Master of Arts in Public Policy

at University of Warwick United Kingdom

This degree, which is accredited by the British Psychological Society, draws on Warwick’s research strengths and agendas across the Department of Psychology and Education Studies. The issues of learning and teaching are key in both disciplines, making them a natural academic combination.

If you are interested in a career working with children, young people, schools and families, the course will give you an understanding of education, development, and behavior from a psychological perspective.

Study abroad

In an interconnected world, employers greatly value an international perspective. Studying abroad provides you with a first-hand opportunity to explore how culture influences psychological processes and develop a range of valuable skills that give you a competitive advantage in the graduate market.

Our Department is part of the University’s large global network of exchange partners, with long-standing agreements with prestigious universities around the world. A particularly popular Warwick option is with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, acknowledged as one of the world’s top universities.

Our students have previously undertaken study abroad opportunities in Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and the USA. Typically, when students choose to study abroad, they apply in their second year for the third year of study at a partner institution. Students then return to Warwick for their final year.

Your first year lays the foundations, including study of either Latin or Ancient Greek, while your second and third years offer an enormous choice of modules across all three departments.

Two of your core modules – Problems in Philosophy and Literature, and Textual Studies – are taught jointly across departments, giving you the opportunity to combine these interests directly.

If you wish to expand your experience beyond your study at Warwick, we can support you to apply for an intercalated year abroad or on a work placement. This extends the duration of your degree to four years, with your third year spent abroad or on placement, and will be reflected in your degree qualification (i.e. BA Philosophy, Literature and Classics with Intercalated Year).

The MSc in Biomedical Engineering delivers advanced modules informed by the active research expertise and industrial links of our academic staff.

The course prepares students for careers in advanced biomedical engineering. This includes biomedical engineering research institutions, medical device manufacturing, agencies for health technology assessment and medical device regulatory affairs, and clearly hospitals, where biomedical engineers oversee medical device clinical trials, purchasing and maintenance as responsible for clinical engineering services.

The Warwick Biomedical Engineering MSc spans the whole School of Engineering incorporating predictive modelling, medical device design, health technology assessment, signal processing, electronics, communication, software, hardware, systems thinking and machine intelligence.

Warwick has a unique systems approach to research and teaching and so modules are developed across disciplines in parallel to our research. This approach culminates in a group design project in which you will design a medical device. This, in the past two years included, a defibrillator, a pulmonary ventilator, an ECGph and wearable devices for SpO2 monitoring. Beyond that, you will be assigned an in-depth individual project which will allow you to work closely with an academic on state-of-the art biomedical engineering research and innovation, often linked with industry.

This degree allows you to develop an in-depth knowledge of the language and culture of the Hispanic world while also exploring theatre and performance studies through both practice and theory.

You benefit from the full range of expertise on offer in both departments, including cultural and historical modules in the School of Modern Languages, and specialisms in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies including theatre in the African context, contemporary European theatre, applied theatre and playwriting.

There will normally be the opportunity to study abroad in your second or third year of study, immersing yourself in Hispanic culture, in Spain, the Caribbean, or South America.

Study abroad

We strongly recommend that you take a year abroad as part of your modern languages degree, if you are able to. If you are unable to take a year abroad you will move to a three-year. You will be required to complete further language reinforcement work. You will also be encouraged to spend time abroad in other ways, during vacation times.

You will usually spend your year abroad doing one of three things:

• Working as a language assistant teaching English in a primary or secondary school
• Studying full-time at a partner university in your chosen country
• On a work placement

On this unique degree we will encourage you to think independently as you work with experts from across the University. You will create critical responses to both problems in the contemporary world and problems in different times and places. This course is ideal for students interested in taking charge of their own learning and becoming leaders in and outside of the classroom.

The core modules on this course are led by tutors with a passion for liberal education. Using a Problem-Based Learning approach, these modules focus on investigating issues from different disciplinary perspectives. You will learn how to analyse problems and you will investigate and evaluate evidence and interpretations. We will also encourage you to develop your own responses. The core modules will help you to build a toolkit of primary and secondary research skills. They will also prepare you to engage with confidence in different modules across the University.

At the end of the first year, you will choose a pathway. Your pathway allows you to select modules that give you the knowledge, skills, and expertise to be a leader in your area of interest. We will work with you to guide and support your decision about which pathway to follow. We understand that your interests will develop over time, so there is scope to adapt your pathway.

We believe that the skills you develop during your degree are as important as the course content. You will have the opportunity to complete co-curricular certificates and work placements. These will help you develop your professional skills, giving you the edge when it comes to your employability. You will also have the support of our dedicated Employability and Placement Manager, who will provide one-to-one careers guidance.

If you want to broaden your perspective by studying overseas, we can support you to apply for a year's study abroad. You will also have the option to complete a year-long work placement. Students are automatically enrolled on the three-year course. You will have the option to change to a four-year course with an intercalated year in the third year. The intercalated year spent studying abroad or on work placement is subject to departmental academic requirements.

Political Theory, Comparative Politics and the study of Political Systems provide the core of this degree, then you can choose options across the full range of modules or focus on specific pathways.

You will tackle questions relating to the nature and distribution of power, the advantages and disadvantages of different political systems, gendered and racialized aspects of politics, and the role of ideology in determining political outcomes. You will critique how politics works in a number of different nations and question the appropriate level to analyze politics from the individual to the global system.

You will also consider how the work of political theorists can help explain the ways in which politicians intervene in questions of economy, law-making, conflict and the regulation of our daily lives. You will apply these ideas to everyday political problems such as immigration, poverty, war and climate change.

This programme draws on our long-established strengths in Continental Philosophy. It is distinctive in offering an unusually broad range of module options specifically in this area of philosophy. Modules cover 19th and 20th century Continental Philosophy, major figures and themes, as well as more specialised or less mainstream topics drawing on individual research strengths.

Because of the breadth of our expertise in this area, whichever module options you choose, you will be taught by world leaders in their respective fields.

If you see yourself as a research mathematician of the future, this course may appeal to you. For enthusiastic mathematicians, it is a chance to further develop your knowledge if you already have an undergraduate mathematics, physics or statistics degree. If your academic background is not in these areas, this course could still appeal if you are a strong mathematician looking for a return to formal education. Your studies will include a mix of lecture based modules and independent research.  

In your final year, you will be able to explore a chosen subject in depth and present your findings in a written dissertation.

Skills from this degree

• Conducting independent research on a challenging problem
• Gathering and organising data to make a case
• Preparing and delivering a technical presentation
• Scientific communication
• Technical precision
• Organising, absorbing and consolidating information and techniques
• Applying knowledge in the solution of complex problems

This MSc will help you to build your subject knowledge of Chemistry while also enhancing your ability to communicate science, with a focus on writing for scientific publications or communication in the media.

You will gain a Master’s level education in technical chemistry modules and develop key research skills by completing a project in one of our world-class research groups, using state-of-the-art synthesis and equipment.

By the end of the course, you will possess advanced chemical knowledge and also the ability to effectively communicate often complex scientific concepts to others, preparing you for a career in research, scientific writing, science education or science communication.

Designed to bring out the beauty and universality of physics, our flexible Physics course provides broad and in-depth teaching that is informed by our research.

Core modules introduce and develop the fundamental concepts, such as those of quantum theory and electromagnetism, and cover the mathematics used in physics. Optional modules provide opportunities to see how the basic concepts can explain the phenomena we observe.

For the final year project, you will work as a member of one of the research groups on a year-long project to explore aspects that are not yet fully understood. We encourage you to apply for summer placements and projects, which enable you to complete a small research project supervised by a member of academic staff.

The four-year integrated Masters's course is ideal if you intend to make direct use of your knowledge of physics after you graduate. The fourth-year includes modules on all the main areas of physics. It will encourage you to reflect more on some of the unsolved problems in physics, with the final two years offering modules in key areas of physics, including specialist modules.

Study abroad

We support student mobility through study abroad programs. BSc students have the opportunity to apply for an intercalated year abroad at one of our partner universities.