University of Birmingham

Birmingham Business School's portfolio of postgraduate taught and research degrees have been designed to provide both academic excellence and vocational relevance, ensuring that the skills and experiences you take away with you are valued by employers.

Links with industry are strong; in-company dissertations can be produced, company seminars and presentations are arranged, and we work closely with employers who are looking to recruit high quality graduates.

We strongly believe that business has an international dimension and as such we recruit students from around the world. You'll benefit from working and interacting with students from over 35 countries, and by studying with academics who have conducted research with universities and companies from across the globe.

Your studies are a stepping-stone to an influential career. Whether you're looking to work in industry, for a public organisation or charity, or progress further with your academic studies, our Careers in Business service will support you.

Birmingham Law School has a long tradition of producing cutting-edge research that has real-world impact and informs the challenging and exciting learning environment our students experience. As a community of world-leading scholars, teachers and students,
Birmingham Law School continues to make an important contribution to our understanding, teaching, and practice of law. In 2016 it was named as one of the world’s Top 100 law schools in the QS World Rankings.

We provide an expansive range of programmes, for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies and employ a range of approaches in our teaching and our research, from the theoretical and doctrinal to the empirical and applied. Our research is recognised on a global stage, and our academics are frequent participants in legal debates and contribute to the policy-making process.

We provide students with more than just a degree, and enable them to develop the skills required to enhance their employability. Our Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER) presents our students with opportunities to increase their knowledge of law in action through Pro Bono and Mooting as well as the 50+ legal specific career events CEPLER organises annually. CEPLERs work is one of the many things that have led to Birmingham being recognised as the University of the Year for Graduate Employability in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016.

As one of the top biosciences departments in the UK, our research covers the entire spectrum of cutting-edge biosciences. We are home to the Institute of Microbiology and Infection and part of the University’s Systems Science for Health initiative.

Our research focuses on a number of important themes that run through modern biological and biochemical research: Biosystems and Environmental Change; Microbiology and Infection; Molecules, Cells, Signalling and Health; and Plant Science.

Our postgraduate students join a diverse international community of staff and students. For students on research degrees, the annual Biosciences Graduate Research Symposium, organised by PhD students, is an example of an event where the whole School comes together to talk about science.

We have extensive high-technology facilities in areas such as functional genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, including a world-class Advanced Mass Spectrometry Facility. Our cutting-edge facilities extend to protein structure determination and analysis, confocal microscopy, drug discovery, horticulture, structural biology and optical imaging. The £8 million Phenome Centre Birmingham is a large metabolic phenotyping facility led by internationally recognised metabolomics and clinical experts at the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with Birmingham Health Partners.

Birmingham has one of the largest concentrations of Chemical Engineering expertise in the UK, with an excellent reputation in learning, teaching and research.

Investment totalling over £3.5 million in our buildings has resulted in some of the best teaching, computing and laboratory facilities anywhere in the UK.

We have achieved an excellent performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. 87% of the research in the School was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. It was ranked joint fourth overall in the UK for its research prowess and first nationally for research impact.

The enthusiasm that the academic staff have for their research comes through in their teaching and ensures that they and you are at the cutting edge of chemical engineering.

The School of Chemistry is committed to tackling current and future scientific challenges, and our current research priorities, facilities and infrastructure put us in a strong position to achieve this. We currently have over 100 postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows carrying out research across a broad range of chemical disciplines.

We are one of the leading centres of research and teaching in chemistry in the UK. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities, with enthusiastic and dedicated staff and students, the school is looking forward to continuing our proud tradition of excellence long into the future.

The standing of the research conducted in the School of Chemistry has been recognised in the 2008 HEFCE Research Assessment Exercise where 60% of our research activity was rated "internationally excellent" or "world leading". The School is one of the best-equipped in the United Kingdom and the University and Research Councils have made very significant investments in the research infrastructure. In fact over the last five years, the school has seen an investment of more than £2 million in Research and Teaching infrastructure and the creation of 15 new staff posts. Following these investments, the School is in position to play a leading role in research well into the future.

We pride ourselves on our able and enthusiastic research students, and we are constantly seeking to add to our research teams new students who wish to contribute to the advances being made here. We offer a stimulating research environment with structured research training in almost every branch of civil engineering.

This enables our graduates to obtain interesting and rewarding careers, whether in industrial practice, industrial research or academia. Our RAE rating acknowledges our excellence in research.

As a result of our strong research base we are able to offer high quality, research-led postgraduate taught programmes, which include an element of research training, commonly via integration into the research teams, as well as comprehensive teaching in the specialist area.

Our strong research base enables us to offer eight taught programmes leading to the awards of MSc, Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate. These programmes may be studied on either a full- or part-time basis. Some modules of the programmes may be studied for continuing professional development.

The School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham offers a range of MSc (Master of Science) degrees in Computer Science. Our MSc courses cover a variety of specialisations and are suitable for students with diverse academic backgrounds (such as a BSc in Computer Science or a Bachelor's degree in a different subject).

Students are encouraged to apply for the Masters course that best matches their interests and their previous academic qualifications. The exact entry requirements for the MSc programmes differ. The minimal requirement is a Second-class Bachelor's degree or its international equivalent, but for some programmes at least an Upper Second (2.1) is required. Our admissions procedures are flexible, and our admissions tutors may make an offer in the degree programme best suited to applicants if they are not admitted on their first choice.

All the Masters courses take one year of full-time study. Teaching consists of two semesters of lectures and practical exercises. Over the summer, our MSc students work on an individual project and dissertation. Each student project is individually supervised by an academic with relevant expertise.

The School of Education has a long-standing reputation as a centre of excellence for teaching and research in a wide range of areas of educational practice and policy. It is an international leader in education with a history of top rated research. In the 2016 QS World Rankings, it was ranked 28th in the World and joint 7th in Europe/UK.

The School employs over 100 academic staff who teach more than 2,500 students. It is home to a number of departments and research centres with a history of top rated research and is an international leader in education.

School of Education ranking:
- Ranked 6th in the Guardian University League Tables 2017
- Ranked 10th in the 2017 Complete University Guide
- In Top 3 for HEI provision in the Good Teacher Training Guide
- Ranked 28th in the World in the 2016 QS World Rankings
- Ranked 9th overall for Research in the 2014 REF (with more than 82% of research rated as ‘internationally excellent’ (3*) or ‘world leading’ (4*).
- Rated 'outstanding' in latest Ofsted inspection (2013) for its Teacher Training programmes
- Ranked third for Education in The Times Good University Guide 2017

It is possible to contact members of staff at the School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering through Skype. This will only be available when the relevant person is in their office. To avoid disappointment it is therefore best to email in advance in order to arrange a good time to call.

Skype contacts for M.Sc. inquiries related to the School of EECE:

M.Sc. Director
David Pycock
E: D.Pycock@bham.ac.uk
Skype ID: UofBEECEMScDirector

Postgraduate Office
Mrs M.M. Winkles and Mrs S.O. McCauley
E: M.M.Winkles@bham.ac.uk or S.O.McCauley@bham.ac.uk
Skype ID: UofBEECEPGOffice

M.Sc. Admissions
Dr Xiao-Ping Zhang
E: X.P.Zhang@bham.ac.uk
Skype ID: UofBEECEMSCAdmiss

"Welcome to the School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies, in the College of Arts and Law. This is one of the largest Schools in the College, and variety is our watchword. We offer one of the most extensive ranges of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the country. Our research expertise is equally diverse, and we welcome students and researchers from all over the world." - Professor Andrzej Gasiorek, Head of School

We particularly encourage creative thinking, with a range of pioneering programmes including Masters opportunities in Creative Writing, Film and Television and Shakespeare and Creativity. Our creative offerings are also strengthened by the development of our Department of Film and Creative Writing – established in 2015 – which has opened up exciting new opportunities for postgraduates to benefit from synergies between the two fields.

Our well-established Departments also provide an excellent environment for postgraduate study. The Department of Drama and Theatre Arts has a highly respected national and international reputation for excellence in teaching and research. We are also one of the leading centres for the postgraduate study of English in the UK, spanning language and literature. The Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics is a world-leading centre of excellence for both teaching and research in this field.

We are also proud to be home to the world-renowned Shakespeare Institute, based in Stratford-upon-Avon. Situated within walking distance of Shakespeare’s birthplace, school and grave, and the theatres of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the Shakespeare Institute offers postgraduate students and scholars an academic experience unrivalled by any other university.
16/09 Iulia Mirzac - name change. from ‘School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies’ to School of English, Drama and Creative Studies

The School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences achieves international excellence in teaching and research, building on the foundations of our subjects at Birmingham – geology in 1881 and geography in 1924. We welcome students and staff to a supportive interdisciplinary community of some 60 academic staff, 28 technical and support staff and 24 research staff.

Our interdisciplinary research spans three major themes - economy, society and development; earth and environmental systems; environmental health and risk management. Staff have active links with other Schools on campus and with research organisations worldwide. We support the University's Centre for Environmental Research and Training (CERT), which provides a particular focus for interdisciplinary environmental research.

We have a thriving postgraduate community, with around 90 research students and more than 150 following our acclaimed taught postgraduate programmes.

Our undergraduate teaching programmes reflect our research expertise, enabling students to benefit from the immediacy and excitement of hearing from staff actively involved in innovative, leading-edge research and in a collegial and stimulating environment. Our teaching has been ranked ‘excellent’ in the HEFCE quality review. Our graduates are successful and highly sought after by employers.

The School is located in the centre of the campus close to the University train station, a 10-minute journey to the heart of the City. Staff, students and visitors benefit from extensive map and archive facilities, an environmental library, fully digital drawing office, environmental chemistry, sedimentology, ecology, groundwater and palaeobiology laboratories all with state-of-the-art equipment, and specialist computer facilities. We are home to the nationally important Lapworth Museum of Geology.

Our success reflects the ability, energy and enthusiasm of everyone in the School.

The School of Government and Society is one of the leading UK and International centres for governance, politics, international development, sociology, public management, Russian and European studies.
Established in 2008, the School comprises three Departments: Politics and International Studies (POLSIS); International Development (IDD) and Local Government Studies (INLOGOV).

POLSIS: The Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS), one of the largest and most academically vibrant departments of Political Science and International Studies in the UK. In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) Politics and International Studies at Birmingham was ranked the 6th best in the power rankings highlighting the large number of staff in POLSIS producing world-leading and internationally excellent research.

IDD: Be part of global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Contribute to conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. Help build capacity of nations and communities to adapt to climate change. Study with us to gain the skills and knowledge essential for working in international development in the 21st Century.

INLOGOV: The Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) is the leading academic centre for research and teaching on local governance and strategic public management. We enrich the world of local public service with research evidence and innovative ideas, making a positive difference.

The programmes in the School of History and Cultures offer students enquiry based learning within a rich and diverse environment to stimulate debate and challenge conventional thinking.

The programmes derive from departments which are all excellently rated by the QAA both in teaching and research terms (Medieval History 5, Modern History 5 and African Studies 5*). Our staff publish widely, and we are developing and consolidating a strong, supportive research culture in the School.

We are extremely proud to announce in June 2016, that History at Birmingham was ranked the top research department in the country by the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The national REF exercise assessed research publications and the public impact of research carried out in all universities in the UK between 2008-2014. Our department had an impressive 45% of its research judged to be ‘world-leading’.

A key part of the School is the study of modern languages, including Arabic, French, German, Spanish and other Hispanic languages, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian. We are also home to one of the UK’s largest groups of internationally renowned researchers in the national cultures of Europe - past and present.

The School incorporates the Department of History of Art, which is located in the renowned Barber Institute of Fine Arts. This houses the Barber Institute gallery - an excellent and representative collection of post-medieval European art that is a valuable and convenient teaching resource for all members to use on a regular basis.

The School also includes the Department of Music, one of the largest music departments in the country, with a history stretching back to 1905. Its research community includes internationally recognised scholars, composers and performers.

The department is situated in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, with its concert hall used for teaching, rehearsal and performance.

The School of Mathematics is one of seven schools in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. The school is situated in the Watson Building on the main Edgbaston campus of the University of Birmingham. There are about 50 academic staff, 15 research staff, 10 support staff, 60 postgraduate students and 600 undergraduate students.

At the School of Mathematics we take the personal development and careers planning of our students very seriously. Jointly with the University of Birmingham's Careers Network we have developed a structured programme to support maths students with their career planning from when they arrive to when they graduate and beyond.

We in Mechanical Engineering at Birmingham pride ourselves in our research, 85% of which is world leading or internationally excellent. Our expertise is in applying engineering science to problems that are important to industry and society.

Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham produces graduates who are creative, highly numerate and skilled at solving problems and delivering results.

This is possible only as a result of our first-rate staff and our on-going focus on excellence in engineering research and technology. From nanotechnology to vehicle and aero-technology, our research scales the full range of engineering disciplines to support manufacturing industry world-wide.

The Department of Metallurgy and Materials (together with the IRC in Materials Processing) is the largest centre for mateials research in the UK. Our Research School comprises more than 20 full-time academic staff in addition to 30 honorary and visiting staff, 30 research fellows and approximately 150 postgraduate students.

Our diverse research portfolio ranges from fundamental aspects of materials science to practical high performance engineering applications. Our research activities are centred on various groups, which cover the following themes:

- Alloy Chemistry
- Casting, Solidification and Welding
- Ceramics
- Corrosion and Oxidation
- Fatigue and Fracture
- Ferrous Metallurgy
- High Temperature Superconductivity
- Magnetic Materials
- Microstructural Studies
- Polymers
- Sports Materials
- Surface Engineering and Heat Treatment

The School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion offers a variety of forward-thinking postgraduate study opportunities and is home to a dynamic and friendly community of staff and students, pursuing original research on a wide range of topics.

The School is made up of the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Theology and Religion, both of which were ranked second among other departments in the country in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework exercise.
The Departments are closely linked, providing opportunities for interdisciplinary study, but have also developed links more widely, in order to explore synergies with other disciplines.

The Department of Philosophy has links with the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, the International Development Department, the Birmingham Business School, the School of Psychology and the Birmingham Law School. In addition, the Department includes the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, which was founded in 2001 to address the practical and theoretical issues raised by globalisation. Global Ethics has natural affinities with Political Science and International Studies, as well as the Institute of Applied Social Studies.

The Department of Theology and Religion has extensive formal and informal links with a wide range of academic and religious institutions across five continents. It has also built up excellent relationships and partnerships with Birmingham’s many different faith communities; this offers an ideal context to study religion in its contemporary as well as its ancient cultural contexts. These relationships, coupled with our large international community of postgraduates, means you will be studying in a diverse, yet well-connected environment.

We are one of the largest physics departments in the country with a high profile for research both in the UK and internationally, covering a wide range of topics offering exciting challenges at the leading edge of physics and astronomy. Our student satisfaction rating of 96% in 2016 demonstrates the quality of our teaching.

The School of Physics and Astronomy’s performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the system for assessing the quality of research in the UK higher education institutions, has highlighted that 90% of research outputs in the School were rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Our research portfolio is wide-ranging, and covers three principal themes: Particle and Nuclear Physics; Quantum Matter and Nanoscale Science; and Astronomy and Experimental Gravity. We have over 120 academic and research staff together with 120 graduate students with around 50 technical and clerical support staff. Our annual research income is over £8 million and more than 250 research publications are produced each year.

The School of Psychology has become one of the largest and most active Psychology departments in Britain, with an excellent reputation for teaching and research. We gained 23 out of 24 in the QAA Quality Assessment Review of teaching and a grade of 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. Over £2.5 million of research grants and contracts are currently held.

The School's student population consists of about 450 undergraduates on our BSc single honours course; there are about 250 postgraduates who are engaged in professional training on courses in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, in research toward a PhD in Psychology. We have about 46 teaching staff, whose research and teaching interests cover all areas of contemporary psychology, and about 28 research staff supported by outside grants.

The School has a democratic but efficiently organised management structure which allows student participation in decision making. We try to provide all our students with a friendly and supportive social environment for their work as well as a high quality education.

The School is housed in two adjacent buildings at the centre of the campus: Frankland and Hills. Both buildings have been completely modernised to meet our particular needs and house purpose-designed research laboratories. The Hills building contains laboratories specially equipped for work in the cognition of vision, speech, action, neuropsychology, and rehabilitation. Further specialist research laboratories are located in the Frankland building: psychophysiology, psychophysics, visual perception, food and nutritional psychology, physiological psychology, psychopharmacology, social psychology and child development. We also have several rooms with closed-circuit television suitable for research. Specialist equipment includes: two 128-channel EEG/ERP laboratories, 2 laboratories for trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), 5 eye trackers for measuring eye movements, robotic systems for motor control, 4 sets of motion analysis system. The School is also a major partner in the recently opened Birmingham University Imaging Centre (BUIC), which houses a research-based 3T fMRI scanner, along with additional specialist equipment for EEG/ eye and hand tracking, and TMS.

Excellent research opportunities are also provided by our links with local hospitals and clinics, local schools and nurseries, other University departments, industrial companies and departments of local and national government, both in this country and overseas. There are facilities for Erasmus exchanges with the Universities of Leuven (Belgium), Nijmegen (Netherlands), Copenhagen, Paris and Padova (Italy).

Besides the School’s own equipment and laboratories, many facilities in outside organisations can be used. There are also strong links with departments in our own and in other Divisions covering the arts, social, engineering and medical disciplines. Common interests include: functional brain imaging, psycholinguistics, cognitive science, cognitive neuropsychology, developmental psychology, forensic psychology, clinical psychology, consumer psychology, social psychology, the relations of behaviour to genetics, the actions of foods, hormones and drugs, sensory perception and behavioural neuroscience.

There are international research centres in the Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre (for work in cognitive neuroscience), the Centre for Family and Forensic Psychology (for work in family psychology and forensic psychology), and the Cerebra Centre for Neuro-Genetic Disorders (for research into genetically-based cognitive and behaviour disorders).

The mission of the School of Social Policy is to ‘understand the world – but also to change it’. This means doing high quality and relevant research, but using this as a starting point for making a practical difference in the real world (through our teaching, through professional training and CPD for managers and practitioners, through policy advice and work in front-line services, through raising public and media awareness and through working directly alongside local people and communities).

In turning this mission into practice, we are proud of our many achievements, including running the UK's oldest social work training programme (dating back to 1908, our multiple award-winning NHS Management Training Scheme, the relationships we have with local partners in the public and voluntary sectors, and our leading role in the largest senior leadership development programmes in the history of the health service.

More than three quarters of our research is rated as 'world leading' or 'internationally excellent' in terms of its rigour, significance and originality, and we have extensive international links with like-minded partners at Harvard, Melbourne, Peking, Vancouver, Seoul and beyond.

We are one of the top-rated sport science departments in the UK. Our School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences is one of the longest established in Europe for scientific research into sport, exercise, health and rehabilitation.

We are proud to be at the forefront of the rapid development of this academic discipline. Our school has achieved an outstanding performance in the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF 2014) with 90 percent of its research classified as world leading or internationally excellent, putting us in the top three for research in the sector. These results provide further compelling evidence of the long recognised research strength of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

Thanks to a £16.4 million investment, Birmingham boasts the largest custom built Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences facility in the UK.

This includes teaching and research laboratories for physiology, biochemistry, psychophysiology, biomechanics, sport psychology, motor skills, immunology, muscle mechanics and the neurophysiology of movement.