Bachelor of Applied Science in Global Challenges (Social Cohesion)

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

Our Digital Design BSc degree is a modern, hands-on course that combines digital technology and creative design. It has been developed to equip you with the knowledge and practical skills to create, design and develop interactive and engaging digital products, services and experiences, and 2D/3D graphical content.

You will be introduced to creative technologies and motion design. You’ll learn about UX design and development for the web, digital graphic design and video production. You'll also study digital photography, 3D design and 3D animation. You will then progress to skills in the design and development of more complex digital artefacts for current and future mobile, web and IoT applications involving 3D design and animation, media aesthetics, motion graphics and immersive mixed reality. In your final year, you can choose from modules in digital experiences and creative technology design with additional options in advanced animation and advanced digital graphics and motion design.

Professional and transferable skills required for working in the creative digital industries are developed throughout each year of the course.

Our modern, industry standard digital media facilities include a green screen and post-production studio, motion capture, sound and photography studios, 4K digital cinema cameras, and a dedicated render farm. You'll have independent access to exclusive PC and Mac computing workshops and benefit from the latest industry standard specialist software for graphic design and image/video editing, 3D animation, digital compositing and rich interactive content creation. There's also the opportunity for you to use our immersive virtual environment laboratory. This includes an immersive dome (planetarium) set up for Brunel by the National Space Centre in Leicester, and is one of only a few in the UK!   

There are guest lectures covering lots of different digital media topics and the visiting lecturers provide industry insight and advice on how to structure your portfolio and showreels. Speakers include creative and design directors, user experience designers, 3D graphic supervisors, as well as mobile and web developers.

Visits are arranged to design agencies, TV and photography studios, and post-production houses. There’s also the opportunity to go to conferences and this is your chance to build networks with key industry experts. In addition, you have the advantage of Brunel’s close location to London for trips to exhibitions celebrating the creative industries.

The course can be studied full-time over three years, or four years with a placement year. We encourage the placement year option. This time in industry helps you to further prepare for the world of work and you’ll have a year’s worth of invaluable professional experience when you graduate. If you decide to go on a digital media placement year, you will have the opportunity of working in the ever-growing creative industries.

The end-of-year highlight is the BrunelDigital degree show hosted on Brunel’s one London campus. Exhibiting your creative work at this event is a great way for you to connect with leading creative technologists and showcase your talent.

Brunel’s digital design course is fully accredited and industry recognised by ScreenSkills, the industry-led skills body for the UK’s screen-based industries. It carries the ScreenSkills Select quality mark which indicates that it is best suited to prepare you for a career in the screen industries. An added benefit as a student on this ScreenSkills endorsed course, is that you're eligible to apply for a Royal Television Society (RTS) bursary.   

The digital media courses at Brunel are the only ScreenSkills-accredited degree programmes in London and the South East.

This course has a placement option. Find out more about work placements available.

The International Business BSc is a highly relevant course in today’s commercial climate. It covers the fundamentals of national and international market economies and looks at the many forces that shape the operating environments of organisations worldwide.

The emphasis of this degree is on the challenges created by globalisation, challenges which are particularly relevant to multinational enterprises (MNEs) as they account for over fifty percent of global output. A deeper understanding of the commercial power of MNEs is key to understanding how and why companies expand in an increasingly competitive market.

The International Business BSc is designed for those seeking to operate within an international business setting or within companies and jobs where an understanding of international business is an asset. We’ll explore the impact of internationalisation on factors such as human resource management (HRM), entrepreneurship, and emerging markets. There will also be the opportunity to study modules on marketing, environmental sustainability, and global investment.

As well as the focus on international business, this degree will equip you with the broad business and management background and the analytical and interpersonal skills required to understand, analyse and address issues faced by today's companies. You’ll broaden your knowledge of business concepts as you work on real business issues and live case studies to develop your managerial skills.

Valuable technical skills will be developed in numerical methods, quantitative methods, and by using statistical software such as SPSS and EXCEL. This part of the course does not require A level maths or the overseas equivalent.

The course includes a module on Management Enquiry to help you adapt to university study through active learning sessions on topics such as working in groups, report writing and time management.

Our International Business BSc is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), which means you will gain exemptions from some of their professional papers if you wish to undertake further study towards being a chartered management accountant after you graduate.

You’ll also have the opportunity to take a year's paid professional work experience and be part of the team at an international company or organisation. Previous employers have included Adidas, Microsoft, British Airways, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nissan. Occasionally students are invited back to a full-time graduate position by their placement employers so as well as offering experience, a placement can open doors. Find out more on our work placement year page.

Films can evoke a multitude of emotions as we watch them on the big screens, but do you often wonder what goes into creating the masterpieces that can stick with you for a long time? Turn your creative curiosity into a career you’re passionate about by studying Brunel’s Film Production BA.

Your degree will give you a thorough understanding of film by combining the production with the theory of visual digital media. Delve into practical film and video-making, scriptwriting, filming and editing, whilst honing your critical analysis and research skills to develop a comprehensive understanding of how the film and TV industries work.

The course will allow you to bring your ideas, thoughts and inspirations to the screen. By using the fantastic editing suites with up-to-date production software including Avid with accredited training facilities for Final Cut Pro 10, you will be able to bring your creations to life.

As well as enhancing your learning by attending screenings at the British Film Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Arts and other cinemas across the capital, you will also be eligible to enter our annual Brunel University Film Festival (BUFF) with categories including Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction and Best Overall Film. This will allow you to put what you have learnt into practice and will give you the opportunity to showcase your talent.

Learn with confidence knowing that you are taught by some of the best film academics in the UK. Not only are they experts in the industry, but they have published work in the field so some of the books on your reading list may be written by those teaching you.

Gain an insight into life after your studies by putting your learning into practice by opting for a one-year work placement. You will graduate with valuable work experience to enhance your employment prospects and will be able to develop an understanding the working world within the film industry. We have excellent links with a wide range of notable external organisations, so you will have the opportunity to apply for high quality placements across London.

Previous students have undertaken placement at many prestigious venues including The Pinewood Group, Fremantle Media, Objective Productions, WaterAid and BalletBoyz.

You will graduate with the confidence to be a creative and imaginative cultural producer with solid knowledge of film culture and practical experience which will put you in good stead for your future career.

Learn what role the media plays in shaping our society and influencing peoples’ thoughts and behaviours by studying our exciting Sociology (Media) BSc.  

By adding media studies to your study of sociology, you’ll be able to explore and specialise in areas such as the social impact of new media, the internet and other information and communications technologies, media discourse, media policy and regulation.

The first year is designed to offer you a solid base in theoretical and methodological innovations in sociology and media. You will explore the similarities and differences in the methodologies used in sociology, media, and communications. The focus of study is upon all aspects of societal relations: it’s personal, social and cultural dimensions.

As you progress through the course, you will be able to choose modules you are interested in to actively shape and apply your learning to the issues you wish to interrogate. In your third year, you’ll work on a dissertation focusing on an area of interest of your choice. Your dissertation can be a theoretical or practical dissertation, so you can work to your own strengths.

Depending on the modules you choose, you may have the option go on fieldtrips where you will be able to apply your learning to current issues and broaden your theoretical imagination. Previous fieldtrips have included: Barbican; British Board of Film Classification; London Migration Museum; Museum of Comedy; Museum of London; regeneration areas (e.g. Spitalfields, Smithfield); and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As you’ll be taught and supported by academics who are not only experts in their field but are actively engaged in research, you’ll develop skills that can be applied from the classroom to the workplace. They know the industry inside out, so you know you are learning from experienced professionals who will bring their unique insights into the classroom and will ensure your learning is up-to-date.

Gain an insight into life after your studies by putting your learning into practice by opting for a one-year work placement or two short placements for six months at a time. You will graduate with valuable work experience to enhance your employment prospects and will be able to develop an understanding the working world. We have excellent links with a wide range of notable external organisations, so you will have the opportunity to apply for high quality placements across London.

Some of our sociology and media students have undertaken placements in a variety of companies including the political research unit at the Conservative Party Campaign HQ, the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Prince’s Trust, the Crime Statistics Unit at the Home Office, Citizens Advice Bureau and the Department of Work and Pensions.

This is a broad-based degree which will enable and encourage you to specialise in areas which particularly fascinate you. As a graduate of this dynamic degree, you will leave us with various transferable skills that are key to the contemporary employment market. 

Mathematics is a fundamental subject that is critical to our understanding of the world. Through the study of mathematics you’ll advance your problem solving skills, develop your reasoning and increase your analytical thinking. This is why mathematics forms a basis to so many careers. Yes – it is a discipline in its own right, but it is also the thinking behind countless commercial, industrial and technological activities. Mathematical models underpin engineering, the applied sciences, computing and many aspects of management today.

With the Financial Mathematics MMath you’ll study for a further year and bring your BSc degree to master’s standard. This means you’ll be able to get that competitive edge when you apply for jobs without having to go through the application process again after Level 3.

Two-thirds of your course is shared with the MMath in Mathematics. This covers several application areas – finance, statistics, operational research (i.e. how maths can be applied to commercial and industrial problems) and numerical analysis. The remaining third covers the key principles of finance.

Follow the five-year ‘Professional Placement’ degree programme and you‘ll benefit from our extensive experience in helping students to find well-paid work placements with blue-chip companies. Our sandwich students find that their mathematical and transferable skills are in demand in many sectors, both in the UK and abroad.

Areas recently offering placements include: accountancy, aviation, banking, defence, finance, insurance, IT (software development, network management and design), management (public and private sector), marketing and telecommunications.

This programme will meet the educational requirements of the Chartered Mathematician designation, awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, when it is followed by subsequent training and experience in employment to obtain equivalent competences to those specified by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for taught master's degrees.

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation BSc has been specifically created to help you put learning into action while you study by creating your own start-up business. 

Through a series of specialist modules in your second and third year (including your final year project), you will develop entrepreneurial skills and a nimble approach to business and innovation. You’ll gain confidence in your acumen and become quick to recognise and evaluate new business opportunities while calculating risk. The hands-on, practice-based learning of the course is key to this. You’ll create, run and grow a real-life enterprise as part of a group consisting of up to five students. By learning through doing, you’ll be able to apply theory very early on in the degree course to solve social and economic problems.

Along the way, you’ll learn from academics and receive support from professional business mentors who will help you to get the most out of your degree while developing your start-up. There are lots of resources available to you that can help you shape your degree into what you want it to be:

• The Brunel Innovation Hub offers expert advice and funding on student start-ups
• Through the Co-Innovate programme, you can opt to collaborate with an SME and help them solve a real business problem as part of your final year project
• You can choose to take a work placement in your third year (find out more on our work placement year page) or focus on developing your start-up
• We make sure that you have access to a variety of activities and events to challenge your self-starter mentality including the Mayor's Entrepreneur Competition

Before you get there though, your first year will be an introduction to general business and management through six compulsory modules that will provide you with a good understanding of theory and practice. The emphasis will be on developing your commercial awareness and preparation for new business creation, as well as for a work placement if you have opted to take one (you can opt to use your placement year to develop your enterprise too).

Who has political power? Why do they have it? To whom are they accountable? Is violent protest ever justified? If these questions evoke a response in you and raise more questions in turn, politics is the degree for you.

Politics is an exciting and dynamic subject, simulating debate and offering insight into how the ever-changing world around us works. It’s also a degree that can demonstrate your intellectual acumen and understanding of world affairs, which will be an asset in many fields of work.

The broad-based nature of the course at Brunel means you will be studying a wide breadth of modules from British politics to US foreign policy and political change. But you’ll not only be learning about politics – you’ll be analysing politics using the tools of political science to help deepen your understanding and critical thinking.

Opt for a placement year and you'll gain work experience that is highly valued by employers. Brunel students have secured placements in the Environmental Audit Committee, the House of Commons, Directorate of Gender Affairs, HM Treasury and the Competition Commission, to name only a few.

You can also opt to take part of your degree abroad in one of our partner universities in Europe, or participate in an exchange programme to China or the USA to study politics in a different part of the world whilst experiencing a new culture.

Brunel is a dynamic university choice for your politics course. You’ll be taught by politics experts who are often called on to comment on radio and television. The Brunel campus has hosted the filming of BBC’s Question Time and is a political hub during local and national elections.

Brunel politics graduates enter diverse careers. Many of our former students go into politics and the civil service and some are currently at GCHQ and military intelligence. Others work in the public and private sector like the NHS, international banks, business consultancy, law, NGOs and the media. Whichever route you chose, a politics degree with Brunel will set you up for a successful future.

Mechanical engineering covers the design, development and manufacture of mechanical objects – from large-scale industrial machinery to trains, planes and automobiles to medical devices, mobile phones, bicycles, even chairs.

In fact, every product, technology or system has probably been touched by a mechanical engineer.   

The Brunel Mechanical Engineering BEng will give you the specialist knowledge and skills needed to get started on a lucrative career in this diverse and challenging profession.

You’ll get a solid grounding in the core principles of engineering science including solid body mechanics, thermodynamics and materials science as well as in the fundamentals of design and manufacturing.

You’ll also get training in related disciplines integral to mechanical engineering such as computing – used in modelling and predicting outcomes; electrical engineering – to gage how much energy is needed to run a machine and how it can be generated and controlled; and electronics - because parts in many machines are electronic as well as mechanical.

And, as mechanical engineers not only design many exciting products but venture into managing projects and companies, you’ll study elements of management, ethics, finance and law.

Throughout your studies you’ll have use of our modern, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and 24-hour access to industry standard engineering design software at dedicated computer clusters on campus, so you’ll have the opportunity and equipment to explore ideas and tackle problems.

Our mechanical engineering BEng course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).We offer two study options. You can choose three years full-time or four years full-time with a one-year work placement between years two and three that will give you the chance to apply what you’ve learned to real-life situations.

If you start on the full-time course, you can transfer to the professional development option at any time before the end of Level 2.

In a global economy where progress depends heavily on technological innovation, graduates with the knowledge and skills to design, develop and improve the machines and processes fuelling growth are in demand. Your Brunel BEng will give you that expertise and help open doors to a career in engineering.

Take your knowledge of culture and society to the next level and equip yourself with a big range of practical and analytical skills for a changing world with our Anthropology and Sociology BSc.

Anthropology is concerned with contemporary issues such as multiculturalism, identity politics, racism and ethnic nationalism, changing forms of the family, religious conflict, gender, and the political role of culture. It also addresses fundamental questions about human nature, such as: ‘What do we have in common with each other cross-culturally?’ and ‘What makes us different?’

Sociology, its sister subject, looks at the foundations of social life and the big issues in contemporary society such as inequality, racism, globalisation, and migration.

In particular, your sociology studies at Brunel will be closely related to the central and ever-increasing importance of the communications media in our culture, for example, how poverty is portrayed and the powerful influence of celebrity.

Brunel is a great choice for this combined study with lecturers from both subjects producing cutting edge research alongside their teaching, on both global issues and local problems.

This research expertise filters down into what you will learn. In anthropology students have learnt about youth and motorcycles in Rwanda, and in sociology, about cosmetic tourism.

Choose this course and you can do fieldwork on any subject, anywhere in the world, whether it’s learning about refugees in Athens or mother and toddler groups in inner London.

Around half of Brunel anthropology students carry out a placement or fieldwork abroad, in places as wide ranging as India, Nepal, Australia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica.

Recent UK placement destinations include the Royal Anthropological Institute, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Amnesty International and the Department of Health.

Alternatively, could choose a placement that’s more sociologically focussed. Either way, you can choose to take it as two six month placements or one year-long placement.

Take advantage of real-life work experience to gain a competitive advantage on your anthropology degree.

• You have the option to undertake two six-month placements, or a year-long placement whilst studying one of our anthropology degrees.
• If you opt to go on two six-month work placements, then you can use the first one to help determine an area of interest to you in the future. You have the freedom of choice when looking for placements and can be based locally for one and go abroad for the second one.
• You’ll have support from day one of your anthropology course from your personal tutors and the Professional Development Centre in finding a suitable work placement according to your interests. They can range from working in a church, in a museum to supporting charities on-sites and studying a local community within a village.
• This invaluable experience will not only build your confidence but also provide you with a platform to showcase your project management, organisational and creative skills in the workplace.
• Some of our students have completed their placements in Guatemala, London, Malaysia and Morocco which really gives a global perspective.
• Fieldwork can also be conducted as volunteering to give you a real insight into cultures and communities. For example, one of our students did charity work in Cambodia and enjoyed experiencing different cultures and working with a range of people from different backgrounds.

Our global temperature has increased to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. What is the impact of this and what will happen if it continues to rise? Studying Environmental Sciences at Brunel will give you the foundation you need to pursue a career that makes a difference to our planet.

At Brunel you’ll develop your scientific skills in the classroom, laboratory and through field work. You’ll attend residential field trips in the UK and abroad. Our current trips take students to Dorset and Tenerife.

Your first year will bring together many different disciplines. You’ll use physical, chemical and biological knowledge to develop an understanding of the Earth’s environment.

Your course is based on the 15 “most wanted skills” identified from a national employer’s survey by the Natural Environment Research Council. This means that in addition to studying scientific topics, you’ll learn to use computer programs such as GIS, you’ll perform data analysis and be trained in areas such as public engagement, communication, leadership and teamwork.

You'll also have the option to carry out a placement as part of your degree, giving you the experience to create a stand-out CV. The Environmental Sciences BSc offers a unique compressed degree where you can carry out two placements within your three year degree during summer vacations, where you’ll earn a graduate level salary. You can also carry out a one year placement between years two and three, as part of a four year degree.