Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Economics

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

Get practical, professional preparation for a career in media with our BA (Hons) Media and Communication degree course.

What's covered in this course?

This course is based in Birmingham City University's £62 million Parkside facility - one of the biggest university media centres in the UK.

Learn a wide array of the skills you’ll need for a rewarding career in the media on one of the UK’s longest-running media degree courses. Our BA (Hons) Media and Communication course mirrors the workflow of the industry, offering practical, professional preparation for a rewarding career.

Helped by strong links with many influential media organisations, the course offers an industry-relevant blend of production, theory and professional studies.

Teaching takes place in environments where you gain most, such as radio, TV and photography studios, editing suites, computer suites, as well as lecture theatres, seminar rooms, social learning spaces and online.

You will use blogs and employ social media channels along with other interactive media to support your work and self-development to become a thinking media worker.

Our BA (Hons) Applied Theatre aims to inspire the next generation of passionate and skilled theatre-makers. Our focus is on developing the skills and understanding needed to create compelling new performances and theatre projects with purpose. We are concerned not only with how we make theatre, but also why.

What's covered in this course?

The majority of what you will learn through studying Applied Theatre will be through practical experience. You will bring the skills and passion you have, and learn how to apply them; as well as gaining new skills in facilitation, devising, and all aspects of theatre-making. You will not only be creating new drama, but gaining the knowledge and understanding needed to engage communities, and exploring the world in the wide variety of environments covered by the term Applied Theatre – such as schools, community or health centres, prisons, hospitals, or out on the streets.

Our strong industry links and on-going relationships with many experienced practitioners and companies working in the field allow us to prepare you for a varied career. As the course progresses, you will work increasingly independently, spending six weeks of the second year on a full-time placement, and in the third year collaborating with fellow students in forming professional ‘companies’, working collectively in live situations. The course ends with a festival of Applied Theatre, which serves as a showcase of your work and a bridge to a wide range of employment.

At Royal Birmingham Conservatoire we believe that creating theatre with social and political objectives can have a significant impact on the lives of individuals and communities. We use performance as a tool to explore the world, raise awareness, educate, empower, and instigate real and lasting change.

As an emerging practitioner we will supply you with artistic space, autonomy and choice. With a primary focus on performance, you will also explore the reasons behind the work looking at its history and theories while developing an understanding of the need for constant research, discussion, reflection and development of your practice.

The MSc Building Surveying program with Facilities Management is designed to respond to the dynamic demands for sustainable management of the existing built environment and is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

What's covered in this course?

The course is founded on the principal that participants intend to attain membership of the RICS. The program, therefore, embraces the values of the RICS and reflects the requirements of the professional body in terms of core technical and professional skills and attributes. All students are expected to be student or graduate members of the RICS.

The Building Surveying course content and delivery is underpinned by the need to respond to the RICS Strategic Foresight 2030 report, including incorporation of the seven strategic pillars for the future within learning, teaching and assessment.

The course will provide you with a broad but solid foundation in the fundamentals of organising, managing, and designing work to existing buildings. It seeks to provide you with the knowledge and skills to meet the challenges presented by the globally evolving built environment marketplace.

This course focuses on developing and expanding the knowledge, understanding and ability of practitioners to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. You will receive a rigorous grounding in the advanced skills needed to operate at a high level in industry and become competent in the solving the problems and challenges you will face. You will also be able to add value to your decisions through a thorough analytical approach and be able to better implement them as a competent building surveyor.

The course encompasses the entirety of the property life cycle, allowing you to appreciate how decisions made in one aspect of a property’s development and use can have a significant impact later on in the life cycle.

Want to study a Film Production degree? Explore the fundamentals of technology in film, from narrative, composition and film theory to camera testing, designing digital production workflows and post-production.

Like the film industry itself, BSc Digital Film Production enables students to exercise a broad range of technical and creative skills with the support of the university’s cutting edge facilities and software, including our Parkside Media Centre.

What's covered in this course?

The Digital Film Production degree course combines a study of audiovisual technologies and production processes, with contextual investigations and production experience. You’ll develop knowledge, understanding and skills relevant to the production of digital film content and to the wider film, television and video industries.

You’ll focus on fundamental technical concepts, including the physics of sound and light being recorded during production (and the tools and techniques required to do this), as well as the technology used to digitally store and manipulate both images and audio in post-production.

When you graduate, you will be versatile, technically literate, and creative: well-equipped to perform a variety of craft roles within film, television and video production and will bridge the gap between technology specialists and creative artists.

Birmingham City University is a great place to study - the city has an active and accessible film-making community, and you will be studying in the same campus as undergraduates studying a range of arts, including acting, music, photography, fashion and theatre.

You’ll also be encouraged to engage with industry, with a number of flexible paths to help you gain work experience, including: basing selected modules around work experience, taking a placement year and working on commercial productions within the University.

Do you want to learn how to transform spaces? This innovative Interior Architecture and Design degree course covers a broad range of design possibilities, ranging from reordering to transforming space. Situated within Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, our course will provide you with the facilities and education that you’ll need to succeed within the industry, as well as offering excellent opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and networking with industry partners.

What's covered in this course?

Our BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design course provides you with the skills to transform or give new life to spaces, as well as teaching you how to plan and design creative interiors.

You will look at hierarchies and relationships between different spaces, describing these relationships in new ways. This industry-aligned degree course offers you the opportunity to study and practise the adaption and re-use of space within new and existing building stock, while also addressing aesthetics, human needs, materiality and more, as well as the ephemeral qualities of atmosphere, character, colour, light and shade.

Alongside the regeneration of existing space, you will discover new interior environments, in a broad range of industry sectors, such as hospitality, retail, leisure and residential, using an experimental approach to design to develop the refined techniques required for effective space planning, conceptual design, development, visualisation and the refurbishment of space.

Our pioneering MA Arts and Education Practices course focuses on the exploration of educational models at the intersection of practice, teaching and pedagogic theory.

The only Arts Education MA in the UK based in a School of Art, we provide a unique platform for the art educator. This setting helps to facilitate an innovative community of experienced and aspiring art educators, welcoming those willing to critique current practices to ask not only how we should teach art, but also how art can teach us.

What's covered in this course?

Our students come from diverse phases and sectors in the field of art and design education and the expanded fields of gallery, community and self-organised educational practices. Through the course individual perspectives and experiences meet with those of your peers providing you with the stimulation and challenges that different perceptions can bring. We seek to evolve a dialogue through direct experience and engagement with the arts and their value as taught subjects, both within the institution and outside of it.

Our taught modules strengthen your subject knowledge and connect you with contemporary creative and educational practice.

MA Arts and Education students follow a core modular structure that explores the past, current and future practice of arts education. You can personalize your learning through your choice of an optional module and pursue your interests within the expanded field of arts education through research and practice.

The structure of the course enables you to focus your research within the context of your own creative field and workplace. Through this study you build independent research leading to your major project that can be focused through educational models, workshops, creative practice and encounters that inform and are responsive to art educational contexts.

The course offers opportunities to connect with and expand your knowledge of your creative field through collaboration, live projects and visits that explore educational situations and projects.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit-bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviors at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

The Popular Music degree course provides the training and skills necessary for a wide range of careers within the music industry.

You will develop understanding of the global commercial music sector, study musical output and techniques, and improve your creativity, professionalism and practical musicianship to a level needed for graduate employment.

This full three-year Honours degree develops both the practical and transferable skills required to make you industry-ready, and the contextual understanding and academic rigour inherent in high-level study.

What's covered in this course?

Awarded by Birmingham City University, this is a high-level course with experienced staff and excellent resources. With 3 recording studios, 7 rehearsal rooms, 2 sequencing suites and a 600-capacity working venue on site, you will enjoy the exciting, creative opportunities and supportive environment.

Your principal study can be in performance, music technology, live sound or composition. The course takes a holistic approach to musical study, with every student developing a broad range of skillsets required to become successful music professional. Assessments are varied and innovative, and often modelled on real industry practice.

You will study the theory, wider contexts and contemporary issues surrounding the global music industry and there will be regular visits from industry experts and artists. You will also develop the musical and creative skills required by a performer, composer or producer, learn how to work well in teams and demonstrate leadership, organization and decision-making skills. This course will help you to develop a profile suitable for an artist looking for employment within the music industry, and to develop a clear conceptual understanding of connected issues and narratives, researching deeply into current musicology and practice.

Our BA (Hons) Textile Design degree courses nurture fresh thinking and industry-ready creatives through a dynamic and carefully structured three-year program.

Many students enjoy the challenge of creating fabrics from scratch. Our Knit and Weave option lends itself to methodical thinkers who have a good understanding of materials and enjoy their transformation. The focus is on construction – in all its forms – knitting, knotting, linking, crossing, weaving and tufting. Whilst drawing is still key, students learn to use it creatively to plan and problem-solve, to support ideas that often develop directly through sampling.

From hand-construction approaches to using industry-standard digital weave equipment and three-dimensional printing, there is the scope to experiment and innovate.

Studying with us will provide you with the skills, insights and experiences required to succeed in a broad scope of professional textile-related roles. Knit and Weave students secure placements with design studios, mills, manufacturers and retailers – companies who need expertise in knowing about the properties of materials, how they function and react.

If you are interested in working in the global cosmetics industry and have an interest in the branding and promotion of beauty and cosmetics products and services then this course is for you. You will develop a range of practical business, creative and entrepreneurial skills and have the opportunity to research key and current trends in the beauty and cosmetics industry.

Your personal program of study is supported by visits to appropriate cosmetics and beauty industry events or organizations and/or interviews of professionals involved in cosmetics or beauty services promotion.

What's covered in this course?

On the course you will get involved in blogging, social media, website development, entrepreneurship and brand development.

You’ll be actively encouraged to take part in debates about the professional, educational, political and cultural implications of beauty and cosmetics in modern societies around the world.

You will also explore and use different research methods to investigate the branding and promotion of beauty services and cosmetics through marketing, advertising, events management, publicity or public relations.

By the end of the course you will have gained the ability to apply the knowledge, skills and methodologies of cosmetics branding and promotion to the analysis of complex cosmetics branding and promotion issues, and to the expression of sophisticated marketing, advertising concepts.

You will also have developed the ability to identify personal, career and practical goals related to cosmetics branding and promotion including work experience and entrepreneurship.

The MSc Civil Engineering prepares students for the highest level of achievement in Civil Engineering and beyond. It provides a broad coverage of the State-of-the-Art in contemporary Civil Engineering research and practice, equipping graduates with the skills needed to succeed in the contemporary marketplace.

Professional Placement option

The Professional Placement option will allow you to complete a credit-bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.  Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.