Master of Arts in Dickens Studies by Research

at University of Buckingham United Kingdom

Launched in January 2006, our BSc Business Enterprise BBE is the first undergraduate Venture Creation Programme (VCP) at a university anywhere in the world. This means students are required to start and run a business as part of their degree, this is not your typical degree programme as this programme is split between real-world application and theoretical knowledge.

The BSc Business Enterprise (BBE) Programme will interest you if you want to:

• Start and develop your own new business at the same time as studying for an honours degree.
• Make a positive contribution to the strategic development of a family business or other small or medium enterprise.
• Develop an entrepreneurial or “can do” approach to life to enhance your future career anywhere.

Students pitching to the Buckingham AngelsThis course provides the opportunity for you to ‘pitch’ for ‘seed-corn’ capital of up to £5,000, enabling you to start and run your own business as an integral part of your honours degree.  We offer a range of business subjects that will help you to establish your business and develop your qualities of entrepreneurship, management and innovation.

In the first semester, you will learn how to create an effective business plan. This will form the basis of your ‘pitch’ to obtain your ‘seed-corn’ capital from our investment panel ‘Buckingham Angels’.

During the following 18 months, you will be establishing and ‘growing’ the business, at the same time as developing your academic knowledge in-depth across the range of business subjects needed to obtain an honours degree in Business Enterprise.

BA Security, Intelligence and Cyber looks at global politics and diplomacy in the 21st century which are increasingly underpinned by questions of security, both as a threat and as policy. Diplomats and decision-makers in government and business increasingly need to understand the complex dynamics of regional and global security, whether that be the complex dynamics of the Middle East; the resurgence of assertive powers in a multi-polar world; or domestic extremist movements, to name but a few. Processes of globalisation have taught us that two further developments are also critical. First, in order to survive and prosper in an uncertain world, all states need good intelligence on threats and adversaries. But how do intelligence capabilities properly interface with the business of government, especially in democratic states where security, privacy and accountability must be carefully balanced? Secondly, the twenty-first century is and will increasingly signify a world where the virtual and the physical become intertwined. The key managers and decision-makers of tomorrow will need to be very much at ease in the cyber realm, recognising both its opportunities and its threats. The intersection of technology, security and politics will become the essence of modern life.

This BA Security, Intelligence and Cyber programme builds upon the success of the Centre of Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham (BUCSIS) which has established itself as one of the world leaders in educational provision in this subject area. Both the centre and the university at large offer a very diverse environment. With students coming to Buckingham from over 80 countries, it is an ideal situation to learn about matters of international concern and to discuss them with people from differing cultural backgrounds.

The programme is structured around a core set of modules, and two optional pathways, focusing respectively on politics and diplomacy; and foundational-level computing and cybersecurity.

Students wishing to pursue careers in security, intelligence, diplomacy, foreign affairs or business management will find this programme a unique and attractive foundation.

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.

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 LLM by Research requires an original contribution to the body of knowledge in a particular academic or professional discipline. It will take approximately one year to complete with full-time study and two years of part-time study.

The BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (3-year degree) combines the three important subjects of Philosophy, Politics and Economics. What makes it different to PPE offered in other universities is its integrated character, with a special focus on explaining how human behaviour shapes economic and political institutions.

In the Philosophy strand, you will take an Introduction to Philosophy module and study the Philosophy of Mind. In addition, there will be more specialised modules in political theory: Introduction to Political Theory; Freedom; Evolution and Human Cooperation. And students will receive a grounding in the Philosophy of Social Science.

The Politics element of the degree focuses on area and country studies, with a particular emphasis on political order and security challenges. Those challenges vary from region to region but typically take the form of political violence (war, terrorism and organised crime), mass migration and economic instability. Students are encouraged to approach these problems from a number of disciplinary perspectives. For example, the study of Latin America would consider the historical, cultural and economic determinants of the region’s politics.

The Economics element of the PPE programme covers the core areas of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. But in addition, there is an emphasis on the interaction between Economics and Politics. Students also receive a strong grounding in mathematics and quantitative methods.

Another distinctive feature of the degree is that two modules – in Politics and Philosophy – will be based on a series of lectures by prominent academics and public figures. These are taught in London (travel and other expenses will be covered in the fees).

The BA in Digital News and Media 3-year programme will benefit those individuals who wish to study an undergraduate degree but have non-standard academic qualifications.

Year one will follow the Foundation Pathway programme and introduce students to key concepts and study skills. In years two and three students will build on these skills and enhance their knowledge, understanding and practice in core subjects. Throughout the three years, a student will be equipped with the skills to reach their potential in academic studies.

Foundation courses bridge the gap between your current qualifications and the knowledge and skills required for the undergraduate programme you want to do. Even if you have not yet achieved the necessary academic qualifications or your English language is not yet at the required standard, we will help you to identify your needs and develop a learning programme to meet them in Year 1, enabling you to progress on to the full degree. Our unique condensed timetabling at Buckingham allows you to complete your foundation and undergraduate programmes in just three years. This means a faster – and smoother transition into university study in a supportive and stimulating learning environment.

Why study this course?
The main BA degree Digital News and Media comprises study and training in a wide range of aspects of the subject area, including online media, news management, PR, advertising, photojournalism, broadcast journalism and legal/ethical issues in journalism, and is intended for those considering careers in these and related fields.

The degree consists of a combination of practical modules in all aspects of design and content production in online, broadcast and print media together with courses in communication and English language studies in order to professionalise students’ writing abilities.

Single or Flexible Honours
Make your degree as unique as you! If you choose Digital News and Media (Single or Flexible Honours) you’ll have the freedom to tailor your Digital News and Media degree to reflect your interests and passions by combining it with a wide range of other subjects taught here at the University. This means that when you graduate you will have a highly personalised degree that will suit you and your aspirations perfectly.

If you choose Flexible Honours you have the freedom to select up to a third of your modules from the whole range of what is taught at the University. This means you can mix and match lots of different subjects ?with Digital News and Media or focus solely on Digital News and Media. At every stage, your Personal Tutor will be on hand to advise and guide your choices.

This programme aims to engage energetic and motivated Mathematics students in innovative research in pure Mathematics and its application in Computer Science. The programme is suitable for students with a solid background in Mathematics or in a closely related discipline. This programme, in particular, is a stepping stone for students to join research institutes and universities as PhD students and researchers.

Some of our research projects will seek new directions towards neural networks and AI, and potentially towards industrial application. The significance of interdisciplinary research is emphasised in the UK’s Research and Development Roadmap, which includes innovative proposals for interactions between mathematical sciences, biomedical research, and the Computing industry.

The main research areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Model theory is a branch of mathematical logic, and its applications in a wide range of subjects such as algebra, topological dynamics, combinatorics, and theoretical Computer Science. Specifically, the projects are focused on Fraïssé construction method, automorphism groups of countable homogeneous structures, structural Ramsey theory, asymptotic classes, ultraproducts, and infinite constraint satisfaction problems in theoretical Computer Science. Research proposals in a wider range of areas in mathematical logic, philosophy of Mathematics, pure Mathematics and theoretical Computer Science are also welcome. These include research areas such as formal methods, type theory, set theory, higher-order logics and fuzzy logics.
• Applied Computational Topology and Geometry is a relatively recent and fast-growing field of mathematics that emerged from applying well-established theories in algebraic topology and geometry. Specific projects focus on applications of data-driven Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in the fields of computer vision, medical diagnostics, and multimedia security for image tampering and fake videos. These applications employ Topological Data Analysis (TDA) and its growing list of tools (Persistent Homology, Mapper, etc.) to infer relevant (topological) class discriminating features from high dimensional and complex data. Other projects involve the use of TDA for interpreting Deep Learning (DL) decisions and dealing with the problem of overfitting of DL models.

Throughout the project, students will interact and be encouraged to work with other researchers at the University of Buckingham and other leading research universities in the UK. The students will be part of research networks such as BPGMTC, SEEMOD, MODNET and Data Science groups.

The three year BSc Psychology with foundation is designed for students who need additional preparation prior to the 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. When you apply for this programme, we will be able to advise whether this 3-year (BA/BSc with integrated Foundation) option or our 2-year UG degree is the best option for you.

As a student, you will learn core theory and have the opportunity to study the eight areas of practitioner psychology, enabling you to make an informed choice on your future career as a psychologist. In addition, we have modules in distinct areas of study such as creativity and cyberpsychology.

The BSc Psychology with foundation programme at Buckingham has been designed to integrate the unique Buckingham tutorial teaching model into the teaching of psychological science. The programme is based on three core elements. First, covering the core theoretical content required for British Psychological Society accreditation meaning that the degree has both national and international recognition. Second, strong research methods and analysis skills embedded within the programme so that Buckingham graduates have begun to develop a range of highly employable skills.

The BSc Biomedical Sciences is a unique 2-year programme taught on the Crewe campus awarding graduates of this course a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences degree.

Biomedical science focuses on how cells, organs and metabolic systems function in the human body. Through this understanding of health and disease processes, new treatments and therapies can be created or developed, which makes it a very dynamic and exciting field of study.