Learning and assessment
How you will learn
You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars workshops and lab demonstrations. Seminars enable you to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups of around 6-8 students. Workshop sessions are highly interactive, student-led sessions designed to promote active engagement, develop practical skills, enhance critical thinking, and bridge theory with real-world application. Lab demonstrations are generally arranged in research methods modules for you to gain data analysis experience using industry-standard analytical software for your course. In addition, you have one to one meetings with your personal tutor and project supervisor.
Independent Learning
When not attending lectures, seminars, workshops or other timetabled sessions such as lab demonstrations, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities, including the library, Moodle, and other academic support provided in the university.
Academic support
Our Academic Support Team provides help in the following areas:
Study skills (including reading, note-taking and presentation skills)
Written English (including punctuation and grammatical accuracy)
Academic writing (including how to reference)
Research skills (in conjunction with the library)
Critical thinking and understanding arguments
Revision, assessment and examination skills (including time management).
Our Disability Support Service works to create an inclusive and equitable teaching and learning environment to the benefit of all students. They provide help to students with a disability, mental health difficulty, long term medial condition, autistic spectrum condition, or a specific learning difference such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or ADHD.
Teaching staff
You will be taught by an experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience, demonstrators and technical officers. Postgraduate research students who have undertaken teacher training may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader. Our teaching is informed by the research and consultancy we undertake.
How you will be assessed
Your work will be assessed during or at the end of each module through a variety of means including:
Exams
Essays
Individual or group presentations
Research project
To complete a module and gain its credits you'll need to make sure you attend your timetabled sessions and get over the 50% pass mark.
To achieve the MSc, you'll need a total of 180 credits.
To achieve the PGDip, you'll need a total of 120 credits.
Contact time and study hours
We encourage our students to think of the course like they would a full-time job and spend around 37 hours on it per week including teaching time. Part-time students should consider it similar to a part-time job.
You are expected to work roughly 10 hours for each credit on the course including teaching and independent study, so a 20-credit module should take around 200 hours to complete or around a total of 25 eight-hour days.
Full-time
If you choose the full-time route, you'll study over two semesters and a summer period totalling around 12 months.
Teaching is usually delivered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the semesters. term time. You'll have an average of eight to 12 contact hours each week.You typically have around 12 contact hours per week, consisting of:
6 – 8 hours of lectures
4-6 hours of seminars, workshops and lab demonstrations. On average, you will have 1 hour per fortnight of one-to-one meetings with your personal tutor or project supervisor. However, the time and days of teaching might vary slightly will depending on the timetabling of room availability. modules.
Generally, you’ll need to be on campus for around 10 to 12 hours per week for teaching. We always try to allow one day of a week of no teaching. Non-teaching days are intended for private study and research.
Part-time
If you choose the part-time route, you'll learn the same course content over a period of 24 or 36 months.
Teaching is usually delivered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the semesters. Part-time students will typically attend teaching one to two days a week or about four to eight hours per week. If you choose to study over three years, you'll have less.
We try wherever possible to be flexible to help you manage your timetable.
You're expected to devote around two and a half to three days per week to the course including attending teaching, private study, and research.