Master of Arts in Religion

at University of Bristol - Clifton Campus United Kingdom

The MSc Education Open Pathway allows you to design your own programme of study based on your areas of interest, rather than tying you in to a particular subject area. You can therefore pick and choose units from across the seven different specialist pathways as well as from our wider bank of optional units. For example, if your interests spanned both educational policy and the use of technology in education you might combine units from the Leadership and Policy Pathway with units from the Learning, Technology and Society Pathway.

A very diverse range of students take this pathway, attracted by the freedom that it offers. Many students are international drawn from a range of countries beyond Europe having recently completed their undergraduate studies. Many of these students nonetheless have some experience of teaching, volunteering or some other work experience in schools or education more broadly.

Other students, are more mature and returning to education after a longer period of work and so bring a wider wealth of experiences, yet wish to formalise their learning. All this diversity in backgrounds and experiences creates a rich learning environment and sharing of ideas among students and academics alike.

After completing the MSc, most students want to work in education in some form. But here too there is range in students’ goals and aspirations. Other students want to use the Masters year to develop their skills as educational researchers in order to go on to study for a PhD with us or elsewhere.

At a critical time for workers’ rights around the world, our LLM in Employment, Work and Equality Law offers you an opportunity to develop a deep understanding of relationships between law, regulation, policy and practice – and graduate to meet a growing demand for specialist lawyers with the knowledge and skills in this important field.

The LLM in Employment, Work and Equality has been well received by trade unions and NGOs as a distinctive programme that offers more than traditional courses in employment law. It provides an in-depth, intensive study of wide-ranging issues analysing domestic and international law, the role of human rights in regulating the labour market, the representative scope of trade unions, treatment of migrants at work and equality more generally.

Choosing our LLM in Employment, Work and Equality means you will be challenged and inspired by world-leading labour lawyers dedicated to progressive and innovative thinking around employment, work and equality law – with those teaching the course belonging to the Law School’s Centre for Law at Work.

This innovative program explores the link and tensions between development and security concerns in theory and practice. Specifically, it builds on the unique combination of expertise and experience in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies to:

• Examine the nature of violent conflict in the world today and the international community's response to it;
• Locate this analysis in a comprehensive theoretical understanding of wider development and security studies, debates and controversies, particularly in relation to evolving patterns of global governance;
• Explore these issues and dilemmas through contemporary, empirical case studies.

Expertise in modern languages has never been more important as the UK forges a new relationship with its European partners and seeks to develop its trading and cultural ties throughout the world. With our dedicated teaching staff and our state-of-the-art Multimedia Centre, we offer an outstanding environment in which to study modern languages.

We offer a flexible degree in which you can choose to study one, two, or three modern European languages. If you are studying one or two languages, you may have the option in the second year to begin Arabic, Catalan, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, or an additional European language.

In the first year, you gain an introduction to the culture and history of the countries in which your languages are spoken. In subsequent years, you choose from a range of units. Units may include literature, linguistics, film and visual culture, gender studies and political and social history. You can also access extracurricular activities such as talks by visiting speakers, societies, language cafés, student newspapers, and talent shows.

You will spend the third year abroad as a teaching assistant, as a student at a partner university, or on a work placement. You can split your year between different countries, according to the languages you study.

This four-year course provides a rigorous foundation in mathematics, allowing you to learn computational and statistical skills that are in high demand from top employers or giving you a strong basis for further study.

Our lecturers are passionate about their subject, with modules informed by cutting-edge research. You can shape your degree to suit your interests; you could discover units like Complex Networks and Probability alongside your core modules, or choose optional vocational units like Financial Risk Management or Maths in Schools to prepare you for a particular career.

The curriculum currently includes opportunities to learn the statistical computing environment R, the Bayesian approach to estimation and prediction, and how to design powerful tests for statistical hypotheses.

The first year provides a broad background in pure, applied and statistical mathematics via a range of compulsory units. You'll cover material in lectures and small-group tutorials, with the freedom to explore a range of topics in collaboration with your personal tutor and fellow students.

From year two you will focus more on statistics and probability, although there is still scope to take some units from other areas.

As you move through the course you will gain academic independence, progressing from small-group tutorial teaching in year one to an independent statistics project in your final year.

This degree is accredited by the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and you'll be automatically entitled to Graduate Statistician status on application to the RSS, provided you achieve at least a second class honours degree.

Sociology is a well established discipline, as relevant to the study of 21st-century societies as it is to the sweeping changes of the Industrial Revolution.

Sociologists study society’s structures, forms of action, and cultural practices and they are uniquely placed to understand the changes of social life. This course provides the academic and professional support needed for you to develop your own sociological imagination.

The first year provides a solid grounding in sociology, followed by a greater choice of units linked to staff research interests in subsequent years. Recently, these units have covered subjects such as culture, ethnicity, class, migration, modern slavery, popular music, racism and science. There is a strong emphasis on research skills throughout, with compulsory units in the first two years.

Your third year is spent studying sociology abroad at an English-speaking university. The year abroad is an exciting opportunity to experience and study a different society and culture from a sociological perspective. Visit Global Opportunities to find out more about where you can study abroad.

In your final year in Bristol, you will conduct a piece of supervised sociological research on a topic of your choice that draws on your research skills.