Bachelor of Science in Economics

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

Our Electronic and Electrical Engineering (Artificial Intelligence) BEng degree is a modern course that has been developed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to work and research in electronic and electrical engineering with specialisation in artificial intelligence applications. The programme will help to develop key concepts of intelligent processing systems and intelligent software applications, implement intelligent systems and evaluate biologically inspired engineering systems that are essential for current and future needs.

You’ll gain a good understanding of the different engineering areas, giving you the opportunity to learn more about the fundamental engineering subjects such as design, structures, materials, fluid mechanics, electronics and maths and gain skills in technical drawing.

By specialising in artificial intelligence you’ll develop in-depth knowledge of artificial intelligence principles and electronic and electrical engineering techniques.

Access is available to modern technical facilities including computer, electronics, and power and control laboratories where you’ll work on your experiments. The latest industry standard engineering software packages are available for you to use in dedicated computer clusters.

Brunel's BEng electronic and electrical engineering (artificial intelligence) course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This professional engineering institution ensures that your engineering degree meets the academic requirement to qualify as a professional engineer. This accredited BEng degree in electronic and electrical engineering can be studied full-time over three years, or four years with a placement year. The BEng degree meets the educational requirement to become an Incorporated Engineer (IEng).

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 an engineering placement year, you will have the opportunity to work in an engineering or technology company.

You can explore our campus and facilities for yourself by taking our virtual tour.

What is the social and cultural impact of media communications in today’s world? How do communication and information media actually work and what are their importance to our society?

This course enjoys a very close relationship with sociology at Brunel and combines the theoretical elements of sociology with the practical elements of media studies. You’ll focus on all aspects of society: its personal, social and cultural dimensions.

Studying communications and media at Brunel is not just limited to the classroom. You’ll have the opportunity to broaden your mind by going on field trips and joining film sessions, where you’ll learn about cameras lighting and editing. You’ll be able to attend optional company visits, for example IMG studios, where you’ll receive a tour of the studios.

On this course you’ll have the chance to make your own films in groups. You’ll develop your skills in our media services suite which has industry-standard facilities. You’ll be taught about the software Final Cut Pro and how to use different types of Canon cameras. You’ll experiment with different lighting styles and practise sound editing techniques. This practical work will equip you with the skills you’ll need for a media related career or for working in the field of production.

You’ll also be able to take your learning outside the classroom – on field trips and company visits. Previous students have toured the IMG studious right here in Uxbridge.

If you choose to go on a placement, you’ll benefit form Brunel’s contacts and location. Examples of recent student placements have been in advertising, digital marketing and public relations in organisations such as Cartoon Network, IMG Media, Sweet Images and the Walt Disney Company.

In today’s business landscape, brand is everything. But what exactly is brand and how do we manage it for the best possible outcome? Brunel’s Corporate Brand Management MSc examines the importance of branding, corporate identity, image and reputation.

You will study a wide-range of brands (e.g. product, service, personal, company) from a variety of cultures and sectors (private, public and not-for-profit) including start-ups, SMEs, and multinationals. You will also study how corporate branding is key to an organisation’s overall marketing strategy.

Brunel Business School was the first school to introduce a specialised MSc in corporate brand management back in 2007. The Corporate Brand Management MSc is taught by an enthusiastic team including Professor John M.T. Balmer, who is highly regarded in the corporate brand domain, as well as renowned brand specialists Dr Sharifah Alwi and Dr Yousra Asaad, amongst others.

You have the option of taking either a year-long or six to twelve week work placement, depending on your needs, to help you enhance your skills and boost your career prospects while you study. We were one of the first business schools to offer postgraduate degrees with placement and the feedback has been that this is incredibly useful as you can put your learning into practice immediately. It’s also a great way to make business contacts with the possibility of a job offer from your placement employer once you’ve graduated. Find out more on our work placements page.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), this course offers the option to study the CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing alongside your degree. Find out more on our accreditations and exemptions page.

Topics covered on the degree include corporate and product brand identity, corporate and product brand image and reputation, corporate marketing, and corporate communications. You will also study marketing communications and strategy from a corporate branding perspective.

The Education BA at Brunel offers you the opportunity to combine the study of education with professional practice to give you a pathway into a range of education professions and postgraduate professional study including teacher education.

Whether you are looking to explore education related fields – such as counselling, educational psychology, social services, local authority work, social work, administration and education management – or you already know you want to teach, Brunel’s Education BA will give you a strong foundation from which to build.

The course will equip you with a broad and balanced view of educational theory, policy and practice within a range of educational contexts. You will also have numerous opportunities to develop a range of transferable skills such as critical reflection, systematic analysis, communication, collaboration, presentation and writing skills.

When it comes to professional practice, the Education BA includes three integrated work placements to give you the opportunity to explore different educational settings. To help you manage your time, you can do your placement experience weekly or in a block over the holidays.

If it’s teaching experience you’re seeking, Brunel’s network of partner schools is diverse and well-established which means you can gain highly valued teaching experience in vibrant multi-cultural schools where you will be fully supported by a work placement mentor as well as a Brunel tutor.

Anthropology of Childhood, Youth and Education MSc was the first degree of its kind to be established and is still unique in its deep anthropological exploration on what it is to be a child or to be young.

As part of the course, you will look at historic perceptions of childhood in the West to the development of European rights of protection, compared to experiences of childhood in other parts of the world, like the street children of Brazil.

In a module on learning and education you will compare physical development stages, including how learning is acquired and universal patterns of play, to the range of ways children are prepared or educated to fit cultural expectations.

The course’s key organising principle is that understanding children requires the study of how their relations with others – peers, older and younger children, parents, teachers and other adults – inform their practices, identities and world views.

The course addresses the following issues from an anthropological perspective:-

• Do children of ‘different cultures’ live ‘different worlds’?
• How does education impact upon children’s worlds and upon social and cultural practices more broadly?
• How do the everyday processes of learning – both formal and informal – help to shape children’s ideas of and engagement with society at large?
• What is the role of schools in the transmission and acquisition of cultural values to children and youth?
• Why are adults’ ideas about childhood and youth so important for what children learn and aspire to become?

The distinctiveness of this degree derives from an anthropological approach that focuses on the importance of children’s and youth’s perspectives, on the role that education (formal and informal) plays in children’s learning processes, and in the transmission and acquisition of cultural knowledge.

Anthropology at Brunel is well-known for its focus on ethnographic fieldwork. As well as undertaking rigorous intellectual training, you will be expected to get out of the library and undertake your own, original research – whether in the UK or overseas – and to present your findings in a dissertation.

In recent years, Brunel students have undertaken fieldwork in locations across the world, including India, Mexico, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, China, Nepal, Peru, Morocco, and New Zealand as well as within the UK and the rest of Europe.

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.

The Brunel Automotive Engineering BEng gives students with a passion for motor vehicles the specialised expertise they need to become professional engineers in the fast-moving automotive industry.

Along with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, including maths, engineering science and design, you’ll gain an in-depth knowledge of the technical workings of current and future automotive systems.  

You’ll study all aspects of automotive development and manufacture from vehicle design and performance to engine and transmission systems to materials, structures and safety.

You’ll also get hands-on practice troubleshooting engineering problems that inevitably arise during the construction and testing processes.

Your education will profit, too, by your access to the work done at our Centre for Advanced Powertrain and Fuels (CAPF). One of the largest and most active engine research groups in the UK, CAPF focuses on minimising pollutant emissions and improving fuel efficiency while maintaining performance levels.

Throughout your studies you’ll have use of our modern, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, which comprise our motorsport workshop, and 24-hour access to industry standard specialist software for engineering design at dedicated computer clusters.

Our automotive 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 professional placement that will allow to put what you’ve learned to use in real-world situations.

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

In the rapidly evolving automotive industry, demand for engineers with the technical and managerial skills to excel is on the rise. Your Brunel BEng will give you these and equip you to play leading roles in industry and public service.

Our Computer Systems Engineering BEng degree is a modern course that has been developed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to design and build hardware and software for computer systems.

You will be introduced to computing and engineering and gain knowledge on computer hardware and software. You’ll learn about programming and computer architecture and then progress to advanced computing technologies. In your final year, you can choose specialist subjects like embedded systems, intelligent systems and the internet of things.

Access is available to modern technical facilities including computer, electronics, and power and control laboratories where you’ll work on your experiments. The latest industry standard engineering software packages are available for you to use in dedicated computer clusters.

Our BEng computer systems engineering course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This professional engineering institution ensures that your engineering degree meets the academic requirement to qualify as a professional engineer. This accredited BEng degree in computer systems engineering can be studied full-time over three years, or four years with a placement year. The BEng degree meets the educational requirement to become an Incorporated Engineer (IEng).

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 an engineering placement year, you will have the opportunity to work in an engineering or technology company.

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

The Business Computing BSc degree is a challenging course that provides highly relevant, hands-on experience. Through a mixture of theory and real-world practice, you’ll learn how to determine a dynamic mix of processes, which allow information delivery systems and users to carry out business effectively and efficiently. You’ll come to intuitively understand how an organisation’s information systems need to adapt to the changes and developments natural to growth and progress.

The modules on this degree course cover a range of topics, including the basic properties of software artefacts like information, algorithms, programs, common commercial system, and network architectures. System development approaches are also covered, including requirements capture, design methods, models, tools and techniques, implementing and testing systems, and software maintenance. Appreciation of project management issues arising from team-based software development is a key feature of the degree.

We’ll ensure that you have a strong approach to problem-solving both individually and in groups involving model-building and analysis, applying both theoretical and empirical knowledge to make choices and find solutions. You will also master commonly used notations and methods to reason and communicate clearly about requirements, specifications, designs and solutions. All factors which contribute to whether a business sinks or swims.

Our course is designed for flexibility, so if you’re not sure which route you want to go down, you can select modules and specialise gradually during your time with us. You can transfer between Computer Science and Business Computing up to the start of Level 2, then should you wish, you can choose a specialism up to the start of Level 3.

We know that when you graduate, you’ll be working on large projects. That’s why one third of each year of our programmes is project-based. On Levels 1 and 2, you’ll build a software solution in a team, and in your final year you’ll carry out an individual project. You’ll also have the opportunity to showcase your projects at the annual Made in Brunel (Software Innovation) event, with awards presented by the likes of Cisco, Sky and Xerox.

As part of your degree course, you’ll have the chance to take a year-long work placement between your second year and third year. We’ll support you in finding that all-important paid professional experience, in the UK or abroad. The feedback we’ve received is that those who have taken a placement are much more likely to find a job for which their degree was a formal requirement as it gives you a competitive advantage. Recent graduates have gone on to work for well-known names such as Accenture, Toshiba, Microsoft, British Airways, O2, and Barclays.

Our programmes are accredited by the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP)  The accreditation also allows you to apply for professional membership of the BCS after you have successfully completed your degree.

Brunel’s Computer Science department has been awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze, recognising our dedication to the advancement of gender equality in STEM subjects. We now have an ongoing three-year action plan to further implement strategies and improve our practices. As part of this endeavour, Brunel’s Women in Engineering and Computing mentoring scheme provides our female students with invaluable help and support from the industry.

Opt for a one-year work placement while you study to gain real-world technical and soft skills which will set you apart from the competition after you graduate from your Computer Science degree.

• All of our undergraduate computing courses come with the option of undertaking a year’s placement out in the industry. This means that you have the opportunity to experience a real working environment and develop your softer skills like presenting, negotiating and working to a specific brief and tight deadlines.
• A dedicated placement tutor from the Professional Development Centre will work with you to help secure your work placement, which could be in market, product or research development areas. Previous students have taken their placement year in companies such as Microsoft, BMW, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, and Xerox.

Storytelling is part of every culture and reveals much about a person’s lived experience, values and aspirations within a given time. If reading is a pleasure and creative writing very much a part of you, then an English degree with creative writing might appeal.

If you’re ready to explore more widely, think more deeply and consider how you, as a reader, are placed in relation to a text and how that affects your interpretation, you’ve come to the right place.

Brunel offers one of the most highly regarded creative writing courses in the UK, with many staff members active as novelists, writers for performance, or as cultural critics.Through them you will learn and practice the fundamentals of writing in a variety of forms including poetry and film.

After a first year of introductory writing modules with options in literature to develop your critical reading, your exploration in English and creative writing is very much down to your own interests.

In years two and three a wealth of optional modules await you, covering every period and genre in literature from Shakespeare to Austen, comedy to horror and world literature, alongside further writing options in journalism and modern fiction.

Throughout your course you will be encouraged to express your own thoughts and creativity in your coursework and seminars, which will help you to grow as a critic and writer.

English with Creative Writing BA will equip you with personal skills employers’ prize in graduates – exceptional written and verbal communication and the ability to work collaboratively in teams. At Brunel you will be able to develop these in abundance.

Opt for a placement year and you will gain real-world work experience while you study which will further increase your attractiveness to employers when you graduate.

Outside of your classroom, you can look forward to events and activities organised by the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing, including the annual Hillingdon Literary Festival: a free weekend of literary performances from internationally renowned authors, writing workshops and lively debates, right here on campus.