charged’ by The Architects’ Journal.
• Get creative with our amazing facilities and resources. You’ll be based in our eye-catching Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business building in the heart of the campus, surrounded by students and staff from other art courses. And, you’ll have two square metres of desk to call your own.
• Study a programme fully validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) – with National Student Survey results for the M Arch (not including BA Architecture) for the past two years at 100 per cent for overall student satisfaction.
• Interact with the public domain with architecture that’s responsive to people, places and tectonics. Work with local communities and institutions, including city councils, business organisations and non-governmental organisations.
• Work on live studio-based projects, both in the UK and abroad. Previous projects have been based in China, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK.
• Over 95 per cent of our recent graduates have found work in the UK, the Middle East and Asia.
• Benefit from our future-facing programme that features a strong socio-cultural, urban and sustainability dimension. 
• Learn from tutors with industry experience and interdisciplinary research interests.

Geography explores the relationships between people, places and the environment. Our Geography with Ocean Science course allows you to focus on the physical side of this and also spend time studying ocean science. Plymouth is the ideal setting for this, giving you hands-on experience of the physical geography of a dynamic estuary and coast within walking distance of campus.

Our geography degrees make the most of geography’s strengths in tackling head on the biggest global challenges we face. Modules have been designed to address many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – developed by the UN as the 'blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all' – all of our degrees are fully accredited by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Key Features

• Our newly designed Geography curriculum places sustainability challenges at the centre, with modules designed to help address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
• Choose from an exciting range of physical geography and ocean science modules. Establish a sound knowledge base across all areas of ocean science, with options to study physical oceanography and meteorology, biological and chemical oceanography, and coastal oceanography.
• Our supportive staff are expert researchers and many are world leaders in their field.
• Teaching is innovative and student-centred. You will learn through lectures, seminars, practicals, national and international residential fieldwork, tutorials and one-to-one dissertation support.
• Learn to use Geographical Information Systems to analyse and communicate complex spatial data.
• Take advantage of a wide range of study abroad possibilities in Europe, North America and Australia.
• Experience a valuable work placement programme, opening up a range of career opportunities such as consultancy, policy development and management, teaching, planning and conservation.
• LABplus is a unique open access laboratory and resource centre designed for students studying science and engineering courses. The lab provides a flexible workspace, computing facilities, specialist software, access to microscopes, microscope cameras and bespoke resources.  
• Benefit from our unique location, in the heart of the historical city of Plymouth, bordered by Dartmoor National Park as well as the Tamar Valley and South Hams Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Devon and Cornwall have glorious beaches, coasts, rivers and estuaries.

Study in lively, purpose-built studios with creative students and award-winning staff. We help you forge your visual voice to succeed in today's fast-paced creative worlds. You set your work in a global context through inspiring overseas study trips. Take part in an International Exchange programme to broaden your cultural references and gain new contacts in the international illustration scene. Prepare to get noticed in the professional world with external commissions and competitions.

Key Features

• Be inspired by a varied studio-based culture and practise in our easy-access workshop facilities. Take part in everything from life and location drawing to printmaking and media exploration.
• Develop your Photoshop, Premiere, InDesign and Flash skills in digital workshops, and explore typography basics, bookbinding, creative writing and more.
• Gain invaluable knowledge, confidence and professional awareness by seizing work experience opportunities in years 2 and 3. This can range from simple studio visits to longer-term placements and collaboration, such as graduate Kate Mowbray’s placement as a Publishing Assistant with BBC History Magazine.
• Develop your personal visual ‘voice' and start getting noticed in the professional world by taking part in external commissions and competitions. Get an insight into the world of our award-winning students with freelance illustrator, Jack Teagle. 
• Define your illustrative direction within specific routes such as comic/graphic novels, children’s markets, printmaking, and design for animation/screen – or continue to explore within a broad range of practice. 
• Raise your profile and make new contacts by exhibiting your work at both our Degree Show and London graduate shows.
• Set your work in a global context through inspiring overseas study trips to places such as London, New York and Barcelona.
• Choose to take part in an International Exchange programme in your second year, broadening your cultural references and forging new contacts in the international illustration scene. Find out about recent student Alexander Lee’s experiences living and learning in Japan.
• Benefit from a varied visiting speaker programme of illustrators, commissioning editors, publishers and ex-graduates ready to share advice and insight to help shape your future career.
• Build up your analogue and digital portfolios and develop your professional profile and confidence, ensuring you’re ready for whatever future direction you wish to pursue, whether freelance, studio-based or within further education such as MA or PGCE courses. 
• Our National Student Survey (NSS) 2019 return show that 100% of students felt our staff were good at explaining things and 91% of students agreed staff made the subject interesting.

Education is a driving force for a better and more just world. BA (Hons) Education informs, supports and promotes those looking to become innovators, pioneers and leaders of societal change. Educators can have a lasting impact on people’s lives. Whether you want to become a teacher, work in the social or care industries, as an educator in business, the environment or community development, BA (Hons) Education offers a flexible path to challenging and rewarding careers.

Explore social and political issues, consider diversity in education and discover how the environment shapes learning. This degree will help you make a difference to adults' and children's wellbeing and our global future.

Key Features

• We are about exploration: we love Plymouth but we also love to explore. Within the course there is the opportunity to broaden your understanding of Education in different environments and cultures: residential trips; an option to study for the second semester in the USA; work based learning placements, and more.
• Learning and working with others: students are given space and tools to develop your individual voice, critical insight, and knowledge over a wide range of the education field. We encourage you to engage with different views and ideas about what a meaningful, inclusive and socially just form of education is.
• Enriched student experience: there are many additional opportunities to nourish a thriving student experience, such as benefitting from visiting speakers; wide ranging free public lectures/performances; Makaton training; teaching English as a second language fully certified course; and a range of volunteering experiences and placements in schools and the community.
• Developing confidence and critical thinking: we encourage and foster students’ knowledge and understanding of yourself and others, to develop confidence and conviction in personal opinions and beliefs and to have these challenged, as well as to build the courage to step outside of your comfort zones and to embrace new things.
• Becoming a researcher: students arrive imagining they might enter teaching, or social work, etc, at the end. Often, however, as you develop as an academic researcher, it opens up new opportunities and you catch the research bug! Doing research also helps to build confidence and skills which are useful for many work disciplines in the years ahead.
• Individual journeys and development: one of the things we particularly prize is the way we work to nurture, challenge and encourage personal growth and development. The course has the journey of 'you' at its heart: the person you wish to be, providing you with the enthusiasm and knowledge you need change the world around us.
• Early Childhood options: You can dip your toe into another program; as well as the BA (Hons) Education course, you will have the opportunity in your second year to take one or two modules in Early Childhood Studies.
• Other learning opportunities: Take advantage of paid or unpaid work-based learning module/s to help you stand out when it comes to starting your career. You can also participate in education-related volunteering, or pursue the opportunities presented in our International Students Exchange Programme.

Explore the ever-evolving world of literature and culture through an exciting array of thematic modules, spanning a broad range of periods from the early modern to the present. You benefit from staff expertise in the field, and their connections with wider research communities. Gain a deep understanding of literary studies and acquire advanced research skills applicable throughout your studies and beyond.

Key Features

Are you a civil engineering graduate? Do you want to improve your technical knowledge and enhance your career prospects? Our MSc deepens and broadens your understanding of civil engineering and helps you fulfil your professional role in creating, improving and protecting the environment. You obtain advanced analytical skills in the core subject areas of structural analysis, design and finite element analysis

You will obtain advanced analytical skills in structural engineering and hydraulic engineering and be introduced to the broader issues of project and process management in civil engineering. You will develop skills in engineering research and have the opportunity to undertake a substantial research project on a topic of your choosing under the supervision of our academic staff.

Key Features

The BSc (Hons) Clinical Physiology degree is a four-year course with integrated practice placement learning intended to be the main route for the training of Clinical Physiologists and Healthcare Science Practitioners. Our awards are focused on the training of Healthcare Science Practitioners for the physiological science disciplines (Cardiovascular Physiology and Respiratory and Sleep Physiology).
Graduates in these disciplines will work in a range of healthcare settings to deliver quality assured tests, diagnostic investigations and interventions for patients/clients.

Key Features

• Multi-disciplinary programmes integrating traditional and clinically-focused subject areas in cardiac, respiratory and sleep physiology, delivered by specialist academic and clinical healthcare associates and informed by patients, carers and lay associates.
• Flexibility for students to study specialist areas of clinical physiology, cardiac or respiratory and sleep physiology, as well as maintaining academic breadth in these disciplines.
• A coherent, progressive curriculum underpinned by experiential and workplace learning, ensuring competence in core knowledge, personal and practical skills designed to enhance the students’ academic performance and professional development.
• Enthusiastic, accessible and committed academic staff that offer student support via personal tutoring throughout their programme of study.
• Teaching and Learning informed by nationally and internationally recognised research, scholarship and professional expertise in biomedicine, clinical physiology and pedagogy.
• A learning environment enriched by the presence of a “critical mass” of healthcare education in the form of the Faculty of Health: Medicine, Dentistry and Human Sciences, well-equipped modern laboratories and facilities, plus the legacy of the Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
• A route to apply for registration as a Clinical Physiologist / Healthcare Science Practitioner.

Computing and software development drives many of the world’s greatest technologies, helping us to live, learn, build and even save lives. This course combines computer science, software engineering and information systems to give you the skills employers want.

You’ll learn about programming, databases, computer hardware, computer networking, and how a computer operating system works. You will then extend your knowledge in graphical representation, data modelling and artificial intelligence. You can also enhance your career prospects with a placement at industry leaders such as IBM, Microsoft, Goss Interactive and Vualto.

Key Features

• Benefit from our close links with local industry by taking part in local meetups, conferences such as Agile on the Beach, and networking events across the South West such as Tech Exeter, Digital Plymouth. 
• Distinguish yourself with a degree that’s accredited by, and entitles membership of, British Computer Society, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT (subject to approval). 
• Graduates may also gain registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and will partially meet the educational requirements for Chartered Engineer (CEng) registration. 
• Be inspired by the creativity that our practical, hands-on course nurtures. Our ‘learning through doing’ ethos means you build the skills to make you a desirable applicant for employers. 
• Learn from dedicated teaching staff who are engaged in internationally significant research, are actively creating and developing applications, and have a wealth of industry contacts.
• Enjoy guest lectures on cutting edge computing from the experts in industry such as Red Hat and Goss Interactive.
• Discover the many collaboration opportunities, which mirror the teamwork at the heart of the industry. In the second year, you’ll work in a team to develop a piece of software with a real purpose.
• Immerse yourself in the very latest technology and software. We use open source as well as providing access to Microsoft Imagine for software to work at home with. In our specialist labs you will get to use the Microsoft and Apple industry standard software, which we regularly update and refurbish.