United Kingdom - England

The course introduces the broad field of Health Technology Assessment (HTA). HTA is a collection of methodologies used to make evidenced-based assessment of the value added by new technologies to inform policy and decision making. The course introduces the full life-cycle of a new medical technology from the perspective of a device inventor and a government regulator, including safety regulations. It covers methodologies including systematic reviewing, decision theory, evidence synthesis, health economics, and the overall methodology used for HTA in practice.

This course explores how people engage in political activism to challenge structures of domination and oppression, and to bring about social and political change. It explores key debates about political activism and social change in contemporary societies, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g. sociology, political science, cultural studies, oral history) and different case studies (e.g. public housing, environment activism, gender and LGBTQ activism, anti-racist movements, black power movements, workplace and labor activism, student activism). 

The course provides an in-depth approach for exploring current concepts, ideas, and problems in selected topics in mammalian (including human) reproductive physiology. It develops the student's interest in, and critical appraisal of, current research in reproductive biology.

Drawing on a historical, institutionalist, and policy perspective the course examines comparatively changes in the political and economic domains in relation to Spain, Greece, and Portugal in the process of EU integration in their post-dictatorship period and beyond. The course traces processes of economic restructuring as crisis management strategies adopted in the 1980s to deal with the political and economic crisis of the 1970s. Drawing on these institutional legacies, the consolidation of the Eurozone in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the unravelling of the North Atlantic financial crisis in 2008, the course seeks to understand the unfolding of the financial crisis in Southern European Countries, the adopted political and policy solutions, and the ensuing political crises. 

This course introduces students to the key principles of genetics including Mendelian genetics, inheritance of genes, gene interaction, sex determination, polyploidy, casus and effects of mutations, gene cloning, prokaryote and eukaryote gene expression, recombination and its use in gene mapping, bacterial genetics, population and evolutionary genetics, basic molecular biology techniques including plasmid construction, PCR and DNA sequencing, and research applications of genetics. Students develop skills through data handling and problem solving, and through laboratory-based practical work.

Exploring advanced theories used to understand financial markets in the context of corporate borrowing and lending, students discuss financing frictions that differentiate the functioning of perfect and imperfect capital markets. They then build on these theories to understand security design and the process of security issuance in equity markets. By applying the course material students evaluate corporate risk management and hedging, understand the role of corporate control, and the interaction of control rights and cash flow rights.

This course provides a largely non-technical introduction to the basic concepts and methods used by economists to understand and explain the features of the world economy today. Students explore globalization of trade and finance; the emergence of global value chains and the rise of China and India; and the winners and losers of globalization within rich and developing economies.

The field of international relations and political science has given little attention to organized crime and corruption, which has become a focus of interest within these disciplines only recently. From an international relations perspective, it is worth investigating how organized crime is embedded in a larger political context, how politics interconnects with criminality on national and international level and how globalization affects internationalization of crime and corruption. The course covers definitional and conceptual issues related with organized crime, corruption, and terrorism; the impact of globalization on the internationalization of organized crime; the nexus and interaction between crime, corruption, and terrorism; variations in crime-terror nexus across different parts of the world; the anti-crime and anti-terrorism policies, and other issues.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues have attracted enormous attention from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders. This course introduces the concept of sustainability reporting and responsible investing. It evaluates the potential benefits of firms disclosing ESG information, as well as significant challenges to be overcome, including the risk of greenwashing. Students learn about existing and emerging ESG regulations and frameworks for ESG performance metrics. The course also explores how key capital market participants, such as asset managers, analysts, and banks, could incorporate ESG information into their investment decisions.