Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Politics and International Relations (with Sandwich Year)

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

In today’s fast-paced media world, people with the ability to write, design and harness new technologies are in high demand.

Studying our BA Media degree will equip you with a portfolio of practical skills as well as a theoretical and critical understanding of Media. Our industry-focused approach, combining theory and practice, will help build your confidence, give you the  communication and technological skills required for the industry and help you plan your career.

You’ll learn how to design your own app proposal, build and edit brilliant websites and create a hard-hitting ad campaign, including PR. You’ll also learn what makes a good news story or feature, and how to write one. Using industry standard software and equipment, our professionally-experienced academics and researchers will help you develop skills across divergent platforms and for different audiences.

These hands-on skills will be underpinned by an understanding of the global media industry, and the legal and ethical contexts of your work. In your first year you’ll explore Global Media and Society, looking at who owns the news, at the influence of the BBC and commercial entities such as Sky and Murdoch’s News Corporation, and consider issues such as fake news.

Other core modules (courses) include introductions to Media Communications and Visual Communications – how to use text and graphics to reach key audiences – while you’ll gain technical skills through Photoshop or animation projects.

In your second year you’ll learn key research methods and skills including how to conduct interviews and run focus groups, and how to pitch to different client groups. You’ll explore radio journalism and social media, while a module on App Design will help you understand the commercial potential for your ideas.

If you’re into music, film, food or travel, you’ll have opportunities to create magazine layouts and pdfs for online publications on whatever subject interests you. A video option will give you the chance to create a brand for a product or service.

In your final year you’ll develop and refine your ideas and skills further. Whether you’re keen to work in web design, social media, customer relations, PR or advertising, the skills you’ve gained will prepare you to be tomorrow’s creative entrepreneurs, confident in using different platforms to get ahead in your chosen career.

• Communication skills (both oral and written),  enabling you to create and publish content across a broad range of formats
• Theory and practice – your critical understanding of Media will help futureproof your practical skills as an author and publications designer
• Individual support – a personal tutor will help you grow in confidence and support your development
• Industry insights – our Media Matters series of talks are delivered by professionals from a wide variety of media including TV, national newspapers and start-ups.
• An international perspective through the chance to study abroad 

Explore the fundamental theories of physics and gain the skills to understand the world in terms of forces and particles in small or complex systems. During this fascinating course you’ll learn to comprehend everything from the streamlined shape of dolphins to the quantum encryption of messages. The course is informed by our internationally excellent and world- leading physics research, which covers areas such as the microphysics of air quality, atmospheric physics, light scattering, quantum optics and mathematical physics. You’ll also have the option of spending a year working in industry or at a research institution. Study abroad opportunities are available at universities in Europe, Australia and the USA.

• Our degree lets you study the fundamental theories behind Physics and their application to modern-day research and technology. We will take you from the knowledge that you have gained in your school or college studies right the way to the most up-to-date developments.
• During your second and third years you begin to specialise in experimental physics or more theoretical and mathematical concepts. You can choose from a range of options in your final year, including Nonlinear Systems, Rocket Performance and Propulsion, Physics of Stars, Nonlinear Systems, Partial Differential Equations, Dynamics and Geometry, Further Numerical Methods or Quantum Computing.
• You will also carry out a final year investigative project in a cutting-edge area of Physics research. You will be closely supervised and guided by one of our experienced researchers in the Centre for Atmospheric & Instrumentation Research. Previous projects have included designing a calibration system for airborne ice sensors, modelling the behaviour of soliton waves in the oceans, and examining quantum dynamics using topological methods.
• If you are continuing on our MPhys programme it is possible to extend your project into your MPhys year. We also have an innovative strand of industrial projects supported by the Institute of Physics that give you direct experience of working in industrial research.

This course explores the digital domain, including multimedia platforms, mobile devices, and augmented and virtual realities, and establishes a rich, hybrid area of study for the 21st century. By using practice-based approaches and theory-led methodologies, the programme aims to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to become part of the digital revolution.

In this rapidly expanding field, you'll learn how digital media are produced and have the opportunity to explore areas such as web-based content, mobile apps, interactive advertising, responsive objects and environments, networked information and social-media systems, interactive video, live performance technology and digital art installations.

Digital Media Design is an award targeted towards students interested in experimenting with new interactive technologies (for example, augmented and virtual reality), creating web-based content (web-design, smartphone applications etc.), becoming experts in designing user experiences (interface layout, interface navigation, visual communication, branding), creating environment responsive public installations (projection mapping, multi-screen presentations) and creating augmented and virtual reality applications.

Exploring a combination of various digital mediums, platforms and skills, this degree has an emphasis on employability and strong industry links to keep the course up-to-date and relevant, build connections, and shape students into tomorrow's professionals.

Our BA English Language and Literature enables you to combine your study of the structure, development and use of English as a world language with your reading of literature written in English from all parts of the globe.

You’ll be taught by research-active academics who bring fresh thinking to our accessible, engaging courses. We’ll introduce you to writers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from your own, and also help you explore more familiar literature in ways that challenge your preconceptions.

You’ll enrich your study of English literature in its cultural and historical contexts through modules on the history of the English language. You’ll balance your reading of poetry and drama with analyses of how language is used in the media, to inform or persuade. The common link between the two disciplines will be your analysis of language and how it operates in literature and in real life.

A core module in your first year will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. You’ll also be introduced to English Linguistics, the scientific study of our language, from how language develops in children, to the ways it reflects society and how it changes over time.

Your second-year core modules will focus on English grammar and the sounds of English, and you’ll also study period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards, gaining an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama to the emergence of modernity in the 20 th century. A core module in English Literature will introduce you to a range of theoretical lenses which you can apply to your further study of texts.

You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your degree to reflect your own interests. English Literature options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, 21 st century American literature and literary adaptations, amongst others.

Alongside these, a module on Corpus Studies in English Language will allow you to bring your literature and language interests together. Using Sketch Engine, a text analysis tool that enables you to search vast databases of language, you’ll be able to search literary texts to identify how particular words have been used in novels or literature. With more than 15 billion words available to you, you’ll be able to ask questions no one has asked before and pursue uniquely creative research projects.

Our BA History and Philosophy gives you the opportunity to study two subjects that will help you to make sense of the world around you.

Through our diverse and inclusive History curriculum you will learn about an array of cultures and identities.  What links our work is our focus on people’s history and everyday lives. This is represented strongly in our first year programme, which will give you an insight into the making of the modern world through exploration of beliefs, magic and medicine, campaigns for freedom and equality, Africa and the world, and America from Hamilton to Trump.

In your philosophy modules, you will be introduced to a variety of philosophical issues ranging from the nature of reality, knowledge and mind, to questions about how we should live, what we should value, and what would be the best way of organizing society.

Throughout your degree, the common link between the two disciplines will be the development of analytical skills. As historians you will learn to analyse historical documents and debates among historians, while in Philosophy you’ll assess the arguments of others, arriving at your own conclusions on deep, important issues. 

These analytical skills, honed over the course of your studies, will benefit you in the final year, if you choose to write a dissertation. This extended piece of work, available either in History or in Philosophy, will grow out of a topic that interests you. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad. Others have worked on the history of jiu jitsu, women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th-century London.  And Philosophy students have worked on the ethical issues of playing video games, the nature of the imagination, and environmental philosophy and the obligations of the state.

We give you: 

• An exceptional History team, conducting world-leading research (REF 2014), and a Philosophy team ranked in the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide (2017 QS rankings). 
• Stimulating, innovative courses - History students reported almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course (2018 National Student Survey)
• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting and the scope to write a dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate
• The opportunity to expand your horizons by studying abroad at the end of your second year
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

Studying an MBA can transform the way you think and the way you work, change the way others see you and open up new leadership and management opportunities.

This full-time MBA enables you to develop the critical and reflective strategic leadership skills you need to succeed in an uncertain world, challenging your assumptions, cultivating flexible thinking, effective decision making and responsible management.

What will I study?

Our teaching and learning methods ensure you are able to actively engage with your own development. You’ll benefit from a blended learning approach which utilises web-based activities and reading, alongside simulations, reflective writing, discussions and live enterprise projects.

All of the teaching resources have been designed in a highly structured way and complementary way to take you progressively through business concepts and to give you confidence, enhance your skills and expertise when completing specific tasks.

A participative style is used throughout to enable you to learn from your fellow students, as well as from teaching staff. Experiential learning is central to our teaching philosophy.

There is a considerable emphasis on the utilisation of theory and knowledge to make sense of your own and fellow participants' experiences at work. Case study material is widely used alongside case histories developed by fellow participants.

The MBA at the University of Hertfordshire has multiple pathways for students:

• MBA
• MBA (Human Resource Management)
• MBA (Entrepreneurship)
• MBA (Digital Marketing)
• MBA (Finance)
• MBA (Healthcare)
• MBA (Public Services)
• MBA (Sustainable Industries)
• MBA (Data Analytics)
• MBA (Project Management)
• MBA (Management Consultancy)
• MBA (Information Systems)

Perhaps you're interested in Criminal Justice and Criminology, but haven't found the course which feels right for you? Our Criminology and Criminal Justice programme offers cutting-edge modules such as Terrorism and Criminology, Policing and Society, Gender and Crime, War Crimes, Drugs, Crime and Criminology and Imprisonment and Justice, allowing you to explore a range of the most pressing social issues of today.

Throughout the degree, you will begin to understand that Criminology is the study of the anatomy of a crime, specifically its causes, consequences and costs. Criminal justice, on the other hand, refers to established systems for dealing with crime, specifically detection of crime, detaining of criminals, and criminal prosecution and punishment.

If you wish to pursue career opportunities in criminal justice, you will study the different components of criminal justice, and if you're interested in pursuing a career as a criminologist, you will study the behaviour patterns, backgrounds, and sociological trends of criminals.While both fields are different, criminologists and criminal justice professionals work together in the criminal justice system to thwart crime.

On the course, you will:

• Investigate the nature of crime and criminality and develop an understanding of the various issues, debates, and approaches within the criminal justice system and criminology 
• Engage with a range of current issues and debates on some of the most pressing social issues, such as national security, drug policy and the sex trade
• Examine how and why offenders should be punished and explore how society defines and manages crime
• Be taught research-informed course content so that they develop the skills to carry out their own criminological research, together with a range of other transferable skills
• Engage with important Criminal Justice contacts – we have close professional relationships with the Hertfordshire Constabulary, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Herts Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (HACRO) and Answers Investigation
• Be taught by internationally-recognised experts in criminology and draw on their expertise in Criminal Justice Process, Criminology, and Academic skills in Criminology
• Learn the concepts, theories and methods they need to understand the realities of crime and control and the practical skills that will allow them to participate in the criminal justice process

At Hertfordshire Law School, we recognise that while you are studying with us, you will want to develop professionally and increase your confidence. That's why we offer a range of co-curricular activities, including; Debating, Forensic Psychology, and Restorative Justice to help you improve the skills needed for a great career in Criminal Justice and Criminology.

We want to give you the best possible start to your career! We offer a broad range of careers events throughout the year, including speed careers networking, and guest speakers from a wide range of employers. It's no wonder 93.8% of Hertfordshire Law School graduates are in employment or further study within six months of graduating.*

Our Criminology degree is also significantly enhanced by expert research-informed and practitioner-led teaching to ensure you are academically supported. You'll also be part of a community which offers significant pastoral and careers support along the way, thanks to our dedicated student support tutors, cohort tutors and programme leaders, student mentors and careers tutors.

A career in writing enables you explore the world through your work – discovering people and places, exploring unfolding events, influencing debate and shaping your own creative voice. On this course, you’ll write for blogs, websites, print, video, audio and multimedia contexts, developing the skills to research your subject and really engage your readers.

Together, these subjects give you exciting opportunities to develop your voice as a writer and discover ways to publish your work. In journalism, you’ll learn about ethics, target audiences and the journey from interview to finished article. You’ll analyse newspapers and their values, as well as exploring broadcasting and online journalism.

In creative writing, you’ll learn important skills for devising, editing, revising and submitting your work. You’ll analyse texts, explore the effects of the author’s choices and create short stories, drama, poetry and creative nonfiction of your own. You’ll also have opportunities to work with schools or museums, attend guest lectures, study abroad or take a year’s work placement.

From September 2020, subject to validation, we will be offering a new single hons degree in Creative Writing. Find out more information.

• This course will help you to develop professional writing skills.
• Journalism and Publishing at the University of Hertfordshire ranked 21st out of 57 universities in the Guardian University league table 2016.

This course develops your understanding of the business of sport, exploring the sports industry in the UK, as well as from a broader global perspective. You’ll learn key business concepts and theories, using them to review modern sports businesses and best practice in sports management. Throughout the course, we put a strong emphasis on the leadership and management of sports events, as well as developing the strategic skills you’ll need to be successful in today’s sports industry. We’ll help you develop your entrepreneurial skills, so that when you graduate you’ll have a balanced portfolio of knowledge and practical skills which really boosts your employability.

One of a range of degrees from the taught Master's Programme at the Department of Computer Science.

This course considers current research and practice in cyber security. You will build the fundamental and advanced aspects of cyber security in terms of theory, practice, policy and security standard to enable critical cyber security decision marking, the extant threats to current and emerging systems and networks and the effective countermeasures to such threats in compliance with information security management standards, and the social, legal and ethical issues relating to cyber security in the context of digital forensics, information security management, penetrating testing and cyber operations.