Master of Arts in Autonomous Systems

at University of Plymouth United Kingdom

From shipbroking, and the transport of goods, to salvage rights and piracy, 90% of world trade is carried by sea. On the BSc (Hons) Maritime Business course you’ll learn about the commercial, economic and operational aspects of the maritime industry, while gaining a grounding in the varied and fascinating legal issues that arise in the sector.

Our course has established a strong reputation within the industry and is accredited by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. We have an exciting active alumni network through the Plymouth Nautical Degree Association (PYNDA), where you’ll meet other students and graduates in the maritime field and make useful contacts.

Key Features

• Deepen your knowledge of the industry with field trips to ports and the City of London.
• Benefit from teaching by academic staff with relevant industrial and academic backgrounds including sea- and shore-based experience.
• Take advantage of our programme of visiting speakers to gain insider knowledge and important networking contacts.
• Join our active alumni association, the Plymouth Nautical Degree Association (PYNDA).
• Benefit from the strong reputation our course has around the world for the quality of our students. When you graduate you'll be sought after and ready for work or further study in your chosen maritime area.
• Get ahead with a course that’s accredited by the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. The University also has links with many other professional bodies including the Nautical Institute, the Institute of Export, the International Association of Maritime Economists, Sea Vision UK and the International Association of Maritime Universities.
• Increase your employability with an optional one year industrial placement.
• Study maritime business and law in a city with a rich maritime history. The University has a tradition of maritime education stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century.
• See things from different perspectives - the wide ranging experience of the international shipping and logistics staff and the nature of the subject attracts a high number of international students. This creates plenty of opportunity for knowledge sharing.

Our interdisciplinary design studio inspires you to challenge, disrupt and rethink design practices to create unique and compelling objects, artefacts and user experiences. Go hands-on with materials in our extensive workshops to design products, furniture, ceramics and lighting. Develop a rich portfolio that is relevant to the evolving needs of professional design practice and become a Designer Maker, or a Designer for Industry, or combine areas of 3D design practice.

Key Features

• Teaching is in small groups with the studio culture run like a design practice with innovative delivery including flipped classroom, podcasts and team teaching.
• Work alongside students from our Interior Design course in our vibrant studio with individual desk space and CAD stations.
• You’ll build up a portfolio with fresh projects starting every few weeks. Assessments are 100% coursework – so no exams.
• Culture trips to Europe and study exchanges in Japan, USA, India or Italy are also possible.
• Engage with real clients with live projects. We’ve recently run projects with Vitra, John Lewis, Red Paddle, UPP, architects Willmore Iles and Herman Millar.
• Gain valuable industry experience through our competitions, studio visits, visiting lecturers and our meet the supplier visits.
• BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design is professionally accredited by the Chartered Society of Designers.
• The studio practice mirrors contemporary professional practice, helping you develop the skills and confidence to succeed in the job market.

This practice-based course combines an independent spirit with industry standards. Our learning environment focuses on exploration, creative risk-taking, collaboration and nurturing distinctive voices and skilled film talent. Learn from award-winning staff and visiting professionals taking part in masterclasses. Live BFI-funded projects and exhibition opportunities provide the perfect platform for you to develop your work from script to screen and tell new stories through the moving image.

Key Features

• A course driven by creativity where you learn filmmaking by making films.
• Practical filmmaking informed by industry awareness.
• Small teaching groups throughout the three years allow for bespoke and individually tailored feedback and support.
• Develop a high level of technical and creative skills which are fostered at an individual level throughout the course.
• Explore the scope of career opportunities through practise.
• A course where individuality is nurtured and celebrated through crew-based films and individual projects.
• Work on dedicated modules that encourage creative risk-taking.
• Embrace public audiences and develop projects beyond the University.

Broaden your geological horizons by exploring the connection between the Earth and its marine and nearshore environments on our joint honours degree. Geology with ocean science will arm you with the theoretical and practical aspects of geology, as well as enabling you to develop an understanding of oceanography and coastal processes. Gain an awareness of the interplay between the solid Earth and marine processes, and learn how these factors control the development of coastal regions.

You will take part in the substantial fieldwork offered in a variety of UK and overseas locations such as Morocco, Iceland, Sicily, Spain and Cyprus. You'll become an experienced field-worker, able to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom to existing Earth science problems. You’ll work towards becoming a Chartered Geologist, our accreditation by the Geological Society helps you to gain the required experience.

Have you Considered

• BSc (Hons) Geology
• BSc (Hons) Physical Geography and Geology
• BSc (Hons) Geography

Key Features

• Gain a breadth of knowledge of the Earth and marine sciences not possible with a single honours degree.

Realise your artistic potential. Guided by practising artists, you’ll develop creative approaches to making artwork, through opportunities to explore different techniques and technologies in dedicated fine art studios and specialist workshops. You will expand your art practice through a vibrant mix of studio work, and creative and critical thinking, which will deepen your understanding and refine your skills, to enable you to contribute to the expanding field of contemporary fine art.

Key Features

• Hone your existing talents and discover new ones with your own, dedicated studio space – as well as specialist shared spaces and facilities for textiles, metal and woodworking, plasterwork and ceramics workshops and life drawing classes.
• Connect and collaborate with others from around the world, thanks to our excellent links with overseas art and design institutions and international exchange opportunities in your second year.
• Explore the best way to express yourself – try drawing, video and sound, painting, printmaking, photography, performance and sculpture – to find the medium that’s right for you.
• Discover the possibilities of technology with fully equipped print and photo facilities, computers, audio-visual equipment, sound studio resources and expert technicians to support and guide you in your exploration.
• Enhance your understanding of art and the cultural context of your work with visiting lecturers and field trips to museums and galleries throughout the UK and Europe.
• Seize opportunities to enter local, national and international competitions and awards. Our students have been recognised in the Jerwood Drawing prize, travelled to Amsterdam for the Hans Brinker Trophy and won a contest to design the trophy for the prestigious Abercrombie Award.
• Develop your professional practice and engage with different audiences, through multiple opportunities to test your work, such as internal and external pop-up shows and exhibitions, open studios, and test spaces.
• Get gallery-ready and showcase your final project in a real exhibition space alongside students from our 12 art and design degrees. The Art and Design Degree Show is your chance to introduce friends, family, prospective employers and the general public to your work.

BA (Hons) Creative Media launches you on a journey to make media that shapes, reflects and changes the world we live in. Our industry-facing course develops your creative voice, engages with communities on social issues and provides a practical grounding in professional media practices. Learn from experts skilled in narrative, documentary and artistic media practices – from film, photography and animation to interactive and immersive media, projection mapping and online media production.

Key Features

• Freedom to experiment – you can choose to focus on one medium, develop several or integrate across the range to find your own creative voice. You’ll have the opportunity to develop projects to suit your own creative and career ambitions.
• Open doors to your future career by showcasing your work to the public in exhibitions, and developing a portfolio of work. You can enhance your professional profile further by engaging with our live briefs.
• Advance your technical skills using our outstanding equipment and facilities including a fully equipped cinema, moving image studio with green screen, photographic and sound studios, computer labs, animation rostrums and much more.
• Learn from award-winning tutors from industry, arts practice and academic research.
• Tailor your degree to match your interests and career goals with an option to specialise in television in your final year.
• Benefit from strong links with the industry such as the BBC, ITV and Royal Television Society along with regional arts and community groups, giving you the opportunity to develop and realise creative collaborations beyond the University.
• This course is assessed by coursework only – there are no exams.
• Exchange programmes in Europe and the USA.
• Our alumni support current students with mentoring and career opportunities. Graduate Rachael Lyons, who has been Commercial Digital Producer for the X Factor is currently mentoring one of our stage 3 students on our professional mentoring scheme.
• Connect with current students and alumni in our dedicated Media arts Facebook group.

This programme will empower you to confidently meet the clinical and logistical challenges of working in complex and unpredictable situations; overseas, in low resource settings, on expedition or within your UK practice. Gain the advanced knowledge, skills and leadership qualities to deliver quality care, interact with healthcare professionals in multicultural or resource constrained settings and ensure the best possible health outcomes for your unique patient population, whatever your location.

Key Features

Study the literature of the sea in the Ocean City and explore the Devon settings that have inspired authors like Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. From the graphic novel to transatlantic literature, English at Plymouth will take your love of reading in new directions. Explore texts that have shaped our world as you navigate the challenges of the future. We’ve decolonised our curriculum, giving you free rein to study an eclectic range of literature across cultures and geographies.

Key Features

• Personalise your degree by choosing from a wide variety of optional modules in literary studies and creative writing, or widen your horizons by taking specialist modules in other subjects in the school.
• Learn from internationally recognised research-active staff.
• Receive free set texts for all core modules throughout the three years.
• Benefit from assessment through coursework, with no written exams.
• Make the most of a rich cultural life with The Arts Institute programme and the University’s links with local cultural organisations, like The Box and Theatre Royal.
• We’re very proud of our National Student Survey (NSS) 2020 return – 94% of students agreed staff are good at explaining things, and 94% said that the course is intellectually stimulating.*

Our industry-recognised BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying course will help you develop knowledge and skills in the commercial and financial management of construction projects. Through lectures, tutorials with industry partners, real assessments and projects briefs, and an optional year-long paid industry placement, you will learn the requirements for managing risk and proving value for a variety of clients, taking into account sustainable and ethical dimensions.

Key Features

• Our course is fully accredited by the leading professional bodies: the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE).
• This course is designed around a common first year with BSc (Hons) Building Surveying and BSc (Hons) Construction Project Management, allowing you to transfer to these courses after successful completion of Year 1.
• You will gain valuable experience with an optional, paid year-long placement in a leading surveying company in the UK or abroad. Our industry links will help you find a placement, boosting your studies with practical experience and providing the contacts that can lead to future employment.
• You will be part of a vibrant multidisciplinary learning environment, working with students from other built environment disciplines, including construction project managers, architectural engineers and building surveyors.
• You will have access to a wide range of industry standard facilities, resources and equipment, including, a designated design studio space, specialist laboratories and workshops, Mac and PC suites, a 360 degree immersive vision theatre.
• Each year the quantity surveying knowledge and skills you develop come together in a real-world design and build project with an actual client and project brief. Guided by our panel of industrial advisers, you will develop the professional skills to stand out in the sector.
• Learn from leaders in their fields. Our staff come from both industry and research backgrounds. Industry professionals also play an active role in the course participating in guest lectures, workshops and tutorials.
• Our built environment courses have been running for over 25 years.

Take a fresh look at childhood. Exploring the theory and reality of children’s early years from many points of view, this innovative course will help you find your niche in this competitive sector and graduate with a clear view of where your career is going. Investigate issues through the lenses of sociology, social psychology, history, and philosophy.

Work directly with young children and their families during the Work Based Learning module or choose the option of gaining professional recognition of your practice. Our Work Based Learning Plus module enables you to meet Early Years Educator standards and be counted in the ratios in an early years setting through relevant assessed practice experience.

Key Features

• Explore the relationships between play and learning in your own studies as well as in child development
• Expand your options beyond traditional teaching and open up further career opportunities in education, social care, community work, psychology, management and research.
• See for yourself how theories and policies are applied in practice by visiting a wide range of provision for children and families.
• Learn on the job during the work-based learning placement.  You will gain the practical skills employers are looking for.
• Take a broader view of children’s development by studying the subject in practical, historical and international contexts.
• Develop essential skills through a variety of coursework-based assessments – from essays, surveys and child observations to group presentations and video commentaries.
• Learn from experienced lecturers and tutors who are actively engaged in national and international research projects.
• Make the most of the opportunities presented by being part of a department that has strong links with universities in Europe, Canada, Africa and the USA and through the International Students’ Exchange Programme.