Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (STEM) with Professional Placement

at Birmingham City University - City Centre Campus United Kingdom

Our BSc (Hons) Financial Economics degree prepares you for a career in the financial sector as a financial economist, analyst, planner, investment analyst, or in a similar role.

Our degree provides both sound theoretical knowledge and technical skills which are highly sought-after by employers. This degree is built on core principles of economics, which are then applied to financial markets and institutions.

The course uses a unique pluralist approach that will empower you to understand competing economic ideas, think critically and apply your knowledge in your daily life and in your future workplace. Our degree is highly flexible, and apart from studying core economics subjects, you will be able to select optional modules which are most suitable for your own learning needs and career goals.

You will be able to benefit from unique set of modules, for example: Date Intelligence, Financial Modelling, Investment and Portfolio Management, Real Estate Economics and Financial Bubbles, as well as a capstone Business Advice or Economics Research Project. Moreover, you will learn advanced methods of quantitative analysis, econometrics, and IT skills using relevant industry-specific software to assist you to become a job-ready graduate.

You will be taught by industry-experienced academics who bring real world practical knowledge to the classroom. You will be able to work on life client projects with our Business Advice Centre that will give your exposure to challenges and issues faced by businesses and a chance to develop successful solutions. You will be right in the hub of the vibrant city and be surrounded by other likeminded students on a variety of economics, business, finance and accounting degrees.

During your studies you will benefit from international exposure on different levels. All modules delivered within this course contains teaching material based on international data; thus, your knowledge and expertise will not be limited by the UK alone. Our course is delivered by a multinational team of experts.

Our BSc (Hons) Financial Economics degree is highly applied and we pay special attention to developing your transferable skills that will prepare you for a wide range of careers both in public and private sector, providing you with a range of options depending on your career aspirations.

Want to study both psychology and criminology at University? Our BSc (Hons) Psychology with Criminology degree combines both subjects and allows you to take a year-long industry placement.

Our innovative criminology and psychology course will give you a deep understanding of how the core and specialised areas in psychology and criminology contribute to our understanding of contemporary issues.

You will apply scientific reasoning and evaluate patterns of behaviour, gaining key transferable skills in communication, teamwork and problem-solving. Additionally, you will also learn how psychology can be applied to explain certain aspects of crime and criminal behaviour.

What's covered in this course?

This versatile course provides the opportunity for you to embark on a psychology career, or bring those skills to the domain of criminology.

Over the three years, your Psychology modules will help you gain a deep understanding of one’s mind, behavior and reasons why individuals carry out certain actions, while your Criminology modules will help you understand the relationship between the different aspects of crime and victimisation.

Our focus on contemporary and innovative learning practices will help you gain key employability skills, such as communication, teamwork and problem-solving, as well as key skills in two innovative, intriguing disciplines.

Want to study a health psychology Master’s in Birmingham? Our MSc Health Psychology is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

With the shifting emphasis in governance and health-related policy papers, health psychology continues to grow in popularity.

Communities are dynamic and always changing, so our understanding and support of health, wellbeing and behavioural changes needs to be considerate of all diverse groups. On our BPS accredited MSc Health Psychology course, you will study a range of techniques and methods, ensuring you graduate with the skills you need to be a competent, knowledgeable health psychology practitioner.

What's covered in this course?

We will provide you with a detailed understanding of the key theoretical and applied issues in health psychology. These include the key psychological theories and applications which support behaviour change, addressing disease prevention and enhancing health and wellbeing, managing health, health promotion and health interventions, and self-reflection on your own learning and development.

Contemporary health issues will be put into context at local, national and international levels, exposing you to issues which cover the globe as well as local areas.

You’ll be taught how to submit a research ethics proposal, which will address a health issue with the use of psychology. You will also learn how to complete a mini systematic review, which will provide a rationale for your health psychology project, and how to evaluate and conduct analysis. You will also enhance your skills in communication, presentation and group work.

This course will create graduates with a sound understanding of the theory and practice of AI in industry. As a conversion course we will assume all students are starting fresh with no experience of computer programming and little experience of using mathematics or statistics in their undergraduate programs or in work.

What's covered in this course?

We will begin by creating a foundation in programming and mathematics upon which we will build the expertise in several key areas of artificial intelligence, going from your first Python code and basic algebra right through to Deep Learning. The core applied areas of data science that will be taught will include:

• Data Visualisation and Interpretation - Analysis that can’t be properly interpreted, explained and understood is a waste of time from a commercial point of view. We will teach you how to generate attractive and interpretable visualizations and tell the story of whatever data you’re working with to a range of audiences.
• Image Analysis - Machine learning has shown incredible results recently in understanding the themes of images and video which are being applied in a range of commercial settings; from security and driverless cars, to online clothes shopping.
• Natural Language Processing - Being able to understand speech and text is one of the cornerstones of artificial intelligence systems. Chatbots built on AI are appearing all over the internet, but more than this technology giants are searching for ways that machines can have detailed conversations with one-another and to be able to read and understand text documents.
• Time Series - Dealing with dynamic data is vital to AI systems in finance, AI and defence; whether predicting the future of stock prices to predicting patient outcomes in ICU and how a virus outbreak will permeate through a population.

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.

You will be responsible for finding and securing your own placement. The University, however, will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will also benefit from support sessions delivered by Careers+ as well as advice and guidance from your School.

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 BA (Hons) Acting is designed to develop you practically, personally and professionally and prepare you for this challenging industry. We have carefully designed a contemporary course that will train you for a creative career in front of a stage, screen or radio audience. You will receive specialist training in voice, movement and singing, graduating with the skill and aptitude to take on the exciting and dynamic world of the dramatic arts.

This course equips you with the skills you need to become a professional actor; continually stretching and challenging you to reach new levels of personal achievement and self-discovery. As a vocational actor training course, full commitment and attendance would be expected.

What's covered in this course?

Complete your training in a supportive environment alongside your dedicated peers. With a proactive attitude you will achieve the high standard of skill and adaptability that is required of professional actors in the industry today

Your classes will mainly be studio-based sessions, focusing on the practical application of acting, voice, movement and singing. For some modules you will have timetabled rehearsal time, where you will work in groups to produce material.

During the final year of your training you will get the opportunity to make a showreel, perform showcases to industry professionals, and be cast in professional productions staged in external theatres. In the first two years you will apply and develop your skills, getting regular opportunities to perform to your peer group and to invited audiences.

A law degree is an important first step into a career in law, as well as an important foundation on the route to many other careers, and Birmingham City University is a long-established provider of legal education to the Birmingham legal community and beyond.

This course has been developed to enable anyone wishing to qualify as a solicitor or barrister to undertake this first, important academic stage of their career. To achieve this, the course has been designed to align with the subjects that you will need to study further in order to successfully undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), while also meeting the requirements of the Bar Standards Board for an undergraduate law degree.

What's covered in this course?

The study of law is both academic and practical, and therefore both of these are important elements in the LLB (Hons) degree at BCU. Theory and academic study are important on an LLB, but so too is the application of that knowledge, and so our LLB (Hons) degree offers plenty of opportunity for you to develop the practical lawyering skills, as well as the transferable skills enhancing your employability, that graduates will need when entering the workplace.

The different pathways on the LLB course will allow you to make decisions regarding the direction in which you want to take your studies, with named degrees in Law with American Legal Studies, Law with Business Law, and Law with Criminal Justice, as well as a broad range of optional modules ranging from more theoretical topics through to those aimed at the practical application of the law in real-world situations.

You will also have the opportunity to put those skills to practical use, both in the local community and beyond. Whether that is through our programme of placement opportunities with local providers such as Citizen’s Advice and various legal advice charities, through opportunities in the local legal community, or via BCU’s own Law Clinic, established to serve the local community from our City Centre campus, there are plenty of options available to you.

You can also apply your legal knowledge further afield, through our US internship programme which has been placing students with attorneys throughout the US for over 20 years. A professional placement year is also available, between years 2 and 3 of the degree, offering further opportunity for you to put your knowledge and skills to practical use, and thereby enhancing your CV further.

By focussing on the development of a range of transferable skills, the course employs numerous innovative assessment methods, going beyond the typical forms of written academic assessment.

You are also encouraged to engage in extra-curricular activities to support your learning, with student societies such as the highly successful Mooting Society. Furthermore, you will have the ability to engage with the wider Birmingham legal community through our connections with the Birmingham Law Society, the largest regional law society in the UK.

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.

BA (Hons) Fashion Imaging will enable you to become highly creative, innovative and employable fashion imagemakers. By effectively embracing new and traditional technologies with an open and experimental approach, you will learn how to create exciting and challenging fashion imagery.

Professional Placement Year

Every student has the option of a professional placement year, taken in your third year of study, making the course four years in total. This gives you the opportunity to gain important industry experience in preparation for your third year and significantly increase your chances of direct employment after you graduate.

Future Media is a postgraduate MA program that does what it says:

• Future is finding your future and exploiting future developments in the digital marketing and advertising industry.
• Media is acquiring your digital media skill-set amongst evolving trends and emerging technologies.

The MA Future Media program combines agency practice with industry insights and academic methods. It's been a proven pathway to success for our graduates since 2012 and is now a winning formula for the 2020s.

What's covered in this course?

Our courses ensure you gain real-world experience and knowledge so you can hit the ground running when you graduate. In your year on the program, you’ll be planning digital marketing and advertising campaigns with digital agencies, developing brand and product promotions with clients, making mobile, social and virtual content with leading industry professionals and building new user journeys with emerging technologies and state-of-the-art resources.

You’ll tackle challenging briefs in diverse teams with industry partners to build your proficiency: MA students tend to choose broad, strategic and creative roles. Either way, we’ll give you the tools you need to realise your ambitions.