Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Geography with Placement Year

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

The world’s habitats are undergoing rapid transformation. The impacts of climate change are causing species extinction at an unprecedented rate. Conservation biology as a discipline looks at the science behind these changes – including the identification of ecosystems at risk, ways of conserving biodiversity, and the role of genetics and demography.

With our masters, you’ll tackle all that and more, gaining the knowledge and skills for a career at the forefront of conservation. You’ll explore the scientific background to species conservation and the factors driving extinction. You’ll also look at the sustainable use of resources and learn valuable statistical techniques for analysing ecological data. With a range of option units, you’ll be able to specialise in areas like species recovery and behavioural biology.

But this course is as much about practice as it is about theory. While the core units include a field course to Poland, Ecuador or Tanzania, your master's project also has a practical focus, demanding in-depth research before you present your findings.

Throughout, it all, you’ll be supported by experienced academics, who’ll bring their real-world expertise directly to the classroom as you prepare to make your own way in the world of conservation. And the international focus of this degree, it’s a career journey that could take you literally anywhere.

The BA (Hons) Fashion program has an excellent reputation for producing fashion graduates who are employed for their creativity, originality, versatility, and professional skills.

The program focuses on contemporary fashion design and encourages students to be creative and experimental while challenging the conventions of fashion and textile design practices.

Students follow an arts-based studio practice model through which they develop concepts and ideas using in-depth research processes and experimentation, learning how to design and make original fashion outcomes with a focus on contemporary craftsmanship. Students learn essential skills for designing and making, including the opportunity to develop a textile specialism such as knit, print or embroidery.

Students are encouraged to develop a personal design philosophy, leading to a final collection and design portfolio in their final year, with consideration of sustainable design practice. There is also opportunity to collaborate with industry partners through live briefs, and to work with other art and design students both within the university and with international partners in the award-winning cross-disciplinary Unit X.

In the contemporary art world, as the boundaries between fine art practices are crossed, so too are the distinctions between artist, theorist and curator. This distinctive course challenges these boundaries, offering students the opportunity to develop and expand fine art practice through a deep engagement with art historical knowledge and theoretical ideas. The course also offers a curating pathway, allowing students to explore exhibition-making in its own right and as a form of artistic practice.

International marketing is vital for businesses to connect with their customers in an increasingly competitive, and rapidly evolving, marketplace. This course will give you the expertise necessary to thrive in this dynamic landscape.

You’ll gain the knowledge, technical and personal skills to operate across a range of dynamic and competitive international marketing environments.

We’ll provide you with knowledge from experts with extensive links to industry, people who understand what it takes to succeed in this field, plus leading researchers at the cutting edge of knowledge. Their expertise will help you develop an understanding of international marketing and how it’s applied in industry.

On this course you will study theoretical approaches to living in a digital society, coupled with an advanced understanding of social science research, and will have the option to specialise in either digital politics or digital society, or take a general route. This degree draws on academic expertise from both the Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, and the Department of Sociology.

You will be introduced to an overview of qualitative and quantitative digital methods, while becoming familiar with the field of digital social research in its ever-growing diversity. You will be taught a set of professional skills necessary to be a successful digital researcher, whether in academia, policy, or industry. There is the option to specialise and graduate with a bracketed award through your choice of option units, allowing you to cater to your own individual interests and academic development.

MSc Digital Society (Digital Politics) will cover theories and practices of digital politics and media as well as an in-depth exploration of digital politics around the world.

MSc Digital Society (Digital Sociology) will cover theories and practices of digital sociology as well as an in-depth exploration of the global digital challenges and crises.

As the role of digital technologies, from social media through to algorithms and artificial intelligence, continue to play a prominent role in every aspect of social life, research into our digital society is becoming more and more significant. Many societies have seen a dramatic change in the way transport, consumption and other services are managed and delivered through apps, platforms, and other digital services. However, with the positives come many challenges, such as the inequalities digital technology generates in society and the rise of fake news, misinformation and cyberwarfare.

MSc Digital Society allows you to study this relationship between digital technologies and society in an interdisciplinary and research-informed environment. We aim to equip you with the tools needed to become an expert in understanding how digital technologies shape societies, nationally and internationally, through a range of units that take a global view; alongside research that draws on empirical examples from around the world. You will be taught by leading experts in the field who are engaged in research at the cutting edge of current developments, relevant to the lives of people across the globe. You will also become part of a community of staff and PhD students in the digital society research cluster, who can offer mentorship and knowledge exchange.

Our BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering degree provides a strong theoretical and practical foundation for those looking to open the door to one of the many career opportunities available to mechanical engineers. With project-based learning throughout, you’ll develop the transferable skills and multidisciplinary awareness that are highly valued in industry.

In your first year, you’ll get a grounding in the fundamental principles of applied mathematics and engineering sciences. What’s more, you’ll also get straight into the practical side of things, with a design-and-build challenge.

You’ll develop scientific and analytical skills as you study specialisms like solid and fluid mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics and engineering mathematics. And with project work that’s rooted in our research and shaped around industry, you’ll learn how to apply those skills to real-world engineering.

This mechanical engineering degree is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partly meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.

Placement options

All of our degrees offer the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. If you choose to go down this route, your degree will take one year longer, with the third year spent working in industry. 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. We offer a range of services to help you find the right placement, including employer presentations, advice and placement fairs.

Study a software engineering degree with us and you’ll build the essential skills you need to work with software systems – opening the door to a range of career opportunities. You’ll cover all aspects of the software engineering process, with a focus on the methodical approach to robust, error-free software design and development.

In your first year, you’ll start with the core principles of computer architecture, databases, web design and programming. You’ll then begin to specialise, with areas of study like software design and development processes, full-stack web development and advanced programming.

As you progress you’ll develop knowledge of cloud computing, full-stack web development, software testing, as well as advanced development skills in a range of programming languages. You’ll also tackle team-based projects and a large-scale software project in your final year. This will help you to build vital project management skills, as well as giving you a sound understanding of the role of software development tools within the software life cycle.

Our BSc (Hons) Software Engineering, BSc (Hons) Computer Science and BSc (Hons) Applied Computing degrees share a common first year, allowing you to switch between these courses at the end of your first year.

Creating art for games is both specialised and rewarding – a mix of technical know-how and creative thinking that can make a huge impact on the look, feel and experience of any computer game. A game artist can create entire living and breathing virtual worlds, dynamic animated characters and beautiful atmospheric effects in one of the most challenging and exciting roles in the creative industry. Our BA (Hons) Games Art course offers this mix, with core skills and vital understanding that will equip you for your future career in the games industry.

While it’s a specialist course offering a specialist skill set, being part of the School of Digital Arts (SODA) offers the unique opportunity to work with others from across our broad creative community. By working in collaboration with students of photography, animation, sound design and more, as well as students from the Department of Computing and Mathematics, you’ll get a taste of the kind of cross-disciplinary teamwork that’s essential in the fast-moving digital sector. It’s not only a creative environment, but a well-equipped one too. SODA has been purpose-built to develop industry-standard skills, so it offers industry-standard facilities – giving you every opportunity to get to grips with professional-grade development and design technology.

Just as SODA provides a vibrant, dynamic environment for studying games art, Manchester provides an exciting, creative setting. The city is not only home to one of the largest media and creative sectors outside of London, but also has a rich history of video games creation, from Ocean Software in the 1980’s to TT Games and much more today. On our doorstep, you can find renowned CG, visual effects and VR/AR agencies like Flipbook and Carbon Digital, not to mention the BBC’s entire digital and games teams. In short, it’s much more than an exciting city for students, for qualified, well-rounded game artists, Manchester can provide the perfect launch pad for a rewarding career.

Placement options

SODA Placement Year
As part of your studies with SODA, you will have the chance to take a year working on placement within the industry. During your year, you will spend at least 36 weeks working within an organisation in the industry, developing workplace skills, practical understanding and genuine industry experience.

From ancient civilizations and great empires, to terrible battles and the roots of our modern society, history is a vast landscape to explore and understand.

The past is part of our everyday lives, shaping our world profoundly. Study history and you won’t just learn about what happened in the past. You’ll develop a better understanding of the how and why of the events that make us who we are. In every period we study, our courses seek to develop different approaches and methods to understanding the past, embracing political, social, and cultural history. We foster the practice of history as an inclusive discipline, and recognise that powerful ideologies of race, gender and social status have shaped our past and our present. In other words – you won’t just discover the story, you’ll investigate and interpret its sources, impacts and meanings.

This degree program offers a roadmap for exploring the social and political landscape of human history. You’ll look at a huge variety of times and places – immersing yourself in wars, famine and poverty, charting technological leaps and social progress, and unearthing conspiracies, catastrophes and revolutions. And that’s just in your first year. In years two and three through your option unit choices, you'll have the opportunity to specialise and develop your interests further, and graduate with a degree title that reflects this: Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern, or American.

Staff researchers are constantly searching for new discoveries, fresh perspectives and unknown aspects of our history, bringing the past alive in the classroom. With this degree we give you the skills to understand the world and how this affects societal developments.

You may also have the opportunity to study abroad, including in the US, or spend your third year on placement in Britain or abroad.

This course rethinks the use, practice and industry of Textiles within the 21st century. It is responsive to an emerging global landscape that requires, sustainable, design-led, innovative positions to be adopted from which to anticipate and forecast our Textile futures.

Manchester and the School of Art have been at the forefront of textiles innovation since the late 19th Century and this course is built on that rich heritage, offering students the opportunity to challenge and innovate in equal measure.

As a student, you will develop innovative study hubs of interdisciplinary expertise, which will both rethink and regenerate textiles within its expanded field (including Textile Craft, Innovation and Digital specialisms). You will address the future paradigms of environmental and social change, new materiality, and the development of 4.0 Textile Industry. Hybrid creative learning environments such as the Manchester Met Digital Lab and specialist Textile facilities support advanced digital learning and making, electronics, 3D printing and multi-media material making practices to be explored.

You will develop individual specialised projects which will become beacons within the expanded field of design. Learning is creative, innovative and interdisciplinary and teaching features design workshops, guest lectures, design events, reading groups, live industry projects and study trips.