Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Performing Arts

at University of Bedfordshire - Bedford Campus United Kingdom

Are you an undergraduate dance or performing arts student who dreams of taking your professional performance and creative practice to the next level? Then this performance-based programme is designed with you in mind.

This exceptional course will enhance your skills across artistic, academic, educational and community contexts, offering you the opportunity for professional-level repertory performance practice along with membership of The Ensemble, our postgraduate university dance company. The programme also offers a truly global perspective with students and choreographers from around the world bringing a wealth of ideas and diversity.

Units include repertory and performance; choreographic and dance research; somatic practice; and dance psychology. The emphasis is on the health of mind and body through dance practice and includes contemporary dance, yoga, improvisation, fusion styles and dance science.

You can choose a written dissertation or a practical research project in performance, choreography, dance film-making, teaching/pedagogy or experimental performance.

Why choose this course?

• Gain high-level practical, professional and theoretical skills in performance and/or choreographic practice
• Work with a dynamic, experienced team of tutors with internationally significant experience as academics, practice-led researchers and dance artists
• Our recent choreographers include Julia Cheng, Urja Desai Thakore, Sung Im Her, Annie Lok, Simonetta Alessandri, Colin Poole and Tim Casson
• Benefit from professional-level facilities including four dance studios, an 80-seat studio theatre and a 300-seat main-stage theatre
• Develop your professional network through our existing relationships with key organisations such as Arts Council England; Youth Dance England; dance agencies and development organisations; performance venues; professional dance companies; independent artists; community arts organisations; colleges and schools
• Our graduates can be found working in the UK and internationally, in fields including freelance dance artist or choreographer; education or wider community environments; the film/video industry; and commercial sector
• Our graduates include Hayley Lemon, teaching artist at Dance East; Katie Boag and Ash Goosey, independent choreographers for Arts Council projects; Emma Bouch, lead artist at NK Dance; and Katie Bateman, dancer/entertainer on Disney cruises

The huge popularity of sport and fitness means clinical exercise therapists are much in demand. This course gives you the skills to use exercise, physical activity and therapeutic treatments to promote health and fitness as well as help rehabilitation after an injury.

The course aims to provide you with the skills and knowledge to progress into a career as a graduate clinical exercise therapist (GCET). Completing the degree allows you to join the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) at Level 3. REPs is the independent public register recognising the qualifications and expertise of health-enhancing coaches and therapists in the UK.

The course explores relevant fields such as physiology and anatomical structure, and includes units on sports massage, manual therapies and the management of sports injuries. In your final year, you undertake a research project of your choice and can also follow a specialism with a range of optional units.

Why choose this course?

• Apply your knowledge and skills while completing a minimum of 150 hours on practice placement in a range of different environments
• Benefit from guidance from practising therapists, coaches and injury-rehabilitation professionals as well as academic staff
• Build your skills in planning and conducting your own research as well as in reading and interpreting other researchers’ work
• Learn wider transferable skills relevant to a range of career options
• As a graduate, enter degree-level employment within the field of health, fitness, sports and exercise medicine in the public sector (NHS) or private sector (health clubs and clinics)
• Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year in industry (see below), gaining experience and making contacts for the future
• If you need a step up into higher education, start with a Foundation Year (see below) which guarantees entry to the undergraduate degree

This course will allow you to enhance previous study in the early education subject area and complete a full UK ratified BA degree course in Early Years Education.

It will allow international and UK based early childhood education to be compared and evaluated. The degree is delivered by a highly experienced, research active team of staff, who also have extensive experience as practitioners. We have been delivering degree courses in Early Years or Early Childhood Education for over 10 years at the University of Bedfordshire and graduated hundreds of students who have gone onto work as leaders in the early years sector in the UK.

Many alumni have gone on to qualify as teachers in the primary sector in the UK. In order to familiarise you with the UK system we also offer a unit prior to the start of the course that will familiarise you with the UK early years sector. It will allow you to compare it to your own country and assist in your transition onto the early part of the degree course. The course can be entered at Level 5, with two years subsequent full time study, or Level 6 with one year of study. The level of entry will depend on your previous qualifications.

This course is designed for recent graduates who are looking to develop their career in physical education teaching or youth sport coaching.

It will support you in developing the knowledge and skills required to progress to teacher education and/or higher-level employment. It will deepen your critical understanding of the issues facing professionals in physical education and sport settings.

The course undertakes a research-informed and practice-based theory approach. Many of the units require you to draw on observations and activities in work-related environments in order to link experience and theoretical learning.

MA Physical Education and Sport (Pedagogy) is a rigorously designed and intellectually demanding professional education and development programme.

It is studied in order to become a more effective and reflective teacher or coach in school, club and other community settings. Each unit is grounded in the most recent developments in research on physical education, sport pedagogy and youth sport, and draws on your practical experience.

We use intensive, compressed teaching time combined with flexible off-site guided learning to fit around your work in a school or youth sport setting.

This course will also provide the advanced knowledge and research training required for direct access to higher degrees by research (MPhil/ PhD).

Why choose this course?

• Study in a supportive environment, on a course covering a unique combination of topics designed to integrate research with current physical education policy and practice
• Develop an advanced and critical understanding of pedagogy and practice for social justice and youth voice; sport and education policy; action research; and public health concerns in physical education and youth sport environments
• Gain the necessary personal competencies, applied practical skill-sets and subject expertise to become a theoretically informed and reflective practitioner
• Gain a grounding in the theoretical study of physical education and sport pedagogy in your practical workplace experience.
• Develop your personal and professional network and benefit from our links with schools, Sport England, Governing Bodies, and Active Partnerships
• Receive support from peer mentors who are studying on our MA Physical Education and Sport (Leadership) course
• Exchange knowledge with aspiring graduates in sport, physical activity and health industries/institutions by attending units that will also include students from our other MA and MSc courses.
• Gain experience of working with young people, practitioners and employers to investigate and analyse real problems and develop the ability to develop innovative solutions
• Undertake a semester long research project on a chosen topic, working in a physical education, sport or physical activity environment of your choice
• Study using range of learning activities including lectures, seminars, practicals, problem-based-learning and tutorials
• Learn from a team who have a wide range of academic expertise and experience in specific subject areas including critical pedagogy, youth voice, models-based practice, policy, leadership, and the sociology of sport.
• Gain insights from experts through the seminar series coordinated by the Institute of Sport and Physical Activity Research (ISPAR)

Corporations today work in a highly regulated environment so need managers who understand the legal aspects of business. This degree gives you this knowledge as well as the skills to successfully manage any organisation.

By taking this course, you benefit from an integrated syllabus that brings together business management and the legal framework within which it operates. You study essential aspects of business management including marketing, accounting, human resource management, strategy and project management alongside the fundamentals of business law such as contract law, tort law and intellectual property law.

You also learn how to apply theory to real-life situations, making you an efficient and effective manager in any organisational, cultural or social context.

Why choose this course?

• Learn in small classes through lectures, seminars and workshops, cementing your learning via group projects, research exercises, presentations and case study analyses
• The combination of business skills and legal knowledge make you attractive to employers across a wide range of organisations. It is also an invaluable preparation if starting your own business
• Gain from the opportunity to work independently on a final-year dissertation, undertaking research in your chosen area
• Take the course over four year and benefit from a fee-free placement year in industry (see below), gaining experience, building your CV and making contacts for the future
• If you need an entry route into degree-level study, start with a Foundation Year (see below), completion of which guarantees you entry to this degree course
• Benefit from a degree which gives you access to careers in general management roles, plus more specialist opportunities in human resources, e-business, operations or project management

This course enhances your knowledge, skills and understanding in specialist areas of education. It enables you to develop your critical engagement in specific areas of interest, such as Leadership, Special Educational Needs, Early Years and issues related to classroom studies.

The MA Education will allow you to gain further knowledge and understanding in areas of working with children and adults in a wide variety of local authority or social care settings as well as in nurseries, schools and colleges.

For those already in work, the part-time route will support promotion to leadership and management roles. Our names awards will enable students to progress to doctoral study in specific specialist areas.

Why choose this course?

The course provides a dedicated route for those in management positions (or on a management career path). The course aims to develop both analytical and practical skills and will equip you to critically analyse current practices and processes as well as develop your own approaches to effective change.

The University of Bedfordshire and the School of Sport Science and Physical Activity are focussed on promoting football and developing students’ understanding of the variety of ways the football industry impacts on society.

The course offers you a broad overview of the football industry, while allowing you to focus on a specific area. Following a common first year you can choose to specialize in one of the following areas: football’s business environment; football development; and football coaching. You will conduct a detailed study of the sports industry sector as a whole. If you aspire to become a qualified football coach, the programme will give you the opportunity to gain recognised awards, such as the FA Coaching Level 1 and 2.

You will study the how impact of the Premier League and Football League clubs goes beyond the economic impact and encompasses investment in facilities and you will explore how community programmes supported by the Premier League in schools and disadvantaged areas has reached a significant scale and the impact of this.

The rapid growth of the football sector has created opportunities to become a sports professional in an expanding, borderless industry. Football is one of the most important industries in the UK in  terms of interest, participation and consumer spending. This course has been developed to reflect the growing complexity of the football market. The courses offer students the chance to enhance their employability by equipping them with the knowledge and higher-level skills demanded of a career in a global sport industry.

On this course you will be taught by top class professionals within the field. Your academics have a wide research portfolio, working with governing bodies such as the FA, UEFA and FIFA, and a variety of individuals from specific professional football teams, who will enable the students to get a deep understanding of this every changing industry.

Why choose this course?

If you want to take your love of literature to the next level, this course will give you a confident critical voice across prose, poetry and plays, from Chaucer to Zephaniah. As an English Lit graduate, the degree opens the door to a wide range of rewarding careers.

You study the development of English literature from Chaucer to the contemporary works of Benjamin Zephaniah and Monica Ali. The course introduces you to less well-known literary periods, critical approaches and world literature while offering deeper exploration of favourites such as the Romantics and Victorian literature. Plus you can follow a special interest with options in creative writing; gothic fiction; Shakespeare and his contemporaries; and language, power and ideology.

You will also develop your own critical or creative voice with a final dissertation choice of an extended essay on your preferred subject or a portfolio of your own creative writing.

Why choose this course?

• You work in small groups, guided by expert lecturers and supportive, enthusiastic tutors with strong research backgrounds in their specialist subjects
• Study all the major periods of English literature, including the Middle Ages; Renaissance; Restoration; Victorian; the Romantics; and the modern age
• Explore the exciting Hockliffe and Cinderella Collections, two of the most important archives of children’s literature in the UK, held at the University of Bedfordshire
• Develop valuable transferable skills including communication and debating
• Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year’s placement in industry, gaining practical experience while building your CV and your contacts for the future
• If you need to get up to speed with education at a higher level, take our Foundation Year option which guarantees entry to the Undergraduate degree
• Benefit from a degree which could lead to careers such as academic librarian; copywriter; arts administrator; editorial assistant; journalist; public relations officer; and teaching

This course is designed to give you high-quality profession-specific training to prevent, assess, diagnose and treat sports and physical activity-related injuries. Centered around developing competency within a vocational topic area utilising industrial standard equipment and techniques and thereby preparing you for your future career.

Teaching and assessment within the course is centered on significant practice-based learning including extensive use of case studies, work-based placement with industrial experts including course graduates, internal commercial experiences as well as student learning trips. Embedded within the course are wider transferable skills to enables you to successfully enter graduate level employment across a much wider scope of opportunities following their completion of the course.

Why choose this course?

• The BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation course aims to provide graduates with the skills and knowledge to progress into a career as a Graduate Sport Rehabilitator (GSR) on the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) accredited register held by the British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRaT).
• Throughout the course students apply their knowledge and skills while completing a minimum of 400 hours of practice placement in a range of different environments while benefiting from guidance from both practicing sport rehabilitation professionals as well as academic staff.

If you’re fascinated by the science behind sport and exercise performance, this course gives you a rare chance to be part of a world-leading research team, using high-spec equipment to get to the heart of what makes a great sports performer.

The course combines scientific knowledge and sports performance, covering the core areas of sport and exercise science. Study involves lab work using discipline-leading equipment including online gas-analysis machines, an environmental chamber, light gates and echocardiography. It also offers specialist units in biomechanics, exercise physiology and social psychology, to name a few.

You learn in a high-performance environment with a leading research team specialising in exercise physiology; molecular exercise physiology; and exercise and health. You can be part of the team working on prestigious projects for elite sports teams, governing bodies and government initiatives.

Why choose this course?

• It is endorsed by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES)
• There is a fitness qualification, endorsed by Skills Active, embedded into the course, allowing you to enter onto the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) Level 2
• Gain employability skills with specific, industry-proven guidance and participation in the latest sports science research
• Explore your area of interest with a final-year research project of your choice
• Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year’s placement in industry (see below), gaining experience and making contacts for the future
• If you are looking to step up into higher education, take the degree with a Foundation Year which guarantees entry to the Undergraduate course (see below)