Preliminary Year Programme

This module will help students develop an understanding of the essential role of information in business and how information is secured, shared, distributed and digitalized to ensure competitiveness, flexibility, and success. The course also includes a team-based and team-assessed case study project on topics related to Information Technology in business, with supporting workshops on team and project management, coding, and reference management skills. This module helps students become aware of the forces driving business change in a digital world and introduces some of the technical skills that support this.

This module provides an introduction to the impacts of individuals, groups, and structures upon behaviour within organizations, as well as the strategies they follow to compete in the marketplace. It will help students to gain knowledge and understanding of the management of resources and operations, the development of appropriate business policies and strategies to meet stakeholder needs within a changing environment and a range of contemporary and pervasive business and management issues.

The module will develop an appreciation of business, and in particular the analysis of management approaches, which will improve qualitative skills including the ability to work with case studies and apply business models to business problems and phenomena.

This module introduces students to the basic microeconomic theory of the market and the firm, as well as the macroeconomic setting within which firms operate. The topics covered under microeconomics include economic systems; resource allocation; market demand, supply and equilibrium; the theory of the firm (production, cost and revenue); market structure (perfect competition and monopoly); and under macroeconomics, the income flow model; AS-AD model; macroeconomic problems and macroeconomic policy instruments; balance of payment account and exchange rate.

The module will introduce students to basic economic tools and concepts in order to prepare them for further studies in business and related areas.

This module is a basic introduction to the study of language and linguistics. It addresses questions such as: What does it mean to know a language? What do linguists study? The course looks at properties and functions of a language system (including a sign language) and its place in a broader context of multimodal communication. It equips students with the knowledge and skills to analyze language at the level of sounds, words, sentences, and discourse. The data is drawn from different languages, although the main focus is on English.

Sessions on socio-linguistics illustrate that variation at every level of language structure is linked to class, age, gender, culture, and other factors. Throughout the course, students are encouraged to connect insights gained to their own experiences and observations of language. The ultimate goal is to develop a heightened sensitivity to linguistic phenomena and to empower students to undertake individual research on language and communication. 

This module aims to prepare students for further study of applied linguistics and/or literature. Two main parts focus, respectively, on studying language as science and studying language as a form of social and creative expression. The first explores the relationship between language and the mind and covers topics such as first and second language acquisition, language and thought, language and the brain. The second focuses on approaches to texts, including literature, e-language, and the language of advertising.

The module raises awareness of some practical applications of linguistic study and introduces related methodologies. 

This module aims to familiarise students with some of the foundational concepts of media, communications and society. We will explore and begin to analyse the relationship between media and society, and discuss through various case studies how media content and texts are produced, distributed and consumed. Inevitably, we address the complex question of media effects and theory. Students are encouraged to develop an understanding of the historical development of various media institutions and practices, as well as the ways in which media texts negotiate and reflect political and societal values. While students will be introduced to a number of key theories and debates in the field of media and communication studies, they are also encouraged to apply them into the discussion and analysis of the latest developments and trends taking place in the media world. 

This module will enable students to engage with the academic research into the complexities of media, communications and culture. In particular, it will address issues of representation and to what extent the cultural and creative industries negotiate the tensions and challenges inherent in the media, identity and ideology. Students will critically examine, and challenge, how media texts construct the world, and in doing so, develop their understanding of various discourses and language. The module will build upon the knowledge and understanding gained as a result of success in Media and Texts: Society (CELEN044) and extends this into a deeper cross-cultural awareness through analysis of media texts drawn from different cultures, eras, forms and patterns of distribution. In addressing issues of Media and Identity, the students will be encouraged to deploy a critical and sensitive understanding of media representations of gender and sexualities, race and ethnicity, cultures and sub-cultures and so on., based in part on their own media consumption but also linking this to the academic research. 

This module introduces students to the principles of macroeconomics, i.e. output, unemployment, inflation, modelling of the macroeconomy in the long run and short run and different debates within macroeconomics.

The aims of the module are to develop the student's awareness of an ability to solve basic problems in the fields of electrical principles, engineering statics and dynamics, wave motion, sound and geometric optics, properties and characteristics of fluids and their measurement. This module will introduce students to the following concepts:

• the basic knowledge of electricity and magnetism required for entry into Engineering Faculty courses.
• scalars and vectors, also giving a broad grounding in the basic response of rigid structures to imposed forces.
• the physical explanations of light and electrons, from practical applications to physical models of light and electrons.
• an elementary understanding of the properties and characteristics of fluids and their measurement (density, (normal) pressure, shear stress, relative density, kinematic viscosity, surface tension, Pascal's law, compressibility).
• fluids statics (hydrostatics), pressure on submerged surfaces, forces on curved and inclined submerged surfaces (e.g. force on a pipe outlet), buoyancy.

The module aims to provide students with the basic skills to understand and apply the scientific method in their chosen disciplines, to foster evidence-based logical thinking and to develop the necessary communication skills to convey technical concepts with precision and flexibility.

The module specifically introduces the following skills & concepts:

• Deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and the role of evidence in scientific discovery.
• Academic scientific language and the differences in terminology compared to everyday English.
• The basic laws of probability and statistics and their connection to calculations of uncertainty.
• The analysis of uncertainty in experimental procedures.
• Skills for general report writing in science & engineering.
• Analysis, using the scientific method, of the historical evolution of threshold concepts in physics and chemistry.
• Basic computer knowledge skills in the form of computer modelling & data representation.

The aim of the module is to provide students with the confidence, mathematical knowledge and fluency in algebraic techniques core to quantifying and analysing basic problems in engineering or science. Further, this module should enable students to develop algebraic mathematical techniques and their application to problem solving. This module provides a basic course in algebra, required in elementary quantitative analysis relevant to the modelling of problems in engineering and physical sciences. A key element is to provide basic algebra and trigonometric mathematical skills.

The module will cover: algebraic manipulation; remainder, factor, and binomial theorems; finding roots using numerical methods; matrices and solving system of equations; complex numbers; partial fractions; sequences and series.

A one hour session each week will provide lecture and example activities. A weekly workshop will be used flexibly between supervised tutorial and further example activities to consolidate learning and problem solving. Use will be made of e-learning support and directed self-study. 

This module will provide the basic knowledge of mechanics, electricity, and magnetism required for entry into the qualifying year of degree courses in the Faculties of Science and Engineering. The module will cover topics including (but not limited to):

• Vectors and Forces
• Linear Motion and momentum
• Circular Motion and Simple Harmonic Motion
• Simple Machines and Fluid Mechanics
• Basic laws of Electricity (Ohm’s Law, Gauss’s Law)
• Current, Resistance, Capacitance, and RC Circuit
• Kirchhoff’s Rules and Terminal Voltage
• Magnetic Forces and Fields
• Electromagnetic Induction and Light

The module will introduce students to basic architectural graphic presentation and representation skills. Design skills relevant to an architectural education programme will be introduced and developed to enable the students to represent their architectural design projects during the BArch course.

The content will include fine art training such as indoor/outdoor pencil sketching, life and still drawing, 2D graphic design and 3D model making using different material (card, paper, balsa wood, etc.).

The module consists of weekly seminars and studio workshops. Students will be expected to undertake private study following the weekly sessions to practice and further develop the skills and techniques introduced.

This module introduces students to critical and creative thinking to help them think flexibly and fairly about issues and problems connected to their lives and their areas of study, considering issues from different points of view to reach provisional conclusions and plans of action.

Additionally, students will be asked to reflect on their experiences in and around their lectures and seminars for this module, and to consider how they can apply what they learn to their future studies and approaches to study.

The aim of the module is to provide students with the confidence, mathematical knowledge and fluency in mathematical techniques to help solve basic problems in engineering or science requiring the use of differential or integral calculus. This module provides a course to consolidate previous studies in differential calculus and introduce a range of mathematical topics used in the analysis of problems in engineering and physical sciences. The module will cover techniques and applications of differentiation and integration, and differential equations. Application to solving real life problems is developed.

A 1½ hour session each week will be used flexibly between lecture, example and supervised tutorial activities. Additionally, weekly workshops will consolidate learning and problem solving through example and assessment activities. Use will be made of e-learning support and directed self-study. 

The module will introduce students to the principles of design across a wide range of professional disciplines with a particular emphasis upon architecture. Ideas, philosophies and attitudes from different backgrounds influencing architectural design will be discussed. The module consists of weekly lectures and seminars from academics and professional focusing on the basic principles and approaches to design. 

The initial aims of the module are primarily to provide students with the necessary pre-requisite skills required for the study of modules that require a knowledge of chemistry and to provide students with a working knowledge of basic chemical principles and practice, with industrial applications relevant to their subsequent courses in engineering.

The module then aims to set organic-, inorganic- and analytical chemistry in an engineering context. This will be achieved by providing lectures, seminar classes and laboratories. The topics covered will include: chemical bonding, intermolecular forces, moles and molarity, acids and bases, stoichiometry, equation balancing, redox reactions, thermodynamics and rate of reactions and equilibria.

Students will have two hours of lectures, 1 hour laboratory session (equivalent) and a one hour tutorial seminar each week. Students are expected to prepare prior to laboratory sessions by reading the lecture notes, completing tutorial exercises and reading the laboratory worksheets. 

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the study of Politics and International Relations. Students will be familiarized with the discipline through an instigation of key theories, such as ‘Realism’, ‘Liberalism’, and ‘Marxism’; historical case studies, such as the First World War and the Cold War; and hot topics, such as ‘environmentalism’ and ‘gender analysis’. In completing these studies, students will subsequently become skilled in critical analysis, evidence gathering, essay writing, and will develop the ability to present a coherent and logical argument and support this with evidence. As well as making students more critically aware and help them develop as autonomous individuals, this also provides a background for eventual careers in many fields – including work in government, international organizations, academic work, research, business, and the media – all of which require articulate, clear thinking individuals with a grasp of contemporary International Relations.

This module explores the diverse and complex ways in which historians have approached the study of the past during the modern era. Focusing on how the profession has changed since the rise of historicism in the late nineteenth century, it introduces students to some of the most important developments in historical method and examines the challenges and influences from other disciplines, including Marxist ideology, gender studies and literary theory. This module encourages students to think about, and reflect on, their own practice as historians. 

This module provides a foundation course in core mathematical techniques required for analysing and solving problems in business and economics. A key element is to provide broad understanding of mathematical skills in algebra and calculus analysis tools for the real business world. This module prepares international students to a level equivalent to A level Mathematics and to enter the module Quantitative Methods 1b, so that at the end of year 1 (preliminary year) programme, international students and local Chinese students will be at par in terms of mathematical knowledge. This module will provide students with an introduction to mathematics in  both autumn and spring semesters. 

This course aims to develop academic vocabulary and reading skills. The course exposes students to a variety of genres and develops an awareness of the common structural textual features at both paragraph and whole text level. There is also a focus on the discourse elements used to convey author stance, and on the metatext (such as anaphora and cataphora) used to effect coherence and cohesion.

The course also aims to systematically build up students’ academic vocabulary through repeated exposure to key words, lexical bundles, and collocations.

This module provides mathematical foundations for Economics students. The following topics of algebra and calculus will be covered in the module.

Algebra: Functions, Quadratics, Basic Trigonometry, Polynomial division, Matrices (including algebra of matrices, row operations, Gauss Elimination LU factorization, Inverse matrix), Sequence and Series.

Calculus: Limits, Derivatives (Rate of change, velocity, rules of differentiation, implicit differentiation, derivative of inverse functions, logarithmic differentiation), Applications of derivatives (Max-min. problems), Higher order derivatives (Maclaurin’s series, Taylor’s series), Indeterminate forms, L’Hospital’s rule. 

This module provides fundamental understanding of the concept of algorithms using underlying mathematical and logical reasoning. To enhance students’ understanding of some of the above concepts, prerequisite mathematical topics where necessary will also be covered in this module.

Contents: Recursion concept for designing algorithms, sorting algorithms such as, insertion sort, bucket sort, merge sort and their time complexities, data structures such as, lists, trees, graphs, binary search trees (BST), Euler graph, graph search algorithms such as, minimum spanning tree, Prim’s algorithm, Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm. 

This module is supplementary to Advanced Foundation Maths-2 module and provides software-based learning approach to some of the topics covered in that module. The aim is to make learning of mathematics more fascinating, imaginative and experimental.

The module consists of mathematical software which are widely useful in dealing with a variety of problems in mathematics. The four software in study are:

1. MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is an industry leading software, a high-performance language for technical computing primarily used in numerical computing. It is also useful for plotting of graphical data and basic programming structures.
2. Maple is a math software that combines the world's most powerful math engine with an interface that makes it extremely easy to analyze, explore, visualize, and solve mathematical problems. It is symbolic and numeric computing environment.
3. GeoGebra is an interactive math. software for sketching graphs of functions.
4. Latex is a high-quality mathematical typesetting software.

This module provides an in-depth course covering theory and applications of topics in Foundation Calculus, including some advanced topics, as well as fascinating mathematical topics such as, Fractals, etc.

To enrich students’ understanding of mathematical concepts, and to make teaching of difficult topics in Calculus much more interesting, inventive and exploratory, appropriate mathematical software taught in the supplementary module (Mathematical Software) will be extensively used in teaching of this module where appropriate. 

This module provides underlying mathematical topics and concepts essential for better understanding of basic programming constructs. Introduction to software and programming essentials are covered in this module via extended bi-weekly lab sessions. The aim is to blend mathematics and software programming paradigms to make the module more engaging and creative.

The module consists of mathematical concepts for which programming constructs follow naturally, e.g. Newton-Raphson iterative method, matrices, etc. The software introduced are MATLAB, Maple, Latex and GeoGebra. The module will also include simple programming structures in MATLAB. 

This module provides mathematical and statistical foundations for Economics students. The following topics of calculus, statistics and probability will be covered in the module.

Calculus: Integration (including method of substitution, integration by parts and partial fractions), Definite Integration, Area and volume, Differential equations (separation of variables).

Statistics & Probability: Sets and events, probabilities, counting principle, conditional probability and independence of events, Bayes theorem and random variables, discrete and continuous random variables, probability density functions, cumulative distribution functions, median, quartiles, variance, covariance and conditional expectations, Hypothesis testing (t, Chi-square, F).