Master of Science in Polymer Science

at University of Warwick United Kingdom

Sociology – the study of humans in society – is at the heart of the roadmap towards a sustainable future. Each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has a sociological aspect, and understanding the social implications of world trade, economic growth, and climate change has never been more critical.

Since the birth of the neoliberal era, major global transformations have redefined societies across the world. Sociologists are now focusing on why the current organisation of society might itself be unsustainable, researching innovative solutions to develop social-environmental relationships that are less environmentally harmful.

On this course, you will combine sociological concepts, including race, identity, ethnicity, and gender, and apply these to global issues such as wealth inequality, elite power, and food security. Our transdisciplinary approach also gives you the freedom to research the topics that most interest you.

Our students are aspiring global citizens with social consciences. They’re flexible, adaptable and broad-minded.

By studying GSD, you’ll take a transdisciplinary approach and confront issues from a diverse array of perspectives. You will need to be ready to think creatively and embrace new opinions from your peers from across the world. We will challenge you to become an active participant in your own learning.

You can enhance your skills and studies through optional work placements, study abroad, and certificates.

Study abroad

We encourage you to take the opportunity to study abroad during your course at Warwick.

• Enjoy the freedom to take chances with your module choices.
• Push yourself outside of your comfort zone with your learning.
• You may have the opportunity to learn a new language and immerse yourself in a new learning context.
• You may choose to apply for an intercalated year spent either studying abroad or on a work placement (subject to you meeting departmental academic requirements). This will mean extending your course to four years.

If you want to extend your learning and broaden your perspective by studying abroad for a year, Warwick has partnerships with universities across the world. You will spend your first and second years at Warwick, studying abroad in your third year. You will then return to Warwick for your final year.

You will receive practical and theoretical training in two core modules and further specialisation as well as broader knowledge in six optional modules of your choice. Teaching at Master’s level places greater emphasis on practical work than at undergraduate level. This includes coursework reports and learning state-of-the-art specialised research subfields.

After completing successfully the taught portion of the course, you will continue for a further ten weeks to put your knowledge into practice through a dissertation.

Join experts at Warwick's Politics and International Studies Department and Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID) and develop your critical thinking and research skills as well as how to translate these into practical solutions.

Develop your analytical and practical skills to understand the most pressing global challenges in our world today, including inequality, sustainability and security.

This programme will introduce you to the intellectual and political foundations of International Development, to the key events and themes which have shaped its evolution, and to the major issues that have been (and not) addressed in the scholarship and practice of international development. You will examine the institutions of International Development put in place through the Bretton Woods System, the various United Nations institutions, governmental and non-governmental policies and practices in the historical context of Empire and of contemporary globalisation.

We believe that theoretical work and empirical work are not separate exercises. Practical problems stimulate theory construction, and theories inform the ways in which we handle substantive issues. Students will learn to write policy papers and develop skills to translate critical thinking into problem solving.

We offer an exciting package of core and optional modules which include both theoretical and applied learning. This classroom-based work is reinforced and deepened by bringing our MA students into contact with the work of the Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Centre for International Development (WICID) which is housed in PAIS. MA students can join WICID events and learn about the work of its academic, policy and practitioner collaborators.

Students can lead and participate in the Warwick Global Development Society and a student-led end of the year Development Conference, which offers additional opportunities to learn valuable professional skills and to apply learning throughout the year in shaping the content of the conference.

This challenging degree crosses subject boundaries, combining economics and political analysis. Policy-making is influenced by economics and many of the policies that we see today around the world are based on economic analysis.

By considering both disciplines, you will gain a broad perspective on how governments develop policy and the impact of this on consumers, firms and political structures. The degree is very current, looking at the key issues of the day and encourages debate and discussion around them.

You can maintain a breadth of study while focusing on areas that interest you, particularly during your final year. You can choose to major in one area and then you will have the flexibility to select up to six optional modules alongside a core module in Making of Economic Policy.

Study abroad

We currently offer an exciting range of opportunities for you to spend a year abroad studying in a higher education institution either in Europe, at the University of Monash in Australia, or with our partners in China and Canada. Studying overseas can add immeasurably to your personal development, future study and career opportunities. It will also offer you an opportunity to experience an alternative university system.

If you’re successful in gaining a Study Abroad placement, your degree programme will become a four year programme and, assuming you pass sufficient modules whilst abroad, the title of your course changes to add the suffix ‘with Study Abroad’ to the existing title (e.g. BSc Economics with Study Abroad).

This MA programme explores religious, social, economic and cultural developments in the early modern world, including the strains created by soaring prices and population, and heightened social mobility. Most modules are taught by a team of experts, ensuring that you are exposed to as many different viewpoints and approaches as possible.

In the first term you will study two core modules. ‘Theory, Skills and Methods’ provides a foundation in historical methods and theoretical frameworks used to study society and culture from the early modern period to the contemporary world. ‘Themes in Early Modern History’ provides a critical perspective on key themes and introduces you to a range of expertise at Warwick.

In the second term, you will select two optional modules, each one taking a different topic and exploring it across time and space. These will help you place your early modern interests in religion, gender, empire, consumption or medicine in a comparative framework, as well as deepen your acquaintance with relevant ideas and approaches from outside early modern scholarship. These modules enable you to focus on your early modern interests (you can write all your assessed work on early modern themes) whilst situating them in a wider context that will enrich your studies.

The final key element is the dissertation - here you have a large amount of freedom to develop a project of your own choice with help and guidance from your supervisor who will meet with you throughout the third term. Throughout the year, you will be able to take advantage of the Department’s six research centres, including participating in the lively schedule of academic research seminars, lectures and conferences.

The programme will appeal equally to those wishing to undertake further postgraduate study and those pursuing a career outside of the University, equipping you with research, writing and critical thinking skills vital in a range of professions.

The unique English and History degree at Warwick explores these ideas through modules that span time and geography: from the ancient to the contemporary, and from Europe to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

As well as choosing from a wide range of modules in both departments (and in others), you will study special core modules that are exclusively for English and History students, bringing the two subjects together and thinking about how literature helps us to understand the past, and how history can illuminate works of literature. You will examine the literary techniques employed in historical writing, and consider how the past is represented in poetry, plays, and novels.

At all times, we will encourage you to develop your own ideas and arguments, to critically analyse what others say and write, and to think in new and imaginative ways about how we know the past through texts.

We live in a world of moving images. Studying them provides a unique means for you to better understand the world in which you live. At Warwick, you’ll explore how they work and what they mean in ways that encompass history, politics, philosophy, sociology, drama, and literature.

Having explored the breadth of the subject, you will then be able to follow your academic curiosity by specialising in topics of particular interest. In your third year, you will also have the opportunity to apply for a place on a specialist film production module. Within the framework of our traditional focus on film history, theory and criticism, we offer innovative teaching, including practice-led learning and assessment, as well as conventional essay writing.

Our vibrant extracurricular culture means you will be surrounded by others who share your love of the subject. Students and staff also engage with film and television through writing, blogging and screening films in cinema clubs. You will emerge from your course with the highly valued ability to research, structure, argue and write to a very high standard on a breadth of current media-related issues, and with an exceptional level of audio-visual literacy.

Study abroad

You also have the option of a four year full-time BA Film Studies degree with a study abroad year. You will spend your third year at one of our partner institutions, and return in fourth year to complete your degree.

Choose from a range of leading universities around the world including:

• Tokyo University
• The University of Amsterdam
• Monash University in Australia
• Monash University in Malaysia

By choosing to add a Study Abroad year you will:

• Develop your knowledge by looking at a range of topics from different perspectives
• Gain a specialist understanding of local and national media and film cultures of the area in which you study
• Be taught using different teaching styles
• Have a chance to experience the underlying international nature of film

Our MA is designed to prepare students for specialised postgraduate research in the fields of Art History and Visual Studies. You will have the option of spending the autumn term in Venice or can study for the full year on the Warwick campus.

The course enables you to develop your research skills by studying different periods and media in the history of art, and by taking an active part in research, exploring some of the broader issues in Art History today such as cross-cultural interaction and the arts, the spatial contexts of art, architecture and urbanism, and the arts within a global society.

This four-year course enables you to pursue your interest in the languages, literature and thought of Greece and Rome, while considering the broader cultural, social and political contexts of the classical world.

You will study a broad range of literary and non-literary sources, which are taught in innovative and dynamic ways by staff engaged in groundbreaking research.

You will study Latin alongside a modern European language (current options are Italian and German) and will spend your third year studying classical subjects at one of our partner universities in Europe.

Currently, placements are available in Bologna, Padua, Rome or Venice, with recent confirmation of new placements in Berlin and Tübingen, Germany. Confirmation of available placements will be made in your second year.

This exciting new course is built on the strength of existing research connections between the four departments that will contribute to it: the departments of Economics, Psychology, and Philosophy, and Warwick Business School (specifically the Behavioural Science Group).

The current attention that this interdisciplinary field of research, particularly the area of Behavioural Science and Behavioural Economics, receives across academia, government and the private sector also makes this course an excellent preparation for a wide range of careers within local government, public health, media, charities and NGOs, marketing and finance.

You will have a choice of interesting potential specialisms and pathways through your course so that you can explore the issues that interest you the most, to graduate with either a BA or a BSc.

Students on all pathways take a course-specific co-taught core capstone module in the final year, which is designed to set the disciplines in interdisciplinary dialogue with each other.

Study abroad

You have the opportunity to apply for an intercalated study abroad year at one of our many partner institutions, extending your degree to four years.

As well as offering an opportunity to experience an alternative university system, studying abroad can also provide the chance to improve language skills and to gain an understanding of a country that can only be gained by living and working in it.