Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Music and Sound Design Technology

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

This degree enables you to explore the nature of current sound and music technologies, using the latest digital audio hardware, software and programming packages. You'll investigate topics such as sampling, sequencing, mixing, remixing, signal processing, sound editing and recording, alongside audio programming, internet audio and electronics, ensuring that you'll be well equipped with the knowledge and hands-on experience expected of today’s professionals.

• Our programme is Accredited by JAMES, who represent the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS), the Music Producers Guild (MPG) and Associate Industry Bodies.
• Develop excellent technical skills over the course of your degree, and benefit from our high quality studio, listening room, venue and sound resources including those by SSL, Yamaha, Avid, Focusrite, Quested, Genelec, Neumann, TLA, Lexicon and Drawmer to name but a few.
• Excellent industry input is built into the design of the degree awards from a huge number of areas within the wider music industry.
• The degree awards within the programme are designed to expose you to areas of music, sound and audio technology that you might not even know exist yet.  "Coming to this course has really given my brain the kick-start it needed, and I'm beginning to see near endless possibilities with where I can go." - Glenn Osborn, second year student
• We have a strong record of students from the programme securing placement years between years 2 and 3 of their studies.  Placement destinations include Focusrite,  Sound Technology (a leading distributor of high profile brands for the Music Retail and Professional Audio industries), The Famous Company, and a number of recording studios.
• Every year, organisations and companies approach us to recommend our graduating students.
• Music business is woven into your degree study at every year giving you the skills to slot into the music industry (or create your own business).
• Organise and Participate ‘live’ projects, and our ‘JamJar’ showcase live events.
• Benefit from studying in creative arts school and collaborate with filmmakers and animators in realising fully featured, professional standard media projects.
• We have some of the best resources in the UK, including the 39 million pound entertainment venue – the Forum where our students perform, and engineer every month, and state-of-the art music studios and film and TV facilities in our 12 million pound building for Music, Film and media.

Course Details

The BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology course is designed for students who wish to interrogate music and media through music, sound design and immersive audio applications.  Focus is placed on sound and music as a component of multimedia, including the world of sound design as a creative process.   Students create and work on a range of media focused projects including moving image, game audio and voice over production as well as determining how sound can be delivered within both multi-speaker environments and ‘virtual’ spaces. 

Core modules studied alongside music and sound design technology practice modules develop students’ techniques and approaches using a range of sound technologies, as well as fostering professional and industrial contextual immersion and awareness, and experience with specialisms within connected music and sound related fields.

BSc (Hons) Music Production sits within the overarching Music & Sound Technology Programme.  There are four degree awards within this programme: BSc (Hons) Music Production, Bsc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology, BSc (Hons) Live Sound and Lighting Technology. 

All courses share the same ethos, and you’ll have opportunities to work alongside our music composition and music industry management students too, ensuring you benefit from teaching and experiences within a large community of musicians, composers, technologists and performers.

Within the wider school of creative arts at UH, there are opportunities to collaborate with students from other creative areas, including animation and film and TV, allowing you to network with a broad range of creative industries.

Perhaps you are interested in Marketing but would also like to explore some of our marketing pathways, please check: Marketing and Advertising and Marketing with Digital Communications. Marketing is an exciting, dynamic and multi-focused discipline. This course will provide you with a broad perspective, covering subjects such as principles of marketing, strategic planning, consumer behaviour, enterprise, brand and media communications and market research. It will prepare you to work successfully in the sector whether you wish to set up your own business or join a small or a large enterprise. During this degree, you’ll have the opportunity to study for a professional qualification with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), significantly enhancing your career prospects. In the First Year, students are given the opportunity to become Affiliate Members of CIM and study for a first CIM award.

5 Reasons to Study BA(Hons) Marketing:

• The course is professionally accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing and gives you chances to study professional qualifications.
• You will get to work on live industry projects using real data and working with businesses and charities across the UK.
• The course gives you the opportunities to do a work placement in SMEs or large corporations, developing key employability skills
• All students have the option to study abroad.
• You will develop key marketing and communications skills at a leading international business-facing University.

Our Graphic Design BA (Hons) program is driven by a desire to develop graduates that are ready for employment. The course is committed to teaching you how to generate brilliant concepts and the skills required to execute them beautifully. Briefs will allow students to explore the widest definitions of contemporary graphic design by encouraging them to explore their own interests, be experimental and push the boundaries of the subject. Projects will focus on creating typographic and image-based solutions including posters, books, websites and films as well as packaging, identity and typeface design.

We have an enviable record of success. In recent years our students have won over 100 awards in all of the most prestigious national and international design competitions. These include: at least one D&AD pencil every year since 2011; Designer of the Year at New Designers; countless other ISTD, YCN and agency competitions; and various runners-up/finalists’ places in other competitions such at the Penguin Random House Design Award.

Clever, original ideas are vital for a successful career working at the top end of the profession and our course is committed to teaching students how to generate brilliant concepts. We foster a fun yet demanding atmosphere that encourages our students to think independently, question the world around them and be opinionated. Our proximity to London allows us to easily bring in high-quality visiting tutors, all of whom have worked for renowned agencies, and inspiring guest speakers.

• Outstanding connections to industry, including high profile live briefs and visiting speakers.
• A forward-thinking, ideas-driven curriculum which prepares our graduates for a wide range of careers.
• A flexible approach which encourages exploration and experimentation in a wide variety of formats.
• A reputation for success in the most-coveted student award schemes.

The MSc Management is designed to provide you with a multidisciplinary approach to management. Upon graduation, you’ll be equipped with the personal and professional skills needed to be competent and successful managers in modern businesses.

You’ll develop a strong foundation of understanding of the role of management and its implementation across different industries. From developing an understanding of the role of management in the wider international economy, to the responsibilities of management to society, sustainability, and the planet, you’ll explore management from a range of perspectives.

Business operations are becoming ever-more complex in today’s global economy. The acquisition, storage, movement and the transportation of goods both to the organisation and to customers, requires managers with strong leadership and supply chain management skills. This course will prepare you with the skills and knowledge to boost efficiency and drive business forward no matter what industry.

So, whether you’re a graduate looking for a broad management qualification, or a professional who is looking to progress into management through a formal qualification, the MSc Management will provide you with an exciting learning journey.

This programme brings together the disciplines of advertising and digital communications, recognising the integrated nature of contemporary marketing communications. It is designed to enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills for a career in advertising and digital marketing either client side or in creative agencies. This programme has a balance of the academic underpinning and the creative and digital skills required for employment. Students will be expected to operate at a strategic campaign planning level, whilst also acquiring practical skills such as copywriting, video editing and basic digital design as well as a knowledge of and practical application of marketing technology

• New degree launching in 2020/21 embedding the latest in contemporary advertising and digital marketing techniques
• Strongly focussed on students employability needs, students will acquire transferable skills and attributes sought after by employers
• Gain digital skills in content creation, as well as for general office settings (eg Excel)
• Gain practical industry experience of advertising and digital marketing through live projects, industry speakers, events and employability modules
• Enhance your CV further through an optional year’s study abroad, placement or short internship
• Strong links with the Chartered Institute of Marketing; the Business School is a CIM Strategic Partner and hosts the regional CIM Club
• Learning for professional qualifications embedded into the curriculum, with the chance to gain a professional CIM qualification within the first year
• Dedicated programme tutors to look after the pastoral and academic needs of students

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)

Philosophy explores and confronts the assumptions that frame the way we think, act and see the world around us. Creative writing offers a way for you to do this by exploring new perspectives on familiar themes, expanding your imaginative capacities, and finding ways to articulate ideas in novel and illuminating ways.

On our BA Philosophy and Creative Writing degree, you will be introduced to a range of literary texts, genres and practical approaches to writing, and you will learn how to formulate your own philosophical arguments, to arrive at your own conclusions.

In your first year, you will embark on becoming a writer, including writing for the screen, whilst exploring central philosophical questions, such as whether anything can give meaning to life, and whether our striving to achieve anything of significance is ultimately futile, even ridiculous. The philosophy of film and literature module addresses the assumption that anything is possible in fiction and considers the extent to which that is true.

All our Philosophy lecturers are active researchers, so you’ll share the excitement of doing original work in a supportive and highly-rated academic community. Our Philosophy team is in the top 15 in the Guardian League Table 2019 and rates as one of the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide in the 2017 QS rankings.

Our Creative Writing team are published and practicing novelists, poets and dramatists and you will gain a clear, theoretical understanding of the discipline, as well as practical skills that will shape your ability to express yourself.

In your second year as a writer, you’ll turn your attention to writing for the stage and consider poetry as well as prose writing. In Philosophy, you’ll choose from a variety of topics, which includes a module on the nature of art, expression and representation (in literary as well as visual art), and modules on influential texts in philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic, which is written in dialogue form.

The final year allows for even more opportunity to tailor your degree to reflect your own interests. In Creative Writing, you will embark on your own project, either on poetry, prose or script writing, whilst in Philosophy, you’ll choose from a variety of modules, including modules on feminist philosophy, the nature of language and meaning, and a module on Nietzsche, who is well-known for his literary style.

• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• An exceptional academic team, conducting internationally renowned research
• Stimulating, innovative courses that allow you to make rewarding connections between two disciplines
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

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.

Literature can offer new perspectives on familiar themes, as well as open doors to unfamiliar ideas and cultures which are temporally or spatially remote from your own. It is an ideal source for philosophical reflection, exploring and challenging the assumptions that frame the way we think, act and see the world around us.

Our BA Philosophy and English Literature degree encourages you to expand your imaginative capacities and to critically reflect on possibilities for how the world could be, by engaging with a wide variety of perspectives. You will gain skills in understanding how to read and interpret in context, and in how to formulate your own arguments, to arrive at your own conclusions.

In your first year, you might choose to study international and American literature or revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations. In Philosophy, you might explore questions which lie at the heart of much literature, such as whether anything can give meaning to life, and whether our striving to achieve anything of significance is ultimately futile, even ridiculous. The philosophy of film and literature module addresses the assumption that anything is possible in fiction and considers the extent to which that is true.

All our English Literature and Philosophy lecturers are active researchers, so you’ll share the excitement of doing original work in a supportive and highly-rated academic community. Our Philosophy team is in the top 15 in the Guardian League Table 2019 and rates as one of the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide in the 2017 QS rankings.

In your second year, you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the 20th century. In Philosophy, you’ll choose from a variety of topics, which includes a module on the nature of art, expression and representation (in literary as well as visual art), and modules on influential texts in philosophy, such as Plato’s Republic.

The final year allows for even more opportunity to tailor your degree to reflect your own interests. On the literature side, themed options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, Renaissance tragedy, 21 st century American literature, European crime fiction, literary adaptations and the culture of print in the 18th century. A wide variety of Philosophy modules are available, including modules on feminist philosophy, the nature of language and meaning, and a module on Nietzsche, who is well-known for his literary style.

• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• An exceptional academic team, conducting internationally renowned research
• Stimulating, innovative courses that allow you to make rewarding connections between two disciplines
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

A wide range of opportunities exists for qualified legal practitioners to work within the energy industry. The University of Hertfordshire’s LLM Energy Law and Environment will provide you with the knowledge and skills you will need to underpin your chosen career.

Two compulsory modules – International Energy Law and International Environmental Law – will give you a firm foundation for your studies. In addition, you will select two optional modules which will complement your learning and equip you to meet the challenges and opportunities related to the legal aspects of the oil and gas industry, and the environment.

The International Energy Law module examines the main types of international and national regulatory frameworks and contractual arrangements within the sector. You will also cover key policy issues relating to law, regulation and contracts as well as the jurisprudence of courts, along with emerging legal issues. The International Environmental Law module examines contemporary global environmental challenges, enabling you to understand and critically reflect on issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss. The modules are both assessed by way of written coursework.