Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Business Management (Top-Up)

at University of Bolton United Kingdom

The BA (Hons) Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Professional Practice (Top-up) provides a valuable way to use your existing qualifications and knowledge to obtain a degree at the University of Bolton. You’ll have the chance to study a balanced combination of current educational policy and issues, and draw in relevant aspects of sociology, philosophy and psychology. It’s a great opportunity to explore in-depth some of the key current issues affecting education in the UK and abroad.

By thinking about how we learn, we’ll guide you in an exploration of how formal learning, alongside acquired knowledge, shapes our lives, interests and value structures. We’ll also encourage you to research and analyse a range of educational practices, reflecting on your own and others’ experiences of education. This will help you think critically about teaching, learning and assessing and how education is perceived and received.

Highlights

• This course offers you the opportunity to use your existing qualifications and knowledge to obtain a University degree by completing only one year’s extra study.
• Small class sizes mean more keenly focused attention on your learning needs and strategies for success.
• Our experienced professional and approachable tutors will guide and support you throughout your course, delivering online sessions and offering attentive one-to-one support.
• You’ll be studying at a University known for its supportive atmosphere, and get to study alongside students from a variety of backgrounds, each with an individual and unique perspective on education.

Key Features

• You’ll have the chance to take on a systematic and reflective study of education that’s illustrated and informed by the diversity of teaching and learning approaches in different sub-sectors of education.
• You’ll reflect on your current roles and responsibilities to build on the experience you’ve gained in educational settings and learn from the learning and teaching you’ve observed.
• Our teaching draws on your own experiences of learning as a starting point for understanding the formal educational process. You’ll be expected to contribute to research and discussion through critical reflection on your own education and by listening to the experiences of others.
• On successful completion of this course, you’ll be awarded the BA (Hons) Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Professional Practice from the University of Bolton.

The BA (Hons) Education and Learning is a fascinating degree at the University of Bolton, giving you the chance to study a balanced combination of current educational policy, the history of education, and sociology, philosophy and psychology. It’s a great opportunity to explore in depth some of the key current issues affecting education in the UK and abroad.

Key themes on this course include critical and reflective thinking, equality and diversity. By thinking about how we learn consciously and subconsciously, we’ll guide you in an exploration of how formal learning, alongside acquired knowledge, shapes our lives, interests and value structures.

We also encourage you to research and analyse a range of educational practices, and reflect on your own and others’ experiences of education. This will help you think critically about learning and teaching, and how education is perceived and received.

On competing this course successfully, you will be well prepared for related postgraduate studies. Although the course doesn’t lead directly to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), you’ll have first-hand experience in schools or other educational establishments to support your application for teacher training.

Highlights

• Small class sizes mean a more keenly focused attention on your learning needs and strategies for success.
• You’ll be studying at a University known for its friendly atmosphere, and get to study alongside students from a variety of backgrounds, each with an individual and unique perspective on education.
• Our professional and approachable tutors will guide and support you throughout your course, offering attentive one-to-one support.

Key Features

• The programme is designed to help you gain some of the required knowledge and experience required for direct entry to Primary Teacher Training courses (QTS), or for entry-level employment in education.
• You’ll have the chance to take on a systematic and reflective study of education that’s illustrated and informed by the diversity of teaching and learning approaches in different sub-sectors of education.
• You’ll be able to take at least one placement opportunity in an educational setting, where you’ll observe learning and teaching in progress, and talk to teachers and students about their roles and experiences.
• Our teaching draws on your own experiences of learning as a starting point for understanding the formal educational process. This means contributing to research and discussion through critical reflection on your own education, and by listening to others’ experiences.

The market value of the UK games industry was approximately £5.7 billion in 2018, with over 37 million people playing games in the UK*. If you are seeking a career in a strong sector of the economy, then games is an excellent choice. From PC, console and mobile games, through serious games for education and training, to the emerging virtual reality games market, software developers are seeking highly qualified games specialists.

Our Games Design course offers a broad study of games, with an emphasis on the technical, design and innovation aspects, rather than programming. Key topics include content production, games and level design as well as platforms and technologies. Our dedicated games team will work to help you develop skills in games analysis, usability and playability testing and understand the concepts underpinning games production and the business of computer games (for instance sales and marketing).

Team-based projects involving regular critique sessions with your peers and members of our games team are designed to help you develop the high-level of team working and communication skills that are vital in the games industry. Our intensely practical, hands-on approach aims to encourage and support you to develop a high-quality portfolio of work ready to demonstrate your skills and creative flair to potential employers.

Highlights

• We share your passion for games. As well as extensive experience playing games (just like you!), our dedicated games tutors offer a vast range of industry experience, a wide network of contacts in the games industry, and knowledge of the latest games research and developments.
• Industry experts from the leading games studios in the UK, along with Bolton graduates now successful in the sector, are regularly invited to give guest lectures on aspects of games development.
• Team working and collaboration are essential for games industry success, so we encourage you to work with students from our Games Art and Games Programming courses forming interdisciplinary teams to complete games projects.
• Our Game Jams are great opportunities to build your social network and practice your communication, project management and problem solving skills.
• We work with games development companies on games usability and software testing, giving you the opportunity to test games before they go to market. In the past, some of our students have even got their names mentioned in the credits.

Key Features

• University of Bolton games graduates have been enjoying careers in the games industry for longer than most – we were one of the first UK universities to offer games courses.
• The course covers both 2D and 3D game environments, concepts and mechanics for traditional gaming (PC and console), mobile gaming (cloud, social and casual), and virtual reality gaming, along with game play analysis and testing.
• We offer opportunities for you to go on studio visits and field trips, undertake work experience with relevant studios, and network with professionals.
• The assignments and projects set on the course are based on industry pipelines and standards to give you a real feel for a career in the games sector.
• Our well-equipped, dedicated games labs feature high-specification PC hardware, HTC Vive VR systems and industry-standard software, along with modern and vintage consoles.

Our Masters in Civil Engineering is aimed at engineers who want to broaden and deepen their technical knowledge of specialised civil engineering areas and develop a wider perspective on the issues facing the civil engineering industry. The part-time programme is designed to build on the knowledge and skills already developed, introducing advanced concepts and theories to challenge your problem solving and critical evaluation capabilities.

This course explores the complex roles and responsibilities of civil engineers in relation to social, natural and built environments, assessing how economic constraints can influence project management and decision making.

Research and design also play key parts in this comprehensive course, which will challenge you to design creatively and apply engineering modelling and analysis methods to projects. You’ll have the opportunity to grow your skillset by linking theory with practice in a variety of assignments, reports and design processes, enhancing your literacy and risk management abilities along the way.

Highlights

• Build on your existing engineering knowledge with a series of modules designed to challenge and stimulate your abilities with rich and varied content.
• Benefit from the University’s longstanding and excellent reputation for civil engineering postgraduate and professional development courses.
• On successful completion of this course you will receive an MSc in Civil Engineering.

Key Features

• Our programme has been expertly developed to give a broad overview of the advanced civil engineering discipline, including influencing issues and challenges, such as economic constraints and professional and ethical responsibilities.
• Lessons are taught in small groups, maximising opportunities for personal tuition and contact with staff.
• As well as small group learning and support, the University has excellent libraries, 24/7 IT facilities and campus-wide WiFi for all students.
• English language support will be provided via a dedicated module that focuses on improving students’ English language skills, especially in relation to engineering.

If you've been struggling to find a postgraduate course that exactly matches your ambition then the University of Bolton's MA (Specialist Title) via Creative Practice could be the answer. Our expert team will work with you to devise a series of projects that enable you to develop your creative practice. You may choose to focus on a single discipline, such as Animation, Illustration, Art and Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Media, Performance, Dance, Photography, Textiles and Surface Design, Fashion, Creative Writing, Live Events Design and Production, or an associated subject. Alternatively, you may combine several areas of practice to follow an interdisciplinary route. When you successfully complete the master's, your degree title will be chosen to reflect the focus of your studies.

We'll support you to develop a unique body of creative work through a series of negotiated projects that will be underpinned and informed by industry practice. You'll work with a specialist supervisor who will provide support and guidance throughout the developmental process. Alongside this, you'll undertake two taught modules. The first investigates current contexts for creative practice and offers you the necessary skills to undertake research at an advanced level. The second invites you to place your practice within a professional landscape to help you gain the skills to develop your industry profile and ensure your work reaches your desired audience.

With a strong theoretical underpinning, this MA is designed to develop your skills in research, critique and synthesis. We’ll guide you as you learn to work with self?direction and originality and develop your analytical and critical competencies. This combination of academic, creative and professional skills development helps to prepare you for a career in the creative industries, as well as providing a sound basis for doctoral-level study.

The MA is designed to enable you to develop a considerable body of work and a plan for its future development beyond the course. This may take the form of applications for funding, exhibitions, publication, or small?scale tours.

Our industry?engaged staff are practising artists, writers and performers. You'll benefit from our strong industry links with a range of arts and cultural organisations across Greater Manchester and the North West region, which offers opportunities for industry masterclasses and lectures, joint projects and networking.

Highlights

• You can develop your unique body of creative practice under the supervision of our experienced teaching team.
• We'll support you to prepare your creative practice for industry via funding applications, business plans, exhibitions, publication or small?scale tours.
• You'll be able to make use of specialist facilities across the University of Bolton's Schools of the Arts and Creative Technologies to develop high-quality creative outputs.
• We'll help you learn about tax self-assessment, invoicing, intellectual property and risk assessments, as well as offer business start-up sessions to prepare you to take advantage of opportunities for enterprise development.

Key Features

• Teaching and supervision are delivered by our dedicated team of experienced and well-qualified staff.
• The programme provides opportunities to engage with and learn from industry professionals, including visiting speakers and practitioners.
• We'll offer you opportunities for interdisciplinary work and collaboration.
• You'll benefit from our strong industry links with local and regional arts, culture and trade organisations, studios, galleries, publishers, manufacturers and companies specialising in creative art and design practice.
• Your final master’s degree title will reflect your specialist areas of practice (please note that the final award title will be selected in agreement with the University within the parameters specified in programme documentation). For example, your title might be something like MA Animation via Creative Practice, MA Dance via Creative Practice or MA Fashion Photography via Creative Practice.

From superheroes to sci-fi, and horror to history, many TV shows and movies need special effects make-up to enhance their on-screen storytelling. Actors can be utterly transformed into aliens, zombies, pirates and vampires, while more subtle make-up effects convince us of injuries, scars, tattoos or wrinkles. All these special effects are created by dedicated and highly-skilled make-up artists and our BDes (Hons) Special Make-up Effects for Film and TV course focuses on preparing you for a career creating these illusions.

We offer an intensely practical education in special effects make-up. We’ll lead you in an exploration of prosthetics and changing physical appearances, including aspects such as life-casting, clay sculpting, creating silicone masks, applying prosthetics, adding hair and colouring techniques. We’ll encourage you to experiment with materials, tools and techniques, and discover how prosthetics and make-up can combine with 3D computer graphics to create even more spectacular on-screen transformations.

This highly creative industry demands transferable skills too – communication, project and time management, team-working and entrepreneurship are all needed for success in this largely freelance profession. We aim to support you to develop these attributes, alongside the imagination, flair and curiosity that will enable you to push the boundaries of special effects make-up.

Highlights

• You don’t have to worry about the cost of the make-up and materials needed to complete your studies – we provide these for you. This means you can concentrate on learning how to use expensive industry-standard materials, like silicones and resins, rather than worrying about how you are going to pay for them!
• Neill Gorton, multi-award winning artist/designer and founder of the world-renowned Millennium FX company, is our Visiting Professor of Special Effects. His astonishing range of professional experience, knowledge of cutting-edge techniques and industry contacts brings enormous benefits.
• You’ll have your own personal bench space and locker in our dedicated special effects studio, providing a secure base for your studies. You’ll also have access to our fantastic range of SFX facilities, including our make-up studio, casting and moulding room, boutique film studio, and 3D workshop.
• We’re committed to helping develop your employability and career network. You’ll be encouraged to attend guest lectures that enhance your learning and help you make contacts in the industry. For instance, the award-winning make-up artists Richard Martin and Nick Dudman have recently shared their expertise with students on our SVFX courses.
• Alongside your special effects make-up skills and knowledge, we’ll support you to develop a broader understanding of production design, including concepting, cinematography and composition. This will help you appreciate the roles, skills and expectations of other professionals working in the industry.
• We’ll encourage you to research, analyse, design and develop make-up techniques so that you can take an idea from a brief or script scene and find the most time-efficient, cost-effective and visually impressive way to turn that vision into reality.

Key Features

• The course is designed in collaboration with professional special effects make-up artists and studio directors. This ensures that the content is industry-relevant and includes the latest techniques, materials and innovations.
• We’ll help and support you to develop a portfolio of work/show reel that demonstrates your skills in readiness to impress potential employers.
• Course assignments and projects mimic industry pipelines and standards so your experience is a realistic preparation for a career in special effects make-up.
• Our dedicated staff team have a wide range of professional experience, industry knowledge, technical expertise and academic credentials, offering you a variety of perspectives and broadening your horizons.
• We offer a warm and friendly environment for your studies, with relatively small class sizes, purpose-built teaching facilities, and excellent student support and library services.
• We prefer to keep lecture and practical classes relatively small, so that you have plenty of opportunities to us ask questions and get individual help, as well as benefit from the ideas and support offered by your classmates.

Our BA (Hons) Fashion course is designed to introduce you to a range of aspects of the fashion industry. It provides the chance to enhance your employment prospects in a range of fashion careers, including fashion design, buying and retail, merchandising, forecasting, and styling.

During your studies, you’ll have the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and understanding of forecasted trends, fashion design history, commercial design and manufacturing processes, and material understanding.

Our experienced and dedicated staff will support you as you develop skills in pattern cutting, garment manufacture, fashion illustration and visualisation techniques, and the application of surface design and embellishment. We’ll encourage you to balance your individual creative expression with industry awareness for the production of innovative fashion outcomes, including womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and accessories.

You’ll also have the chance to use the latest reports from the Worth Global Style Network, and benefit from the University’s extensive industry links, for live project briefs. Support will also be offered to develop your appreciation of the design timeline, the trend prediction industry, and consumer research.

Highlights

• Our team of highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic fashion lecturers offer face-to-face sessions and one-to-one support, ensuring you can access help and advice when you need it.
• We’ll encourage you to enter national and international design competitions, such as Bradford Textile Society Awards and the Clothes Show, and visit major trade shows such as Premiere Vision Paris.
• You’ll be exposed to fashion and fabric companies in the contemporary design world through our links to design groups, manufacturers, and supporting agencies.
• You’ll have the chance to exhibit and showcase your work at national and international events, such as Graduate Fashion Week.
• We’ll offer you the opportunity to learn about the industry direct from its current leaders, with guest lectures from specialists in different fashion fields.

Key Features

• You’ll have access to the latest technologies for design and visualisation, including Adobe Creative Suite, our Mimaki TX fabric printer, laser cutting equipment, and digital embroidery.
• You’ll have the chance to develop transferable skills suitable for work in the wider fashion industry as well as related fields such as PR, events management, cultural policy, and the media.
• We offer opportunities to work on live briefs for established clients sourced from national and international trade events and professional bodies.
• We’ll support you to explore innovations in fabric and materials as you develop fundamental skills in fashion design, visualisation and garment manufacture.

Education is a highly complex and increasingly competitive sector. Schools, colleges, universities and other training organisations are under constant pressure to achieve greater successes with fewer resources. The need for inspiring, effective and knowledgeable leaders is greater than ever and a multitude of opportunities are available to appropriately qualified individuals.

Aimed at existing education professionals, this course offers in-depth knowledge and understanding of the principles and theories that underpin educational leadership, as well as an enhanced and critical awareness of current issues facing educational leaders.

We offer a supportive environment in which you can explore the role of leaders and leadership in educational settings, including understanding and interpreting educational data, how to present data to a team and how to work collaboratively with education stakeholders. We’ll encourage you to reflect on your own professional practice and guide you in your journey towards becoming a perceptive, responsive and decisive educational leader.

Highlights

• Our students are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds – sharing the individual and unique educational insights and perspectives of your peers help to enrich your learning experience.
• We promote research and critical enquiry helping you learn to make sound, evidence-based independent judgements.
• You’ll have the chance to develop enhanced key skills in line with your personal and professional development needs; for instance, autonomy, and professional accountability in relation to educational leadership and in leading learning communities.
• We’ll support you as you learn to critically reflect on and evaluate your own leadership skills, and develop innovative solutions for improvement considering national and local contextual influences.
• Intensive use of learning technologies and multimedia resources, such as virtual learning environments and eLearning tools, enhance your ICT skills and raise your awareness of resources from across the educational spectrum.

Key Features

• Our team of highly experienced, enthusiastic and dedicated experts offer face-to-face and blended sessions as well as one-to-one support.
• We embed the concepts and practice of inter-professional working throughout the programme.
• Our academic team is actively involved in educational research, helping you to explore issues from a robust research-informed knowledge base.
• We’ll support you to develop critical thinking and research evaluation skills and apply these during your independent master’s-level project.
• Our well-stocked library offers a comprehensive selection of relevant texts and access to an extensive online database of multimedia sources including eJournals, podcasts, vodcasts and eBooks.

Whether you’re seeking to forge a career as a solicitor, barrister, costs lawyer, legal executive or conveyancer, or aspire to work in sectors such as business management, the civil service, politics, HR or finance, our LLB (Hons) Law is an excellent choice.

Our experienced team will guide you as you explore the sources of the law in England and Wales, how it is made and developed, the institutions within which that law is administered, and the personnel who practice law. You’ll study the law as it regulates the functions of the state, the relations between private individuals, and the ownership and control of land and other property. You’ll also be able to choose additional legal areas that are of interest to you or your career aspirations.

We’ll support you to develop the skills required to practice law; for example, you’ll be expected to take part in mooting debates (a mock legal hearing where points of law are argued) in our purpose-built courtroom. We’ll challenge you to develop sought-after critical reasoning, communication and advocacy skills, along with valuable transferable skills such as analytical thinking, practical problem-solving, presentation, negotiation skills and teamwork. Overall, our dedicated team are focused on helping you gain the skills employers value along with a deep and critical understanding of the law.

Highlights

• Your study will be based on the requirements defined by the Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) and the Legal Training Review (LETR), which represents the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives (CILEx) for the initial or academic stage of training to practise in the legal profession. The JASB is responsible for making sure that all Qualifying Law Degrees meet a nationally recognised standard. At Bolton, we are gratified that our law degree meets that high national standard.
• The University of Bolton’s Legal Advice Centre launched in September 2019, where law students are guaranteed a work placement (of at least one semester) and can put their acquired skills into practice by assisting members of the public with their legal enquiries.
• Few law schools have their own courtroom. Our state-of-the-art Moot Law Court gives you the opportunity to apply your academic and forensic skills to practical situations in front of your peers.
• We have our own dedicated Law library, as well as a specialised law librarian. Online legal database resources are available via Lexis Library and Westlaw and we use the virtual learning environment, Moodle, to create an interactive learning environment.
• We maintain strong partnerships with local law firms and other legal service providers, facilitating work shadowing opportunities and regular visits by guest speakers. We also run the prestigious annual Ryder Lecture series and are home to the Centre for Contemporary Coronial Law.

Key Features

• We offer a deep understanding of the fundamental legal principles, concepts, values, rules and techniques, establishing your knowledge and understanding of the doctrines and principles which underpin the law of England and Wales.
• Our research active academic law staff offer you access to expertise in a range of disciplines, including alternative dispute resolution, commercial, employment, European, family, healthcare, intellectual property, international and judicial reform.
• We’ll guide you in the use of research data, including primary sources such as legislation, EU law, case law, and secondary source materials such as government reports, white and green papers, and refereed journal articles.
• You’ll be encouraged to gain practical experience of presentation, argument and applying legal method skills as you take part in mock interviews, moot debates and negotiations.
• We recommend that you join the University of Bolton’s Student Law Society, which offers access to work placement opportunities, presentation skills development sessions and court trips.

Professional recognition

• Your study will be based on the requirements defined by the Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) and the Legal Training Review (LETR), which represents the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives (CILEx) for the initial or academic stage of training to practice in the legal profession.
• The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board have accredited the University of Bolton for the purposes of the solicitors’ and barristers’ academic stage requirements.
• The JASB is responsible for making sure that all Qualifying Law Degrees meet a nationally recognised standard. At Bolton, we are gratified that our law degree meets that high national standard.

Congratulations. You’re considering a career in the world’s most in-demand profession*. Concerned with the building and maintenance of software systems and other computer-based solutions, software engineering is a truly global activity. By examining all elements of the process – from initial understanding of the problem to be solved, through analysis, design, and development, to testing, documentation and maintenance – this degree offers you a focused education in software engineering, ready to impress potential employers.

Our dedicated staff team offers a balance of academic rigour, industrial experience and advanced technical expertise. We will support you to explore the underlying principles of software engineering, while helping you gain knowledge and practical experience of the latest technologies. You will be encouraged to appreciate both the technical and human aspects involved in areas such as the lifecycle of software systems, software design, systems analysis, programming, database specification and design, and system security.

In addition to technical knowledge and expertise, you will have opportunities to gain experience in team working, communication and presentation, problem solving and time management. Our focus is on helping you develop industry-relevant knowledge and skills, so that you are well prepared for a career in software engineering.

Highlights

• Our dedicated staff team have a wide range of professional experience, industry knowledge, technical expertise and academic credentials, offering you a variety of perspectives and broadening your horizons.
• We prefer to keep lecture and practical classes relatively small, so that you have plenty of opportunities to us ask questions and get help, as well as benefit from the ideas and support offered by your classmates.
• We have well-established links with the software engineering industry, and continually monitor and update the course to make sure the content is industry-relevant and introduces you to the latest thinking and innovations.
• We are committed to helping you develop your employability and career network. You will be encouraged to attend guest lectures that enhance your learning, help you make contacts in the industry and contribute to your professional development.
• By designing the course assignments and projects so that they mimic industry pipelines and standards, we aim to give you a real feel for a career in software engineering.

Key Features

• We offer a warm and friendly environment for your studies, with relatively small class sizes, purpose-built teaching facilities, and excellent student support and library services.
• We want to work with you as an individual, giving you access to the help and support you need to succeed.
• Our dedicated IT suites feature high-specification hardware and industry-standard software.
• Many of our computing facilities can be accessed across the internet, allowing you to work on your assignments whenever and wherever you choose.
• We will help and support you to develop a portfolio of work that demonstrates your skills in readiness to impress potential employers.