Master of Arts in Creative Writing

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

Our BSc (Hons) Visual Effects course will develop your technical, creative and production skills, related to visual effects production. The course will prepare you to pursue careers in a range of roles within visual effects and other innovative industries utilising computer graphics.

You will have access to a variety of high quality facilities including: a range of industry-standard software, high specification computers, cloud-based rendering facilities, a Vicon motion capture studio, one of the largest fixed green screen studios in the UK, a Milo motion control system, a variety of camera and lighting equipment and excellent learning facilities with access to substantial library open 24 hours and a variety on-line resources.

The course is delivered by a highly skilled and experienced course team, with a range of relevant industrial and academic experience, who constantly engage with industry and update their skills, to ensure the course remains up to date.

To ensure that you are equipped and ready to engage with industry our tutoring program and Graduate+ scheme will provide support and guidance through-out your educational journey to equip you with professional skills and prepare you for industry. The course aims to produce versatile, adaptable graduates with the fusion of technical and creative skills that industry is looking for.

Digital Transformation is an innovative MSc degree course designed for those who want to pursue careers as managers and leaders in implementing technology-based information systems solutions and managing technological transformation within organisations.

What's covered in this course?

Digital Transformation Specialists must understand the complex relationships between people, information, processes and technology in order to support business with digital development. The course will equip you with the requisite multi-dimensional skillset necessary to help organisations unleash their potential to thrive in an inclusive digital society aligned with the innovative application of digital technology to transform organisations, industries and societies.

You will learn:

• Strategic IS Planning: How to develop a strategic IS/IT plan that is aligned to the strategic information needs of the business.
• Enterprise Systems: How to manage the business processes to support the organisation to gain competitive advantage, improve performance, reduce operational cost, implement efficient business processes, and improve real-time decision-making capabilities via Enterprise Systems (ES), which incorporates ERP, CRM, SCM, and so forth.
• Technology Optimisation and Integration: How to analyse the current business IT status, plan technology solutions and develop a roadmap for legacy systems migration.
• Digital Change Management: How to address the socio-technology challenges of leveraging value from the IS/IT in the digital society using agile methods. This involves making sense of the business requirements in order to ensure the end products will solve the business problem.
• Business Intelligence and Technology Entrepreneurship: How to manage and apply a range of visualisation tools to analyse and make business sense of data lakes, and to exploit data to construct informed business decisions.
• Principles of Project Management: How to deliver strategic value within an organisation and ensure the project (or business solution) is completed on time, within budget, within scope and at the desired performance level.
• Individual Master’s Project: A practice-based module working in collaboration with an organization or research-based project within the Socio-Technical Systems Research group to apply multi-disciplinary skills to design innovative solutions to the challenges of digital transformation.

Serious about working in games? Then enrol at the industry-endorsed finishing school for games developers and artists.

Gamer Camp: Pro (MA and MSc Video Games Development) has been created in partnership with the likes of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Codemasters, Rare and Exient.

We aim to help you become the perfect recruit for development studios within the game industry, uniquely combining professional, multidisciplinary game development practice with the latest industry insights and tools.

It's a winning formula. With mentoring from industry veterans and support from leading game development teams, our graduates are prepared for success. Recent graduates are employed by companies including Creative Assembly, Ubisoft and Codemasters.

What's covered in this course?

The course was founded by Oliver Williams (Deputy Head of the Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts) and Guy Wilday, former Studio Director at SEGA Racing Studio (SEGA Rally) and Head of Studio at Codemasters (Colin McRae Rally), currently Development Director at Sony's London Studio. It was developed in partnership with the industry to provide a ‘finishing school’ that produces work-ready graduates with the practical skills they need to be successful. Many companies recruit directly from the course, giving you access to jobs that you would not come across elsewhere.

You will get specialist skills training, mentoring and support from leading game developers, the chance to develop a working game that can be published, and experience every stage of the game development cycle. You will receive real game briefs, training and mentoring from industry partners such as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Exient, Mediatonic, Rare and Codemasters.

Working in teams in your own game development studio, you will be provided with all the software you need for the duration of the course. You will create a fully working game for a series of platforms, culminating in the development of a working PlayStation4 game prototype for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Want to study a Master’s in finance management? Our MSc Management and Finance degree is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Our Management and Finance course teaches you the fundamental skills and attributes you need to become a successful international manager in the finance sector. You’ll become adept at strategic and tactical business decisions, developing core skills in managerial finance and managing and motivating staff in businesses on an international scale.

What's covered in this course?

Initially in the first stage, you will examine the key challenges faced by global businesses to fully appreciate the complexity and dynamics of leadership and management practice. This will see you broaden your skills in organisation, communication and working with others, particularly within an increasingly diverse cultural context.

During the second stage of your course, you will explore international financial management, including international investment strategies, Capital Asset Pricing and the financial aspects of national and international merger and acquisitions. You’ll learn how to navigate the risks of foreign exchange rates and the intricacies of dividend policy theory and practice for international firms.

You’ll be taught international business strategy while also developing your research skills in preparation for your major project. In addition to the Major project, you will also study both personal and institutional portfolio management, covering key areas such as shares, bonds, property chattels and commodities, and fund management principles and issues.

Professional Placement option

For our Management Master's degrees, you will have the opportunity to take the Professional Placement version of the course, which 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 and transferable skills. The placement experience will allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.

Are you interested in understanding business concepts and how to use IT to serve business needs?

Our Business Information Technology degree gives you the skills to make IT work for businesses.

Business Information Technology bridges the gap between IT and Business to drive innovation and growth in the modern global organisation. It embeds a systems philosophy of connectivity, to offer an in-depth understanding of business concepts and how to use IT to serve business needs. It will also provide essential skills that will facilitate communicating and discussing technical and business ideas effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.

What's covered in this course?

You will work collaboratively with tutors, researchers and businesses, applying practice-based skills to real-life case studies and live project briefs which will develop your problem-solving and analytical skills. Learn how to think like a coder, to influence the design, development and use of information systems and technology in organizations.

You will also gain an in-depth understanding on how organizations can harness the data to improve decision-making. In a summary, this course will give you the skills and knowledge to make IT work for businesses.

Develop your technical, research, design and organizational ability, and leave with the skills employers want.

Work in our advanced software development and computer programming labs, using dedicated facilities for systems analysis, networking, e-commerce and business intelligence – all of which reflect advanced professional practice.

MA Creativity, Making and Innovation Practice is a creative, future-thinking Master's course. It is designed as a multi-disciplinary practice-based program that combines creativity, innovation, technology and enterprise.

Addressing challenges on a range of societal issues, you will research and develop concepts and prototypes. Working collaboratively, in an open lab environment, you will be supported by technical and innovation experts.

Students on the course will apply their previous experience in creative, artistic, design, making, engineering or computing backgrounds.

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 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.

Design and visualisation plays a key role in many of today’s businesses and organisations. From designing complex animations, brand identity, 3D products, virtual interiors, landscape, architectural visualisation and new conceptual designs, employers look for graduates with creativity and knowledge-based software skills.

You can choose to study from a variety of cross disciplinary MA modules in which to learn how to apply design visualisation techniques and strategies. Choose from areas such as product design, interior design, graphic design and various other specialisations.

Want to study a Master’s in management in Birmingham? Our MSc Management and Entrepreneurship course is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The Management and Entrepreneurship MSc is a challenging but highly rewarding pathway that will provide an innovative gateway into starting your own business, as well as helping you develop a legitimate business plan that you can use to start your company. Our Management and Entrepreneurship course teaches you the fundamental skills and attributes you need to become a successful entrepreneur.

You will work in internationally diverse student teams, collaborating to deliver effective and professional reports, reflecting the professional practice of international management. Throughout the course, the course team will give you the support you need to realise your potential, and we look forward to working with you to develop your knowledge, understanding and skills for the career of your choice.

What's covered in this course?

At Stage One you’ll become adept at strategic and tactical business decisions, developing core skills in key areas, including finance, people management, operations and marketing. You will examine the key challenges faced by global businesses, to fully appreciate the complexity and dynamics of leadership and management practice. This will see you broaden your skills in organisation, communication and working with others, particularly within an increasingly culturally diverse business context.

Stage Two develops your specialist knowledge, understanding and skills via the New Venture Creation module which specifically focuses on the applied aspects of entrepreneurial activity. In parallel, you will also learn about strategic management and develop your skills in research practice to prepare for your major project.

The Stage Three module of Entrepreneurship in Practice is a lecture and seminar series of specialist topics giving real-world practical insights into entrepreneurship practice. You will explore critical issues faced by entrepreneurs, such as entrepreneurship capital, buying a business, succession planning and start-up marketing. You will be given the option to develop your business concept into a substantial piece of research and business plan via the Entrepreneurship Project module. You will be able to self-appraise and reflect on your entrepreneurship skills at all three stages of the course.

Professional Placement option

For our MSc Management and Entrepreneurship degree, you will have the opportunity to take the Professional Placement version of the course, which 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 and transferable skills. The placement experience will allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.

BSc (Hons) / MSci Computer Games Technology is a course that focusses on the technical expertise required to develop computer games. The core modules deep-dive into 2D and 3D graphics rendering, physics, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction required for the development of high-end computer games platforms. The course will also involve working in small and large multi-disciplinary (creative and technical) teams for the development of computer games.

While studying your computer games degree, you will use our state-of-the-art computer games technology lab, which is kitted with high-performance PCs with dual monitors and cutting edge GPUs, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and XBox development kits, as well as a variety of industry-standard software.

Our collaborations with Microsoft, Unity and Sony, coupled with our state-of-the-art technology will help you develop the skills you need to be successful in the games industry and beyond.

This course aims to develop critical, current, analytical and agile graduates, who:

• Produce computer games in a legal and ethical manner;
• Have a diverse understanding of the key issues that exist in games development;
• Combine the critical faculties that derive from a traditional academic degree with the professional skills and flexibility needed to get the best jobs in the games development industry;
• Can manage their own personal development and lifelong learning;
• Are equipped to be familiar with a variety of contemporary industry tools and agile enough to respond to new technologies and consumer trends.

Experiment with materials, techniques and processes on a highly respected jewellery design degree course. You are encouraged to pursue innovation, challenge conventions and push the boundaries of the discipline.

You will develop practical skills alongside intellectual engagement and inventive thinking. Creative problem solving is a continuous thread, where a questioning attitude and experimental approach to materials, perceptions, concepts and outcomes is encouraged.

Individuality is fundamental to your creative development, personal philosophy and direction. The School is uniquely positioned in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter enabling you to be fully immersed in the industry from the first day of your studies.

What's covered in this course?

This practical degree is an internationally-respected jewellery design course. It gives you the freedom to develop your own creativity by encouraging you to experiment with a variety of ideas, materials, processes and techniques.

You’ll be supported and encouraged to create innovative designs to a high standard of professionalism, and have the chance to enter competitions and awards.

In your first year of study, the focus is on developing traditional processes followed by experimental materials investigation, allowing you to enter the second year with a range of skills and the confidence to explore various optional topics, live and collaborative projects.