Bachelor of Science in Psychology (with integrated Foundation)

at University of Buckingham United Kingdom

This programme aims to deliver a deep understanding of the contemporary security and intelligence environment in western democracies, with a focus on the UK. Security and Intelligence Studies are an important new field in political science but there is also widespread recognition that a good knowledge of how security and intelligence agencies operate; of the environment in which they operate; and of how their products are, and should be, used has become a key component of good and successful governance. Emphasis is placed on relating academic and historical analyses to contemporary problems and policy questions especially in the UK but also to western states in general, using a unique degree of practitioner-led expertise.

With regard to intelligence-led policy and practice, emphasis is placed on the very skills that the intelligence community itself has been urged to develop in the wake of the Butler Review on Intelligence on WMD. This specifically recommended the development of a greater degree of ‘professionalisation’ in intelligence analysis skills, including critical thinking and analysis (developed in part through an element of exercising and collaborative working on challenge problems), and a greater ability to evaluate and assess disparate sources of sometimes conflicting information. This programme is aimed at everyone who is interested in intelligence and security issues, whatever their career plans, but also at those who may be aspiring to work in the field of security and intelligence. It can also assist the career development of those already employed within that field.

The three-year BA International Studies degree with integrated foundation is designed for students who need additional preparation prior to undergraduate level study. The first year of the programme is intended to provide a foundation in both knowledge and academic skills for the more specialist subjects in years two and three. Students’ progression onto the BA International programme is subject to regulations for the Foundation Stage of three year degree programmes.

An important feature of the modern world, which is widely recognised and commented upon by businesses, journalists, politicians and teachers alike, is its increasing interdependence and internationalisation. Your ability to read this message on the World Wide Web is itself a manifestation of the power of ideas to transcend national boundaries with great rapidity and at low cost. Technology has proved to be an agent which encourages co-operation across national boundaries. Technological developments in transport, telecommunications and computing have encouraged economic changes such as the decline in barriers to trade, the internationalisation of financial markets, the rise of global companies, and a massive increase in the volume of international trade in goods and services.

These trends have been accompanied by political developments such as the rise of regional trading groupings of countries, international efforts to agree about common legal and technical rules to govern business dealings, arguments about tax competition between countries, as well as increasing concern about the environmental consequences associated with world economic development. Enormous social tensions arise as these international forces come into conflict with long established ways of doing things in every country. Political and social systems are in a continuous process of adjustment to an increasingly open world.

Th eBA International Studies degree programme at Buckingham gives you an opportunity to learn about these fundamental problems. With students coming to Buckingham from over 80 countries, it is an ideal environment to learn about matters of international concern and to discuss them with people from differing cultural backgrounds. The programme is inter-disciplinary and covers economic, political, legal, historical and cultural dimensions. Graduates from the BA International Studies degree will have acquired a knowledge of economics sufficient to analyse and understand the global marketplace; a familiarity with political systems in a range of different countries; and a good historical understanding of how the international framework has evolved over time.

Students wishing to pursue careers in the media, journalism, international business, politics, diplomacy or education will find the programme particularly attractive.

LLB Law with Business Management (2-year + one term degree – September entry) combines the study of law with that of business to develop knowledge and skills that will boost your legal career. The Business Management component contextualises your legal knowledge within a business framework and reinforces that legal knowledge, for example deepening understanding of company law and commercial law. However, if you are not interested in qualification as a lawyer, it provides an excellent foundation for careers in banking, the civil service and management.

Law with Business Management also satisfies the necessary first step for qualifying as a lawyer in various common law jurisdictions, including Canada, Nigeria, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.

For those interested in qualifying as a solicitor in the UK, Law with Business Management provides you with thorough preparation for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam 1 (SQE1), enabling you to choose the accelerated SQE1 preparation courses after graduation. Our innovative and diverse law curriculum also contributes to preparation for the practice-orientated SQE2, both SQE1 and SQE2 being necessary for qualification as a solicitor.

For those UK and international students wishing to qualify as an English barrister, Law with Business Management also satisfies the academic component of Bar training,  the necessary first step to qualifying as an English barrister.

Buckingham Law School also offers a broad range of extra-curricular opportunities to develop your professional skills and experience of legal practice. These opportunities include the possibility, between the first and second year of your LLB, of a sandwich year placement with a professional organisation.

We often accommodate the particular requirements needed to practise in various common law jurisdictions other than the UK. If you are an international student from one of these jurisdictions, we are happy to discuss what subjects you must take to qualify.

The Business Management component of the degree develops skills in solving business problems that are transferable, organisationally and internationally, across business environments. We teach business and management as live subjects, incorporating practical and real-life projects to enhance learning and produce graduates equipped to meet the needs of commerce and industry. This approach is often highly participatory and may involve visits to selected companies to complement classroom activities.

Our LLB with Business Management graduates who gain a second-class honours degree, or higher, are guaranteed a place on our LLM programme in International and Commercial Law. This opportunity greatly enhances specialist knowledge and enables our students to acquire two degrees in only three years.

Well-functioning legal institutions are crucial to economic growth, development and more equitable distribution of resources. The connection between the legal system and the success of business has been shown repeatedly in the 20th Century.

The 2-year fast track programme offers a unique blend of business, economics and law covering micro and macro-economics, labour market economics, human rights law, corporate and business law, business management and business strategy.

We regularly host events and seminars where we discuss the latest research from our academics and invite speakers from the world of business and entrepreneurship.

Our academics offer a supportive, diverse and creative environment for you to explore your interests and ensure a successful educational experience. You will join an international community of students, staff and alumni.

A dedicated professional development course runs through the degree covering academic and job market skills. You will also benefit from internships and research opportunities in the Vinson Centre for Economics and Entrepreneurship.

Students taking this programme might be aiming to enter the legal profession by going on to take the Common Professional Examination and later specialise in areas of law such as anti-trust, securities regulation or taxation. Graduates can also move onto several master’s level programmes and is well suited to students who intend to take an MBA degree before entering business.

We are the beneficiaries of a substantial endowment from Nobel prize-winning economist Ronald Coase, who had a major specialism in the interface between Law and Economics and won the Nobel prize for that research. We offer several generous scholarships for students with a passion for Economics and Law. We especially encourage women and ethnic minorities to apply. Coase Scholarship details and eligibility criteria.

BA History and Heritage Management is one of the five most popular subjects among UK university students, and with good reason. Having a historical perspective enables people to make sense of today’s rapidly changing world. Employers like it because history teaches you to think for yourself, to work under pressure, and to construct a coherent argument from the evidence. Historical research has never been more exciting than it is today, with the internet making available so many treasures from the archives.

This BA in History and Heritage Management has been carefully designed and fine-tuned by Buckingham’s team of experienced and high-calibre historians. It offers an outline and conceptual modules which concentrate on the period from 1800 to the present day – though we do study some earlier periods too from the 1500s onwards too.  It covers, in particular, empires, the rise in political polarisation, World Wars and the shaping of our modern political systems, whilst considering the relationship between ideology and the historical process.

Students progress to study the history of history and to reflect on historical method. In the last part of the course, we study historical documents and texts and develop research and writing skills through a long essay and a dissertation. So the programme not only teaches history; it also teaches you to think historically and to research and write history.

Heritage Management

This distinctive combination of theoretical and vocational study of the BA History and Heritage Management provides students with a pathway to careers in the heritage sector; our students find employment in museums, galleries, the art market and with prestigious organisations like the National Trust, English Heritage and Historic Royal Palaces. Of course, our students also acquire transferable skills applicable in other fields, such as journalism, law and business.

This programme of study aims to train first-degree holders in computing-related areas into specialists in selected areas of IT and computing. Based on the current expertise in the Department, the programme offers students opportunities for in-depth study in secure mobile and wireless communication systems, biometrics and authentication, data mining and knowledge discovery, and Software Project Management techniques and applications.

The programme is carefully designed to suit the varied needs of different students from different backgrounds and with different career objectives, in the IT fields.

On graduating from this programme, you will be able to:

• Understand a range of modern computing technologies
• Apply these technologies in practice
• Describe the roles that modern computing technologies have in many areas of application
• Demonstrate the value of state-of-the-art development in one specific technology and its applications

The MA in Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy degree combines elements from our existing Security and Intelligence MA and our Diplomacy programmes. Like all of our MA programmes, a diplomacy degree aims to help to prepare graduates for careers in foreign and other ministries, international organisations, international journalism and global civil society organisations or for further research. Areas of study include intelligence and international security since 1939; intelligence, tradecraft and machinery; case studies in intelligence success and failure; international law and diplomacy; foreign policy analysis; global diplomacy; security challenges and other global issues. The modules are taught intensively in lectures, seminars and small group tutorials; they assume little prior knowledge but rapidly bring students to an advanced level of understanding. Buckingham is a small academic community and students have personal and frequent access to their instructors. The programme is also suitable for those without a specific career aim in mind but who wish to acquire an advanced understanding of these subjects.

You will encounter the canon of great authors, from Shakespeare onwards, but you also study themes like Film, Gender, and Empire. In other words, the degree combines traditional and contemporary aspects of the subject. Buckingham’s unique tutorial system makes for highly personalized teaching. If you’d like to try out a tutorial, come along to one of our free taster sessions.

What is Buckingham English?

• It is an encounter with the complexity and beauty of great literature
• It aids you on your journey to becoming a professional-level writer, able to write fluently and well in any context
• Like philosophy, it teaches you to argue and debate your ideas
• As a central liberal arts subject, it is a clear space to address the big questions of meaning and existence

We don’t think that formal essays are always the best way of assessing how students understand a subject, so you will find that you have opportunities to write a book review, reportage, poems and short stories, even part of a screenplay. You will learn a number of skills, not least how to write fluently and persuasively. As a result, our graduates go on into a range of careers in media, teaching, publishing, academia, business, and marketing.

BSc Psychology with English Literature looks at the discoveries and hypotheses of psychologists who over the last 100 years have been enriching the study of English literature, either as a way of understanding the mind of the artist or of the characters they create. Studying BSc Psychology with English Literature at Buckingham as with English Literature as your minor subject, gives you the chance to ‘apply’ the insights which the scientific study of individual and group psychology provides to a range of powerful and enigmatic works of literature, from the plays of Shakespeare, through the Gothic and Romantic projections of the late 18th-century, to the short stories and novels of British and American women writers writing in a post-Freudian universe.

Both subjects require the close analysis of texts (spoken, written, uttered) and the discipline of clear report and essay-writing. Their combination in this programme gives you the imaginative scope of an arts programme with the vocation and professionalism of a Bachelor of Science degree.

The BSc in Computing with Accounting and Finance (including Integrated Foundation year) programme will benefit those individuals who wish to study an undergraduate degree but have non-standard academic qualifications.

Year one will follow the same structure as the BSc Computing (with Integrated Foundation) programme first year. In years two and three our students will build on these skills and enhance their knowledge, understanding and practice in core subjects following the BSc Computing with Accounting and Finance programme structure. Throughout the three years, a student will be equipped with the skills to reach their potential in academic studies.

Computing and communications technologies lie at the heart of modern society. They include hardware, software, networks, tools, telecommunications equipment and required standards that provide the technological framework on which the delivery of information services is based. The IT industry is reporting a widening gap in software skills while hard technology is developing and diversifying fast.

The overall aim of this programme is to enable all students to develop their potential so that they can apply what they have learnt to deal with computational problems and develop solutions in a real-world environment in relation to accounting and finance. Through studying this programme, students learn how to specify, design, develop and operate efficient and innovative computer-based systems and gain up-to-date knowledge and awareness of the relevant computing technologies within a shorter space of time. Graduates of the degree programme will be able to undertake a variety of careers in the IT sector of related industries.

This major/minor programme of study specifically aims to produce technically sound computing graduates who are exposed to basic concepts and practice of accounting and finance, providing them with IT and computing technical know-how as well as awareness of the principles of the application areas.