United Kingdom - England

In his course, students examine the current scientific view of the origin of the Earth, the universe, matter, and life, as well as the evidence upon which these views are based. The course also covers the development of these views in different cultures and areas of uncertainty. Through team-based and independent research students learn to explain the status and results of scientific research into origins questions, and to critically evaluate the scientific evidence for these conclusions. They also consider where results and conclusions are uncertain, and where our knowledge is currently limited, as well as research an unfamiliar topic, communicating the results of this research to a non-specialist audience. 

This course provides an understanding of the principles of sustainable development and, in particular, an introduction to the role of science and technology in contributing to key sustainable development challenges. Students explore the origins of the concept of sustainable development and the core ideas that underpin it. The course also examines the ways in which sustainable development is interpreted by different interest groups, along with the assumptions made, and the contradictions that arise. These ideas are illustrated through a series of contemporary case studies, which highlight efforts to address sustainable development challenges from the local to international, and examine the role of science and technology within these contexts. 

The course focuses on the fundamental principles of effective manipulation and visualization of data. It covers the key steps of a data analytics pipeline, starting with formulation of a data science problem, going through manipulation and visualization of data, and, finally, creating actionable insights. The topics covered include methods for data cleaning and transformation, manipulation of data using tabular data structures, relational database models, structured query languages (e.g. SQL), processing of various human-readable data formats (e.g. JSON and XML), data visualization methods for explanatory data analysis, using various statistical plots such as histograms and boxplots, data visualization plots for time series data, multivariate data, and graph data visualization methods.

The course considers how "things" enter into and mediate everyday social relations and practices. Students consider all aspects of the social life of things, from design and production through use, consumption, and everyday practices. This allows them to address a range of long-standing theoretical and political concerns within sociology such as the role of objects and materiality in social life; social organizations of objects and exchange, such as consumer culture; design, technology, and innovation; and the socio-political status of "everyday life" itself. At the same time, there is a strong methodological emphasis: not just how do we study objects in everyday life, but how might such studies impact on social research more generally.

This course focuses on three German-language thinkers of global influence: Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. Students encounter some of the main ideas of each thinker, including the understanding of history as class struggle (Marx), the philosophy of language and the death of God (Nietzsche), and the idea of the unconscious (Freud). Further thinkers working in these traditions (for example: Rosa Luxemburg, Sarah Kofman, Herbert Marcuse, Melanie Klein, Erich Fromm) may also be considered. German studies students study the German-language texts in the original language.

The course explores the concept and principles of marketing. It reflects upon the factors that affect markets, demand and supply, the range of stakeholders associated with any given market, the function that marketing fulfills for organizations, customers, consumers and society more broadly, and the key principles and practice of marketing. In this way, it provides an introduction to essential concepts associated with marketing and consumption, while also highlighting interconnections between marketing and other fields of study.

This course explores how economic theory can help us to design and evaluate public policy. The main focus of the course is to study basic notions, models, and results of public economics. Primary attention is given to the expenditure side of the economy, especially to externalities, public goods, social choice, and local public goods. The course takes examples from environmental and tax policy as well as the analysis of projects and inequality. Students take a modern microeconomics approach to tackle inefficiency problems in public economics.

This course focuses on the role of the government in the economy. It provides an understanding of the reasons for government intervention in the economy, analyzing the benefits of possible government policies, and the response of economic agents to the government's actions. The course covers social insurance and tax policy, and related issues, such as inequality and budget deficits.

This course introduces students to the study of how states make foreign policy decisions. It considers the social, material, institutional, and political contexts for decision-making, and how individual leaders' cognitive and psychological traits influence the choices they make. It thus forms a bridge between the study of leadership, domestic politics, and international relations.

The course provides an investigation of the relationship between organizations and their stakeholder groups, and the social accountability and responsibilities that a corporation holds towards different stakeholders. The course introduces students to concepts of corporate governance, socially responsible investment, and ethical issues relevant to contemporary business.