Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Product Design and Management (Optional placement year)

at Aston University United Kingdom

If you answered yes and would like to gain the knowledge and experience you need for a career in product design, alongside a range of marketing, management and business skills, this course could be for you.

Our design courses are stimulating, relevant, challenging and rewarding and you’ll benefit from practical, hands-on experience throughout your course. We work with a number of practicing designers so you’ll have the opportunity to work on live projects, ensuring your products are technically and commercially feasible, while also being environmentally responsible.

This course will ensure you develop a range of industry-ready skills, preparing you for whatever future you have in mind, whether that’s in-house design or setting up your own business.

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 maximise 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.

Mathematics offers a principled, logical, and quantitative perspective of the world around us. From mathematical modelling of air flow and epidemic spreading, through medical diagnosis and power-grid control to investment banking and self-driving cars – mathematics is fundamental to many cutting-edge technologies. Graduates with these skills are in high demand across many sectors of industry and our course equips you the What you’ll learn
Our program is designed to create graduates with a strong mathematical background oriented towards knowledge and technical skills in demand by the job market.

In your first and second years, you will build a solid foundation of mathematical knowledge by learning core mathematical topics, such as Algebra, Analysis, Calculus, Differential Equations, Geometry, and Probability, amongst others. You will also be developing abilities for problem-solving and real-world applications of that knowledge. For instance:

In Probability and Statistics, you will be introduced to the elementary theory of probability and statistics and learn to apply that knowledge using Microsoft Excel to statistically analyze real-world data sets and draw relevant and practical conclusions.

Numerical Algorithms and Programming will provide you with an essential understanding of core concepts in programming, focussing on mathematics applications. You will learn how to formulate algorithms to execute methods and how to implement generic algorithms from a description.

Explore English language and literature, how they work in society and their role in the world today, and develop your communication and analytical skills by studying a BSc (Hons) English Language and Literature degree course at Aston University.

What you’ll learn
As an English language student at Aston, you’ll gain theoretical knowledge and understanding of the English language, along with an exploration of social processes, organisational dynamics and inter-group relationships.

You’ll learn from world-leading academics with cutting-edge research and teaching experience in fields such as ethnic and gender equalities, global change, theories of social change, forensic linguistics, language, gender and teaching English to speakers of other languages.

On the literature strand of the course, you’ll get a broad introduction to literary genres and periods from the seventeenth century to the present day, and consider all literature’s different manifestations, from graffiti and blogging to poetry, novels and street theatre.

You’ll study literacy as a social practice and will explore how and why people read and write at all levels of society. We will equip you to critically engage with a variety of texts across literary genres and periods, and you’ll be able to develop your skills as a writer through our creative writing module.

In the third year of your course, you’ll spend a year on placement with a company, working as a teaching assistant in a school or studying at one of our partner universities - you might even choose to combine two of these options, adding further value to your degree, and in your second year we’ll make sure you’re ready to get the most from this opportunity.

The Aston MBA will encourage you to think like an entrepreneurial leader from the start, challenging you at every stage, to personally and professionally develop, through a highly practical, experiential approach to learning.

This is not just a course. This is a new perspective to enhance your future career.

You will approach complex challenges through real-world business problems that you will be tasked with solving. You will think like a business leader, working through challenges by understanding how different functions interact in order to identify solutions for both big and small organisations.

This means, you will cover a broad range of business topics through a hands-on learning experience, equipping yourself with an extensive understanding of how businesses operate in today’s fiercely competitive global commercial environment.

You will discover cutting-edge leadership concepts and frameworks, and put them into practice with applied exercises and real-life business projects. You will develop your ability to inspire and lead enterprises, and be a force for positive change within organisations.

Working independently as well as part of a team, you will identify where your skills need to develop in order for you to personally and professionally develop. You will be exposed to team coaching principles, developing your own personal development plan, as well as have plenty of opportunities to network with, and hear from, industry leaders.

Get a head start in business and examine the major issues facing governments across the world, from terrorism to climate change, with an inter-disciplinary Business and Politics BSc degree course from Aston University.

What you’ll learn
You’ll study the theories, principles, and underlying concepts of the main functions of management and develop a strong understanding of business models and processes. You’ll examine how strategic decision-making within organizations takes place, and develop the ability to recognize and analyze the economic, technical, financial, social, and organizational parameters within which modern managers make decisions, providing you with a solid starting point for your future career.

On the politics strand of the course, you will have the unique 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, protest, or religion.

Mechanical engineers are innovators, building machines, structures and devices of all sizes and for all uses. Study Mechanical Engineering at Aston and we’ll equip you with the tools you need to bring your ideas to life, helping to solve the world’s problems for generations to come. Our Mechanical Engineering degree course offers highly relevant modules in sought-after engineering and scientific subjects.?It is driven by the demands of industry to produce graduates with extremely strong engineering and scientific skills. We also support you to develop strong project management and teamwork skills, as well as commercial awareness.

What you’ll learn
In your first year, you’ll cover fundamental disciplines of mechanical engineering, through academic classes in engineering, science, and maths. You’ll also take on large, integrated projects in practical settings, and we’ll help you to understand new technology and concepts. The course reflects industry practice, as you work in groups to take products from initial concepts through to built and tested prototypes.

During your second year, you’ll begin to develop the skills and technical knowledge you need to become a professional engineer. Then, in your third year, you’ll undertake a major project, involving design, experimental or analytical work that can be tailored to suit your own interests or to suit your target vocation.?

If you choose to spend a year in industry during your degree, 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.

In the final year, you will study advanced-level science and applied maths and exploit this knowledge in a major project, involving design, experimental or analytical work. This allows you to demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and abilities to potential employers through independently tackling a significant engineering challenge.

There has never been a time where so much data has been available in conjunction with the tools to make the most of it. These tools constitute the field of data science. There has also never been a time with so many global challenges to tackle, from the shortage of resource and the impact we have on the environment to the strive to automate and optimise a variety of systems such as transport, energy, health and communication. There are almost limitless opportunities to use these tools in the various domains and applications for making real impact on industry, society and policy making.

This course is for you if you want to use your mathematical and numerical skills to embark on a career in data science and its application. During the course you will develop the necessary analytical and computational skills alongside an informed and critical appreciation of scientific and industrial developments in data.

What you’ll learn 

You will gain a thorough grounding in the fundamental concepts of data analytics to understand the data lifecycle, including problem formulation, data collection and cleaning, exploratory data analysis and visualisation, statistical inference and decision making. Additionally, you will have the chance to apply your knowledge in a research project on a subject of your choice.

You will be trained in a wide range of modern data science and analytics methods in the MSc in Data Analytics programme including the following modules:

Statistical Machine Learning, where you will be able to develop simple, but practical, statistical models for complex real-world data. The models can be used to automate decision making and predictions, such as detecting diseases or deciphering signals.

Algorithmic and Computational Mathematics that focuses on the in-depth study of key general algorithms, with their numerical implementation, which are the heart of data processing and modelling. This includes approximation techniques, interpolation, sampling, etc. that are practiced with hands-on coding.

Data Science Programming will teach you the use of Python and R for data analysis in scientific computing. You will learn how to use Python libraries such as: (i) NumPy and Pandas, for performing complex numerical analysis tasks; (ii) Scikit Learn, to build machine learning models; (iii) Matplotlib and R for 2D data visualisations and (iv) PyTorch, to develop deep learning applications.

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.

Understand some of the biggest debates in society and gain an in-depth knowledge of social processes, organizational dynamics, and inter-group relationships that could make a difference to society in a range of careers.

What you’ll learn
Sociology at Aston is about real-life experiences and how they relate to bigger social problems. 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. We assess public policy responses and where they are problematic.

Our teaching is informed by our research. When learning about contemporary topics such as inequality, racism, health, migration, sexuality, identity, education, the media, crime, and climate change, you will be taught by experts in these fields. Our teaching is constantly updated in light of our research findings.

Explore the social structures and issues that have shaped your own life and learn not just how to understand the world, but how to change it. Understand some of the biggest debates in society and develop the skills you need to research what matters to you.

What you’ll learn
Sociology and Social Policy at Aston are about real-life experiences and how they relate to bigger social problems. 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.