Master of Laws in General Legal Studies

at University of Bristol - Clifton Campus United Kingdom

Our education master's degrees give you the opportunity to design a tailored program of study that suits your learning and professional needs. You will be able to specialise and receive an award in a particular disciplinary area.

This pathway is designed for those with an interest in teaching and learning and working with learners in educational settings across the sector. It is particularly suitable if you already hold master's-level credits from a teaching qualification, such as a PGCE, and want to build on this foundation for your professional development.

In common with other MSc Education students, you will take the compulsory research methods unit, Introduction to Educational Inquiry, and write a dissertation. You will also take the compulsory unit, Contemporary Perspectives in Learning, which is core to your pathway. You can choose the rest of your units from across the programs offered by the school. Your final choice of units will be made after consulting with tutors so that your choice is as coherent and useful as possible, as well as suiting your individual needs.

This course is ideal for students interested in learning more about how to use numbers and data within sociology. It provides training in practical and analytical skills, which will enhance your career prospects and provide you with a strong platform for postgraduate study. No prior knowledge of statistical techniques is required.

About two thirds of your studies will follow the single honours BSc Sociology course. You will study society’s structures, forms of action and cultural arrangements and understand changes in social life. You will gain a thorough grounding in sociology, as well as opportunities to specialise in new areas of research conducted by academics at the forefront of the discipline.

The remaining third of your course will provide interdisciplinary training in quantitative methods. In year one of the quantitative pathway we discuss how numbers and data are used to tell convincing stories in the media and social research. We consider what is meant by segregation and how it can be mapped and measured.

Year two offers practical classes in social statistics and applied data analysis, which will develop your skills in numeracy and analysis and enable you to undertake your own individual research project in an area of quantitative social science in year three.

In your fourth year we offer training in more advanced quantitative methods suitable for postgraduate research, while continuing to develop expertise and specialist knowledge in sociology.

You will also have the opportunity to spend half a year studying abroad at a partner university. Visit Global Opportunities to find out more about where you can study abroad.

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 are concerned with 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. In your final year, you will conduct a piece of supervised sociological research on a topic of your choice that draws on these research skills.

Criminology is the scientific study of criminal behaviour, laws and justice. It is a multidisciplinary subject comprising elements of sociology, law, social and public policy, history, psychology and philosophy.

BSc Criminology at the University of Bristol is an exciting course that provides an opportunity to study criminology within a broader framework of policy studies.

By drawing on social harm perspectives, our courses examine conventionally defined crimes along with other problem activities or behaviours that may not be criminalised but still cause extensive harm to individuals and society. This provides you with a critical and informed understanding of crime and the criminal justice system, as well as wider social and economic questions.

In your first and second years you will take a range of mandatory units that provide a solid foundation in the subject and you will undertake training to develop your problem solving and research skills. You will also choose from a selection of optional units, including a work placement unit.

In your final year you can demonstrate what you have learned in a dissertation on a topic of your choice with the support of an academic supervisor.

The aim of the MSc in Educational Research is to provide the methodological, analytical and practical expertise required to become a competent educational researcher. This is an Economic and Social Research Council-recognised programme, and one of the research training pathways that make up the South West Doctoral Training Partnership.

This MSc will appeal to those who are interested in developing a career in educational research, as well as professionals working in education institutions or organisations that require research knowledge and skills.

Epidemiology is the study of disease and health outcomes in populations. It is about finding causes—the reasons why some people become ill, and the reasons why some populations are healthier than others—and what we can do to remove or control these causes. It is the science underpinning public health, clinical research and healthcare evaluation. The MSc in Epidemiology will enable you to engage with the complex population health challenges facing the global community in future decades, providing high-quality training in epidemiological methods that are applicable to low-, middle- and high-income settings. The programme is suitable for students from both clinical and non-clinical backgrounds.

The MSc will introduce the principles of modern epidemiology and its role in public health and other health-related disciplines. You will learn how to design and analyse experimental and observational studies covering aetiology, interventions, diagnosis and prognosis. There will be opportunities to learn about cutting-edge methods in causal inference and molecular epidemiology.

Your dissertation, on a research topic of your choice, will take the form of a journal article and a poster presentation, opening the possibility of submission for publication.

The Department of Population Health Sciences is a large and thriving department, with numerous opportunities for PhD study and employment on research projects. We are internationally recognised for our excellence in developing epidemiological methods and applying these to a broad spectrum of population health topics. Our research ranges from discovery science in molecular and genetic epidemiology to innovative clinical trials, policy-influencing activities and robust evidence assessments. Our MSc in Epidemiology is founded on this expertise.

This four-year course has the same basic structure as BSc Geography but you will spend your third year studying geography and other subjects at a partner university.

In year one you receive an overview of human and physical geography, and develop a range of geographical and scientific skills. The remaining years are organised around specialist units from human and/or physical geography.

Physical geography units cover three broad areas: glaciology, hydrology and environmental change.

Human geography units provide in-depth study of cultural, economic and social geography, emphasising the importance of theory and methods for analysing contemporary geographical problems and policies. Topics range from economic development and global politics to inequalities of health and contemporary social theory.

You will develop skills in the use of specialised computer software, statistics and data collection in the field. You will also take relevant language units to prepare you for studying in Europe.

Field trips and practical work are key components of the course. There are UK residential trips in year one and in year two there is an overseas field trip.

Your third-year studies abroad will be arranged on an individual basis. You will study in the language of your host country. We currently have exchange agreements with universities in Barcelona, Bonn, Grenoble, Paris, Lyon, Valencia and others. Visit Global Opportunities to find out more about where you can study abroad.

The skills that you acquire throughout your studies will be applied in a self-directed dissertation project in your final year.

This degree is designed for students with potential who do not have a science background. You can automatically progress from this course to our BSc or MSci Chemistry degrees.

Our chemistry courses offer a superb grounding in the subject. In years one and two you will study fundamental concepts in inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, and applications in areas such as analytical, environmental, materials and theoretical chemistry.

You will also develop your ability to design experiments and interpret results and gain key skills through our chemistry-specific communications and mathematics units.

You will get the opportunity to specialise after the first two years. BSc final-year project options include work in a research laboratory or a local school, helping to develop science resources or carrying out chemistry education research. On the MSci course you will complete a 20-week research project with an academic member of staff in your final year.

We are one of the UK's biggest chemistry schools and we have a superb reputation for teaching and research; over a third of our research was rated 'world-leading' in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.