Master of Arts in International Relations and Global Communications

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

With our BSc (Hons) Applied Computing degree, you’ll gain an insight into IT and computing industry practices. Alongside developing your technical knowledge and skills, you will also gain an understanding of how these skills are applied in an organisational context by learning about systems analysis, project management, software development, the management of data and the administration of information systems.

You’ll start by studying the core technical subjects of 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. You’ll then begin to specialise, studying topics such as IT project management, systems analysis and design, the software development process, computer networks and the implementation of database models. As you progress into your final year, you’ll learn about IT systems operations and administration, data management, database architecture and performance and you’ll conduct a large-scale project.

In addition to the computing skills you will develop, you will also gain key employability skills such as team working, report writing, communication and negotiation skills. 

Placement options
The full-time four year placement route provides the opportunity to go on a placement for at least 36 weeks, where you’ll get a taste of professional life. A placement not only gives you the opportunity to develop your core skills and experience, but also shows employers that you’re ready to get to work. We offer a wide range of services to help you find the right placement, including employer presentations, advice and fairs. But it’s also up to you – the more proactive you are about applying for placements, the better. This is subject to national lockdown restrictions.

Our creative writing courses are taught by internationally-renowned writers from The Manchester Writing School; one of the most successful of its kind in the UK, with more than 95 graduates and MA students who’ve gone on to become published writers. But skilled writers must also be well-developed readers and this course offers the best of both worlds, allowing you to combine Creative Writing and English as part of a joint degree.

While studying and practising creative writing, you’ll take a range of options from the English degree, including American literature, film, television and cultural studies. As you progress, you’ll have the chance to take part in creative writing workshops, focussing on two options from the selection of: prose, poetry and script. Our placement route offers you the opportunity to spend your third year on an industry placement, allowing you to apply university-based knowledge, skills and understanding to the world of work, and giving you an advantage when you begin looking for your first job after graduation. Or you may have the chance to spend a year expanding your horizons, studying with one of our partner universities overseas. In your final year, you’ll be ready to undertake an all-important independent creative project.

By the time you leave us, you’ll have an excellent understanding of the critical and cultural contexts in which you’re writing, together with the skills and experience to excel in the creative journey from original idea to finished work.

Placement options
Placement opportunities may be available both in the UK and abroad, in a variety of roles and sectors.

Our dedicated placement team have developed excellent links with various industries. You will be offered support through a preparation program of activities that includes guidance on selection procedures, working overseas, CV preparation, interview and selection techniques.

Music and sound design is a field that mixes the artistic and the technical to produce the vital ingredient for a range of media. On the one hand, it’s a discipline of creative composition and emotional interpretation. On the other, it’s about harnessing the latest technology and studio techniques to produce compelling music and sound content. Our course offers the chance to learn both sides, letting you explore your creative passions while equipping you for a career in the fast-paced digital arts and media sector.

The School of Digital Arts aims to prepare you for a career in the creative sector. It’s home to a dynamic community that spans skills and approaches, creating a space for collaboration and experimentation. And, as well as the human element, this is a space for technical skills, equipped with industry-standard tools and technology.

More than a purpose-built school, we also have the perfect setting. Manchester is a city at the forefront of the creative and digital sector in the UK (second only to London), home to a wide variety of broadcasters, creative agencies and media businesses. More importantly, it’s also one of the world’s musical capitals – much like Detroit and a handful of others. This is a city known around the world for its thriving, distinctive music scene.

Study with us and you’ll have the chance to tap into this vibrant city, making the most of our links with Scruff of the Neck, Louder Than War and other key promoters, labels and venues, not to mention youth music organisations, DJ educators, schools and cultural producers. With the chance to learn from, and connect with, these key figures and organisations, we offer the chance to study in a city that provides an ideal starting point for building your network, developing your experience and starting your career.

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.

Whether it’s a successful start-up or a blue-chip company, every organization across the globe needs people with strong business skills.

Studying business with law presents you with a world of opportunities. With an understanding of the legal structures that any business has to navigate, you’ll be a valuable addition to many large organizations. With strong business knowledge and skills, you’ll also be ready for a range of management roles in the legal sector.

You’ll learn fundamental skills like team-working, strategy and commercial awareness, get the benefit of excellent industry links and build the entrepreneurial skills that make great leaders, and great careers.

Placement options
Our BA (Hons) Business Management with Law 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 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.

With the rapidly changing nature of social and digital media, content needs to be designed strategically, engagingly and at pace.

Our BA (Hons) Future Media Production offers the skills and understanding to work at the forefront of the creative and digital sectors. It’s a course that will equip you with the tools to design, create, manipulate and deliver engaging digital media content for a wide range of audiences.

The course brings together key aspects of contemporary professional media practice, learning beyond the narrow confines of any single discipline. As such, you’ll learn alongside and collaborate with artists and designers across a range of exciting projects – laying the foundations for industry networking, technical and creative skills that will prove vital for a professional future in the creative media industries.

As a student at the School of Digital Arts you will work in an environment that is purpose-built for today’s fast-moving creative and digital sectors – offering boundary-breaking, cross-disciplinary learning that reflects modern project-based working practices. It’s a place that offers the opportunity to discover your passions and explore your role through collaboration within our dynamic creative community of animators, sound designers, filmmakers, games developers and more. And, just as it’s home to a cutting-edge creative community, it has the facilities to match. This means that you can develop industry-standard skills for creating content across the latest digital platforms.  

Just as SODA offers the perfect place as a creative student, Manchester provides the ideal setting. It’s a globally renowned and intensely creative city, second only to London as a hub for the UK’s media and creative sectors. The nearby MediaCityUK is home to major media and television businesses including the BBC and ITV, along with a host of independent operators, while the city also hosts a substantial animation, film and digital/tech sector. For students, it makes this a city for learning industry-relevant knowledge and workplace-ready skills. For budding creative media professionals, it makes the city a starting point for building a network, gaining experience and embarking on a career in the media, games and digital tech industries.

Good journalism is essential to a functioning society. This course is designed to give you all the valuable skills and knowledge needed to work in the diverse and fast-moving environment that is modern journalism and media.

Our core units will give you a solid foundation in the principles and practice of good journalism, and you’ll learn how to cover stories for print, web, TV and radio, and how to adapt a story from one medium to another.

You'll then have the opportunity to develop a specialism and graduate with a bracketed degree title. Depending on your specialism, you could graduate with:

• MA Multimedia Journalism (Data)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (Magazine & Longform)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (Broadcast)
• MA Multimedia Journalism (International)

You’ll be taught by accomplished media professionals with backgrounds and connections in BBC TV and radio; local, regional and national newspapers; and online news, so you can be sure you’re learning at the forefront of industry thinking and practice. And you’ll have the chance to develop your own industry connections through our placement opportunities, introducing you to the real working environment and enhancing your employability.

The BA (Hons) Acting programme is a leading actor training based in the heart of Manchester.

Led by a team of specialist and highly experienced directors, teachers and practitioners, the BA (Hons) Acting course at Manchester School of Theatre has an outstanding reputation for training actors with the skills necessary for a successful career in film, television, radio and stage.

We are looking for your imagination, empathy, curiosity, passion and wonder.

We are looking for expressive people who are energetic, dynamic and driven to tell stories.

We will nurture your ability, teach you your craft and encourage you on the path to creative excellence.

We encourage anyone with a passion for and commitment to acting to apply and we are dedicated to making our training as widely accessible as possible

You will work with a wide range of practitioners and a wealth of inspiring teachers and professional practitioners. You will train in all aspects of the craft including acting for stage, screen and radio.

The world of business is always evolving – adapting to new technology, moving with geopolitical events and reacting to the shifting financial climate. But there is one constant: people. Growth, change, success – it’s only possible with a well-managed workforce, no matter what the industry or sector.

By focusing on the human element of effective business leadership, this is a course that offers vital transferrable skills, providing the first steps of a range of career paths. You’ll leave us equipped to pursue roles across a vast range of sectors in a wide variety of disciplines.

We’ve built an impressive network with industry experts and major employers – sharing understanding and opportunity. For us, it means keeping our expertise at the cutting edge of business and human resource management. For you, it means learning from leading professionals from organizations like PwC and AJ Bell. Plus, if you opt for a third-year placement, it’s a network that can open doors to the sort of employers where you can turn classroom theory into workplace practice.

Placement options
Our BA (Hons) Business and Human Resource 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 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.

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

English:
English explores the role of writing in defining and transforming human experience. Creative writing is a contemporary art practice which expresses that experience.

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. It boasts over 95 published graduates and its Creative Director is Carol Ann Duffy DBE (Poet Laureate 2009-2019).

Against this backdrop you will examine major periods and forms of literature, learning to analyze literary and media texts by drawing on wider humanities disciplines. Creative writing students will develop the craft of writing, learning to read as a writer and collaborate with artists across the creative spectrum. Both approaches develop the necessary skills in critical thinking and communication that are of value to graduates entering a wide array of career paths or establishing practice.

French:
Proficiency in modern languages can give you the competitive edge in the global jobs market. 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 Metropolitan University will give you the opportunity to learn from native speakers. Our languages department have created their own multicultural 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.

The University has 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.