Bachelor of Science (Hons) in International Business and Economics (with integrated placement year)

at Aston University United Kingdom

Become a business leader of the future and get set for a rewarding career with our MSc Business and Management degree. Develop your management skills and techniques and gain an extensive understanding of how companies operate.

Suitable for graduates of all disciplines, this dynamic program is a fantastic platform to launch your career at a top business school. Aston Business School is part of an elite group of business schools thanks to our triple accreditation from AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA.

You’ll benefit from detailed insight into many areas of business, from strategy to operations and from marketing to people management. You’ll also gain key leadership and management skills. By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped to go into a variety of roles for a range of organizations, including international companies and those operating in the voluntary and community sectors.

A Business Management and English Language degree from Aston gives you the chance to combine in-demand commercial and leadership skills, alongside theoretical knowledge and understanding of the English language, how it works in business, and its role in the workplace.

What you’ll learn
You will be taught by lecturers who are internationally recognized researchers in fields such as leadership communication, marketing, economic development, multi-national enterprises, forensic linguistics, language and gender, and TESOL.

With a professional placement year as one of its key features, the program is geared towards increasing your employability by providing you with the knowledge and skills required of professionals working in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

This degree combines the essential knowledge from economics and management that you will need to be able to understand how organizations develop and implement strategies to compete against each other in both domestic and international markets.

What you’ll learn
Studying this course will give you an in-depth understanding of business and strategic decision-making while developing both your analytical and quantitative skills. Knowledge of statistical and experimental methods used in economics is increasingly important for a successful professional career.

Theories, models, and methods are brought to life through teaching that focuses on active learning and content that stresses real-world examples and applications. The placement year helps to equip you with highly relevant transferable skills that further increase your value in the graduate labor market.

The course will help you to understand the relationships between different parts of an organization, and its interactions with the economic environment. Theories and frameworks in both management and economics education also develop your decision-making skills and your ability to manage teams effectively.

What will I learn?
You’ll gain a detailed understanding of businesses in an international context, enabling you to work for a leading global firm or operate across borders with your own company.

The course covers the entire process of starting a new business venture, from the initial idea to international expansion. It will help you to identify and develop business opportunities and teach you how to check the feasibility of a venture using key frameworks and tools. It will teach you business growth strategies and what funding options are available to entrepreneurs.

You’ll also appreciate how enterprises can vary in terms of their mission, from commercial ventures aiming to maximise profits to social enterprises who prioritise social wealth creation. We also explore entrepreneurship in the context of family business and corporate intrapreneurship.

Study the BSc (Hons) Politics and Social Policy degree course at Aston University to examine the major political, economic, and social issues facing governments and societies across the world, and how the policies they develop impact all our lives.

What you’ll learn
In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to explore political topics going beyond the UK and Europe, covering North America, South Asia, China, Japan, or the emerging global powers. You will not only study the traditional subjects of the discipline, such as security, political economy, or democratization but also have the chance to delve into ethics, sports, gender, protests, or religion.

On the social policy strand of the course, you’ll examine why governments take particular decisions in key policy areas and develop a detailed understanding of processes of policymaking at global, national, and local levels of government. We explore the social constraints we encounter in our everyday lives and how they are reinforced by class, race, religion, and gender. To understand how these issues perpetuate existing inequalities and unequal life chances, we analyze what impact official politics has on such processes, how politics is intertwined with the profit-making aims pursued by big corporations and how their combined interests dominate our social imaginations.

You will investigate the economic, social, and political forces which influence government decision-making and develop a detailed understanding of policy-making processes at global, national and local levels of government. You will also explore in-depth, the outcomes and consequences of various government policies on the economy and society. Studying the nature of policy delivery and management by various organizations, such as local governments, schools, and businesses will prepare you for a range of career paths.

What you’ll learn
In the first year, you’ll get a grounding in product design principles and an understanding of how design can affect the profitability of a business.

In the second and final year, you will take a common core of design modules to support your projects, integrating your design specialism with the core aspects of product design. You’ll also continue to develop skills that are relevant to your future career, whichever path you choose to take, including presentations and team working. Your final year will culminate in the opportunity to showcase your project work at the Aston Inspired final year design show.

We teach using a hands-on framework called CDIO - Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate – supported by 50 of the world’s top technical institutions. This enables you to apply real-world skills as you learn, enabling you to maximize your learning. You’ll do your learning in our state-of-the-art facilities, which include advanced 3D printing facilitates and a dedicated design studio with specialist equipment designed just for you.

We’ll support you to find a paid, professional placement of direct relevance to your studies. This placement will give you invaluable practical experience in a real work environment and will further enhance your career prospects.

You’ll also have the opportunity to network with employers and showcase your work as part of the Mechanical Engineering and Design Industry Club, where you’ll be given opportunities to meet employers.

Chemists and chemical engineers make products that we use in our everyday life, from vitamin C to chocolate, from creams to packaging, and from fuels to washing powders.  

You will study how to ensure the safe, sustainable and profitable production of chemicals and materials that will not only improve people’s quality of life but also contribute towards a better future for our planet.  

This programme is academically the same as the BSc (Hons) Chemistry but, as an applied chemist, you will undertake a final year research project under the supervision of one of our academic staff.?  
 
We cater for the needs of ‘pure’ chemists and provide the opportunity to explore the industrial, pharmaceutical, technological and commercial dimensions of chemistry. Business and other specialist topics are built into our courses enabling you to develop valuable management skills.

 What you’ll learn 

You’ll share your first year with chemical engineers, to ensure you have a good grounding in the subject before gaining a deeper insight into the industrial processes. 
 
Areas including sustainability and health and safety will be key to your learning, while more scientific and advanced modules will give you the technical skills you need for your career.  
 
You have the option to spend a year on placement in the

Explore some of the biggest topics in the world today, from gender, race, and sexuality, to how we behave as a society, with our British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited Psychology and Sociology BSc at Aston University, Birmingham.

You’ll investigate and analyze how the human mind works, in terms of how it responds to various stimuli, and how our views on relationships and the wider world are shaped by societal structures, culture, and our collective experiences. In addition, you will have the opportunity to research why these societal structures exist in the first place; giving you a rounded view of human behavior and the impact we have on each other as fellow citizens.

Study a BSc (Hons) Sociology and English Language degree course at Aston University to explore the English language, how it works in society and its role in the world today and learn about issues and policies affecting the world.

What you’ll learn
Our Sociology and English Language course will provide you with an in-depth understanding of social processes, inequalities, organizational dynamics, and inter-group relationships. To understand how these issues perpetuate existing inequalities and unequal life chances, we analyze how politics is intertwined with the profit-making aims pursued by big corporations and how their combined interests dominate our social imaginations.

Sociology will equip you with the knowledge and analytical skills that will enable you to think critically and work independently. This includes how to design a research project, collect empirical data, handle complex datasets (e.g., through applying coding techniques) and, most importantly, develop an advanced analytical mindset. This training will be essential for your final-year dissertation during which you will carry out your own individual research project. This experience will provide you with a skill set that is highly desired in a wide range of industries and areas of work.

If you want to build a career in the exciting world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) but don’t have a computer science background, this conversion course could be for you. This course also features the opportunity to undertake a professional placement in its second year.

What you’ll learn

We'll teach you the specialist, technical information you need, and you'll develop your ability to create ethical, well-justified, and appropriate AI solutions to real-life challenges. 

With an emphasis on practical experience, you’ll have the opportunity to design and plan, implement, test, evaluate and document your solutions, preparing you for future challenges as you develop your career. 

You’ll work on your own and as part of a team on projects and presentations. The different projects will enable you to develop your communication and team working skills alongside your technical expertise, which is important as you enter the workplace.