Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Digital Media Production

at Anglia Ruskin University - Cambridge Campus United Kingdom

Accredited by TIGA, our Computer Games Art degree will allow you to develop art skills relevant to the fast-moving computer games industry. You’ll gain 3D computer games skills including modelling, texturing and animation, enabling you to create characters, environments and more.

During your studies, you’ll discover how you can use your visual research, creative experimentation and technical development to forge a career as a computer games artist. You’ll learn how to plan your designs by creating concept art before bringing them to life using interactive software such as Unity 3D.

ARU is the place to be for studying Computer Games Art. The East of England has 135 active games companies, with Cambridge home to developers including Jagex, Frontier Developments and Ninja Theory, who are currently building a new base on Newmarket Road complete with a gaming pub.

Our Computer Games Art course scored 92% for ‘The Teaching on my Course’ in the National Student Survey 2019.

By studying Computer Games Art at ARU, you’ll get the chance to improve your prospects with live briefs and guest speakers from tech giants like Sony, Jagex and Frontier.

Our flexible modules allow you to explore different aspects of digital art, helping you specialise and future-proof your career. And with TIGA accreditation, this course gives you a badge of excellence to show future employers too.

We're also partners with the Global Science & Technology Forum, giving you access to cutting-edge research materials.

During your time at ARU, you’ll receive ongoing support to find placements and work experience relevant to your Computer Games Art and you can take an optional placement year. In recent times, ARM, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Frontier and Just Flight have all offered internships and work opportunities to ARU students.

Our BA (Hons) Illustration and Animation course explores the connections between animation and illustration, helping you to create sequential narratives using a variety of methods – from traditional handmade image-making, to the latest specialist 2D digital animation, 3D CGI used in industry and cutting-edge interactive techniques.

As well as gaining strong software skills and a good understanding of animation, timings and motion, you will become an innovative and creative thinker. You will develop creative abilities, technical skills and a personal language within animation, with the focus being on illustration and design.

Within our supportive and vibrant studio culture, you will work on a range of projects from narrative animation, animated idents, motion graphics, character design, storyboarding, CGI and concept art to develop a body of work for your professional portfolio and showreel, preparing you for industry.

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll get time, guidance and support from a team of industry professionals, animators and illustrators and visiting industry experts who are dedicated to your creative development. In your final year you will also receive guidance from an assigned industry advisor dedicated to the year.

While developing a unique visual style, you’ll also focus on the core foundations: studying the world around you, refining your drawing skills, learning the fundamentals of animation skills using industry standard 2D and 3D animation software, such as TV paint and Maya and learning to create engaging stories through moving images.

You’ll go on group reportage drawing trips, with opportunities to visit museums, galleries and animation festivals in the UK and overseas. You’ll find lots of visual inspiration in Cambridge – from the Botanic Gardens to the art collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, to the city’s architectural beauty and vibrant cultural and student life.

As a student at ARU, you’ll start by understanding the fundamentals of computing including computer networks, Linux operating systems, client/server architectures and secure high-level software development. You'll come to understand and recognise the cybercrime threats that organisations, and their infrastructures, face.

We’ll go on to study the cryptographic principles underpinning digital security and their application, how organisations' infrastructures can be protected from attack and how digital forensics can be used to investigate cyber related crime and malware infections. In a Security Management module, we’ll investigate how organisations visualise security operations, undertake threat intelligence and investigate potential threats.

Our Cyber Security degree includes access to the CCNA Routing and Switching and EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) curriculums. This gives you the chance to progress your learning to full certification – you’ll just need to pay for your exam fees.

Our specialist labs are the perfect place you apply your knowledge and skills, carrying out penetration testing, digital forensic investigations and analysing how malware operates. They’re equipped with tools such as Kali Linux Penetration Testing Distribution, X-Ways Forensic, Autopsy, Cisco PacketTracer, OWASP ZAP and Burp Suite.

What’s more, our close links to cyber security institutions such as OWASP Cambridge Chapter, BCS Cybercrime Forensics SG,(ISC)2 and UK Cyber Security Forum Cambridge Cluster means you'll hear directly from industry experts in the classroom.

We are academic supporters for OWASP, Chartered Institute for Information Security (CIISec), CREST and ISACA London, which all additionally benefits to students studying at ARU.

You have the option to take a placement year as part of your course, and gain valuable work experience.

On this degree you will explore the most recent ideas, issues and debates in Criminology and Sociology such as the media, its moral panics and promotion of fear; sex, violence and the profiling of such offenders; deviant behaviour; youth offending; war and terror and genocide, giving you a specialist perspective on crime and society.

You can tailor your BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology degree to your interests and career goals through a wide choice of optional modules. You might choose to focus on issues from corporate crime to human rights, and sexual violence to burglary. Or you might want to explore the link between intoxicants and crime, or religion and crime.

We have a supportive community of staff and students at ARU. Throughout your BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology degree, you’ll benefit from one-to-one personal tutoring and dedicated Criminology social media groups.

Through real-life case studies, academic research, and interactive learning sessions, you’ll develop your research and critical thinking skills. You could learn outside of the lecture theatre too, with visits to courts and prisons, where you’ll examine the trial process and methods of rehabilitation, punishment and retribution (historical and modern), deviance, race and gender. You’ll have the chance to travel abroad on one of our international field trips and examine crime and crime control in different geographical and cultural contexts. Or you might choose to study abroad for a semester to gain a more in-depth perspective on alternative criminal justice systems and societies - with funding on offer to cover the cost.

Tourism is changing. It’s evolving to reflect consumer demand and the needs of the world around us. You need up-to-the-minute knowledge to launch a career in this dynamic industry.

That’s where we can help. Our course content and teaching are forward-thinking, and will help you acquire real-world business skills.

Together, we’ll explore how the tourism industry is affected by disciplines such as sustainability and economics. Our modules cover project management, financial analysis, marketing, and much more.

Tourism is a global industry and we understand the importance of languages in the sector. As a Business with Tourism student at ARU, you can choose to study French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese or Japanese as part of your course.

As a student at ARU, you’ll get hands-on experience working with local organisations to run events. And you’ll get to travel too, with a range of European field trips and the opportunity to study abroad for a semester.

Don’t count on passive learning. You’ll be involved in practical activities such as calculating your own impact on the environment. And we have Cambridge as our classroom – a place where history and culture meet 21st-century innovation. Perfect preparation for your career in tourism.

Enhance your knowledge and skills on our MSc Psychology, which is accredited by the British Psychological Society. Our Masters course is perfect if you have an undergraduate degree, and want to get Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) with the British Psychological Society - or simply learn more about psychology.

Psychology and the exploration of the mind has been discussed for millennia, although it’s still young as a practice. This course will help you develop the scientific understanding of the different perspectives and theoretical approaches within the core areas of psychology, and the relations between them.

You’ll learn how psychology is influenced by many different factors. Through our modules you’ll see how physiology can influence someone, with the way our bodies react to the chemicals they create, the impact of external influences, like society, how different languages change the way you look at the world, and the importance of childhood development.

You’ll also learn how to design research projects, from the first idea through to how to make it work, explore different research methods, and gain the skills to manage a project ethically and professionally. You’ll design and conduct your own research project, and acquire all the skills required by the British Psychological Society (BPS) to register with them as a graduate member (in order to be eligible to register you will need an overall pass mark of 50% in your degree).

Study under the guidance of research-active lecturers, with a passion for psychology and for helping their students reach their potential.

We welcome all students to this course, whether you have studied some psychology in the past or if you are new to this field. If you have studied some psychology in the past, you may be have to revisit some topics you have covered.

Networks and their security have become more and more important for an organisation. Without networks, companies wouldn’t be able to maintain the continuous operation of the organisation.

With our Computer Networks degree course, you’ll get straight into the lab and use advanced software and virtual networks from the get-go so you can support, design, configure and manage the infrastructure of a company.

Networks and their security are an increasingly important and vital element in all organisations. Are you up for the challenge?

As a BEng (Hons) Computer Networks student at ARU, you’ll begin by studying the fundamentals of computer systems including computer architecture and computer networks. In parallel you will learn how to use Python to perform network automation and server administration. You’ll then move to learn the principles of software programming, enhance your mathematical skills and recognise the cyber threats that organisations, and their infrastructures face.

Our standalone network specialist labs will give you the freedom to experiment with building complex networks. You’ll have the chance to learn how to install and configure hardware, operating systems and software, as well as to investigate how organisations visualise security operations and identify potential network threats.

Our labs are equipped with tools such as Cisco Packet Tracer, Python, GNS3 and Kali Linux among other different operating systems. Not only that, our students have access to NETLAB, a remote network and security lab that can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and will allow you to carry on your practical work from the comfort of your own home.

When you graduate, you can apply for a certification at Associate (CCNA) and Professional levels (CCNP) with Cisco Systems, the leading manufacturer of networking equipment. As a Cisco alumnus, you can be eligible to a voucher discount for these certification exams.

This course gives you the opportunity to take a work placement year during your studies. It’s a great opportunity to build up experience and make industry contacts to benefit your studies and enhance your long-term career prospects.

Master advanced data science tools and techniques and learn to apply them across a range of industries, with our Applied Data Science conversion degree in Cambridge.Data science promises to enhance technology, business models, and decision-making across a range of sectors – from manufacturing to social care; and cyber security to banking.There’s strong demand for data scientists. Our Applied Data Science Masters degree will give you the knowledge and analytical skills you need to join this rapidly growing sector.

As it’s a postgraduate conversion course, you don’t need a degree in computing or data science to apply.Study at ARU in the centre of Cambridge, and benefit from a week-long placement as part of your course.Our MSc Applied Data Science degree takes you, step by step, through the major building blocks of data science.

By studying at ARU, you’ll gain highly marketable skills such as programming, data acquisition and cleaning, data analysis and feature extraction, data visualization, data mining, and machine learning. You’ll become proficient in advanced data science tools and techniques too – such as deep learning and predictive models – and learn about artificial intelligence.

And finally, you’ll complete a data science research project, based on your real-life experiences of working in a part of our University.

We’re always focused on the needs of industry and the real-world application of data science. And so, we incorporate real datasets and industry-simulated projects into our course modules. You’ll find this helps you to understand the challenges and constraints that organisations face – and hone your skills and expertise accordingly.

As a Musical Theatre student at ARU, you’ll train with industry professionals, take part in showcases and productions from Year 1, and gain real-world experience.

On our BA (Hons) Musical Theatre degree you will gain skills unique to musical theatre training, specifically actor-musicianship, physical theatre, dance and choreography.

Your tutors will include established musical directors, artistic directors and choreographers – and you’ll learn in professional facilities including our Mumford Theatre.

With a buzzing creative scene, and opportunities to perform in renowned local venues, Cambridge is the perfect place to study Musical Theatre. You can even choose to study abroad for a semester, with funding on offer to help cover the cost.

In your first year as a Musical Theatre student we’ll work on a small-scale musical, before tackling a full-scale book musical as your second year begins.

Next comes an Industry Project on an intense four- to five-week schedule, led by a professional director and our resident Musical Director. This gives you a real-world, authentic experience of industry practice in musical theatre production. We’ll also support you to learn through work-based projects, internships or placements. You can even take an optional placement year.

Our Musical Theatre degree features four productions and two skills showcases. You’ll learn advanced audition techniques and produce your own showreel. Alongside this, you’ll gain confidence, emotional resilience, and the ability to work as part of a team.

Graduate ready for careers in musical theatre and a wide range of professions in the creative industries, the arts, and education.

Learn to create images that tell compelling stories, whether your dream is to be a fashion or fine art photographer or a photojournalist.

As a photography student at ARU you’ll explore many areas of photographic practice including digital and analogue image-making, experimental crossovers, multimedia, self-publishing and exhibition.

Take full advantage of our specialist darkrooms, photographic studios, and digital post-production and printing suite. You can also borrow specialist camera equipment through our dedicated loan service.

All your work will be supported by academic staff working at the forefront of photographic research and innovation and have years of professional experience. You will be taught through individual tutorial and studio sessions, as well as in group lectures and workshops, with regular career development events throughout your study. Recent guest speakers have included Tom Hunter, Jane Hilton, Tim Flach, Hannah Starkey, Carole Evans, Alastair Levy, Mike Crawford and Lillian Wilkie.

Through continuous experimentation, you’ll be encouraged to refine your photographic style and voice.

Critical and contextual studies will connect your own research and writing to your practice and will guide you to specialist resources in our campus library. Explore hundreds of photographers’ monographs and access technical and contextual texts, as well as other online resources, to underpin and expand your practice.

You can expand your skillset, with additional technical workshops including printmaking, 3D work and writing workshops. You can choose to take part in photography field trips too, and experience photographing different locations such as Venice and Prague.

While studying BA (Hons) Photography with us, you’ll learn to adopt a professional approach to your work, covering aspects of career management such as rights issues, project management and self-promotion through social media. You can choose to take up work placements that will help you establish your own professional network, including opportunities such as working for magazines, galleries and photographers. You can also take an optional placement year.