Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Advertising and Brand Communications

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

From breaking news to cultural reviews, sports reporting to in-depth investigations, we’ll help you scrutinise, interrogate and report on the issues that really matter.

This degree is geared towards inquiring minds and creative thinkers seeking a career in journalism and the creative media industries. Throughout the program, we’ll encourage you to carve out your own creative identity as you express yourself through a variety of media and genres – including print, broadcast and digital publishing.

You’ll start with the core skills of interviewing and reporting, before going on to look at specialist areas like media law and ethics, magazine journalism, editing and production. You’ll also get the chance to work on live events and learn how to cover breaking news – all under the pressure of tight deadlines.

In your third year you’ll be able to focus on your own particular interests, such as sports and music journalism. You’ll also create a portfolio of original journalism, rooted in the real world – real people, real issues, real events.

Throughout it all, you’ll have access to the multimedia newsroom, TV studio and radio production facilities, getting you up to speed with all the latest technology. So, by the time you’re finished, you’ll have acquired the wide range of skills necessary to work in today’s multiplatform digital environments.

You may also have the opportunity to spend an extra year expanding your horizons, either studying with one of our partner universities overseas, or working on a placement with an organisation.

BA Criminology and Sociology offers the exciting opportunity to combine the study of two cutting-edge disciplines in the vibrant city of Manchester.

The course is aimed at students who are interested in both disciplines and want to study crime and its causes, patterns, consequences and responses by situating them in the wider context of society.

The first year introduces students to the building blocks of criminology and sociology: key sociological and criminological theories, social divisions and problems, the criminal justice system, crime policy and practice, and key social transformations such as digital culture. Students will receive training in a wide range of research methods during the first two years, to become equipped to undertake their own independent research project in the final year.

On our MSc Sport Nutrition course, you’ll examine the evidence surrounding nutrition, performance and health and gain the nutritional and physiological skills needed to work in the field of sport and exercise nutrition.

You’ll study the theory of nutrition, physiology and sports performance, exploring topics ranging from the applied effects of manipulating macronutrients to evaluating the role of fuelling before and during exercise, recovery and body composition manipulation.

You’ll develop practical skills in our on-site laboratories, food and nutrition suite and at specialist sports venues across Greater Manchester, including our Platt Lane sports complex.

Some of the practical assessments you’ll complete include analysing the composition of food and exploring how to help athletes to perform better. You might investigate cardiac capacity and recovery times or consider questions such as whether dietary supplements can affect performance positively or negatively.

To help you practice your skills, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for work placements. We have links with employers across the North West, including professional and amateur sports teams from football to netball.

This course will challenge your perceptions, ideas and understanding of sport coaching and development. You’ll journey into the world of sport, exploring the key theories around the subject and developing the practical skills to put them into action.

Our sport coaching and development program has been designed to build your knowledge in a broad range of areas, from coaching practice and techniques, to sport history, sociology and sport development.

Study at Manchester Met and you’ll be supported throughout your degree by an experienced team of academics, with access to subject experts and practitioners who work within the coaching and sport development sectors. You’ll learn in world-class facilities, including Platt Lane Sports Complex and our new £26m Institute of Sport building.

With our extensive network of national and regional sports organisations, you will also have the opportunity to learn in an applied setting through securing work placements within and outside the UK, helping to lay the foundations for your future career.

Placement options

You can opt to spend your third year getting a taste of professional life in a sport or health-related organisation with the four-year placement route. These optional placements not only give you the opportunity to develop your core skills and learn about how a business really operates in your industry, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work.

Based at the Manchester Metropolitan University Q-Step Centre in the Department of Sociology, this MSc approaches the study of quantitative methods in an innovative way. Right now, there is a demand for graduates with quantitative skills, and it is a demand our students are equipped to meet. Students studying on this MSc will be ready to pursue a career involving quantitative research skills within a diverse range of organisations. Students will also be prepared for doctoral study, which requires advanced skills on quantitative methods recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and other research councils.

The course focuses on the development and application of key quantitative methods and analytical techniques. It focuses on the use of quantitative methods within real-world contexts and a key aim is to develop graduates' career-ready skills in this field.

Manchester Met’s Q-Step Centre is recognised as a centre for excellence in the teaching and training of quantitative methods, with a national and global reputation for its pedagogy. It has innovative research partnerships with a range of local organisations, and the community research projects run by the centre look to build on current knowledge to develop new strategies, aimed at empowering and transforming communities.  You will be taught by research-active academics from Q-Step and other multidisciplinary research centres including Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU), Manchester Centre for Youth Studies, Big Data Centre in Sociology Department and this real-world research feeds directly into what they will be taught. The international research experience of the centre is embedded into the course content and delivery of the course is enhanced by incorporating cross-comparative survey data in lab activities and assessments. You will also have the opportunity to do your dissertation in collaboration with projects being carried out with these centres' international research partners. You will also be exposed to a variety of different perspectives and views within the discipline through lectures, seminars, talks and workshops delivered or co-delivered by international experts.

Placement options

• Placement-based dissertation, in which you will produce a piece of research on behalf of one of our partner organisations. We will help your source your placement.
• We work with over 25 partners across Greater Manchester to provide students with placements across diverse sectors.

The combination of digital and physical technologies that is driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is changing our world. Our MSc Engineering Project Management offers the opportunity to develop management skills to implement technical strategies in projects across the engineering sector.

This course explores specialist challenges to the key objectives of innovation and sustainability in the delivery of new engineering systems, products, enterprise and services for Industry 4.0.

Throughout this course, you’ll develop specialist skills for the management of multidisciplinary projects along with techniques to manage the operational and developmental phases of product and system life cycles.

Our teaching staff come from a range of professional backgrounds with active networks in various sectors, from manufacturing engineering and environmental industries, to railways and built environment. Together, this multidisciplinary group will help you to become a rounded professional, ready to apply for engineering management roles in organisations globally.

Placement options

The optional industry placement provides the opportunity to apply academic knowledge in the workplace, as well as acquiring additional specialist expertise and transferable skills through responsibilities and contributions to the employer’s business.

Following the completion of the taught elements of their MSc course, students can gain additional practice credits by working for a minimum of 36 weeks and maximum 42 weeks (excluding paid and statutory holidays) in an industrial setting, relevant to the student’s course.

Students will be responsible for searching and applying for advertised placement opportunities, supported by academic staff and the University’s Careers and Employability Service.

All placements are approved and monitored in accordance with the University’s Institutional Code of Practice for Placement and Work?Based Learning, including additional checks for international students on study visas. Once a student secures an approved placement, an academic tutor and workplace mentor will be identified. The academic tutor will provide support and progress checks.

Political and economic developments such as Brexit mean that international trade agreements, foreign direct investment and the attractiveness of where a company does business and accesses talent are more important than ever.

In the digital age, almost every business operates on the world stage and supplies to multiple countries. To help you compete in a hugely competitive global landscape, our International Business Management degree will give you a greater understanding of the nuances, challenges and opportunities of operating overseas.

Exploring enterprise, entrepreneurship and emerging markets

We’ll help you gain specialist knowledge in managing people of different cultures and backgrounds, and the political and governing structures of different markets that influence how businesses operate.

You’ll also develop the cross-cultural management skills you need to build international business relationships in often volatile political, cultural and economic environments.

Our International Business Management degree offers four-year routes where you can spend your third year on placement or study abroad at one of our overseas partner universities. Past students have worked for Johnson and Johnson in Tokyo, Hellman Worldwide Logistics in the USA and Warner Bros in London.

By the time you leave our business school, you’ll have the business knowledge and cross-cultural management skills to kick-start your career in the UK and abroad.

Our BSc (Hons) Biology degree offers the chance to gain a solid grounding in the biological sciences – with the flexibility to develop your own interests and learn about the areas and aspects of biological sciences that match your career ambitions.

Study biology at Manchester Met and you’ll begin by learning the fundamentals of the subject, before exploring the areas that interest you most through a variety of option units. Along the way, you’ll explore the issues that shape our world and touch our lives – from molecular biology, microbiology and genetics, to ecology, animal behaviour, biodiversity and conservation.

The program also allows you to develop your own interests in areas such as comparative anatomy and physiology, plant science, brain and behaviour, population biology, biotechnology, biochemistry and the conservation of biodiversity, to tailor your learning to your career aspirations.

In our laboratories, you’ll get to grips with the latest equipment, as we help you develop a range of practical skills that you can take into your career. And, by getting out in the field, you can learn about biology out in the real world – whether in the UK or overseas.

Our biology degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons, either studying with one of our partner universities overseas, or working on a placement with a business or non-governmental organisation.

Our MA Inclusive Education master's is a flexible course for anyone interested in critically exploring inclusive education. We offer a full-time route and a part-time route so you can study at a pace that suits you.

From early years practitioners, teachers and leaders in education, to local authority, health services and aspiring researchers, our course appeals to a variety of backgrounds and professions. You’ll be joining a diverse and thriving community of postgraduate students from the UK and across the world.

You’ll analyse key issues, significant debates and global concepts in the field of inclusive education. Reflect on your personal understandings of special educational needs and consider the relationship between educational values and the development of inclusive practice.

You’ll learn the theoretical knowledge from expert educational researchers to make an impact in your current professional setting or future career and become a leader in education. You will evaluate and learn to think with a range of theoretical frameworks to deepen your critical analysis. And you’ll explore how theory informs how we interpret and analyse key issues in education.

We aim to empower you to approach your own research with confidence. You’ll extend your understanding of research techniques to prepare you for completing your own dissertation. Throughout the project, you will have access to support from active researchers in our internationally renowned Educational and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

You’ll learn from experts in education to become a leader in the areas of education that interest you. You’ll be able to specialise your studies around the educational topics you’re passionate about by choosing an option unit based on work by world-class researchers in the Faculty of Health and Education. Specialist option units may include topics such as literacy and language, educational philosophy, learning in informal settings, or international perspectives in education.

When you graduate, you’ll achieve a masters degree that highlights areas of your personal and professional interest.

Product designers at Manchester Met explore why, examine how, and ask ‘what if?’ We are investigative and critically responsive to human and global needs, developing innovative design-led solutions that connect the consumer experience of products, systems and services. As a product design student, you will be creative with purpose, gaining critical understanding of the emergent issues affecting design across society and culture, learning how to be a designer of products that enhance functionality, interactions and relationships with people and the places we inhabit.

 You will develop essential skills in creative methods, research, design thinking, prototyping and design strategy, applying design intelligence to the creation of new product opportunities and solutions. You will discover how to design products that embrace both traditional and contemporary approaches to production and manufacturing, generating value through the application of materials, processes, and technologies. This course will enable you to produce innovative crafted design solutions and develop the creative and professional skills required to support a sustainable career in product design.

Product Design at Manchester Met builds on the success of our previous programme, BA Three Dimensional Design, which has produced influential and award-winning graduates including designer and architect Thomas Heatherwick, jeweller Ruth Tomlinson and ceramicist Joe Hartley.