Mathematics and Statistics with Management BSc

About the Course

Mathematics is a fundamental subject that is constantly developing. Yes – it is a discipline in its own right, but it is also the thinking behind countless commercial, industrial and technological activities. Mathematical models underpin engineering, the applied sciences, computing and many aspects of management today. As a Mathematics student you will develop an outlook and high level study skills that will be hugely valuable whatever career path you follow after graduation.

Mathematics and Statistics with Management offers a broad understanding of general management and will also teach you high level skills and knowledge in Mathematics and Statistics, focusing in particular on how maths can be used to solve industrial and commercial problems. Mathematics makes up between two-thirds and three-quarters of the course.

Mathematical Sciences at Brunel

Maths at Brunel means you will be working with staff internationally recognised for their state-of-the-art subject knowledge. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), nearly 60% of our research in the department was rated ‘World Leading’ or ‘Internationally Excellent’. Within London, the Department of Mathematical Sciences was ranked in the top.

Because Mathematical Sciences has links with many other subject areas, we offer a wide choice of exciting courses, each with a different emphasis. These courses include modules in pure and applied Mathematics, operational research, computer science, finance, information technology and management studies. This structure means that most individual subject modules are not unique to any particular degree.

We are also very active at postgraduate level offering Mathematics MSc courses and research opportunities in many areas. External grants and contracts with industry and government establishments support much of our research – keeping us right at the ‘cutting edge’ and actively in contact with modern uses of Mathematics. The result is that our undergraduate courses are truly up-to-date. For example, you may undertake your major final year project in one of our research areas.

 

Aims

This course equips you with the skills and techniques you need to develop mathematical and statistical knowledge, as well as a sound grounding in key business and management issues. You will also learn how you can apply Mathematics and statistics to solve industrial and commercial problems.

Enquiries

Dr D Roman
Admissions Tutor

Department of Mathematical Sciences
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 3PH

Tel +44 (0)1895 265180
Fax +44 (0)1895 269732
Email maths.admissions@brunel.ac.uk

Related Courses

• Financial Mathematics BSc
• Financial Mathematics MMath

Special Features

• Academic staff with international reputation
  Learn from the best. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), nearly 60% of Mathematical Sciences research was rated ‘World Leading’ or ‘Internationally Excellent’. Within London the Department of Mathematical Sciences was ranked in the top three. The Business School boasts six well-focused research groups, all with international profiles, which address six main themes: Organisation and employment studies; Marketing; Entrepreneurship, International business and innovation in emerging markets; Management information systems; Accounting and auditing; Operations and supply chain management.
  
  
• Excellent career prospects Past graduates have gone on to work for Accenture, Rank Xerox, IBM, Kodak, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of New York, Nortel, British Aerospace, Merrill Lynch, Abbey, Lloyds, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Touche, Coca Cola, Ernst and Young, Virgin Trains, Accenture, HSBC, BT, Deutsche Bank and the BBC among many others
  
  
• Optional placement year with top UK companies
  You do not have to decide which study mode (with or without placement) until after you have joined us. You can transfer both to and from the sandwich programme during the first year – sometimes even later. Our placement team has developed strong connections with industry. Our students have taken placements within top UK companies such as BUPA, Debenhams, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, IBM, Thomson Reuters, Unilever, Virgin Trains and Walt Disney.
  
  
• Create a programme to suit your interests
  Wide topic choice means you can shape your degree programme to match your own personal interests and strengths.
  
  
• Funding for your learning
  Apply for scholarships worth £1000 per year (excluding placement year)
  
  
• Help to bridge the school-university gap
  It is a step up. So we have carefully designed Level 1 modules to make the transition to University level study as manageable as possible.
  
  
• Excellent links with business
  Our staff are involved in research programmes that are informed by modern problems in science, technology and business – often working in collaboration with companies. This means:
  - Degrees designed to meet the needs of industry and the marketplace
  - Latest commercial world developments included in your course
  - Greater choice of high quality, professional placements.
  
  
• A vibrant, friendly, safe campus in a great location in West London
  All the advantages of affordable living costs, an international community, world-class sports and social facilities and a thriving arts and social scene.

More about Management Studies

You will cover the management component of this degree through Brunel Business School which hosts three world-renowned research centres working in Emotion Work, Enterprise, Sustainability and Ethics, and Organisation and System Design.

The Business School offers:

• Emphasis on 'employable knowledge' that is highly up-to-date
  We prepare you for the needs of the future working world, not just the present. Fast-track routes to professional qualifications – such as our Accountancy and Marketing pathways – are professionally accredited and offer exemption from professional entry exams.

Wide choice of specialist areas
Including marketing, small business management; human resource management; organisational change; technology and business; copyright and property rights; business computing; accounting; entrepreneurialism; gender; the culture and leisure industries; business ethics and management thinking and learning. Students benefit especially from University-wide expertise in eCommerce and multimedia.

Find out more about Brunel Business School.

Facts and Figures

School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics

Mathematical Sciences has links with many other subject areas. We offer a wide choice of courses which have different emphases ranging across pure and applied mathematics, operational research, computer science, finance, information technology and management studies. The modular structure of the courses means that most of our individual subject modules are not unique to any particular degree.

We are also very active at postgraduate level and offer MSc courses and research opportunities in many areas of mathematics. Much of our research is supported by external grants and contracts with industry and government establishments and this keeps us at the frontiers of the subject and in active contact with modern uses of mathematics. This in turn helps to ensure that our undergraduate courses are truly up-to-date. You may even undertake your major final year project in one of our research areas.

Can't decide which Mathematics degree to study?
Don't worry. All of our mathematics degrees have a common core component in the first year, during which you will study a broad range of mathematics topics. Based on this experience, during Level 1 you will have the opportunity to reevaluate your original degree choice and, if you desire, switch to a related mathematics course.

Brunel Business School

Business and Management offers a range of single honours undergraduate programmes, Master's courses and the prestigious MBA programme.

Our courses will give you several advantages. Firstly, our degrees will equip you with the conceptual and analytical means for understanding business and management that will enable you to progress with the future needs of the working world, not simply to cope with its present preoccupations. Secondly, you will learn about the world of business and management and develop the skills to get a good job when you graduate. Thirdly, you will enhance your ability to communicate your ideas and to take responsibility for your learning. All these skills will be essential once you enter the world of employment.

Our range of degree programmes offers you the opportunity to specialise in a variety of areas. At Level 2, you will be able to specialise in Accounting, Computing or Marketing, or remain on the general management pathway. We also contribute to a number of courses elsewhere in the University.

If you opt for a sandwich course, you will have the added bonus of putting your academic study into practice and developing ideas about future careers.

Our staff are at the forefront of their subjects both through research activity - and our research interests are reflected in some of the specialist modules offered as options - and via close links with the business community.

Course Content

This course enables you to study a substantial amount of Mathematics coupled with selected topics from the field of management. Mathematics accounts for between two-thirds and three-quarters of the course with the same wide-ranging approach as the straight Mathematics course. However, we place greater emphasis on statistics and operational research as these areas are especially relevant to management theory.

The remainder of the course consists of selected management topics in areas such as accountancy, finance and organisational studies – all taught at Brunel Business School. If you would prefer a greater proportion of management, you might think about a Mathematical and Management Studies BSc.

Typical Modules

Level 1 Core

• Linear Algebra
• Calculus and Numerical Methods
• Discrete Mathematics, Probability and Statistics
• Organisational Behaviour and Analysis
  

Level 1 Options

• Principles and Practice of Marketing
• Introduction to Accounting
  

Level 2 Core

• Communication Skills and Operational Research
• Statistics
• Critical Perspectives in Management

Level 2 Options

• Analysis
• Linear and Numerical Methods
• Algebra and Discrete Mathematics Analysis
• Human Resources Management and its International Dimension
• Development in the Global Environment
• Principles and Practice of Marketing
• Introduction to Accounting
• Management Accounting
• Managing Change and Creativity in Organisations

Level 3

• Major Project (core – see below for more)
• Stochastic Models and Mathematical Finance
• Encryption and Data Compression
• Statistics
• Numerical and Variational Methods for PDEs
• Risk and Optimisation in Finance
• Differential and Integral Equations
• Corporate Finance
• Corporate Investment
• Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management
• Gender in Organisations
• Strategic Management
• Managing Change and Creativity in Organisations
• Strategic Financial Management
• Ethics, Governance and Sustainability
• Innovation and Knowledge Management

Final year project

This is a very valuable feature of the Mathematics and Statistics with Management BSc course – a substantial piece of individual, course-related work personally supervised by a staff member. Projects are often connected to staff research areas and may also be in response to industry demands. Work on the project accounts for about one-third of your final year study load.  

Choose either a mathematical project supervised by a member of staff from Mathematics or a management project supervised by a member of staff from Brunel Business School. Explore in-depth a topic of particular interest to you or work on a practical problem – the choice is yours.

Although students who undertake a work placement year can choose to focus their final year project on their work experience, they may also select from the projects offered each year by the Mathematics staff. During 2010-2011 over 150 project titles were available to final year Mathematics undergraduates. These covered a very wide range of mathematical areas and applications including, for example:

• The very famous ’travelling salesman problem’ (also known as ’the lazy waiter’!)
• The discovery and identification of clustering behaviour in financial markets
• The Mathematics of complex networks such as the web, or even Facebook
• Applications of statistics to the premier league, police complaints data and global warming
• Investigating traffic flow (are traffic lights better than roundabouts?)

In addition to all of these topic areas, our students also have opportunities to study modern theories in quantitative finance, with particular emphasis on the Mathematics and computation underlying the powerful and influential financial derivatives (e.g. options) industry. Often termed the ‘Black-Scholes theory’, this is famous for winning its discoverers a Nobel prize, as well as for its misapplication often being blamed (rightly or wrongly) for the current worldwide financial crisis.

Most of our projects can be carried out in ways that suit the student's strengths and interests. For example, it is often possible to choose to emphasise concrete applications or abstract theory, and the project can be carried out using theoretical tools only, or computational tools only, or a mixture of both.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning

Up-to-date techniques
Mathematical Sciences is an active and dynamic research centre. Our academics' work is frequently supported by external grants and contracts with leading industry and government establishments.

As a result lecturers are often working at the frontiers of their subject and in active contact with modern users of Mathematics. This in turn helps to ensure that our undergraduate degrees are truly up-to-date.

Broad spectrum of thinking
We offer a wide range of expertise in a variety of subjects. Many of our lecturers are widely published and highly recognised in their fields.

How will I be taught?

We use a range of approaches to help you engage effectively with the subject both through your tutors and working with fellow students:

Lectures
These offer a broad overview of key concepts and ideas – a useful framework from which you can pursue more in-depth study.

Seminars
Smaller seminar groups enable you to make individual contributions – undertaking in-depth analysis and exploring ideas with other students. .

One-to-one
In your final year you will normally have one-to-one supervision for your major project. We will also allocate you a personal tutor each year who’s available to discuss personal or academic problems. If you go on placement as part of sandwich course, your personal tutor will help you set objectives and monitor your progress – and provide further support if you need it.

Assessment

The ‘exams to coursework’ ratio is around 50:50 at Level 1, increasing to 70:30 at Level 3.

We base your final degree class on your performance at Levels 2 and 3. Level 3 carries twice the weight of Level 2.

Employability

Follow the four-year ‘thick sandwich’ degree programme and you will benefit from our extensive experience helping students to find well-paid work placements with blue-chip companies. Our sandwich students find that their mathematical and transferable skills are in demand in many sectors, both in the UK and abroad.

Areas recently offering placements include: accountancy, aviation, banking, defence, finance, insurance, IT (software development, network management and design), management (public and private sector), marketing and telecommunications.

Switching courses later is easy
If you are not sure precisely which programme to follow now don't worry – you will have the chance to change after the course starts. So the decision you make now is NOT final. Once you are at the University, you can explore what works best for you.

Careers

As a Brunel Maths graduate you will enjoy excellent employment prospects. Our combination of work experience and up-to-date teaching means that you will be well-equipped to follow the career you want after graduation.

What kind of careers?

The sky is the limit – career prospects for mathematicians with management skills are excellent. Maybe you want to pursue a career that specifically uses your mathematical or statistical skills? Or perhaps you’d prefer a more general career – such as management or consultancy?

Either way you will possess key skills that are highly sought after by business – in fact any industry that uses modelling, simulation, cryptography, forecasting, statistics, risk analysis and probability.

These are some of the areas where a Maths degree is valued highly:

Finance: banking, accountancy, actuarial, tax, underwriter, pensions, insurance

Medicine: medical statistics, medical and epidemiological research, pharmaceutical research

Design: engineering design, computer games

Science: biotechnology, meteorology, oceanography, pure and applied research and development

Civil Service: scientists (‘Fast Stream’, DSTL, DESG), GCHQ, security service, statisticians

Business: logistics, financial analysis, marketing, market research, sales oil industry, management consultancy, operational research

IT: Systems analysis, research

Engineering: aerospace, building design, transport planning, telecommunications, surveying

Placements

We know just how much experience counts in the job market. You will have the opportunity to gain invaluable work experience alongside experts in industry, the public sector and commerce – both in the UK or overseas.  In fact if you undertake a four year professional placement programme, you are likely to earn some £4,400 more than your three-year course colleagues from ‘Day One’ in your job. (Source: The Brunel report on Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2009/10)

Fees for 2013/14 entry

UK/EU students: £9,000 full-time; £1,000 placement year

International students: £13,500 full-time

We are introducing over 700 scholarships for 2013, meaning that one in five applicants who join Brunel next year will receive financial support from the University. See our fees and funding page for full details

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2013 Entry

• GCE A-level ABB, including grade A in Mathematics or Further Mathematics. General Studies/Critical Thinking accepted.
  
• Irish Leaving Certificate AABBB, including Grade A in Mathematics.
  
• Scottish Advanced Highers ABB, including Grade A in Mathematics.
  
• Advanced Diploma Progression Diploma Grade A in Engineering, IT or Business, Administration and Finance, plus A-level Mathematics at Grade A for Additional and Specialist Learning.
  
• BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma/Diploma D*DD plus A-level Mathematics at Grade A.
  
• IBDP 33 points, including 6 points in Higher Mathematics.
  
• Access Complete and pass relevant Access course with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. Must have 15 Maths level 3 Maths units at Distinction.
  

For all of the above, 5 GCSEs or equivalent at Grade C or above are also required, to include English and Maths (please note that these must have been gained by the time you submit your UCAS application).

English Language Requirements

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.