Master of Science in Anthropology of Childhood, Youth and Education

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

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 Digital Design and Branding MSc degree is a modern, hands-on course that combines digital technology and creative design. It has been designed to equip you with advanced knowledge and practical skills required for a creative role in the digital branding industry.

You’ll develop deep understanding of advanced digital design practices within the context of branding.

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 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 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.

Our digital design and branding MSc can be studied full-time over one year or part-time over two years.

A calendar 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 Automotive and Motorsport Engineering MSc gives graduates with a passion for motorsports and high-performance vehicles the advanced, specialist skills and knowledge they need to successfully pursue careers in this dynamic and competitive field of engineering.

You’ll study all aspects of the design, development and construction of competition vehicles including aerodynamics, materials, structural analysis, IC engines and vehicle systems and how to use tools like computational modelling, simulation and data analysis to assess performance, strength, costs and safety.

You’ll also develop managerial skills integral to race team operations such as race planning, vehicle testing, marketing concepts, leadership, risk management and employment.

Your education will profit from the research done at our Centre for Advanced Powertrain and Fuels (CAPF), one of the largest and most active engine research groups in the UK.

There's a group project to design a single seater racing vehicle that you’ll present at the annual Formula Student event at Silverstone, the world’s largest student engineering design competition. This project mimics an actual professional racing team; you work to a schedule and budget and are expected to promote your team image through marketing and sponsorship.

Throughout your studies you’ll have use of our 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 on campus, so you’ll have the opportunity and equipment to explore ideas and tackle problems.

The only thing faster than a speeding racing car, it seems, is the speed of change in motorsport technology and practice. Your Brunel postgraduate engineering degree will give you the technical and managerial skills to meet the challenges presented by the industry’s constant drive for improvement and set you apart in the eyes of prospective employers.

The programme is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), which means your degree will put you on course to gain Chartered Engineer (CEng) status in the UK.

Anthropology offers a unique and powerful means for understanding cultural and social diversity in the modern world. It considers issues which can lead to mind blowing revelations about how individuals and cultures experience life differently.

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 perennial questions about human nature, such as: ‘What do we have in common with each other cross-culturally?’ and ‘What makes us different?’.

If you are intrigued by these questions and want to study a discipline that will enrich your everyday life as well as equip you for a great variety of occupations, anthropology is the right course for you.

Our rigorous program gives you the freedom to choose one of our pathway options early on:- 

• Anthropology BSc 
• Anthropology (Childhood, Youth and Education) BSc 
• Anthropology (Development, War and Humanitarian Assistance) BSc 
• Anthropology (Global Health) BSc

A special feature of the course at Brunel is the opportunity to do fieldwork placements anywhere in the world according to your anthropological interests.

Fieldwork is excellent preparation for work and a chance to make useful contacts and will help to add greater meaning to academic studies.

Around half of Brunel’s 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.

Examples of dissertation titles based on fieldwork findings have included work in a Nepalese monastery, a South African women’s refuge, the Police Complaints Authority (on the Stephen Lawrence case), as well as in schools and charities.

Outside of classes, you can look forward to a one of the most cultural diverse campuses in the UK with opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

Additionally, Brunel’s anthropological student society arrange class trips to places like the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, and the campus’s London location makes it ideal for exploring places like the British Museum in Central London.

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 Master of Laws (LLM Law) is a flexible programme that enables graduates to specialise in a particular area of English or international law, or to obtain proficiency  across a range of legal disciplines.

Our wide choice of elective modules, including in-demand subjects such as trade law, intellectual property, and human rights, allows you to tailor your own programme to your legal interests and career objectives.

In a legal job market where many employers are looking for candidates with advanced, specialised training, your LLM Law will improve your career prospects whether in a law practice, business, government or academia.

You can choose to study 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time (both start in September) or study 15 months full-time or 27 months part-time (both start in January).

The Brunel Sport and Exercise Psychology MSc provides graduates the first stage of training towards becoming a British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited sport and exercise psychologist.

You’ll examine the key psychological factors that affect both sports performance and exercise participation and learn how to assess client needs and formulate tailored programmes for them.

In your sport specialisation, you’ll learn techniques and strategies to help athletes of all levels, ages and genders develop the mental skills needed to tackle inhibitions and achieve peak performance, as well as to overcome the emotional consequences of serious injury or prolonged loss of form.

These mental skills are equally applicable to coaches wanting to build positive team dynamics and referees dealing with the stresses of the job.

In your exercise specialisation, you’ll focus on applying psychology to increase exercise participation and motivational levels among the public and to encourage people to adopt more active lifestyles.

On completion of the course, you can progress to Stage 2 training, which leads to chartered psychologist status with the BPS and registered practitioner status with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

Throughout your studies you’ll be able to take advantage of our modern physiology and biomechanics laboratories and some of the best sports facilities in the UK.

The Brunel Finance and Investment MSc gives graduates the advanced knowledge and skills needed to pursue careers in financial management, with a focus on investment analysis and portfolio management.

In addition to core subjects including financial theory, financial markets and corporate finance, you’ll examine in detail financial modelling, investment strategies, performance evaluation, risk assessment, investment valuation and asset pricing. 

Further, you’ll develop your quantitative and problem-solving skills and ability 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.

We hold regular training sessions with Bloomberg, which will enhance your research and give you a taste of a real-world working environment.

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.

While you study for your Finance and Investment MSc you can take advantage of the opportunity to follow the CFA Program (Chartered Financial Analyst) specialist pathway and gain the skills required to complete the Level I CFA Program exam.  The CFA Program has become the most respected and recognised professional qualification in finance in the world. Find out more on our  Level I CFA® Program Pathway page. 

As global capital and money markets grow, so does the demand for professionals with specialist skills and competencies in finance and investment. Your Brunel Masters will give you that and make you a sought-after job candidate to employers across the industry.

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.

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 Economics and Management BSc offers students interested in careers in management a detailed understanding of how economies and corporations function. 

You’ll examine how resources are allocated in response to consumer demand, business objectives and government policy, and how incentives are aligned between shareholders, managers and employees.

Specifically, your economics studies will give you a broad understanding of the production, distribution and capital formation activities within which organisations operate, while your management specialisation will focus on the coordination and use of materials and labour to achieve defined goals.

You’ll also study econometrics and develop sought-after skills in data modelling, and get training in 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 the chance to apply the theoretical principles you’ve learned to a working environment.

This degree is accredited the ACCA, which means you’ll gain exemptions from certain professional qualifying exams should you decide to study further to become a chartered accountant.

In a world of integrating global markets, the expertise you’ll get from your Brunel degree in how corporate entities are organised and managed will make you a preferred job candidate to employers in business, finance and government.