MA Degree Structure and Overview

Value Added

It is also possible to customise your degree even further with the following options:

• EU or North American study & travel opportunities (levels 2 or 3) - see our study abroad pages
• Practical languages (all levels)
• Academic skills module
• Career-based modules

The Globalising World: HU12001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module highlights the connections between political, economic, social and cultural aspects of life in an increasingly "globalised" international environment and explores and evaluates the arguments surrounding the nature and extent of the process of globalization in the contemporary international system. The following key areas will be explored; the cold war world, decolonization, theories of post-colonialism and post-colonialism culture, power in the post-cold war world order, the processes of globalization, the united nations system, European integration, new security challenges and the emerging world economic order.

America: Land of the free? - AM22003
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module will: introduce students to some of the key areas of American history, literature and culture by examining the influence of the concept of "freedom." Consider how the idea of freedom has been central to the development of American politics, society and culture, and explore how its meaning has been challenged and shaped by different groups and events over the course of American history.

Classic Hollywood Cinema - An Excessively Obvious Cinema: EN21003
Semester 1, 20 credits
The aims of this module are: to introduce students to a distinct period of cinematic history (1930-60s) which dominated Hollywood production. To expand students awareness of issues of genre, film history, and the relationship between film and American society. To highlight a cinema of motivated signs and examine the ideological outcome of "verisimilitude", expressionism, and propaganda film-making. To engage with character led plots and psychologically motivated narratives and examine the narrative and cinematic strategies employed in their development to examine the tradition of narrative closure and its impact on the dominant ideology and cinematic aesthetic of the time.

Global Economic Perspectives: EC11002
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module is completely self-contained and aims to provide students with a broad conceptual base. It is an introduction to the ideas that form the basis of analytical economics, which you will encounter in the twin module Foundations of Economic Analysis. The module presumes no previous knowledge or understanding of economics. The module is designed very much with the beginner in mind; however, those of you who may have taken an Economics course at school will find the approach refreshingly new and the coverage wider than you have encountered before.

Foundations of Economic Analysis: EC12003
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module introduces you to the tools needed to analyse how an economy works. It helps you to understand consumer choice, how prices are set, the way firms and markets operate, whether monopoly is efficient, why governments might choose to regulate industry or provide services such as health and education. Issues such as the determination of national income are examined along with policy options available to governments to reduce unemployment and inflation.

Microeconomics: EC21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module covers the micro aspects of the economy by focusing, initially, on the basic theories of consumer and firm behaviour. These provide the basis for the derivation and analysis of market demand and supply in various settings. The module then examines these settings by looking more closely at the market structure, and attempts to highlight: i) the conditions under which markets will or will not produce desirable outcomes; and ii) the role of government in improving the operation of markets.

Macroeconomics & Economic Statistics: EC22002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module shows why money markets are important in the real world, why there is so much disagreement about what appropriate macroeconomic policy is, and how policy works in practice. Economic Statistics introduces you to a selection of statistical procedures commonly used to measure the performance of companies and countries.

Introduction to Literary Study: EN11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
What makes a novel a novel? What is distinctive about poetry? How do you analyse a play in performance? The course explores a diverse range of drama, fiction and poetry in order to suggest answers to these questions.

Early Modern to Early Romantic Literature, 1564 - 1789: EN11006
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module surveys the development of English Literature from the Early Modern period to the end of the Eighteenth century in relation to the ideas of the Enlightenment and the emergence of modern culture, with its concerns about identity, gender, religion, and power. This module will explore Early Modern drama, including texts by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow, John Webster; metaphysical poetry including work by John Donne, Andrew Marvel, John Milton and the rise of the novel form, including work by Daniel Defoe or Samuel Richardson.

Reading the Screen: An Introduction to Film Studies: EN11003
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module will focus on how films are created, concentrating on topics such as mise en scene, editing, auteur theory, genre and the styles of key Directors.

Perspectives and Movements in Cinema: EN12005
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module builds on Reading the Screen by focusing on examples from a number of distinct movements in the history of the cinema, such as Italian Neo-realism, the French New Wave, Japanese cinema of the 1950s, and British Cinema of the 1940s.

Romantic to Victorian Literature, 1789 - 1901: EN22002
Semester 1, 20 credits
The module explores Romantic and Victorian Literature paying particular attention to the way fiction, poetry and drama develops out of earlier traditions and tendencies and how they break from earlier movements. The work of the Romantic poets is read along with a series of nineteenth-century texts which link closely with the themes and moods of the poetry. Some of these texts will bring out the powerful strand of Gothic Romanticism which is the counterweight to the social realism of the Victorian novel. Poets such as John Keats, Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Alfred Tennyson, novelists such as Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and playwrights such as Oscar Wilde will be included.

Modernist to Contemporary Literature, 1901 - Present Day: EN21004
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module examines 20th and 21st century writing, paying particular attention to the way fiction, poetry and drama develops out of earlier traditions and tendencies and how they break from earlier movements. It examines how the forces of modernity - industrialisation, urbanisation, technological changes, war, empire, migration challenges previous ways of structuring and making sense of the world through a range of 20th and 21st century texts including fiction by Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Chinua Achebe, Angela Carter, Richard Matheson, Kirsty Gunn and Ian Rankin, poetry by TS Eliot, WB Yeats, Mina Loy, WH Auden, Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill, Philip Larkin, Carol Ann Duffy and Margaret Atwood, and drama by Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill and Samuel Beckett.

Classic Hollywood Cinema - An Excessively Obvious Cinema: EN21003
Semester 1, 20 credits
The aims of this module are: to introduce students to a distinct period of cinematic history (1930-60s) which dominated Hollywood production. To expand students awareness of issues of genre, film history, and the relationship between film and American society. To highlight a cinema of motivated signs and examine the ideological outcome of "verisimilitude", expressionism, and propaganda film-making. To engage with character led plots and psychologically motivated narratives and examine the narrative and cinematic strategies employed in their development to examine the tradition of narrative closure and its impact on the dominant ideology and cinematic aesthetic of the time.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Street: EN22004
Semester 2, 20 credits
The aim of this module is to provide an introduction to what is arguably the most interesting and important of all film styles - Film Noir. It will analyse the distinct visual style and aesthetics of Film Noir and will explore the cultural climate of repression and paranoia engendered by Cold War politics and its influence on this style of film-making. Of central importance will be the influence of German Expressionism and émigré film makers, and issues of representation, especially of women and stereotypes.

The Physical Environment: EV11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines the geology, geomorphology, hydrology and energy processes that developed and sustain the physical environment on planet Earth, through a series of lectures and workshops.

Environments for Life: EV12002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module examines processes operating within the atmosphere and biosphere and introduces the chemical principles that sustain a habitable environment on planet Earth, through a series of lectures and workshops on environmental chemistry, weather and climate, ecosystems and aquatic science.

Management and Monitoring: EV21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module develops your understanding and practical skills in environmental monitoring and policy through workshops, field classes and lectures in the areas of geoscience, environmental resource management, remote sensing and data analysis.

Mechanisms and Measurements: EV22002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module develops your understanding and practical skills in environmental biology and ecology through workshops, field classes and lectures in the areas of aquatic science, ecology and chemistry.

Sustainable Development and the Environment: TP11003
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module explores the relationship between the concept of sustainable development and the application of policies designed to deliver sustainable outcomes. It considers the interface between sustainability and economic growth, and how this has been interpreted through policy initiatives at international, national and local levels.

Countryside Planning and Management: TP12004
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module introduces the principal institutions concerned with the environment, planning and development in the countryside and some of the major issues and concerns that have a bearing on planning and environmental management.

The Physical Environment: EV11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines the geology, geomorphology, hydrology and energy processes that developed and sustain the physical environment on planet Earth, through a series of lectures and workshops.

Environments for Life: EV12002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module examines processes operating within the atmosphere and biosphere and introduces the chemical principles that sustain a habitable environment on planet Earth, through a series of lectures and workshops on environmental chemistry, weather and climate, ecosystems and aquatic science.

Management in the Built and Natural Environments: TP21009
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines management for environmental (built and natural) professionals and environmental projects.

Introduction to Environmental Law: TP22004
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module introduces students to statutory controls in relation to the environment, and considers the relationship between planning law and environmental regulation.

Management and Monitoring: EV21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module develops your understanding and practical skills in environmental monitoring and policy through workshops, field classes and lectures in the areas of geoscience, environmental resource management, remote sensing and data analysis.

Mechanisms and Measurements: EV22002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module develops your understanding and practical skills in environmental biology and ecology through workshops, field classes and lectures in the areas of aquatic science, ecology and chemistry.

The Globalising World: HU12001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module highlights the connections between political, economic, social and cultural aspects of life in an increasingly "globalised" international environment and explores and evaluates the arguments surrounding the nature and extent of the process of globalization in the contemporary international system. The following key areas will be explored; the cold war world, decolonization, theories of post-colonialism and post-colonialism culture, power in the post-cold war world order, the processes of globalization, the united nations system, European integration, new security challenges and the emerging world economic order.

Contemporary Challenges for Europe: EU21002
Semester 1, 20 credits
The module is divided into four sections with each focusing on a particular issue of importance to the development of Europe: an Introduction to Europe; Economic integration; Social and regional integration; Migration and National Identity.

A World in Crisis? Population and Environment: GE11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines the perceived crises associated with a rapid increase in population and its coincidence with forces resulting in global, regional and local damage to the physical environment.

A World of Plenty? Environment and Development: GE12002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module provides an overview of natural resources at the global level and introduces key concepts about social and economic change in different world regional settings.

Dynamic Human Worlds: GE21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines how space and place interact with social, cultural and economic processes. For example, it considers how different social groups define themselves geographically in terms of racial and class segregation, gated communities and 'gang-land' territories; and it looks at how firms decide where to locate and why some parts of the world are more affluent than others.

Dynamic Physical Worlds: GE22002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module covers key concepts used in geomorphology and hydrology, focusing on rivers, slopes and glaciers and the processes acting to create different landscapes. It also includes a residential field trip to the Scottish Highlands.

Age of Revolution c.1750 to 1850: HY11004
Semester 1, 20 credits
What do we mean by the term 'revolution' and are there differing definitions of what is meant by revolution when applied to events taking place across Europe and North America during the period 1750 to 1850? This module aims to address such questions by examining the political and social impact of revolution in America and France, the causes and consequences of Industrial Revolution in Britain, the revolution in ideas during the Enlightenment, over the period 1750 and 1850, and debates and interpretations about this 'age of revolution'. This module will also promote an awareness of a range of different approaches and sources which are available for the study of the past through a broad comparative survey of different peoples and different states.

Britain in the Twentieth Century: HY12004
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module explores the development of Britain since 1900, including the separation of Ireland in 1922 leading to the creation of the United Kingdom. For post-1945 Britain it also provides an American comparison in the key areas of the cold war and civil rights.

The Rise of Atlantic Empires, 1500-1750
20 credits
This module provides a comparative understanding of the development of European Empires in Africa and the Americas between 1500 and 1750. One of the main aims of the module is to examine the origins of modern 'globalisation'.

Europe in Transition, 1870-1922: HY22004
Semester 2, 20 credits
How did Europe become 'modern'? Globalisation started already in the 19th century with the transition from slow moving agricultural societies to modern, fast-moving, inter-connected, industrial societies with mass-politics and mass-culture, extending from Europe across the globe. This module introduces students to a broad range of aspects that shaped modern European societies, not only in terms of politics and economics, but also social and cultural aspects, including sex, crime and cinema. We will look at a range to different approaches to modem European history: social and political history, economic history, demography, urban development, high art and popular culture and discuss how historians have interpreted the causes behind the transition to 'modernity' and its implications.

Practical French/German/Spanish Intensive 1A: PF11001/PG11001/PS11001
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Basic grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
• Informal letter writing; speaking about oneself and others; asking for information, answering questions, expressing an opinion

Topic areas include family life, education, employment, leisure.

Practical French/German/Spanish 1A: PF11003/PG11003/PS11003
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Reading comprehension, dictionary skills, and précis skills, CV and formal e-mail re employment
• Giving your opinion, expressing preferences, oral presentation skills; telephone skills; job interview skills

Topic areas include education and student life, employment, geography and regional differences.

Practical French/German/Spanish Intensive 1B: PF12002/PG12002/PS12002
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Reading comprehension; dictionary skills; summary skills
• Listening, finding out, and giving instructions; oral presentation; basic telephone skills

Topic areas include health, travel and transport, regional differences, historical personalities and events.

Practical French/German/Spanish 1B: PF12004/PG12004/PS12004
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Listening comprehension, note taking, summary skills and individual written project
• Investigative and interviewing skills, skills of oral presentation and persuasion

Topic areas include environment and tourism, media and publicity, historical events and political structures.

Practical French/German/Spanish Intensive 2A: PF21001/PG21001/PS21001
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Reading comprehension, advanced dictionary skills, and contextualised report writing; formal letter writing
• Giving your opinion, expressing preferences, oral presentation skills; telephone skills; job interview skills

Topic areas include education and student life, business and employment, geography and regional differences.

Practical French/German/Spanish 2A: PF21003/PG21003/PS21003
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Reading comprehension and advanced dictionary skills, formal letter writing and textual synthesis
• Interview skills and analysis of findings, debating skills

Topic areas include education and student life, business and employment, current affairs, contemporary social and cultural issues.

Practical French/German/Spanish Intensive 2B: PF22002/PG22002/PS22002
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Listening comprehension, note taking and contextualised summary, individual written project
• Investigative and interviewing skills and analysis of findings, skills of oral presentation and persuasion

Topic areas include environment and tourism, media and publicity, historical and political events.

Practical French/German/Spanish 2B: PF22004/PG22004/PS22004
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Critical reading/listening and contextualised summary, individual written project
• Organising and conducting opinion poll and evaluating data, advanced oral presentation skills

Topic areas include publicity, tourism, geography and regional differences, historical and political events, current affairs, contemporary social and cultural issues.

Mathematics 1A: MA11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module is made up of a calculus component and an algebra component. The calculus component covers functions and differential calculus while the algebra component covers polynomials, trigonometry, series and conic sections.

Mathematics 1B: MA12001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module is made up of a calculus component and an algebra component. The calculus component covers integral calculus and differential equations. The algebra component covers vectors, matrices and linear equations, complex numbers and 3D geometry.

Mathematics 2A : MA21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
Geometry in three-dimensional space, vectors in three dimensions, linear equations and matrices, differential equations and functions of one variable, differentiation and integration.

Mathematics 2B: MA22001
Semester 2, 20 credits
Independence and bases, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, linear transformations, functions of several variables, multivariable calculus.

Statistics and Discrete Mathematics: MA22003
Semester 1, 20 credits
Data analysis, statistical relationships, probability, binomial and normal distributions, difference equations, roots of a non-linear equation, Markov chains and game theory.

Plato and the Good Life: PI11006
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module introduces philosophy through the works of Plato and by asking the question: what is the good life? This question and Plato's answers to it are among the most enduring themes in the Western tradition of thought. The module will introduce Plato with a variety of philosophical texts focused on the 'good life'. Students will be exposed to a range of philosophical methods and approaches, from Platonic dialogue to recent essays, and will be introduced to key skills in philosophical reading and critical assessment.

Descartes, Thought and Reality: PI11007
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module will study the main concepts and methods of Descartes' Meditations and compare different philosophical conceptions of the relation between thought and reality, and mind and body. Students will develop a critical understanding of Descartes' position in modern western philosophy. The module will expose students to a range of philosophical methods and approaches, from Meditations to philosophical letters and essays, and will build key skills in philosophical reading and critical assessment.

Hume and Recent European Philosophy (problems of the self): PI22002
Semester 1, 20 credits

This module covers two topics: the work of the great Scottish philosopher, David Hume, and the Continental tradition of phenomenology. Hume wrote during the Enlightenment, a period in which the European intellectual climate was characterised by a rejection of dogmatism and superstition, a stress on human nature, faith in science, and optimism in the use of reason as a power by which humans may understand the universe. While Hume fully embraces the first three of these, he aimed to curb over-inflated confidence in the power of reason. We study his arguments critically and in depth. In the second part of this module we enquire into the nature of subjectivity in the phenomenological and existentialist philosophy, of Edmund Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Simone de Beauvoir. Through their radical understanding of perception, embodiment and freedom, we will re-think many of the traditional philosophical approaches to meaning and reality.

Aesthetics and Kant and his Critics: PI21001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module covers two topics concerning values: aesthetics and ethics. In aesthetics, we develop answers to questions such as 'What is art?', 'What is the beautiful?', 'Why is art important?' and 'How do we decide value in art and literature?' A number of major philosophers will be referred to in answering these questions. In the Kant section, we examine the moral philosophy developed by Immanuel Kant, one of the most important thinkers of the European Enlightenment. His ideas about the importance of freely and rationally choosing to follow moral law are at the foundation of modern ethics. We will read Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, and then engage with some of Kant's critics.

Politics and Public Policy: PO11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module looks at UK politics. It has three sections:

• Political and civil institutions in the UK. Who actually governs the UK and how?
• How we choose and influence our leaders and how civil society is maintained (e.g. law and order)
• UK public policy in action

The Globalising World: HU12001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module highlights the connections between political, economic, social and cultural aspects of life in an increasingly "globalised" international environment and explores and evaluates the arguments surrounding the nature and extent of the process of globalization in the contemporary international system. The following key areas will be explored; the cold war world, decolonization, theories of post-colonialism and post-colonialism culture, power in the post-cold war world order, the processes of globalization, the united nations system, European integration, new security challenges and the emerging world economic order.

Introduction to Political Theory: HU12002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module will provide you with a systematic introduction to the most important political ideologies. Through this module you will obtain an excellent grounding in the world views that have dominated politics across the world during the last two centuries. Topics covered include socialism, liberalism, conservatism, feminism, fascism, nationalism, environmentalism and Islamic political ideas.

International Relations: PO21001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module introduces you to the structures and processes which underlie the relationships between states and other actors in the contemporary international system. It looks at:

• The international 'system': what it is and how it has developed
• How the political world 'works' through examining the competing international relations theories
• The processes that keep international relations 'moving': diplomacy, international law, international organisations and conflict

Comparative Politics: PO22002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module provides an introduction to the study of comparative politics. It explores areas such as power, political culture, party systems and political behaviour. It does this through the study of:

• Comparative methodology: how do we compare political systems?
• Two case studies (usually two of Russia, the USA and Spain)

Introductory Psychology 1: PY11001
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Social psychology
  • dealing with the ways in which people influence one another and behave in groups
  • Learning Memory in Animals and Humans
  • Individual Differences with special reference to human personality
• Science and Psychology
  • the influence science has on current thinking

Introductory Psychology 2: PY12002
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Cognition - the process of perception, memory, imagination and language
• Biological Psychology - the dependence of behaviour on the structure and functioning of the brain and nervous system
• Developmental Psychology concerned with the emergence of thought, language and social awareness in infancy and childhood

Neuropsychology and Language: PY21001
Semester 1, 20 credits

• Cognitive Neuropsychology - the study of the effects of focal brain damage on perception, memory and thinking
• Human Performance - especially attention, working memory and action
• Psycholinguistics - including animal language, language acquisition, and language processing

Perception and Development: PY22002
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Perception of the world - introduction to visual perception
• Cognitive Development - the development in infancy and childhood of perception and cognition
• Social Development - the development of social and communicative capacities

Research skills for Psychologists : PY22003
Semester 2, 20 credits

• Critical Thinking - how to find and critique existing psychological research
• Reseach Methodology - will give you a solid grounding in the issues behind psychological research and methodology, including ethics
• Statistical Analysis - you will learn some of the more advanced analyses used in psychological research, how to run them using SPSS, and how to write-up and effectively present the analyses.

Planning for Sustainable Cities: TP11001
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module explores the challenges of creating liable and sustainable cities and considers the role that urban planning can play in achieving this goal.

Design and the Environment: TP12002
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module considers the main principles of design in the built environment. These design principles, such as slope, scale, propotion, form, colour and composition are related to the components of the public realm.

Sustainable Development and the Environment: TP11003
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module explores the relationship between the concept of sustainable development and the application of policies designed to deliver sustainable outcomes. It considers the interface between sustainability and economic growth, and how this has been interpreted through policy initiatives at international, national and local levels.

Countryside Planning and Management: TP12004
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module introduces the principal institutions concerned with the environment, planning and development in the countryside and some of the major issues and concerns that have a bearing on planning and environmental management.

Design and Development - TP21001
Semester 2, 20 credits
This module develops student understanding of the operation of land and property markets, the pricing of land and land resources, investment in property and issues relating to residential, commercial, retail, recreational and cultural markets.

Planning Theory and Practice - TP22002
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module explores the main theories of planning, from the traditional view of planning as an exercise in physical design to more recent ideas of planning as a form of communicative action.

Management in the Built and Natural Environments: TP21009
Semester 1, 20 credits
This module examines management for environmental (built and natural) professionals and environmental projects.