Open units are units which are outside of a student's subject discipline(s) that are available in many undergraduate programmes (subject to space and timetabling constraints). Typically these units are interdisciplinary and do not have any pre- or co-requisites. Single honours undergraduate students are normally able to choose up to 20 credit points of open units.
The University has developed a number of thematic, interdisciplinary "Bristol Futures" open units which deal with issues and themes of current importance. Details of these units are available here including video trailers for some of the units. Specific details about each unit is available below. The Bristol Futures optional units are:
City Futures: Migration, Citizenship, and Planetary Change
Creative Futures: Tools for Changing the World
Decolonise the Future!
Science of Happiness
Sustainable Development
Understanding global problems using data: inequality, climate change and the economy
The open units scheme also includes the University Wide Language Programme units. Details of these are available here as well as specific information about each unit below.
It is possible that open units appearing on this list will be unavailable if capacity has been taken up by students taking it as an optional unit.
What do the teaching blocks (TB) mean?
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Big Ideas in Science | CHEM10001 | 20 |
Biophysics and Molecular Life Sciences I | BIOCM0008 | 20 |
Biophysics and Molecular Life Sciences II | BIOCM0009 | 20 |
Brazilian Portuguese Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG20003 | 20 |
Brazilian Portuguese Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG20004 | 20 |
Brazilian Portuguese for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 | LANG10005 | 20 |
Brazilian Portuguese for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 | LANG20006 | 20 |
Buddhism: The Foundations | THRSM0015 | 20 |
Buddhist Psychology and Mental Health | THRSM0105 | 20 |
Buddhist Psychology and Mental Health | THRS30067 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Death and Afterlife in Buddhism | THRS30101 | 20 |
Death and Afterlife in Buddhism | THRSM0112 | 20 |
Death, Doctors and Disease (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HIST30025 | 20 |
Developmental and Cellular Physiology of the Specialised Cell | PHPH20010 | 20 |
Dissertation | BIOCM0005 | 60 |
Domestic Violence: Research, Policy and Activism | SPOLD2029 | 20 |
Domestic Violence: Research, Policy and Activism | SPOLM5010 | 20 |
Dostoevsky | RUSS30063 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Education, Schooling and Diversity | SPOL10015 | 20 |
Engineering Physics | EMAT10005 | 20 |
English for Academic Purposes - Part 1 (Science and Engineering) | LANG10002 | 10 |
English for Academic Purposes - Part 2 (Science and Engineering) | LANG10003 | 10 |
Environment Earth | EASC10004 | 20 |
Environmental Geoscience 1 | EASC10002 | 40 |
Europe: A Fractal History 1945-1989 (Level H Lecture Response) | HIST39003 | 20 |
Exiles and Migrants in German Literature | GERM30058 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Family Support | SOWK20002 | 20 |
Film History to 1960 | DRAM20031 | 20 |
Film and Television History, 1960 to the present | DRAM20030 | 20 |
Food and feasting in the Roman World | ARCH20049 | 20 |
Food and feasting in the Roman World | ARCH30031 | 20 |
Food: a Global History (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HIST30027 | 20 |
French for Business | FREN30095 | 20 |
French for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 (post GCSE) | LANG12022 | 20 |
French for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 3 (post A'Level) | LANG13022 | 20 |
French for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1 | LANG21022 | 20 |
French for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG22022 | 20 |
From Hell to Heaven: the Bible and spirituality | THRS30080 | 20 |
Further Foundation Mathematics | MATH10007 | 20 |
Further Qualitative Methods | SPOLM0017 | 20 |
Further Quantitative Methods | SPOLM0016 | 20 |
Future Leaders in Contexts of Change (Teach First) | EDUCM0031 | 30 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Galaxies and the Universe | PHYS11500 | 20 |
Genocide in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HIST30028 | 20 |
Geology 1 | EASC10001 | 40 |
German for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 (post GCSE) | LANG12023 | 20 |
German for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 (ab-initio) | LANG11043 | 20 |
German for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 3 (post A'Level) | LANG13023 | 20 |
German for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1 | LANG21023 | 20 |
German for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG22023 | 20 |
Global Cities (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HIST30034 | 20 |
Globalisation and Development | ECON10053 | 20 |
Green Planet | BIOL20013 | 10 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Health Care Policies | SPOL21018 | 20 |
Health Care Policies | SPOL31018 | 20 |
Health Policy in a Global Context | SPOL30055 | 20 |
History in the Middle Ages (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HIST30031 | 20 |
History of Thought | CLAS12366 | 20 |
History of Thought | CLAS22366 | 20 |
History of the USA Before 1865 | MODL23009 | 20 |
History of the USA Since 1865 | MODL23010 | 20 |
Holocaust Landscapes (Level H Lecture Response) | HIST39009 | 20 |
Housing, Economy and Society | SPOL22020 | 20 |
Housing, Economy and Society | SPOL30020 | 20 |
Human-Computer Interaction | COMS21301 | 10 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Japanese for General Purposes (ab-initio) | LANG11046 | 20 |
Japanese for General Purposes (post-intermediate) | LANG32046 | 20 |
Japanese for General Purposes Intermediate | LANG31046 | 20 |
Japanese for General Purposes Pre-Intermediate | LANG21046 | 20 |
Jewish Experience in Modern European History (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HIST20044 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Key Social Thinkers | SOCI10006 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Language (Advanced) | MODL10014 | 40 |
Language and Literacy in Young Children | SPOL30036 | 20 |
Language for General Purposes (Ab-initio Mandarin Chinese) | LANG11047 | 20 |
Language for General Purposes - French Level 1, Grade 1 | LANG11042 | 20 |
Late Antiquity | CLAS22381 | 20 |
Late Antiquity | CLAS12381 | 20 |
Laughter Through Tears: The Comic Tradition in Russian Literature | RUSS20049 | 20 |
Law Gender and Sexuality | LAWDM0033 | 30 |
Life and Death in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe | ARCH20050 | 20 |
Literature and Politics, 1800-1871 | GERM22039 | 20 |
Living Religions | ARCH10010 | 20 |
Living Religions | THRS10028 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Neurophysiology | PHPH20009 | 20 |
Neuroscience | PHPHM0006 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Realism (Level H Lecture Response Unit) | HART30044 | 20 |
Reception Studies | MODLM0024 | 20 |
Religion and Material Culture | THRS20096 | 20 |
Religion and Material Culture | THRS11051 | 20 |
Religion and Material Culture | ARCH20054 | 20 |
Religious and Cultural Change in India: from Indus to Islam | THRS20101 | 20 |
Representing the Holocaust | GERM32054 | 20 |
Researching Child and Family Welfare | SPOLM0011 | 20 |
Researching Health and Social Care | SPOLM5004 | 20 |
Researching Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion | SPOLM5011 | 20 |
Revels and Riots: Popular Culture in Early Modern England (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HIST20021 | 20 |
Roman Imperial Culture | CLAS10029 | 20 |
Roman Imperial Culture | CLAS20034 | 20 |
Russian Language Level 2 Grade 1 | LANG20005 | 20 |
Russian Orthodox Culture | RUSS20044 | 20 |
Russian Thought 1825-1881 | RUSS20048 | 20 |
Russian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 | LANG10006 | 20 |
Russian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 (post GCSE) | LANG10014 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Understanding Urban Society | SPOL30023 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
War Stories: Representation and Memory of Conflict in France since World War One | FREN30041 | 20 |
War and Society | HIST20035 | 20 |
World in Crisis? | GEOG16001 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Youth Justice | SPOL32006 | 20 |
Youth Justice | SPOL20022 | 20 |
Youth Policy and Social Welfare | SPOL22022 | 20 |
Youth, Sexualities and Gendered Violence | SPOL22023 | 20 |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other Top | ||
Divine Love in Hinduism: From Devotion to Tantra | THRS10054 | 20 |
Divine Love in Hinduism: From Devotion to Tantra | THRS20204 | 20 |
'Talking to Tyrants' Politics, Thought and Drama in 1780s Germany | GERM20030 | 20 |
‘Hedgehogs and Foxes’: The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel 2019 | RUSS20013 | 20 |