Engineering and IT

This module has been designed to help students develop their academic literacy and communication skills in preparation for undergraduate study and to understand the institutional culture, practices, norms and expectations of German higher education in an international academic context and community. It will enable students to develop academic research and communication skills using contemporary resources and raise students’ English language levels to the required entry point for undergraduate entry. It also aims to provide students with understanding of the range of methodologies and a solid grounding for the research skills required in undergraduate study. By encouraging students to share this knowledge in an open class forum (small group tutorial presentations), the module also aims to develop and encourage the use of presentation skills in academic and professional-facing contexts.
At the end of this Module, students will have developed transferable and portable skills of effective and professional communication to support their ongoing study as well as providing a basis to foster career and life-building skills. The module utilises several practical activities to allow candidates to develop these essential skills. Assignments for each of the four skills of academic reading, writing, speaking and listening are included to confirm that students meet the appropriate exit threshold in English language proficiency.

This Critical and Creative Thinking module teaches students to create effective arguments through objectively assessing different types of information and literature. It is crucial for good degree outcomes and future employability to teach students to recognise logical fallacies, identify credibility and can make logical, rational arguments that avoid bias.
This module is designed to teach, reinforce, and practice independent learning and critical thinking, as opposed to rote memorisation. Teachers will use a range of techniques such as open discussion in class, presentations and individual research (e.g. on Fake news) to encourage critical thinking skills within daily, academic and professional-facing contexts. It will deepen the understanding and interpretation of processes, motives, argument, rationale, credibility of a wide range of studies.

Having successfully completed the module, students will have both consolidated and gained further necessary mathematical skills required to study at first year undergraduate level. Students will be able to carry out the basic and Foundational mathematical manipulations and understand relevant key concepts through theoretical and practical teaching methods. The topics covered include a range of arithmetic skills, algebra, solving equations, probability and basic statistics, the focus is on building core skills and understanding.

The module is intended for students who have little or no previous knowledge of German and offers an introduction to the language. Teaching methods are based on interactive language development tasks, such as group work and role playing. It also includes the study of texts, oral development work and listening comprehension exercises. Students are asked to consolidate class work by learning vocabulary and structures, and by reading, watching or listening to material in German. Using of a range of learning aids and a variety of media, such as a reference grammar and a bilingual dictionary, students will be able to progress faster in accredited German classes during their future studies.

Once you have completed your first semester of the German language and culture module, you will be able to continue practicing your German with your peers and with the guidance of a tutor the following semester. The emphasis of this module is on guided but informal conversation practice and a chance to continue to learn about key topics about living and studying in Germany.

This module introduces students to basic concepts of programming, focusing on Python language. Students will learn basic syntax, control structures and functions, enabling them to write organized and efficient code. The course covers key topics such as data structures, file handling, error handling and an introduction to object-oriented programming (OOP). Students will also gain practical experience with version control using Git, apply basic algorithms to solve problems, and develop a portfolio of projects. Emphasis is placed on practical application, problem-solving, teamwork and effective communication in a programming context. By the end of the module, students will have a solid foundation and be prepared to tackle more advanced topics in programming.

This module provides students with a solid foundation in the physical sciences to prepare them for their first-year undergraduate studies. Students will primarily solve numerical problems related to engineering. By the end of this module, students will possess the ability to analyse the motion of objects in one and two dimensions with constant acceleration. They will have a good understanding of friction and its impact on moving and static systems. Moreover, they will be acquainted with simple statically determinant systems and capable of calculating forces in equilibrium. Additionally, students will be familiar with the principles of conservation of mechanical energy and conservation of momentum, and they will be able to apply them to simple scenarios.

Ethics is a system of moral principles that affects decision-making, based on what one considers to be ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Students will be encouraged to use critical thinking and research to discuss descriptive, normative and analytic approaches to ethics and ethical problems. Students will look at a variety of applications to understand the interdependence and intersection between behaving ethically in varying contexts.
With respect to ethical questions, students will investigate competing answers to an idea and critically engage with these to examine their strengths and weaknesses. Through case study analysis and own research, students will gain a broad understanding of how ethics can be applied to a variety of subject areas and what questions should be asked to evaluate validity.