Master of Fine Arts in Professional Voice Practice

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

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

Our Retail, Business and Marketing option typically appeals to students who are excited about the practical aspects of textile design but have skills and interests in the business side of the creative industries and love working as part of a team. The focus on the course is on gaining a broad practical understanding of textile design and complement this with specific knowledge and experience of research, report-writing, planning, management and communication approaches.

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 within buying, marketing and visual merchandising departments within the retail sector, as well as work at magazines, with arts organizations and for trend prediction agencies.

If you want to study experimental performance in the UK, with or without a focus on sound, then these are the ideal courses for you.

Designed for emerging arts practitioners, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s brand new MMus courses in Experimental Performance provide you with a unique opportunity to undertake independent artistic projects in a fully supportive environment.

Available for the first time in September 2019, they enable practitioners from a variety of disciplines (including, but not limited to, instrumental/vocal performance, composition, dance, choreography, theatre, visual and performance art, creative writing) to come together with likeminded people.  This course doesn’t ask you to justify yourself against the background of tradition, but gives you agency. People from every discipline are treated equally with emphasis placed on rigorous conceptual thought and idea-development. By focusing on these non-discipline-specific aspects of performance you will contribute to a collaborative, discursive and interdisciplinary working environment.

The core of your study will be formed by your own artistic ideas, which are developed, through research and dialogue, into professional practical projects.

You will be allocated a mentoring team comprising a personal tutor who has experience in collaborative and conceptual approaches alongside additional specialist support according to your individual needs. Your mentoring team is there to help you realise your ideas into fully developed performances in the best possible way.

Our practical postgraduate fashion design course is an ideal choice if you are passionate about developing a career in Fashion Design.

You’ll develop all the skills and knowledge needed to strengthen your personal creativity and style by taking a professional approach to fashion design.

You will plan your career and benefit from a series of topical lectures which explore major issues linked to the world of fashion design, followed by talks from leading industry practitioners. Many of our graduates go on to start up their own, or even develop existing family businesses.

What's covered in this course?

Your learning will be focused on studio and workshop practice, featuring personal programs of study and joint lectures and seminars.

You’ll also enjoy specialist interpretations of art, craft and design supported by our highly experienced course team.

Based at our city-center Parkside campus, you will have access to a wide range of conventional and CAD facilities available including digital print, digital Jaquard and a Gerber fashion CAD suite, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with a faculty full of creative students.

Your learning environment will encourage you to become an adaptable, flexible and knowledgeable graduate, equipped to pursue a career in the fashion industry.

The BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing degree course will support you in developing a rigorous and creative writing practice, while also honing your critical and analytical abilities.

You will develop your writing, close-reading and research skills, and learn to craft different kinds of original writing – from critical argument to fiction. In the School of English, you will be taught by respected academics and practitioners offering a diverse range of modules.

You will study literature from various major periods, movements and genres. You will also have the opportunity to produce audio drama, screenplay, short stories and poetry. Your degree will allow you to tailor your studies to your individual interests and career aspirations with both a local and global outlook.      

What's covered in this course?

English and Creative Writing allows you to examine how language and literature engage with societies and cultures past and present, to develop a rigorous, creative and disciplined writing practice, and to express insights into contemporary concerns, affecting the way you and others see the world.

Through workshops with published authors you will hone your writing craft, experimenting with forms including audio drama, screenplay, short fiction, poetry and the novel. You will produce polished pieces of writing using creative and analytical approaches that complement your study of English.

You will benefit from student-focused and research-informed teaching in a friendly, supportive learning environment where you will be taught by respected academics and expert practitioners who foster a community of experimentation, innovation and inclusivity.

Our graduates are characterized by their inventiveness, critical thinking and intellectual curiosity, reflected in the skills and abilities that enables them to adapt to a wide range of career paths and employment opportunities. Throughout your studies, you will develop a range of transferable skills valued in the creative industries and beyond.

The School is committed to contributing to the cultural life of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. We do this through working closely with partner colleges and schools, by maintaining close links with cultural institutions such as the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG), and by working with agencies such as Writing West Midlands. In all of this we seek to widen participation and provide opportunities for the community to engage with the discipline and the University.

Want to study event management in Birmingham? Our BA (Hons) Event, Venue and Experience Management degree allows you to take a year-long placement in industry.

Over the past decade there has been a surge of careers in the global leisure sector that require best-in-class event, venue and guest experience managers.

This innovative and on-trend course will give you the skills, experience and insights to develop a career in the growing area of event management alongside a qualification from the CMI.

What's covered in this course?

Combining theory and practical application the course will draw heavily from practicing event, venue and experience leaders to cover multiple aspects such as marketing, project management, design, operations, analytics, digitization, experiential and client management. Where appropriate to the individual topics covered during the course, implications for sustainability will be identified that relate to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Building upon the insights and close business connections that Birmingham City Business School has made through its Academy of Multi-Unit Leadership (with over 600 graduate managers from industry-leading event and leisure organisations) this undergraduate course will provide the academic expertise and contacts to help you develop an exciting professional future. President of Genting UK, Paul Willcock, describes the course as ‘an exciting and innovative degree that provides exceptionally strong pathways into our industry'.

Do you want to be a design thinker? Is your goal to use a design strategy to transform businesses, cultures, and lives? Alternatively, do you want to develop your own design business? If your answer is yes, then this course is for you!

This course invites designers and non-designers to apply design thinking and business-speak to create innovative and purposeful outcomes. On this course, you sharpen your strategic edge through expanding your entrepreneurial and business capabilities. If you are a non-designer, you learn to be a creative thinker.

You bring the knowledge from your past education and practice, combine them with the subject knowledge of design management, and create solutions that are not just aesthetically pleasing but also functional, viable, and purposeful. The course brings excellent networking opportunities for you to facilitate knowledge building and collaborative learning.

On this postgraduate course, we teach you the interdisciplinary issues that design managers work with, such as business, marketing, technology, and art. Immersed in practice, you acquire the skills and the confidence to manage and lead a project. You are encouraged to push the boundaries and to put forward new, improved ideas that are innovative and purposeful.

Design thinking, design strategy, creativity, research, and problem-solving are applied extensively to all the modules. You undertake projects individually and in a team, where you learn communication, management, and interpersonal skills. You work with industry partners with the utmost professionalism. You pursue an industry-based inquiry, which may be a placement. And, you acquire and apply people management, client management, and project management tactics while working on industry projects and teams.

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.

This degree will put you at the heart of music in the UK, with coursework designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge, and experience, not just to work in, but to shape the music industry.

Music is one of the UK’s biggest cultural exports. It’s worth an estimated £5.2bn to the UK economy, and sustains almost 191,000 jobs.

The program is tailor made for anyone seeking to develop a career in music, or with an interest in music as relating to wider creative and cultural industries.

Studying in our industry-standard media centre in the heart of Birmingham, you’ll develop skills through a combination of hands-on learning, supported by critical investigation into the creative cultures, fans, and practices that make the UK music industries world-leading. You will have the opportunity to apply these skills and knowledge through work placements with key organisations within the UK music industries.

What's covered in this course?

You will develop and work on real-world music industries projects with clients, enabling you to add professional jobs to your portfolio. Our learning and teaching is informed by the changing demands of a vibrant and dynamic music industries, to make sure that you are industry ready.

If you want to take an in-depth look at promotion, music PR and music media, running a record label or producing music videos and websites, then this is the ideal course for you. It will help you to position yourself at the forefront of creating and developing innovative ideas, and exploring niche markets within the music industry.

While studying with us, you’ll have the opportunity to set up a record label, promote artists or organise a music event for a paying audience. You will develop practical business know how, applying your skills to a creative music enterprise project, as well as exploring music entrepreneurship, music online, music promotion and PR, music video, and television and music programming.

The MSc Advanced Computer Networks is the ideal course for those who intend to pursue/progress in the computer networks / network security industry. Whether you are looking to start a career in networking or to progress in your current career, we have designed this course with the most relevant and state of the art developments to give you practical technical experience in the domain of enterprise network design, penetration testing, network automation and more.

We have also taken an applied approach to incorporating research as part of the course, so for those interested in research careers and PhD studentships, this would be a strong stepping-stone. Throughout the course, you will have access to our advanced labs with racks of networking devices as well as our online NetLab system which gives you the ability to access real networking hardware from anywhere via internet. This gives you flexibility to work and practice around your own schedule.

We take pride in having close links with our industry partners and this course was designed to address the gap between academia and industry when it comes to required technical skills. While on the course, you will have access to a wealth of knowledge base and will have the opportunity to benefit from certification courses such as Cisco CCNA, CCNP, DevNet, JUNOS, PaloAlto PCNSA and many more which are all included as part of our academy courses.

Business Operations Management is a very popular management subject and leads to highly valued roles within the global job market due to the increasingly high value placed on it by industry.

It exists in every business no matter the size and industry, and it plays a key role directly affecting business performance and global economics. For example, as retail businesses transform their practices in the digital era with online shopping, the logistics industry is currently experiencing huge growth which is forecast to continue well into the future.

Professional Placement option

For our Global Business Operations 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.

Our MSc Automotive Engineering course will teach you the skills you need to become a highly-skilled engineer, capable of undertaking related tasks within and across different organisations.

Overall the course aims to produce skilled engineers capable of undertaking automotive engineering tasks within and across organisations utilising the latest tools and technologies. The course will encourage the application and development of modern engineering solutions to the problems of fuel efficiency and emissions abatement, as well as the improvement of vehicle performance and stability.

The course explores the wider context of sustainability and climate change, as well as the specific application of advanced control techniques to solve problems through research led powertrain and vehicle system-specific modules.

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.