Program Overview
This unique perspective prepares students to become leaders in tackling global challenges and pursuing careers in various fields, including research, education, policymaking, and journalism. Through hands-on experiences and opportunities for research involvement, students develop critical thinking skills and a deep understanding of the human condition.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
This course is about understanding ourselves as humans. It also addresses the responsibility that comes with being human. The programme follows an exciting interdisciplinary structure that combines topics including genetics, sociology, psychology, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, neuroscience and anthropology. This is coupled with understanding the past and ongoing impact of the human race and the human condition on ecosystems and the planet. The programme combines core elements in years one and two but also allows you, and importantly supports you, to follow individual pathways informed by your interests and what fascinates you. Complete University Guide 2024. Ranked in the top 20 for Biosciences in the UK. Innovative interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Human Sciences is an innovative programme that draws on teaching and research expertise from the four Schools that make up the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. As such the course brings a unique and rich interdisciplinary viewpoint to bear on the topics that you will study. The Schools that collectively deliver this course use very different research approaches reflecting their different disciplines. This programme will provide you with a unique insight to these different approaches, but also what fundamentally unites them and how they can be brought together to address major local and global challenges. You will spend time in individual research groups and laboratories across these different disciplines as well as learning about research exploring large scale multi-million-pound infrastructures. Outstanding employability opportunities. The needs for global action are changing the graduate employment market in real time. New roles are arising in companies from new start-ups to global corporations as well as in agencies (such as WHO, UNICEF, UN), in NGOs, forestry, agriculture, governments, law, education, research, journalism, and broadcasting. This programme has been designed in response to these growing employment needs and will equip you to be able to become one of the next generation of leaders, innovators, policy makers, teachers, and researchers at forefront of tackling global challenges. Opportunity for training in innovation and company start up. Perhaps you may feel that during your studies you have identified a gap in the market and have an idea for a start-up company of your own. An option in the final year is to take modules in learning entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial start-up. Glacial Eco-systems Field trip. An optional second-year module is a field trip to Norway to study glacial ecosystems and how these are threatened by human global impacts.
Outline:
Year 1
Compulsory modules
Introduction to Human Sciences at Birmingham - Introduction to the Human Sciences Programme at the University of Birmingham and the associated research, teaching and learning environment strengths within the college of Life and Environmental Sciences. Global Environmental Issues A - Assess the difficulties in distinguishing human impacts from natural environmental changes, and examines a number of specific environmental issues . Global Environmental Issues B - Assess the difficulties in distinguishing human impacts from natural environmental changes, and examines a number of specific environmental issues . Personal and Academic Development in Human Sciences - A key element of this module will be that all students will read a popular science book selected by the students during semester one. Sport, Exercise and Health Psychology - This module will explore the individual and social environmental factors that underlie participation and performance in physical activity contexts. Cognitive Psychology - Comprehensive coverage of key areas of cognitive psychology, with a focus on perception, attention, memory and language. Cities in Transition - This module introduces students to some of the key processes of socio-economic change shaping the fortunes of cities in Britain, Europe and North America. Genetics I - Covers molecular genetics (the study of the physico-chemical nature of genes and how they work) and transmission genetics (the study of how genes and the characters they determine are shuffled into new combinations and passed from individual to individual).
Year 2
Compulsory modules
Exploring Experimental Environments - Spend one or two days with a research group from each of the four schools in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences and explores how leading experimental research facilities at the University are helping advance our knowledge and understanding of human impacts on the environment.
Optional modules
Cultural and Development Geographies - Focus will be on concepts and practices of development geography and cultural and historical geographies of the city. Environmental Pollution and Management - This module will introduce the main environmental pollutants and consider how they are transferred within and between various media and how they interact with biota to constitute an environmental risk. Evolution of Humans and Other Animals - Practicals to give you experience of handling and interpreting fossil material, particularly Mesozoic reptiles and great apes, including early hominins. Language and Communication - Examine how language and communication develops through the lifespan, how it is supported by the brain, and what happens when we acquire a different form of communication (e.g. when learning a second language). Introduction to Social and Differential Psychology - You will be introduced to some of the key theories and contemporary research in the field of differential psychology. Alpine and Glacial Ecology in Norway - This module is a field course based in Finse, Norway. Six days are spent in the field observing habitats typical of the Low alpine region Environmental Human Geography - This module provides a foundation in environmental human geography. Urban Policy Design and Planning Analysis - Four key issues are explored: evaluating policy contexts, designing policy/planning processes, analysing and evaluating policy outcomes, and surveying different policy/planning instruments. Cell and Developmental Biology - Development of multicellular organisms will be analysed from the regulation of stem cell function to the differentiation of organs. Human Structure and Function - Having completed this challenging and diverse module, you will have a broad appreciation of the structure of the human body, and how this relates to its function and evolutionary origin. Social and Cognitive Development - You will be introduced to the study of social and cognitive development, through an exploration of theory and research that examines how the self and relationships develop from infancy through to adolescence.
Final year
During your final year you will undertake an independent research project (40 credits), a literature-based project leading to a novel research project proposal (40 credits), or a combination of a literature based project focused on interdisciplinarity together with two entrepreneurial modules (60 credits). You will then choose from a diverse spectrum of optional modules to make up your 120 final year credits. Students enrolled on the BSc programmes undertake either: (i) Practical project (40 credits) or (ii) A literature-based project leading to a novel research project proposal (40 credits), or (iii) The entrepreneurial skills and start up module (60 credits in total that includes a literature based research project) Geographies of Childhood and Education - The module will draw on contemporary research projects, literature and academic and policy debates about the socio-spatial lives of children and the educational spaces in which they spend much of their lives. Geographies of the Global South - Mid- to low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America/the Caribbean make up two-thirds of the world's population. These are countries that are diverse, dynamic and above all, fascinating! Exercise as Medicine - This module examines how exercise can be used to enhance psychological and physiological health in different (clinical) populations. Brain Health Across the Lifespan - Learn about, Age-related changes in cognition, Structural and functional brain changes, Influences of lifestyle factors and interventions and Pathological ageing and age-related diseases. Higher Cognitive Functions in Children, Adults and Non-human Animals - You will explore studies examining three topics (time, causality and theory of mind) in three different participant groups (children, adults, and non-human animals). Cellular Neurobiology - This module examines current views/models of neuronal function, intercommunication and neural development, based upon recent anatomical, genetic, molecular and advanced physiological techniques. Conservation Practice: Genes to Ecosystems - The course examines the scientific basis for conservation, its genetic foundation, why population size is critical and how biodiversity is maintained either in nature or at a backup location. Climate change in the Earth System - This module will introduce the key aspects of this system, building an appreciation of the uncertainties and complexities in the projections of global climate and climate impacts Sport and Mental Health - The aim of this module is to examine how the culture and pressures of competitive sport contributes to poor mental health and the specific risk factors faced by elite athletes, coaches, and sport officials. Metabolic Perspectives in Exercise and Nutrition - This module will present current, cutting edge research to offer students the opportunity to explore metabolic perspectives in exercise and nutrition Adolescence: Mind and brain - Recently, research has shown evidence that during adolescence, there are also changes in cognitive abilities (e.g. social cognition), and in their basis in the brain. Potentially, this research has implications for understanding phenomena such as the onset of mental illness during adolescence and early adulthood. Politics of Environment - This module examines the political challenges surrounding environmental policy in contemporary developed and developing societies, alongside the theoretical and practical tools and skills used in their resolution.
Teaching:
On this course research and teaching go hand-in-hand. The Lecturers and Professors contribute to scholarship in their fields and, as academic teachers, are keen to introduce you to what intrigues them Blended Learning- Some of the course content will be delivered as recorded ‘lectures’ broken down into informative sections. You can revisit and review parts of these session as needed and they will remain available at the end of each semester to aid revision. This material will be complemented with time tabled weekly face to face session with the staff teaching the content. Often this will take the form of a 'flipped' class, asking you to study a particular topic prior to a session, and using the contact time to explore the topic in more depth through problem solving exercises, question-and-answer sessions or lecturer-led group discussions. Student interaction using discussion boards, social media is expressively encouraged. Practical classes - Laboratory-based practical work is an integral part of our degree. A typical practical session will last 3 hours, allowing you to complete the work at your own pace. In addition to gaining important transferable skills, experience of practical work is essential if you wish to move into a research career and is valued by a wide range of employers. You will engage with academic and postgraduate researchers who will help you during these practical sessions. Other types of learning experience. The course also includes seminar and workshop style learning and teaching sessions. You will have opportunities to spend time getting up close to the research performed across the College of Life and environmental Sciences both in individual research labs but also substantial research facilities.
Careers:
Outstanding employability opportunities. The needs for global action are changing the graduate employment market in real time. New roles are arising in companies from new start-ups to global corporations as well as in agencies (such as WHO, UNICEF, UN), in NGOs, forestry, agriculture, governments, law, education, research, journalism, and broadcasting. This programme has been designed in response to these growing employment needs and will equip you to be able to become one of the next generation of leaders, innovators, policy makers, teachers, and researchers at forefront of tackling global challenges.
Other:
Studying Human Sciences at Birmingham will provide a unique understanding of complex global problems and their relationship to the human condition. You will be empowered to view these problems in a new way unrestrained by traditional interdisciplinary boundaries bringing a ‘can do attitude’ to the tackling of large scale global and local challenges.
Standard Home student fees 2024-25 - £9,250 Standard international student fees 2024-25 - £27,180 You can pay your tuition fees either in full or in instalments. If you choose to pay in instalments, you will need to pay a deposit of £2,000 by the start of the academic year (1st September). The remaining balance of your fees will then be due in equal monthly instalments over the remaining months of the academic year.