University College London

This course serves as an introduction to core concepts in Global Health. Through a multidisciplinary approach students learn about the way in which the health of the individual is shaped by socio-political forces. Each week students evaluate a major cause of ill health in developed and developing countries and the role of key actors that influence health. Topics covered include access and availability of healthcare, inequality, poverty, ethics, aid, and the key actors in global health.

This course develops and encourages inclusive, cross-disciplinary debate surrounding the physical and human dimensions that characterize the relationship between people and resources. Students develop (1) an understanding of the human and physical characteristics that shape the relationships between people and resources; (2) analytical skills to assess these relationships; and (3) an awareness of the importance of a geographical approach to the study of the relationship between people and their resources.

One of the first forms of mass media, the power of the periodical was tremendous. It shaped readerships, politics, morality, and some of our best-loved works of fiction. With a focus on literary magazines, this course allows students to engage with literature in its original published form and to work with original artefacts. In the first week, students are given the intellectual and practical tools needed to handle and interpret physical and digitized periodicals through a series of seminars and workshops. Students then have two weeks of seminars, workshops, and excursions based around Victorian and Modernist periodicals, discovering familiar names in new contexts.

The course develops students' understanding of key building physics principals and the role they play in achieving satisfactory indoor environmental conditions. The course equips students with detailed knowledge of, and the ability to apply, the main scientific principles of heat and mass transfer, light and sound in the building engineering context. Students consider what is meant by indoor environmental quality and explore how the design of the building envelope and building systems can influence the internal environment and building energy use.

This course focuses on two main aspects: the study of external and internal environment and foundational concepts and tools to inform and support the formulation and implementation of strategic decisions. The course exposes students to fundamental and advanced issues in competitive business environments and enables them to analyze opportunities and challenges from the point of view of business analysts and practicing general managers. The students learn about theory-based models and how to apply them for the analysis of real business scenarios; how to choose among established strategies in different scenarios; and how to critically evaluate key trends in the strategic management field. The course covers topics such as industry analysis, resources and capabilities, business model innovation, and scenario planning.

The course provides students with a thorough grounding in the archaeology of the countries where Islam was the dominant religion between 900-1400 (including Western, Central, and Southern Asia, North Africa, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of southern Europe), introduces students to the most important current research questions and main interpretative paradigms in Islamic archaeology, including the impact of multiple conquests (e.g. Crusades, Mongol Conquest), epidemic disease (e.g. Black Death) and climatic pressures on medieval societies, as well as key themes such as state formation, urbanism, technological innovation, global exchange. Students also consider the nature and interpretation of different sources (archaeological, visual, textual) in approaching the late Islamic world and develop critical faculties in the written evaluation of current research (problems, method and theory, quality of evidence).

The course provides a foundation in the economics of regulation, both in relation to theory and in the development of government policy. Regulation economics involves looking at why we regulate some firms and not others and considering how to design effective regulatory constraints when needed. This course combines the economic theory of regulation with examples from Great Britain of how regulatory frameworks work in practice. It identifies the objectives of regulation and consider how a regulator might reach these with perfect information, and analyzes implications of ownership. It also discusses regulatory options when there is asymmetric information. The course critically assesses two core models of price regulation – rate of return, and price caps (RPI-X). It examines how regulators have developed price caps over time to encourage cost efficiency, innovation, investment and output delivery.