Master of Arts in Creativity, Making and Innovation Practice with Professional Placement

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

The dynamic and fast-moving industry of investment offers wide variety of careers; it demands professionals with high level of finance knowledge, technical skills and the abilities that quickly adopt to new challenges.

The MSc Finance & Investment degree at Birmingham City University will equip you with the knowledge, skills and abilities required to start a graduate-level career and make a difference in the industry.

As the investment professionals of the future, you will gain knowledge as well as the essential soft skills like adaptability and lifelong learning skills. While you progress throughout the course, you will become more effective and creative in problem-solving. You will develop ways of analysing and thinking about investments that will remain with you in the years ahead when new and different investment opportunities become available.

Professional Placement option

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 Professional Placement will enhance your employability and transferable skills and allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. These skills enrich your experience and provide an added advantage in your endeavors to pursue their future professional careers in a highly competitive industry.

Looking to study a postgraduate accounting course in Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest City? Are you also looking to study ACCA to become part of a huge global network of highly skilled professionally qualified accountants?

Our MSc International Professional Accounting (ACCA) degree is directly aligned with the Strategic Level professional examinations of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) professional body. The course is a professional and practice-based level 7 Masters and aims to provide you with enhanced employment prospects.

This is an ideal opportunity to combine your studies towards achieving a high-quality Master's level degree award whilst also studying towards the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Strategic Professional examinations.

The ACCA do not grant exemptions from their essential strategic professional papers but this course is designed to fully prepare to undertake these professional body exams. The successful completion of this Masters course does not provide you with the ACCA qualification; however, the course is designed to prepare you for the rigour of the external professional examinations.

Our status as a Platinum Approved Learning Partner of the ACCA reflects the quality of our course provision and excellence in the standard of our tuition.

Professional Placement option

For our International Professional Accounting 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.

Shoot into the film industry with the world's first Master’s degree in film distribution and marketing. Available as a one-year intensive full-time course,  our MA Film Distribution and Marketing has been designed with industry to reflect the growing need for entrepreneurial producers, marketers and distribution experts.

Graduates from this course have secured roles with companies such as Koch Media (Germany), Kaleidoscope Films (UK), GFM Films (UK) and Red Arrow Media (Europe). You will have an opportunity to experience work placements during the course with previous placements including major industry players such as FilmNation (US) and Sony Picture Classics (US).

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.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, our BA (Hons) Marketing with Advertising and Public Relations degree gives you the practice-based skills needed to succeed in the ever-changing discipline of marketing.

This approach not only gives you the marketing knowledge needed but also the personal skills employers demand, allowing you to make an immediate impact upon graduation. This experience is further enhanced by the opportunity to undertake a yearlong placement.

Businesses value marketing more than ever due to its ability to identify opportunities, shape experiences and drive profits. It is an ever-evolving discipline, constantly responding to changes in technology and consumer behaviour.

To be successful in this exciting area not only requires a depth understanding of the core principles, but also relies on having the acumen and practical abilities to apply and adapt this knowledge in a wide variety of scenarios. This in-demand course has been designed to give you the practical and professional skills that employers seek through our practice-based learning approach.

Designed for recent graduates and suitably qualified mature students, our taught Master of Music (MMus) Orchestral Conducting courses provide the technical training, collaborative opportunities and podium time necessary to help you prepare for a career as a professional conductor. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is currently the most exciting destination for orchestral conductors, with an active concert schedule.

As a Principal Study Orchestral Conductor, you'll be offered individual tuition from our staff conductors, and also from the many distinguished guest conductors who work with our ensembles and orchestras on an occasional basis throughout the year.

You'll work across the whole spectrum of the Conservatoire’s music-making, from core contemporary repertoire and student composition projects, through the central romantic and classic masterpieces back to period performance techniques.

It's normal for conducting students to be proactive in presenting performances of projects that they've generated themselves. You'll receive support and professional advice in pursuing such projects, which should be viewed as an essential element of your studies. Both PgDip and MMus courses provide excellent opportunities to develop other skills relevant to a future career in the music profession.

The MA in Data Journalism is a cutting-edge course designed to give you the interactive storytelling skills needed to work within a growing number of jobs in the media and beyond.

The course has relationships with Huffpost and the BBC, as well as a number of other organisations covering broadcast, online and print data journalism, all of which are keen to bring in the skills that you will be developing on the course. You should indicate on your application in you wish to be considered for opportunities with those organisations during the course.

Studying under internationally renowned course leaders in a city with a vibrant cultural sector, and with access to a range of media organizations, you’ll learn exciting new skills in data journalism and interactive storytelling across a range of contexts, from mobile-first data journalism on social platforms to practising data-driven journalism within online and broadcast newsroom contexts. Partnerships with newspaper, magazine, online and broadcast organisations provide unique opportunities for students to build contacts and experience, and work on live projects.

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

Our Fibre Arts option typically appeals to students who enjoy the process of making and are interested in producing work that transcends commercial design in the form of textile art or installations aimed at gallery exhibitions. Students who take this route often enjoy working with mixed media and will choose to engage with traditional techniques such as weaving, dying, macramé, felting, paper-making and many more unconventional approaches. The focus on the course is exploring and developing a clear personal identity to creative work and an understanding of where it sits within the artistic field. Alongside, you will develop the skills and confidence to apply for funding, residency and exhibition opportunities with which to build a career.

Studying with us will provide you with the skills, insights and experiences required to succeed in a broad scope of professional textile-related roles. Students secure placements with arts organisations, styling companies, galleries and within education.

By the end of your degree you will have a clear vision of where you fit in the industry and a tailored professional portfolio to take with you. Our BA (Hons) Textile Design: Fibre Art students go on to find employment as Textile Artists, Creative Facilitators, Arts Coordinators, Designer Makers and Curators. They also take up other roles where their material sensitivity, creativity and problem-solving is valued.

Our brand new hub for the arts in the thriving Eastside of the city has been purpose-built to stimulate creative minds within an open-access, contemporary studio environment. You will become a part of our lively and close-knit student community and be guided by an experienced and passionate team of staff who value the importance of getting to know you as an individual.

The Business Management with Enterprise course will offer you a practical based degree applicable to a wide range of sectors.

You will be able to contribute to critical debates on industry related contemporary issues and understand the dynamic needs of business managers in the 21st century to reflect current knowledge and best practices.

You will gain specialist knowledge on a number of core functions of management, building your self-confidence to prepare you for a progressive and successful career in management. Exciting opportunities including integrated work projects and business placements in the UK or abroad are all featured in your course, therefore your career can start whilst achieving your qualification. You will have the benefit of renowned industry speakers and live projects to inspire and help you to develop.

The course provides a route for those interested in development and sustainability of new enterprises, offering a route for launching their own enterprise or being entrepreneurial within an organisation. Whether you have an idea in mind or like the idea of launching something new and different, taking the enterprise route maybe for you.

You will be exposed to key enterprise modules which will help you get from idea to launch underpinned by academic theory. This route which will be embedded throughout your programme will look to develop your entrepreneurial skills, abilities and behaviours, provide you with the tools you need to become a future entrepreneur. Similarly, the Business Management course embeds the UN Sustainable Development Goals as an integral part of the course.

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.

Our BA (Hons) Illustration degree course aims to give those with a passion for image-making and illustration the skills they need to capture and communicate ideas through pictures. We celebrate the challenge of finding your individual visual voice through experimenting, risk-taking and critical reflection. You will also explore how your work can be applied across a wide range of contexts, from commercial work to personally-driven projects.

This course provides an opportunity to development a wide range of transferable skills and design process knowledge that is highly desirable to employers.

What's covered in this course?

Our challenging and exciting Illustration course will help you develop new skills and different ways of thinking, enabling you to find your own individual, visual voice and prepare you for the ever-changing creative industry.

The course celebrates the synthesis between illustration and all the other visual communication subject disciplines, leading to the development of strong student collaborations that again aims to reflect industry practice.

We support a lively creative community, encouraging the value of peer learning. This learning is supplemented by an integrated workshop programme that provides the opportunity to work alongside, and be informed by, industry experts from a wide range of disciplines.