Master of Arts in Illustration

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

Our human biosciences degree combines academic theory with applied practice. You’ll develop a broad understanding of the human biosciences and their significance in the contemporary world – and how you can apply that knowledge in the workplace.

You’ll study human function and structure in depth, the causes of abnormalities in humans and the consequences of human action. Typical areas of study include human physiology, cells and molecules, human neuroscience, and infection and immunity. In our specialist laboratories, we’ll also train you in the various scientific techniques used to study human biology.

Group study brings vital teamwork and communication skills, while in your final year you’ll get the chance to focus and develop your academic interests through an independent piece of laboratory-based research or a dissertation.

The degree will also launch you on a professional path and by the time you’ve finished you will have partly met the academic and experience requirement for membership of the Royal Society of Biology and Chartered Biologist (CBiol) status.

Placement options

The course offers real flexibility, as you will enrol on the three-year course and then decide if a placement is right for you once you have started your studies. If you opt to undertake a placement, your course will normally be four years full-time. Placements are not guaranteed or included as part of the course, as you would be required to source your own placement if you would like to undertake one.

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.

The Combined Honours program offers you an opportunity to study two subjects at degree level.

English:
English is a well-established humanities discipline, which explores the role of the written word in defining and transforming human experience. The modern discipline of English is rooted in the study of literature and the language in which it is written. Students of English can expect to study all major periods and forms of literature and to learn how to analyse literary texts by drawing on disciplines such as history, sociology and politics. The study of English develops strong critical thinking and communication skills, attributes that are highly valued in humanities graduates by employers. At the Manchester campus, the English department has access to a community of internationally renowned writers and critics through the Manchester Writing School, one of the most successful of its kind in the UK. Its Creative Director is Carol Ann Duffy DBE (Poet Laureate 2009-2019). You will develop the necessary skills in critical thinking and communication that are of value to graduates entering a wide array of career paths.

Linguistics:
If you are interested in the way in which we communicate and how it can influence people, studying linguistics will help you unravel how language is inextricably linked to who we are. You will also experience the theoretical and applied use of linguistics in social, educational, and practical environments and contexts. We have been providing professional language courses for more than 30 years and our staff are nationally, and in many cases internationally, recognized experts in their field. Our strong local, national and global links will help to enhance your study and future employment opportunities.

People are critical to organisational success and, as a HR professional, you play a vital role in your approach to managing people by championing decent work and driving productivity. This course will provide you with the knowledge and expertise to add value to organisations.

Open to students from all academic backgrounds, this course is designed to give you a thorough grounding in the world of HR. It will help you to develop the specialist skills you’ll need to progress to HR management (HRM) roles, or to take the next step in your current HR career.

Adding value
Strong HRM can make a real difference to organisations. You can have a positive impact on business performance by championing decent work and productivity.

Whether you already work in HR and want to become professionally qualified, or you're looking to move into the field, we’ll help you to achieve your ambition. You can choose to study a PgDip or the full MSc, whichever suits your commitments and motivations. We also offer a part-time study option for applicants who are currently working in, or have experience working in, HR or people management.

Our integrated masters will set you on the path to an exciting career in the rapidly evolving world of electrical and electronic engineering.

Study at Manchester Met and you’ll start off by getting a solid introduction to key engineering principles, before specialising with subjects like electrical energy systems, control and automation and electronic systems design. You’ll also learn to use advanced engineering software as you develop your analytical skills and work on more cutting-edge topics.

Much of your learning will take place through projects, reflecting the multidisciplinary world of work. In these projects, set by academic colleagues and industry contacts, you’ll learn what it takes to come up with creative solutions to current engineering problems. You’ll get feedback and advice directly from industry insiders, giving you the chance to find out exactly what it takes to impress a potential future employer.

This 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 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.

Our BSc (Hons) Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree not only offers a firm grounding in general chemistry, research methods and laboratory techniques, but also provides the specialist skills and understanding you’ll need to pursue a future in pharmaceutical chemistry. We’ve developed the course with the pharmaceutical industry in mind – ensuring that our curriculum covers all the skills and strengths that employers demand, and that our placements offer the practical experience on which you can build a career.

You’ll focus on areas like drug testing, drug efficacy, computer-based drug design and the quality control of pharmaceuticals – equipping you for a role in the drug discovery industry.

Our pharmaceutical chemistry degree also provides the option of spending an extra year expanding your horizons, working on a placement in industry. This is subject to national and international travel restrictions.

Photography offers an exciting range of career paths and specialisms and this course provides the perfect starting point for them.

You will have the opportunity to discover and push the boundaries of current practices and approaches. You’ll discover how photography can be used to tell powerful stories and communicate your personal interests within cultural and industry contexts. You will also have an opportunity to explore a wide range of different subject areas such as fashion, documentary, editorial and commercial photography. Throughout the course you will have the chance to experiment in a purpose-built studio, darkroom and digital facilities.

As a Photography student you will be part of the broad, dynamic creative community at the School of Digital Arts. As such, you will have units and classes taught across all our courses, with the chance to collaborate on projects with animators, sound designers, games developers and a range of other media-focused students. It’s an approach designed to mirror the cross-disciplinary practices you’ll find in the professional world, while giving you the chance to explore the creative directions that interest you most. Matching that professional approach, our purpose-built school provides professional-standard tools – a brand new creative playground for producing photographic work at the cutting edge of emerging digital technologies. It’s a school and a course designed to give you the vital industry and artist networking, technical and creative skills to prepare you for a career in the photographic and related industries.

Manchester offers a fantastic backdrop for it all. Studying here puts the country’s second-largest media and creative sector on your doorstep, with a globally recognised photographic industry and a substantial animation, film and digital/tech sector. At MediaCityUK, there’s a mix of national broadcasters and independent operators, while the city is home to a wide range of major media businesses. Manchester has a dynamic artistic and cultural scene that houses some of the best public and independent museums and galleries in the UK . So, whatever path you want to pursue in photography – or in the wider media, arts and digital tech industries – Manchester offers all sorts of opportunities for building a network, gaining experience and making a great start in your 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.

This course is at the forefront of production design and manufacturing practices and brings together students from creative and technical backgrounds, to foster original approaches to product design for manufacture. It supports you to explore and develop personal design methodologies and philosophies, and locate these within a deep understanding of historical, contemporary and future design practices, and wider social and cultural contexts.

You will undertake core units, delivered by production design specialists, consisting of design theory and practice lectures, material and manufacturing workshops, group seminars, individual tutorials, live external projects, and research study trips. Practical design development is supported by extensive hand and machine workshops for wood, metal, ceramics, glass and plastics, and digital workshops for laser cutting and large scale CNC routing.

Optional units facilitate innovative cross-disciplinary opportunities, supporting the development of collaborative working with students from within the material making and manufacturing cluster of MA/MSc/MFA Craft and MA/MSc/MFA Textile, and across the wider postgraduate design community. There are cross-faculty options to study within the faculty of “Science and Engineering”, acquiring advanced 3D CAD skills for industrial production, and utilising the latest advanced 3D printing processes. The Manchester Metropolitan Business School option addresses commercial aspects of design, enabling students to locate their ambitions within a defined financial model.

You will able to explore and challenge all aspects of product design, embracing opportunities for innovation across markets and production levels, from one-off making and batch fabrication, to flexible digital manufacture and high volume industrial production.

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.

French
In both the private and public sectors, there is demand for professionals with strong language skills who can work in culturally diverse environments. Studying French at Manchester Met will give you the opportunity to learn from native speakers. Our languages department have created their own multi-cultural community, including British, exchange and international students, along with foreign language assistants, allowing you to be absorbed into the everyday use of your chosen language.

We have been providing professional language courses for more than 30 years and our staff are nationally, and in many cases internationally, recognised experts in their field. Our strong local, national and global links will help to enhance your study and future employment opportunities.

If you take French as a major or equal subject you will be required to spend your third year abroad in France. If French is your minor subject, the course will be three years with no study abroad.

Marketing is a business function with the power to shape everything from sales and customer service to product development and brand loyalty. The best marketers see the big picture – when they look at the business landscape, they identify the opportunities to communicate and influence audiences, and spot the threats that could damage their brands. This marketing degree is all about exploring that landscape, taking those opportunities and avoiding those threats.

You’ll look at different media and methods of communication, study how to analyse and segment audiences, and discover how to craft and deliver the right message at the right time. To start with, you’ll learn about marketing fundamentals, but you’ll also have the flexibility to choose units that interest you most as you progress. By the time you leave us, you’ll not only understand the theory behind effective marketing – you’ll also have a range of practical, professional skills.

Above all, you’ll be ready for a career in marketing – following in the footsteps of graduates from this course now working in advertising, account management, media planning, public relations, event management and more.