Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fine Art with Placement Year/Overseas Study

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Philosophy shapes the way we think about ourselves, our relationships with each other and the natural world. Now, more than ever, reflection on these relationships is so important.

Drawing on a rich and varied tradition of philosophical theory across Anglo-American and the continental European traditions, our MA in Philosophy allows you to engage with those important action-guiding concepts that are at the centre of key debates about the human condition and our relationship with nature. You’ll gain the skills to think critically and deeply about the challenges that confront us across politics, the sciences and the arts, as a result of rapid contemporary social, technological and environmental changes.

Taught by a close-knit, dedicated team of internationally acknowledged experts in a range of philosophical disciplines, you will gain first-hand knowledge of the key ideas and arguments of some of the greatest ancient, modern and contemporary philosophers. You will read some of the oldest texts of Western philosophy and some of the most recent, all of which are deeply relevant to our practices and lives today.

This course will tackle some of the most challenging modern and contemporary philosophical texts across a range of areas including philosophy of science and biology, metaphysics, critical social theories, ethics, aesthetics and the philosophy of art. So, by the time you graduate, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge, skills, intellectual confidence and resources to pursue your own exciting research projects.

We have close links with other departments within the University, and you will have a distinctive opportunity to develop your philosophical work in a genuinely interdisciplinary environment. You will be able to write a long research-project on a topic of your choice with the expert guidance of one of our philosophy tutors.

Traditional health and social care roles are changing. There’s a shift towards partnership working across the health and social care sector including within social services, charities, the NHS and social enterprises. We’ve designed this course to help you work across these settings so you can have a positive impact on people’s lives.

You won’t simply learn the theory behind integrating health and social care, you’ll explore how it works in practice from working with service users to designing service provision. Topics might include how unevenly distributed resources across society affect a person’s life, how the support and care a person needs changes as they age or how to recognise a person’s strengths to make a difference to their life.

You’ll also explore global representations and perspectives of health and social care. Alongside lectures and seminars, you’ll work in small groups to solve problems set by employers such as developing ideas for community projects around homelessness, poverty and isolation.

From clean energy to clean water, advanced materials provide the building blocks of innovation in a vast range of sectors and applications. As a materials chemist, you may design and develop intelligent products for areas such as health, energy, mobility, and communication, as well as environment and climate management.

Our MSc Advanced Materials offers the chance to get to grips with materials chemistry including the design, analysis, and characterisation of materials. With a multi-disciplinary approach, we offer a fascinating combination of chemistry and project management to develop your professional skills and prepare you to join the next generation of materials scientists.

The course is suited to talented chemists and scientists with a passion for analysing and creating innovative materials. With a core interest in materials chemistry, on this course, you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of the relationship between the structure and performance of different materials, the fundamental principles driving the development of innovative products, and strategies for the design and development of novel materials.

Placement options

Strengthen your skillset by applying the skills you’ve learned throughout your academic studies in a practical, real-life industry environment. This course is available with an optional industrial placement year, giving students the chance to tailor their knowledge to suit a specific industry or skillset. Learning things that can’t be taught or experienced in a classroom, you’ll gain hands-on experience and inside knowledge of industry practice. This is an excellent opportunity to put theory into practice and gain transferable workplace skills, providing a real boost to your CV when you graduate.

The University’s Careers Service will assist students in finding suitable placements. There will also be plenty of help and advice from staff in the Department of Natural Sciences. After finding a placement, your tutors will be on hand to ensure this is the right choice for you and your career aspirations, to make sure that you get the most from your time in industry.

By bringing together our academic expertise with Manchester City F.C.’s City in the Community Foundation, this degree offers the very best of both worlds and an integrated path to rewarding career goals.

This course offers work-based learning in Premier League surroundings, equipping you with the skills, knowledge and experience you will need to find success as a coach or sports programme leader.

Academic experts deliver the programme, providing insight and support during your three years. In addition, you are continually mentored and supported by practitioners from City in the Community who provide perspectives from the real world of delivering community sport coaching and sport development initiatives.

You will learn how coaching sport improves aspects of mental and physical health. The programme will cover all angles of project development – from planning and delivering activity, through to measuring impact – to help understand the potential of sporting opportunities to make a positive difference in the community.  

The MFA in Graphic Design & Art Direction program is designed for creative practitioners who wish to advance their knowledge, skills and specialism within the field of visual communication.

Each student will develop a practice-led investigation within this broader context, actively constructing a bespoke body of design knowledge which combines theory, practice, research, entrepreneurship and innovation from a wide range of creative activities.

They will be taught to question and expand their creative thinking and generic design process by developing their analytical skills; engaging in critical dialogues; work independently, collaboratively and interdisciplinary; experimenting in a range of directions before delivering professional and innovative outcomes to defined audiences with confidence. All creative activities are supported by strategic thinking, robust methodologies and informed by practice-led research.

The Joint Honours BA (Hons) English and Philosophy course route is distinctive because of its richly interdisciplinary approach to key ethical and intellectual challenges. BA (Hons) English and Philosophy is a popular Joint Honours combination which brings together two subjects with highly complementary approaches and interests.

As well as offering a balance of core and optional units rooted in each of the two subjects, this course has been designed so that your growing knowledge and skills in each subject will help you develop a distinctive perspective and distinctive strengths in the other. You may have opportunities to study abroad and, if you wish, can take your third year as a placement – in Britain or abroad. In your final year, you will have a chance to explore your interests in depth with a substantial piece of project work that presents a thesis, building on the knowledge and skills you've been developing over previous years.

The English and philosophy subject groups are staffed by internationally renowned writers and academics, and there’s a strong research culture, creating a learning environment that is both supportive and intellectually challenging. We pride ourselves on our excellent teaching and highly positive student feedback. And with our extensive cultural links both in Manchester and further afield, you are in the right place to begin building a network for your future.

The philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan is a centre of internationally recognised research, covering the History of Philosophy, critical social theories, Philosophy of Art, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Education, History and Philosophy of Science, and much more. We pride ourselves on covering Anglo-American and Continental European philosophy, and many of our research-active staff are regularly invited to give keynote papers at international conferences and workshops. Our teaching is research-led, so you can be sure you’re learning from experts at the forefront of various philosophical disciplines.

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.

Study Abroad
The four-year study abroad route gives you the opportunity to study overseas during your third year in Europe, North America or Australasia.

Businesses and governments rely on economists to help them examine issues, identify trends and deal with financial uncertainty. By studying our BA/BSc (Hons) Economics degree, you’ll explore how organizations and individuals invest and allocate their resources.

Throughout the course, we’ll challenge you to think about choices people make and how those decisions affect every aspect of our lives. You’ll explore everything from employment to distribution of wealth, government spending to international trade.

Please note that all students will apply directly to the BA (Hons) Economics. After studying BA (Hons) Economics in the first year, you can choose to continue on the BA (Hons) Economics, or transfer to BSc (Hons) Economics through the second and third year of study.

This combined honours course will give you the practical language skills while also developing your understanding of the social and cultural environment in which it is spoken. You’ll also study units ranging from consultancy to enterprise, helping you find your calling in international business.

Business
This degree includes everything you could want from a business degree, from expertise in our research areas of sustainability, strategy, and enterprise to events like our leadership series of guest lectures.

Minor languages available
French, Spanish, Modern Standard Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Italian.

Studying politics allows you to know what is happening today, how change is enacted, and how you can be a part of it. The principal focus of the degree is power relations between individuals, social groups and nations – so it is one of the most exciting ways to understand why things are the way they are. You’ll study a broad range of social and public policy areas and explore fundamental issues that affect communities in the UK and elsewhere, including: emancipatory political thought and theory, international politics, digital politics, and ‘issue’ politics such as environmentalism and climate change.

The course is underpinned by both the research specialisms of the staff who will teach you and a wide variety of options mean you can pursue your own interests, depending on what you choose to specialise in – with things becoming increasingly flexible as you progress through the course. In the final year, you will engage more directly with current academic debates and contemporary political developments.

We place a heavy emphasis on employability and offer practical skills training, including advanced analytical approaches, which many employers look for when offering placement opportunities. This, alongside the opportunity to study a foreign language or do an exchange abroad, means that a politics degree opens doors to a range of interesting and rewarding career possibilities, as well as providing you with a much better understanding of what is happening right now.

You can also combine politics with another subject and broaden your outlook still further. In your third year, you may have the opportunity to take a placement year with an employer or study abroad, broadening your horizons and boosting your employability.

Placement options

Through a placement year, you may have the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life and show employers that you’re ready to get to work. This is a valuable opportunity to develop core employability skills and explore how your course, and the knowledge you’ve gained from it, can be transferred to the real world.

Students are free to choose placement opportunities from a wide range of roles both in the UK and abroad. Students choosing this option are supported by a dedicated placement team who provide links to employers through presentations, events, and fairs, and provide a specialist program of guidance on recruitment procedures including CV and interview preparation, as well as work readiness and working overseas.