Your overall workload will be divided between teaching sessions and independent learning.
Teaching
You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and industry workshops. Seminars enable you to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups. Industry Workshops, jointly led by an industry expert together with the academic tutor, will give you an opportunity to solve authentic work-related tasks to gain hands-on experience. 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 both academics and professional practitioners with industry experience.
Independent learning
Independent learning plays an important role in your academic development. When not attending lectures or seminars you are expected to learn by self-study. Typically, this will involve reading books and journal articles, working on individual and group projects, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.
You also have an opportunity to tailor your degree by choosing elective modules with a higher level of independent learning, including our Self Managed Learning modules which are available at every level.
You will have an access to a variety of materials to aid you in your learning. At the start of your programme, you will attend a workshop on Good Academic Practice. Moreover, our OLE platform offers an online module focused on improving your study and research skills and academic writing. Finally, the Online library also offers an extensive range of literature on both study skills and academic writing.
For further details, go to our Learning Resources page. Students with additional needs or disabilities are supported by the Student Services team.
Overall workload
The academic year consists of three terms: Autumn, Spring and Summer. Students attend classes during the Autumn and Spring term, for a total of 30 weeks, and will normally not attend during the Summer term, unless they have to re-attempt assessments. Students on the two year accelerated programme attend classes during the summer term.* See term dates.
During one term, you will typically be attending four modules of 15 credits each. A taught 15 credit module consists of approximately 10 hours of Lecture content, 15 hours of Seminar content and industry days. On top of this, you will be expected to spend around 100 hours on independent learning as a preparation for the module.
If you choose independent learning electives (such as Self-Managed Learning), you will usually attend one hour supervision per week. This means, that per week, your overall workload will be approximately 40 hours, typically, you will spend 4 hours in Lectures, 10 hours in Seminars and 26 hours on independent learning in each.
Moreover, you will attend four industry workshops per term.