Master of Fine Arts in Craft

at Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom

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 gain an appreciation of  how states, international organisations, and non-state actors interact on the global stage.

International Relations
You’ll use theories and models to best explain and understand power in the world, why the world is the way it is, and how we can change it. Looking at all levels, from individuals to whole global systems, you’ll question what we think we know, what we think matters, and how we can develop a better world. Supported by knowledgeable and passionate staff, you’ll start by looking at the core critical and emancipatory theories of international relations and their underlying methods.

Spanish
In both the private and public sectors, there is demand for professionals with strong language skills who can work in culturally diverse environments. Studying Spanish 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.

Placement options

• If you take Spanish as a major or equal subject you will have the opportunity to spend your third year in Spain or Latin America and we will assist you in choosing from a choice of partner universities where you can study.

The MA 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.

Sport is part of Manchester’s DNA. It’s a big feature of the city’s history, character and economy. And it’s a big part of Manchester Met too. We created one of the first sports marketing degree in the country and we’ve worked with experts in the industry to make it as useful as possible for your career.

Throughout the course you’ll learn what makes sports marketing so special. You’ll develop key skills in areas like brand management, digital marketing and commercial sponsorship.

The course prepares you for real life in the industry. So, you’ll complete practical projects like developing a sponsorship proposal, creating a digital marketing campaign or putting together a business plan for a new sports enterprise. To add even more to your CV, you can spend a year on placement with an employer, or go abroad to study at one of our partner universities.

We provide plenty of opportunities for you to learn from experts in the industry. We organise guest lectures and help you volunteer at sports organisations and events. We have links with the likes of Manchester City Football Group, GB Taekwondo and British Cycling.

Placement options

We’ve developed a wide network of industry partners – from major clubs and governing bodies to multinational sports clothing brands – not just to help us shape our sports management and marketing degrees, but also to provide potential destinations for our industry placements. By spending your third year gaining skills and experience with an organisation like Puma, Nike or JD Sports, you’ll get a taste of the professional challenges ahead, while showing employers that you’re ready for work.

Games design offers a route into a form of entertainment that’s not only one of the world’s most popular but is also constantly evolving, innovating and redefining its own boundaries. In short, the games industry is an exciting place to be and our BSc (Hons) Games Design course can offer your route into it.

Throughout the course, you’ll find an activity-led approach focused on the practical processes of making games. So, with our support you’ll build up a strong portfolio of games and game-like artefacts. As you progress, you’ll have the chance to pursue the specialist areas of the discipline that interest you most, and with cutting-edge assessments like our ‘Game a Week’, you’ll also build up your abilities as a games designer. Then, in your final year, you’ll not only work solo on your own game, but also work on a large-scale game through a series of smaller projects within a simulated game studio.

The School of Digital Arts offers the perfect setting for that kind of collaboration. That’s because our innovative curriculum paves the way for the same cross-disciplinary teamwork you’ll find in the professional digital sector – by working with students in sound design, animation and media production as well as students from our Department of Computing and Mathematics. The result is an environment that fosters creativity and helps you build a varied, well-rounded skillset. And, because SODA is purpose built with industry-standard facilities, you’ll leave us equipped with industry-standard technical skills too.

As a Games Design student, you’ll find Manchester offers both the perfect backdrop for your studies and an ideal launching pad for your professional ambitions. It’s not only home to a rich heritage of games publishing, but today has the largest media and creative sector outside London. On our doorstep, you’ll find a globally recognised web and UX sector, as well as renowned CG, visual effects and VR/AR agencies and at MediaCityUK in Salford, the BBC’s digital and games teams. All in all, it provides a range of opportunities for a graduate ready to make a statement in the world of games development.

If you're 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. Linguistics is a popular course taken on its own or in combination with English or a modern language. It is devoted to the scientific study of natural language and concerned with how languages evolve, are structured and what they have in common. It also studies how languages are acquired and used.

Our program enables you to develop a sound knowledge of both theoretical and applied perspectives. It places emphasis on English, with examples from other languages where appropriate. The core elements of the course teach you about sentence structure (syntax), meaning (semantics and pragmatics), forensic linguistics, and phonetics and phonology. You will also learn about language use and variation in different social contexts, the media, and intercultural settings. Communicating effectively, critical thinking and developing rigorous analytical skills are valuable assets in the job market and are transferable to various professions.

In French, emphasis is placed on communicating effectively and developing transferable skills such as translating, interpreting, and interview techniques and the practical language classes embrace speaking, listening, reading and writing.

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

Placement options

• If French is your major or equal subject, you will have the opportunity to spend year 3 studying in France and we will assist you in choosing from a wide choice of partner universities where you can study.

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.

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.

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.

Graphic Design is a hands-on, ideas-driven studio-based course where you will learn a variety of approaches to visual communication. Distinctive creative personalities are nurtured and the unconventional is actively encouraged.

After developing your creative visual language in Year 1, you will be able to apply your skills to a range of personal and industry-related projects in Year 2. Your final year will see you develop a professional portfolio that reflects your personal interests and individual career aspirations.

At all stages of the course we focus on contemporary and relevant design that embraces intellectual curiosity and design as an experience. You have the opportunity to connect with industry, either through visiting speakers, live briefs or work experience.

Whatever the purpose and whoever the user, web design marries the technical with the creative. The pioneers and leaders in this industry over the past 20 years have been both talented developers and left-field thinkers – a combination of creativity and code that has helped shape the modern digital experience.

As a Web & User Experience Design student, you will be part of a vibrant, multi-disciplinary creative community at our School of Digital Arts (SODA). With an innovative curriculum that ignores the narrow limits of any one discipline, you’ll have ample opportunity for collaborating with fellow SODA students – whether they’re studying games, photography, animation or sound design (to name a few). It’s an approach designed to mirror the real working practices within the creative industries, but it also lets you find the cross-over areas and creative directions that interest you most. And, just as you’ll learn industry practices, you’ll also use industry tools – developing your skills in an environment that has been designed, built and equipped with the latest technologies.

More than a purpose-built creative school, we also boast a globally renowned creative setting. Manchester is home to the second-largest media and creative sector in the UK, with a huge range of production companies, digital agencies and media businesses, from national broadcasters to innovative start-ups. As such, it’s not only an ideal city for your education in web and UX, but a perfect place to take your first steps as a professional. Here, you can learn from some of those at the forefront of the discipline, build your network and secure your career in the media, games or digital tech 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.