Master of Arts in Integrated Design Innovation

at University of Plymouth United Kingdom

Gain advanced theoretical and practical knowledge from our world-leading experts in intelligent and autonomous systems. Graduate ready to pursue an exciting career in the robotics industry and academic research. Help resolve real-world problems in areas such as home automation, robotic assistance, agriculture, medicine, transportation, art and entertainment, deep-sea or space exploration.

On this programme you’ll gain a solid and broad understanding of the latest developments and issues in robotics. You’ll build theoretical and practical knowledge of control and design as well as covering the interface between real-world devices, autonomous processing and evaluation of acquired information. You’ll investigate user interaction and intelligent decision-making and immerse yourself in an innovative project inspired by the latest developments in technology and society. You’ll have access to a robotics club and to a seminar series so that you can keep up-to-date with advances in the industry and academia

Key Features

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. 

Bring your creativity to the world of computer games. Learn 3D modelling, 2D art and animation, level design and gameplay coding. Games industry experts will guide you through all aspects of game design and development, building a full understanding of the game creation process and allowing you to specialise in the areas you find most engaging.

Key Features

• Learn 3D modelling with industry-standard software like Maya, Blender, ZBrush and Substance Painter.
• Hone your 2D art and animation skills, using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate and After Effects.
• Create epic level designs in Unity and Unreal Engine.
• Develop your coding skills with C# and Blueprints.
• Taught by industry experts, with a focus on preparing you for a career in the games industry.
• Amazing national and international field trips to gaming expos and festivals, such as meeting professionals from top games studios at EGX Rezzed in London and exploring immersive gameplay Amsterdam.
• Explore sound design, narrative and game design theory, and study the psychology of games and gamification.
• Access to the latest hardware, including high-spec gaming PCs and VR headsets.
• Get a head-start in the industry with an optional placement year (for example, one of our students has secured a placement at Criterion Games).
• Get ready for a career as a game artist, 3D modeler, game designer, level designer or gameplay coder, joining Plymouth graduates who have gone on to work at the world's top games companies including Electronic Arts, Frontier Developments and Bossa Studios.
• We annually review the skills, software and hardware we teach, to ensure the course is always up to date.
• Our dedicated lab space is open until 10pm, other amazing facilities, include our 35-seat, 360° immersive vision theatre, VR kits, graphics tablets, game controllers, 3D printers and even an extensive collection of boardgames.
• Teaching and learning are practical and project-based - sometimes working individually, and sometimes in teams.
• Your assessments are 100 per cent coursework – no exams.
• No prior knowledge requirements – we teach everything from the ground up (but if you do already have art and coding skills, we can’t wait to see how much further you can take them with our help!).

Do you want a career in the archive sector? Join a new MA programme designed and taught in partnership with archival professionals, created to give you practical experience of the archive, from manuscripts to ?lm, sound and digital archives. Co-taught with The Box, Plymouth's new heritage centre, and with links to local archives and work-based learning, you also learn about current and practical management issues, the varied needs of users and how to communicate through outreach and marketing.

You can study MA Archival Practice full time over one year, or part time over two years.

Key Features

• Taught in partnership with The Box, Plymouth's new heritage centre, with archival professionals as core and optional module teachers and in the placement module.
• Work-based learning is a key feature of the MA.
• Digital skills are embedded in all modules.
• You develop links with local record of?ces and other archives which will be important for future employment in the archive and heritage sector.
• The core and optional modules meet practical and current needs (fund-raising, employment law, archival and digital skills) for a range of archive and related jobs.
• Designed to be an accredited, professional quali?cation aligned to the Archives and Records Association’s new competencies in core modules. Provisional accreditation for the programme is being sought

Get the best preparation to take on the challenge of a career as a primary teacher focusing on Special Educational Needs (SEN). With teaching methods shaped by our own research expertise, and plenty of on-the-job training in the classroom, you’ll gain the confidence and experience you need to work with SEN students in a variety of roles and settings. We’ll support you to explore the diversity of how children learn and develop your own toolkit for inclusive and effective teaching.

Have you considered

• BEd (Hons) Primary (FS/KS1 with QTS)
• BEd (Hons) Primary (KS1/KS2 with QTS)

Key Features

• Launch your career: obtaining integrated Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), which means you can begin your teaching career immediately. Expand your horizons, enhance your practical experience and set yourself above the competition.
• SEN focus area: this degree will look at teaching over the primary phase but also look at the way SEN and inclusion feeds into KS1 and KS2 preparing you to work with children from any phase of primary education in either mainstream or special schools.
• Partnership with special schools: throughout this degree you will be visiting special schools and working with learners with inclusive needs. You will have a good understanding of how these schools support children with their learning.
• No exams: learn through interactive workshops and with no end-of-year/semester exams.
• 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.

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.

 Chemists plays a vital role in tackling key societal challenges, including sustainability, health, energy and protecting the environment. To ensure our graduates can apply their chemistry, our course places problem solving, communication, and project management at the core of what we do. Taught by world-class researchers, our students gain both the academic knowledge and practical laboratory skills needed to be a professional chemist in a wide range of careers.

Work and learn in our ISO 9001 certified laboratories, our unique offer to undergraduates to train in a regulated professional laboratory environment. Chemistry at Plymouth is ranked 14th in the Guardian University Guide 2021: top in the UK for ‘satisfied with feedback’, 2nd in both ‘satisfied with teaching’ and the ‘value-added score’, and 6th on ‘satisfied with the course’

Key Features

• Benefit from outstanding teaching - our degree is ranked 1st in the UK for academic support, 2nd for assessment and feedback and 4th for overall teaching quality (NSS, 2019).
• Equip yourself for successful employment in a competitive job market – our focus on practical, professional skills means you graduate primed to enter the workplace.
• Benefit from award-winning teaching in small groups and be inspired by staff who are world-leading researchers.
• Hone your practical problem solving skills in our newly-refurbished laboratories, kitted out with the latest analytical instrumentation.
• Our tutorial system ensures that you receive the support and guidance you need to reach your full potential.
• 70% of assessment is based on coursework.
• Experience chemistry in the real world and boost your employability by taking a placement, work-based project in your final year, or working alongside PhD and post-doctoral researchers in our high specification laboratories.
• Graduate with in-demand skills for a range of career paths, from research and development in the pharmaceutical industry and lab-based roles in the food and energy industries, to positions in the science, engineering, healthcare, environmental or technology sectors.
• Accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the professional body representing chemistry in the UK.

In this hands-on degree, one of the best in the UK and with an international reputation, you’ll explore the diversity of marine life from coastal margins to the deep sea and gain an in-depth understanding of the biology of marine organisms. Teaching takes advantage of the South Devon coast as well as some of Europe’s best marine facilities – so you’ll have the opportunity to not just experience marine biology but to practice it at the highest levels in both the laboratory and out in the field.

You'll gain an understanding of marine life at the level of the biology of organisms – ranging from microbes found on coral reefs, the physiology and behaviour of marine vertebrates, to the biology of the marine algae that underpin the vast majority of other marine life. The aim of the degree is not only to teach you about marine biology, but to equip you with the practical, intellectual and scientific skills to be a practising marine biologist.

Key Features

BA (Hons) Creative Media launches you on a journey to make media that shapes, reflects and changes the world we live in. Our industry-facing course develops your creative voice, engages with communities on social issues and provides a practical grounding in professional media practices. Learn from experts skilled in narrative, documentary and artistic media practices – from film, photography and animation to interactive and immersive media, projection mapping and online media production.

Key Features

• Freedom to experiment – you can choose to focus on one medium, develop several or integrate across the range to find your own creative voice. You’ll have the opportunity to develop projects to suit your own creative and career ambitions.
• Open doors to your future career by showcasing your work to the public in exhibitions, and developing a portfolio of work. You can enhance your professional profile further by engaging with our live briefs.
• Advance your technical skills using our outstanding equipment and facilities including a fully equipped cinema, moving image studio with green screen, photographic and sound studios, computer labs, animation rostrums and much more.
• Learn from award-winning tutors from industry, arts practice and academic research.
• Tailor your degree to match your interests and career goals with an option to specialise in television in your final year.
• Benefit from strong links with the industry such as the BBC, ITV and Royal Television Society along with regional arts and community groups, giving you the opportunity to develop and realise creative collaborations beyond the University.
• This course is assessed by coursework only – there are no exams.
• Exchange programmes in Europe and the USA.
• Our alumni support current students with mentoring and career opportunities. Graduate Rachael Lyons, who has been Commercial Digital Producer for the X Factor is currently mentoring one of our stage 3 students on our professional mentoring scheme.
• Connect with current students and alumni in our dedicated Media arts Facebook group.

Our industry-recognised BSc (Hons) Building Surveying course is designed to build your knowledge and skills in the physical care, repair, conservation and restoration and refurbishment of buildings. The combination of lectures, site visits, tutorials and an optional year-long paid industry placement will prepare you for a range of routes in the construction and surveying sector including building surveying, property management, project management, or building regulation.

This course will help you gain the problem-solving skills and technical knowledge necessary to survey buildings and identify defects. You will also participate in real-world group projects involving the refurbishment of existing, historic and listed buildings, as well as new-build, which will help you understand the surveyor’s role, the client’s requirements, and develop project management skills.

Key Features

• Our course is fully accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE).
• This course is designed around a common first year with BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying and BSc (Hons) Construction Project Management, allowing you to transfer to these courses after successful completion of Year 1.
• You will gain valuable experience with an optional, paid year-long placement in a leading surveying company in the UK or abroad. Our industry links will help you find a placement, boosting your studies with practical experience and providing the contacts that can lead to future employment.
• You will be part of a vibrant multidisciplinary learning environment, working with students from other built environment disciplines, including construction project managers, architectural engineers and quantity surveyors.
• You will have access to a wide range of industry standard facilities, resources and equipment, including, a designated design studio space, specialist laboratories and workshops, Mac and PC suites, a 360 degree immersive vision theatre.
• Each year the building surveying knowledge and skills you develop come together in a real-world design and build project with an actual client and project brief. Guided by our panel of industrial advisers, you will develop the professional skills to stand out in the sector.
• Learn from leaders in their fields. Our staff come from both industry and research backgrounds. Industry professionals also play an active role in the course participating in guest lectures, workshops and tutorials.
• Our built environment courses have been running for over 25 years.