Undergraduate study
Mathematics 2019/20
Our trophy cabinet The awards we’ve won don’t just make us feel proud. They give you an idea of what the University is like.
Teaching Excellence Framework Gold Award Huddersfield is a TEF gold-rated institution delivering consistently outstanding teaching and learning of the highest quality found in the UK (Teaching Excellence Framework, 2017).
Global Teaching Excellence Award We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award. It recognised the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers (HEA, 2017).
University of the Year The Times Higher Education named us as University of the Year in November 2013. They liked our “bold, imaginative and innovative initiatives.”
Queen’s Anniversary Prize The Queen’s Anniversary Prize is a big thing in UK Higher Education. We were delighted to earn one for our role in expanding global boundaries of new music.
A Four Star University QS Stars has given us four stars. That means we are “highly international, demonstrating excellence in both teaching and research with an excellent environment for students and staff.”
Athena Swan We’re serious about gender equality. We want an equal number of men and women on our science and engineering courses, for instance. Our commitment was recognised in 2015 with the Athena SWAN Bronze Award.
Find out more about our awards at hud.ac.uk/about/our-awards
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What’s inside Study with us
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Placements
7 Meet us
Our course
Apply to us
10 Open Days
Professor Fionn Murtagh
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Professor William Lee
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Welcome to Mathematics The study of mathematics – and perhaps more importantly – the opportunity to enjoy and practice problem-solving, is a great start to a rewarding career. Emerging technologies within society are creating massive demand for graduates who can make sense of complexity. Businesses know that real value lies within their own organisations; it is the Mathematician that can help reveal that value and demonstrate positive impact. Our focus on advanced problem-solving skills will keep you current with the needs of industry.
You’ll be working alongside our expert staff who will inspire and support you to learn from their research and industrial experience. Add to this a great working environment and the option to gain industrial experience from within your degree through a placement year, means that you’ll have ample opportunities to develop yourself into a future business leader, scientist, engineer, technologist, marketeer, teacher, the list goes on!
Richard Hill Head of Department
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If you have a thirst for problem solving, industry is crying out for creative mathematicians who can apply their knowledge in innovative ways. Our course gives you the balance of the academic and the practical experience you need to succeed in a wide variety of industries.
Study with us I love meeting our students and the diversity of them, seeing them grow, helping them through the process. Having experienced studying at all different points in my life – direct from school, studying whilst having children, studying as a single mum and as a mature student, I feel I can really empathise with our students. Ann Smith, Senior Lecturer
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Check this out! Future Focussed
£25,000
An innovative mix of technical, creative and analytical skills.
Average Mathematics undergraduate, professional starting salary (HESA 2015)
A degree in Mathematics opens the door to a wide range of interesting and exciting careers. Mathematicians’ ability to reason logically, to develop quantitative models and to extract information from data means their skillset is valued everywhere. Mathematicians are needed in the aerospace, social media, pharmaceutical, finance and electronics industries - to name just a few of the sectors eager to employ mathematically qualified graduates. Maths doesn’t just pave the way for stimulating and varied careers, it’s big business too, contributing over £200 billion to the UK annually*. It’s no wonder Maths is one of the top 5 best paying degrees for graduate incomes after 5 years**.
The Huddersfield BSc in Mathematics offers the perfect balance of the core skills needed for developing mathematical models, for extracting meaning from data and for programming those methods in industry standard mathematical software. There are also modules aimed at developing teamwork, problem solving and communication skills to give you the breadth of skills needed to succeed in industry. While often all you will need is a pen, some paper and your imagination, sometimes you will need access to the latest mathematical and statistical software and a high end computer to run it on. The University will provide you with access to all these as well as the support and guidance you need to get the most from your experience with us.
* Deloitte (2012) Measuring the Economic Benefits of Mathematical Science Research in the UK ** The UK Institute for Fiscal Studies
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Mathematics BSc(Hons)
Key information: UCAS code: C372 see courses.hud.ac.uk Duration: 3 years full-time, 4 years inc. placement year Entry requirements: BBB at A Level including Mathematics 120 UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications including Mathematics DDD in BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering or DDD in Science/Technology plus Mathematics A-level Additional criteria: GCSE English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above, or grade C or above if awarded under the previous GCSE grading scheme. GCSE Maths at grade 5 or above, or grade B or above if awarded under the previous GCSE grading scheme.
The Huddersfield BSc focuses on the mathematics you’ll need to solve real world problems using mathematical modelling, statistics and computing. We look at calculus from the basics and underlying theory all the way through to the partial differential equations used to model flowing water and financial instruments. Statistics is covered from basic probability to the frontiers of Big Data. We also include a healthy dose of numerical computing so you are able to use mathematical software and write programs making use of the techniques you’ve learned.
As well as the technical skills needed, we also offer modules where you work in groups to solve real world problems. This allows you to develop experience in project management and teamwork skills. More importantly it introduces you to the creative side of mathematics, developing new models and new techniques and explaining what you’ve done to a non-technical audience. After your second year you’ll have the opportunity to take a placement year, putting into practice the techniques you’ve learnt. Our dedicated Placement Unit have links with companies in the UK, Europe and beyond.
100%
Placement
The UK’s only University where all the permanent teaching staff are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy*
We encourage all our students to undertake a placement year in industry with support from our dedicated Placement Unit.
* Permanent staff, after probation; some recently appointed colleagues will only obtain recognition in the months after their arrival in Huddersfield, once they have started teaching.
For detailed course and employability information, including full entry requirements, please visit courses.hud.ac.uk
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Placements Our Placement Unit gives the support you need to help you find a placement in industry. They’ll link you with placement opportunities, help with your CV and mock interviews with you. The School of Computing and Engineering has a dedicated Placement Unit and each year we place up to 200 students in companies such as Microsoft, Nestle, Cummins and BMW, as well as a number of smaller local and regional businesses.
Our specialised database, ePlacement will give you access to hundreds of placement opportunities, many of which are advertised only through the University of Huddersfield as a result of our longstanding relationships with companies. Some of our students even return from their placement year with sponsorship and the offer of a permanent job from their host company, and this is reflected in the University’s excellent graduate employability record. 94.5% of our undergraduate students go on to work and/or further study within six months of graduating (Destinations of Leavers Survey 2014/15).
All of our full-time undergraduate courses offer the option of a placement and our experienced team of staff will help you find a placement in an industry that suits you.
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Meet our staff From the European Space Agency to the University of Huddersfield
Professor Fionn Murtagh Mathematics and Data Science, Department of Informatics “When I was younger I was influenced by inspirational school teachers and lecturers, which has in turn driven my passion for teaching. It is extremely rewarding seeing students draw the benefits from the classes I teach and seeing their innovative perspectives in their projects and work. “Growing up I had a passion for physics, mathematics and computer science. I did my undergraduate degrees in Engineering Science and Mathematics before working as a Programmer-Statistician in an educational research centre. Before my PhD, I did an MSc by research in Information Retrieval, in Computer Science. Coincidentally, an important part of my research was the work of Karen Spärck Jones from Huddersfield, who our building is now named after!
An important event we run is the Industrial Mathematics Hackathon. Companies come and discuss their problems in the domains of Data Science, Big Data analytics, and lots of other related issues, and we work to provide solutions. “I enjoy the varied opportunities Mathematics brings. I’ve worked in educational research, in nuclear reactor safety in Italy and served with the European Space agency, working at the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Munich, on the Hubble Space Telescope project. “The biggest achievements in my career have been the books I’ve written and also the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Astrostatistics Award’ from the International Astrostatistics Association, in part for my contributions to the success of the Hubble Space Telescope.”
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Meet our staff
Using mathematics to solve industrial problems
Professor William Lee Industrial Mathematics, Department of Informatics “I’ve always been fascinated by numbers, patterns and understanding how things work which has led to my study of Mathematics and, in particular, Industrial Mathematics. This involves working with industry to use existing mathematics and develop new mathematics to address the challenges they are currently facing. I was first introduced to this approach to Mathematics when I joined the University of Limerick which had just received funding to set up an Industrial Mathematics group. It was there that drinks company Diageo approached me to investigate bubbles in a pint of Guinness. My research here even earned me The Economist Babbage Award for Bizarre Boffinry!
There are two places you can look for new mathematical ideas; one is just digging deeper into existing mathematics and the other is to go out and look for new phenomena, and industry is full of those. “Here at Huddersfield I’m helping set up a new Institute for Mathematics and Data Science. I’ve been really impressed by the students here and in particular those participating in the Enterprise Design Showcase. I had a chance to wander round as a judge, meet the teams and ask them about their work. I was amazed by what they had achieved in so short a time. “As with many academics I love the “aha” moment when a student gets a concept. I also enjoy it when students are learning a new mathematical technique and ask me what they will ever use it for: that’s a great excuse to talk about some of the work I’ve done with industry and explain how differential equations can be used to model coffee brewing, or how integrals can be used to describe the molding of contact lenses.”
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We hope you’ve found all the information you need to inspire you to become a student here at Huddersfield. Now all you need to do is apply.
Apply to us UCAS If this is your first (undergraduate) degree and you want to study a full-time course, then you’ll apply via UCAS at ucas.com If you’re at a college or school right now, it’s probably already registered with UCAS. The best thing to do is ask your teacher or careers adviser to help with your application. Once you’ve applied we’ll keep in touch with you throughout the application process, so you’re up to speed with what’s going on.
When to apply If you want to start your course in September 2019, you can apply to UCAS any time from 1 September 2018 onwards. Please make sure UCAS receives your application by 15 January 2019. Course codes The UCAS website gives you codes for all courses but you’ll also find these on our website at courses.hud.ac.uk. Make sure you enter the right code on your application form. The institution code for Huddersfield is HUDDS H60.
Contact us Got a question? Get in touch with us. Tel. +44 (0)1484 473116 Email. compeng@hud.ac.uk @HudCompEng HuddersfieldUniversityComputing andEngineering
Important Information This brochure is provided for information only and will not form part of your student contract. For full, up to date details on our courses, including when and how that information may change, visit our website at www.courses.hud.ac.uk
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Open Days Everything starts now
2018
Saturday 30 June Saturday 22 September Saturday 20 October Wednesday 7 November Friday 30 November
Book a place hud.ac.uk/open-days 11
University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield West Yorkshire HD1 3DH UK Tel. +44 (0)1484 422288 Email. askhud@hud.ac.uk www.hud.ac.uk
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