Master of Arts in Creative Writing

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

The Brunel Economics BSc combines a thorough grounding in economic theory with the practical skills needed to apply that knowledge to business, industrial, financial or government environments.

You’ll learn how markets operate from microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives and how trade and business priorities shape the ways societies function.  Special attention will be given to financial marketins and the banking sector, as well as an introduction to accounting.

Further, you’ll develop the analytical, quantitative, statistical and computing skills used to predict how societies, governments, businesses and households will respond to events, trends and market behaviour.

You will study statistics and econometrics and develop skills in data presentation, analysis and modelling.  This training will use analytical packages widely used by business and financial institutions such as SAS, EViews, Bloomberg, Reuters and STATA.

We offer two study options. You can choose three years full-time or four years full-time with a one-year professional placement between years two and three that will give you hands-on experience in a real-life working environment.

You can tailor the final year of your course to specialise in an area of particular interest.

Our economics undergraduate degree is accredited by ACCA and CIMA, and graduates will receive exemptions from professional papers should they wish to continue their study to become a chartered accountant.

The analytical, quantitative and transferable skills you’ll gain from your Brunel degree are highly valued by employers and will prepare you for a wide range of career and postgraduate study options in the areas of economics, business and finance.

Working with and for young people in the developing world offers an exciting career full of challenges and rewards. Our Children, Youth and International Development MA is a varied course with a global perspective which will help equip you for roles in international development organisations, government ministries and global agencies.

You will acquire a breadth of knowledge that will enable you to critically evaluate research, policy and practice in the area of children, youth and development. You will also discover the differing disciplinary perspectives on childhood and youth by studying modules from related disciplines.

As you journey through the course, you also will acquire the skills necessary to design and undertake your own research.

Opt for the 'Applied Learning' module and you will have the opportunity of a short placement (one or two days a week for ten weeks) with an organisation that works in the field of children, youth and international development.

Examples of the ‘Applied Learning’ placements previously undertaken include:

• Action Aid – on a campaign targeting exploitation in the garment industry
• Anti-Slavery International – on a project to eradicate caste-based bonded labour
• Basti RAM – planned lessons for a Global Citizenship project
• BookAid International – helped build up an evidence base for Book Aid’s international programmes
• Commonwealth Secretariat – on the CS’s Youth Programme in Uganda
• International Refugee Trust – development of the online classroom about refugees
• National Deaf Children's Society – developed international exchanges for deaf young people
• Oxfam – mobilised UK school children to get involved in Oxfam campaigns
• Project Hope – several placements including designing a survey on youth experiences, and developing leaflets to help South African adults to identify signs of mental illness
• The Mouth That Roars – helped children in London and Saudi Arabia to create videos through which they communicated their everyday lives to each other

Additionally, an Erasmus agreement exists between the Brunel MA and the MPhil in Childhood Studies at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research (NOSEB) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.

The agreement allows two students from the MA to spend their second term (January to May) at the Trondheim centre. Erasmus students do not pay tuition fees at NOSEB and are entitled to a grant (€375/month) to cover any additional costs.

Financial mathematics builds on the application of advanced concepts in modern probability theory to enable market professionals to tackle and systematically resolve a huge range of issues in the areas of pricing, hedging, risk management, and market regulation.

On this course you’ll put theory into practice by developing your numerical and computational skills to implement financial models. These are the skills you’ll need to work for a financial institution.

The course has an emphasis on:

• The modelling of the dynamics of financial assets, both in equity markets and in fixed-income markets
• The pricing and hedging of options and other derivatives
• The quantification and management of financial risk.

The course will give you a balanced mixture of advanced mathematics (including modern probability theory and stochastic calculus), modern finance theory (including models for derivatives, interest rates, foreign exchange, equities, commodities, and credit), and computational technique (GPU-based high-performance computing).

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).

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

All our business degrees include the option of a work placement year between your second and third year.

• In addition to providing the opportunity to put what you’ve learnt in your degree into practice, and to earn some much appreciated money, our students find their work placement experience significantly enhances their career prospects when they come to graduate. In fact many students are offered employment with their work placement company upon graduation. You'll be working in the same capacity as you would when you graduate so it will give you a taste of what's to come, hopefully, including all the challenges and rewards.
• Placements are available at different sized organisations across the public and private sector, so you can choose the type of experience most suited to you. You’ll need to apply for these positions in much the same way as you would a job, so it’ll be useful experience in that respect too.
• The good news is that through our Business Life programme and the University’s Professional Development Centre, you should be well prepared to make the best applications you can.
• Placements tend to last 44 weeks. During your placement, an academic member of staff from Brunel Business School will keep in touch, and your employer will be invited to attend a tutorial day at Brunel with you.

The Brunel Finance and Accounting MSc gives graduates interested in pursuing careers in financial management or accountancy the opportunity to develop their knowledge of accounting and finance to international levels.

Along with sharpening your quantitative and problem-solving skills, you’ll study the theory of finance, corporate governance, valuation, international accounting standards, risk assessment and financial statement analysis.

Importantly, you’ll develop your ability to interpret complex financial and numerical data and to critically evaluate and deliver midterm and long-term strategic solutions. 

Throughout the course you’ll have access to a variety of professional databases used in business and finance including Datastream, Bloomberg, Bank Scope, Osiris, Reuters 3000 Xtra and Thomson One Banker.

You can choose to study one year full-time, two years full-time with a year's work placement or 16 months full-time with a 6-12 week work placement.

This programme is accredited by ACCA and CIMA.

With growing globalisation and the convergence of international accounting practices, the demand for job candidates with the advanced, specialised skills needed to keep ahead of changing regulation is on the rise. Your Brunel MSc will pave the way for careers across the financial sector.

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

The Brunel LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law gives students the opportunity to earn a qualifying law degree with specialist knowledge of international arbitration and commercial law.

Along with the requirements of the traditional LLB degree you’ll learn commercial, international and comparative law and about cross-border transactions and cross-cultural dispute resolution.

We offer two study options. You can choose three years full-time, or four years full-time with a professional placement year between years two and three that will give you hands-on experience working in a legal practice.

All of our students have careers advisers who you can discuss career ideas with and who can offer guidance on placements and further study options throughout your time with us.

Our Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law LLB undergraduate degree is accredited by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA), meaning that you will gain the necessary knowledge and skills required to go on to be a practising solicitor.  Please note, from October 2019, rather than accrediting LLB Degrees, the Bar Standard Board requires law degrees to cover the seven legal foundation subjects and the skills associated with graduate legal work in order to meet the requirements of the Academic Component of becoming a barrister. Brunel Law School's LLB Degrees fully meet these requirements.

With its foundation of English law and practice and its focus on arbitration and commercial law your degree will stand you in good stead for lucrative cross-border fields of legal practice.

If you work in medicine or allied fields and want to learn more about how illness and wellness are considered in difference cultures, anthropology is an ideal route to greater understanding.

Medical anthropology is the study of cultural beliefs and practices associated with the origin, recognition and management of health and illness in different social and cultural groups.

Brunel was the first university in Europe to establish a master's degree in medical anthropology and since then has continued to develop the course to reflect the changing world in which we live.

The Medical Anthropology MSc will equip you with a broad, general understanding of anthropology and how it might be applied to medical and health-related problems.

You will develop a deeper understanding of how people’s ideas about the world, as well as the structural constraints within which they find themselves, have an impact on their understanding and experience of health, sickness and disease.

You’ll achieve this through close study of key texts in medical anthropology, the original fieldwork experiences of your lecturers, and through designing and undertaking your own research project.

The course will address questions such as

• How does poverty contribute to the profiles of diseases such as diabetes and tuberculosis?
• Why are some diseases, such as leprosy or AIDS/HIV, feared and stigmatized?
• Why do some biomedical interventions seeking to control infectious and non-infectious diseases work, and others fail?
• What might stop some patients seeking conventional treatments for cancers and other conditions – even when they are offered for free – despite the apparent efficacy of the medicines available?

Students take the opportunity of fieldwork to travel to a wide variety of locations across the world that have included India, Mexico, Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, China, Nepal, Peru, Morocco, and New Zealand as well as in the UK and the rest of Europe.

Our Electronic and Electrical Engineering MEng degree is a modern course that has been developed to equip you with the advanced knowledge and skills needed to design electronic and electrical systems for the next generation.

You will be introduced to electronic engineering and gain deep knowledge of electronics and electrical systems. You’ll learn about electronic systems, and electrical engineering and sustainability, and then progress to advanced devices and electronic systems design, and analogue integrated circuit design. In your final year, you can choose specialist subjects like embedded systems engineering, intelligent systems and power electronics.

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 MEng electronic and electrical 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 MEng degree in electronic and electrical engineering can be studied full-time over four years, or five years with a placement year. The MEng degree fully meets the educational requirement to fast track you to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.  

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.

Brunel Engineers is an annual exhibition that showcases our engineering talent at its finest. It’s a great way for you to network with key engineering and technology enterprises and experts, and show them the innovative, creative and enterprising work you have produced during your time at Brunel.

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. 

Our Aerospace Engineering MEng degree is an exciting, hands-on specialist course that has been developed to equip you with advanced knowledge and management skills to meet the real world needs of the global aerospace industry.

You will be introduced to fundamental engineering subjects such as structures, materials, fluids, and maths, and gain skills in technical drawing. You’ll then learn about the principles of aircraft design and progress to specialist subjects such as propulsion systems, and flight testing and analysis. Then you move on to higher-level topics including advanced aerodynamics, space mechanics, and the design and analysis of aircraft and spacecraft systems. You will also acquire specialist knowledge on current aerospace engineering topics concerning flight safety, environmental impact, and fuel efficiency.

You’ll have access to a range of technical facilities including our aerospace/aviation laboratory, full-motion engineering flight simulator, supersonic and subsonic wind tunnels, materials and structure testing laboratory, anechoic chamber for aero-acoustic experiments, and 3D printing in the digital fabrication workshop. Industry standard specialist software for aircraft design is available for you to use 24 hours a day in high-performance computing clusters.

During your time at Brunel, you will benefit from guest lectures delivered by industry professionals who present a valuable insight into current, challenging topics in the field of aerospace. There are also planned visits to engineering and manufacturing companies where you’ll see first-hand the latest breakthroughs in development and technology for future aerospace systems. In addition, you have the advantage of Brunel’s close location to London’s Heathrow Airport for site visits as well as project opportunities, and placement and employment options.

Our MEng aerospace engineering course is accredited by both the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). These professional bodies ensure that your engineering degree meets the academic requirement to qualify as a professional engineer. This accredited MEng degree in aerospace engineering can be studied full-time over four years, or five years with a placement year. The MEng degree fully meets the educational requirement to fast track you to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.

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 the aerospace engineering sector.

Brunel Engineers is an annual exhibition that showcases our engineering talent at its finest. It’s a great way for you to network with leading aerospace engineering experts and show them the innovative, creative and enterprising work you have produced during your time at Brunel.

As an extracurricular activity, there is also the opportunity to be part of a student-led initiative involving the design and build of an unmanned aircraft vehicle and participating in the IMechE industry-sponsored UAS Challenge (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Challenge).