Master of Arts in Illustration

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

In today’s digital world there are more ways than ever to reach out to consumers.

Finding creative solutions to advertising challenges is a sought-after skill. It’s not only about crafting attention-grabbing images and slogans. Your campaigns need to be grounded in advertising theory.

This course will ensure you have the strategic knowledge to support your creative thinking. And, with a range of options for placements and internships, you’ll be well on your way to an exciting career.

A perfect mix
You’ll explore every element of the advertising spectrum, from traditional print-based materials to digital media.

This course blends commercial, theoretical and creative units to give you the edge when you start work. Although it’s academically challenging, the practical nature of the course means you’ll be ready to create effective campaigns in various formats and media.

Learn about today’s advertising challenges and discover how to build brands. Specialise further with one of our option units to develop the skills you need for a career you’re passionate about.

Real-world skills
Your lecturers have experienced advertising experts, sharing real examples to bring the theory to life. With our enviable network, we bring in some of the industry’s leading figures as guest lecturers.

Test your new knowledge on units like the live client brief. Or, spend a year in industry to gain vital experience with real-life projects. Blend your creative skills with strategic awareness to create campaigns that get results.

Optional internship year

If you choose to take the optional internship year, you will do this once you successfully complete your taught units. Internships take place over 36-48 weeks – you will be supported by our Placement Office, who have extensive contacts with local employers and over 25 years of experience of helping students to find placements.

The Placement Office advertise a variety of opportunities, support and advise on the application and recruitment process and continue to support you whilst you are away from the University.

The MChem (Hons) Pharmaceutical Chemistry is an integrated four-year undergraduate masters degree providing an excellent grounding in the skills and knowledge vital to a future as a pharmaceutical chemist working in drug discovery.

Throughout the programme, you’ll study a wide range of subjects, both to gain a good understanding of the wider subject and to develop the specialist skills central to pharmaceutical chemistry. So, while you’ll study general chemistry, research methods and professional laboratory techniques, your programme will also focus on more specialist areas like drug testing, drug efficacy, computer-based drug design and the quality control of pharmaceuticals.

The MChem (Hons) Pharmaceutical Chemistry degree also includes a research project unit, where you spend a year focusing on a major independent project in pharmaceutical chemistry that you design, carry out and present, alongside your other areas of study.

Interested in being an influencer in a major corporation? Or mentoring people to overcome challenging situations at work? Or perhaps you want to coach leaders of charities and public organizations?

Business psychology is an emerging topic in the working world. Performance, excellence, talent management, mental health – they’re not just buzzwords, they’re driving a new approach to doing business.

This unique course lets you combine your interests in human behaviour and business operations. You don’t need any psychology or business knowledge when you join us – just curiosity and a willingness to learn. We’ll go over everything from scratch, introducing you to the business environment, and helping you develop the academic and professional skills you’ll need to succeed.

Study abroad
Instead of a placement, you'll have the opportunity to spend up to a year overseas, studying with one of our partner institutions across Europe, or beyond. Go abroad in the third year of your degree, and you’ll not only learn about other cultures, improve your language skills and discover more about yourself – you’ll also boost your career prospects. Having first-hand knowledge of another country’s cultures and traditions can take you far in a range of careers. And, by going abroad you’ll also demonstrate the kind of independent spirit and adaptability that many employers want.

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.

People never forget great events. Reading this, you’ve probably got one in mind. Perhaps a festival you went to with a group of friends, a huge sporting event, or even a wedding at a fantastic venue.

But have you ever wondered what it takes to manage an event? If you’re curious about what goes on behind the scenes, our course is for you. On the BA (Hons) Events Management degree, you'll be immersed in the world of events, connected with experts and prepared for your first role in the industry.

Placement options
Our BA (Hons) Events Management degree offers the chance to spend a year getting a taste of professional life. It not only gives 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.

The Business School Placement Team is ready to help. They offer a wide range of services, including employer presentations, advice and placement fairs. But it’s also up to you – the more proactive you are about applying for placement opportunities, the better.

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.

On our BSc (Hons) Computer Science degree, you’ll get an in-depth understanding of both the theory and technical aspects of computing, with an emphasis on programming, algorithms, data structures, and computer architecture. We’ve designed the course content to meet the needs of the industry, so you can be confident the skills you’re learning are the skills that employers look for.

You’ll begin by studying programming, computing mathematics, web development, computer architectures and databases as you cover the fundamentals of computing, developing your team working and communication skills as you go. Then, as you progress, you’ll tackle more specialized areas, like algorithms, data structures, networks, operating systems and the processes used to develop software in industry.

By your final year you’ll be ready to take on advanced topics like artificial intelligence and the study of different programming language paradigms. Carrying out a large-scale project will give you the chance to hone the skills you’ve learned and put them into practice.

Placement options
The full-time four-year sandwich route provides the opportunity to go on a placement for at least 36 weeks, where you’ll get a taste of professional life. Completing a placement not only develops your core skills and experience, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work. Graduate employers report that students who have been on placements tend to be well organised and better able to apply their skills in a structured way. This may be subject to national lockdown restrictions.

BA (Hons) Filmmaking is a practice-based course giving you the creative freedom to develop your voice through the dynamic language of film.

Our learning environment incorporates a unique mix of digital art and film school philosophies, empowering you to express your ideas and stories through narrative fiction, documentary, artists’ moving image and new media. You will specialise in original ideas from unique perspectives, with the potential for your work to be screened in international venues.

Studying at the School of Digital Arts means learning beyond the usual limits. You’ll be part of a vibrant creative community that spans a range of disciplines, from photography and animation, to music and sound design. It’s an environment designed for collaboration – a place where you can push the boundaries of filmmaking, explore the directions that interest you most and develop a broad skill set made for today’s digital arts and media sector. Here, you’ll have access to a vast range of specialist resources and purpose-built facilities, as well as a wealth of opportunities for developing your professional skills, from work experience placements and industry competitions to guest lectures and collaborations with organisations.

The UK film and television industry is a global success story and Manchester is the perfect place to write your own chapter. It’s a major media city, second only to London. The likes of the BBC and ITV are on our doorstep at MediaCityUK, while the city is also home to a thriving, bustling digital production sector, from innovative start-ups to established production companies. For today, that means you’ll have the chance to work on live industry projects – developing practical skills and valuable experience. For tomorrow, that means you’ll graduate in one of the most exciting cities in Europe for starting a career in the creative and digital industries.

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 evolutionary development to environmental stimuli, animal behaviour is shaped by a range of factors. This masters course is your chance to explore them all – not only developing the theoretical principles of behaviour, but also learning how to harness these principles to tackle real-world animal welfare and conservation issues.

It’s an area that covers a diverse range of disciplines, from a strong numerical approach in the classroom to a practical approach in the lab and in the field. While the course is built around strong core units, it also offers the flexibility to explore specialist areas, such as genetics and GIS.

Above all, this is a course that offers the chance to study animal behaviour up close. As well as a field trip to Poland, Ecuador or Tanzania, your dissertation project could take you to Kenya, the Philippines or Mauritius (not to mention sites across the UK) for your research.

As well as expert analytical abilities and practical research techniques, you’ll leave us with an in-depth understanding of animals physiology, and how experience and environment combine to create behaviour – everything you need to pursue a range of career paths, from animal management to education or further research.

Physical geography offers the chance to understand, investigate and model the physical interactions and processes that influence our environment and landscape. Study physical geography at Manchester Met and you’ll examine modern environmental phenomena and the long-term evolution of the landscape. You’ll explore Earth’s dynamic nature – not just looking at how it changes, but also how much it has changed over time – and you’ll investigate human impacts upon it, particularly in terms of past and future climate change.

While you can learn a lot on campus, there’s no substitute for seeing the physical landscape for yourself. As part of our program, we regularly engage in fieldwork, from day-long trips to residential trips across the UK and overseas. Being in Manchester also means you’ll have plenty to explore on the doorstep, with four national parks within a couple of hours’ drive. You can even spend a year developing your professional skills working on a placement, or broadening your horizons by studying abroad with the four-year route.

Placement options

All of our geography degrees have been designed to be flexible. You can opt for the four-year placement degree route and spend Year 3 on a professional placement with a degree-related organisation.

Alternatively, if you opt for the four-year study overseas route, you will spend your third year in Europe, North America or Australia, subject to national and international travel restrictions.