A-Z list of all open units in 2015/16

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 Levels represent?

• Level QCA-3
• Level C/4
• Level I/5
• Level H/6
• Level M/7
• Level D/8
• All units

What do the teaching blocks (TB) mean?

• All
• TB-1
• AYEAR
• TB-1A
• TB-1B
• TB-2
• TB-2C
• TB-2D
• TB-4

 

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
AVDASI 1 - Aerospace Vehicle Systems Introduction	AENG10001	10
Academic Listening and Speaking	LANG10007	10
Academic Reading and Writing	LANG10008	10
Advanced English Language Studies	LANG14011	20
Advanced Legal and Socio-Legal Research Methods	LAWDM0084	20
African narratives of migration	FREN30039	20
After The Wall: Remembering the GDR	GERM32060	20
American Art: Art and Identity (Lecture Response Unit)	HART30026	20
American Fiction that Matters: US Writing in 'The American Century'	MODL23012	20
Ancient Jewish Novels	THRSM0103	20
Ancient Jewish Novels	THRS30071	20
Anguish in Eden: Foundations of American Prose Writing	MODL23011	20
Approaches to Poetry	ENGL10026	20
Approaches to Shakespeare	ENGL10027	20
Approaches to the Study of Religion	THRS10030	20
Approaches to the Study of Religion	THRS20098	20
Archaic Greece	CLAS12352	20
Archaic Greece	CLAS22352	20
Art and Memory (Level H Lecture Response Unit)	HART30041	20
Art in Britain (Level I Lecture Response Unit)	HART20024	20
Art in Russia and the Soviet Union (Lecture Response Unit)	HART30025	20
Art in the Ancient World	CLAS22365	20
Arts Students Count	AFAC10004	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
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
Cancer Biology	PANMM0014	20
Cardiovascular Research	PHPHM0005	20
Catalan Language (Elementary)	MODL23014	20
Changing Families and the State	SPOL21008	20
Changing Families and the State	SPOL31008	20
Charles Dickens	ENGLM3019	20
Child Nutrition, Activity and Health	SPOL30034	20
Child and Adolescent Psychology	SPOL20032	20
Children and Young People in the Law A	SPOL30057	20
Children in Society I: An introduction	SOWK10001	20
Children in Society II: Children and Contemporary Society	SOWK10002	20
Children in a Global Context	SPOL32008	20
Christianity and Islam in Early Modern Europe (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25015	20
Christianity and Islam: Viewing the Other	THRS20203	20
Classical Greece	CLAS22380	20
Classical Greece	CLAS12380	20
Classics of European Cinema	MODL10010	20
Communicating Science	PHYS10001	20
Communist Worlds	HIST30019	20
Comparative Government and Politics: An Introduction	POLI11103	20
Comparative Social Policy in a Globalizing World	SPOL20048	20
Comparative Social Policy in a Globalizing World	SPOL30048	20
Comparative World Archaeology	ARCH10003	20
Comparative and International Social Policy	SPOL10014	20
Computational Bioinformatics	COMS30003	10
Conservation Biology	BIOL20401	10
Contemporary British Cinema	MODL30007	20
Contemporary British Theatre	DRAM30053	20
Contemporary European Cinema	MODL10009	20
Contemporary Russia through the Media	RUSS10034	20
Contemporary Writing	ENGL10016	20
Convincing stories? Numbers as evidence in the social sciences	UNIV10002	20
Core Physics I:Mechanics and Matter	PHYS10006	20
Creative Technology Project	COMSM0014	40
Criminology: an introduction	SPOL10019	20
Critical Concepts in the Study of the Hispanic World	HISP10010	20
Critical Reasoning	PHIL10030	10
Czech Language (Elementary)	MODL23015	20
Czech for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 (ab initio)	LANG10013	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
Infection, Immunology and Immunity	PANMM0015	20
Integrative Physiology	PHPH20008	20
Inter-professional Working	SOWK30002	20
Intermediate Mandarin Chinese	LANG31047	20
Interprofessional Working in Children's Services	SPOL30037	20
Introduction to Accounting	ACCG10052	20
Introduction to Archaeology	ARCH10001	20
Introduction to Biological Psychology	PSYC10009	10
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology	PSYC10006	10
Introduction to Czech History and Culture	RUSS10038	20
Introduction to Developmental Psychology	PSYC10008	10
Introduction to Early Modern History	HIST13012	20
Introduction to Early-Modern Art	HART10216	20
Introduction to Film and Television Studies	DRAM10024	20
Introduction to Francophone African Literature	FREN20043	20
Introduction to German Studies	GERM10023	20
Introduction to German Studies (Post A-Level)	GERM10013	40
Introduction to Hebrew 1	THRS20186	20
Introduction to Hebrew 1	THRS30169	20
Introduction to Hebrew 2	THRS10016	20
Introduction to Hebrew 2	THRS20187	20
Introduction to Hebrew 2	THRS30170	20
Introduction to Hebrew I	THRS10015	20
Introduction to Linguistics	MODL23013	20
Introduction to Medieval Art	HART10215	20
Introduction to Medieval History	HIST13011	20
Introduction to Modern Art	HART10217	20
Introduction to Philosophy A	PHIL10005	20
Introduction to Philosophy B	PHIL10006	20
Introduction to Russian History and Culture	RUSS10033	20
Introduction to Russian Literature	RUSS10037	20
Introduction to Sanskrit 1	THRSM0097	20
Introduction to Sanskrit 2	THRSM0098	20
Introduction to Social Anthropology	ANTH10001	20
Introduction to Social Psychology	PSYC10007	10
Introduction to Teaching English as a Foreign Language	LANG10120	20
Introduction to the History of the British Empire: Rise, Fall and Legacies	HIST13014	20
Introduction to the Philosophy of Science	PHIL10015	10
Introduction to the Study of Cultures	MODL10011	20
Introductory Foundation Mathematics	MATH10008	20
Issues in World Politics	SPAI10004	20
Italian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 (ab-initio)	LANG11044	20
Italian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 (post GCSE)	LANG12024	20
Italian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 3 (post A'Level)	LANG13014	10
Italian for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 3 (post A'Level)	LANG13024	20
Italian for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1	LANG21024	20
Italian for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2	LANG22024	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
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
Mandarin Chinese for General Purposes (pre-intermediate)	LANG21047	20
Marine Ecology and Physiology	BIOL21403	10
Marvels and Monsters (Level I Lecture Response Unit)	HIST20049	20
Marx's Political Writings	PHIL10018	10
Mathematics 1A20	MATH11004	20
Medieval Music Palaeography	MUSI30121	20
Medieval Music Palaeography	MUSIM0044	20
Melodrama	DRAM20054	20
Memory and History in the Twentieth Century	MODL20010	20
Memory and the Middle Ages	HIST20084	20
Migration Policy in the UK and European Union	SPOL20030	20
Migration Policy in the UK and European Union	SPOL30030	20
Migration, asylum and human rights: EU and global policy perspectives.	SPOLM0042	20
Miracles in the Christian Tradition	THRS20111	20
Miracles in the Christian Tradition	THRS10055	20
Modern Art in the USA 1900-1939 (Lecture Response Unit)	HART20005	20
Modern Italy	ITAL10029	20
Modern Latin American Revolutions	HIST20042	20
Modern Standard Arabic Level 1 Grade 1	LANG10012	20
Modern Women Artists	HART20018	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
Paradoxes	PHIL10028	10
People and Cultures of the British Isles	ARCH10011	20
Performance Forms and Analysis	DRAM11004	20
Performance Histories	DRAM23125	20
Pharmacology	PHPHM0007	20
Philosophical Text 3: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics	PHIL10008	10
Philosophical Texts 1: Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion	PHIL10003	10
Philosophical Texts: Plato	PHIL10024	10
Pirates (Level H Lecture Response Unit)	HIST30032	20
Planet Earth	EASC10003	20
Play and Creativity	SPOL22021	20
Political Systems of Modern Europe	MODL20008	20
Politics and Society in Contemporary Britain (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25007	20
Politics of Performance	DRAM20048	20
Popular Performance: Cabaret, Music Hall, Musicals and Revue	DRAM23124	20
Poverty, Inequality and Social Inclusion Research	SPOLD2024	20
Poverty, Social Exclusion and Social Policy	SPOL20019	20
Poverty, Social Exclusion and Social Policy	SPOL30019	20
Precursors of Modernism: Heine, Buchner, Kleist	GERM30057	20
Preliminary Physics A - Mechanics, Waves and Optics	PHYS10003	20
Preliminary Physics B - Electromagnetism, Thermodynamics and Atomic Physics	PHYS10002	20
Principles of Economics	EFIM10050	20
Prints	HART30046	20
Public Management	EFIM20019	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
Sculpture and the Body (Level I Lecture Response Unit)	HART20026	20
Segregation and inequality in the UK (measurement and debate)	SPOL10017	20
Sex, Marriage, and Deviance in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras	THRS30077	20
Sex, Marriage, and Deviance in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras	THRSM0109	20
Sisters, Saints and Sinners: Women and the Medieval Church	THRS30076	20
Sisters, Saints and Sinners: Women and the Medieval Church	THRSM0115	20
Sixties America and its Aftermath (Level I Lecture Response Unit)	HIST20052	20
Slavery and the Modern World (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25003	20
Social Identities and Divisions	SOCI10007	20
Social Policy and Development	SPOL20050	20
Social Policy and Development	SPOL30050	20
Social Policy and the Environment	SPOL32032	20
Social Policy and the Environment	SPOL22032	20
Social Policy and the Welfare State: Historical Perspectives	SPOL10011	20
Social Policy and the Welfare State: Key Concepts and Contemporary Issues	SPOL10018	20
Social Policy and the Welfare State: Theoretical Perspectives	SPOL10012	20
Social Research Methods	SOAD20004	20
Social and Legal Theory	LAWDM0083	20
Societal Change and the Transformation of Work	SPOL32025	20
Societal Change and the Transformation of Work	SPOL22030	20
Sociolinguistics: Language Variation and Change	MODL30015	20
Soviet Experiment: Constructing Socialism 1917-1991 (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25017	20
Spanish for Business	HISP30057	20
Spanish for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 1 (ab-initio)	LANG11045	20
Spanish for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 (post GCSE)	LANG12025	20
Spanish for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 3 (post A'Level)	LANG13025	20
Spanish for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1	LANG21025	20
Spanish for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2	LANG22025	20
Spotlights on Anglo-German Relations: Literature, Media, Film	GERM20031	20
Stars and Planets 106	PHYS10600	20
Strangers in the Land: Making America and Becoming American (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25006	20
Supervised Individual Study	AFACM0008	20
Sustainable Development	UNIV10001	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
Texts in Modern Political Philosophy	PHIL10027	10
The Archaeology and Topography of Ancient Greece	ARCH20021	20
The Archaeology and Topography of Ancient Rome	ARCH20024	20
The Archaeology of Myth: From the Trojan War to the end of Atlantis	CLAS22384	20
The Archaeology of Myth: From the Trojan War to the end of Atlantis	CLAS12384	20
The Body in Antiquity	CLAS10010	20
The Body in Antiquity	CLAS20032	20
The Body, Gender and Religion	THRS10042	20
The Body, Gender and Religion	THRS20192	20
The British World (Level H Lecture Response Unit)	HIST30033	20
The Business of the Humanities	HUMS20003	20
The Development of the Modern Mass Media: Disciplining Democracy (Level H Lecture Response Unit)	HIST30012	20
The Dynamic Cell	BIOCM0007	20
The Early Reformation (Level I Lecture Response)	HIST25009	20
The Feminist Politics of Food	SPAI30031	20
The History of Christianity: Core Texts	THRSM0001	20
The Origins of the Old Regime, 1550-1750 (Level H Lecture Response Unit)	HIST30037	20
The Philosophy of Religion	THRS20102	20
The Philosophy of Religion	THRS10034	20
The Renaissance and the Rise of the Modern Age	THRS20108	20
The Renaissance and the Rise of the Modern Age	THRS10041	20
The South African War (Level I Lecture Response Unit)	HIST20023	20
The True, the Good, and the Beautiful: Neoplatonism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam	THRSM0108	20
The True, the Good, and the Beautiful: Neoplatonism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam	THRS30078	20
Theorising Social Welfare	SPOL30038	20
Theorising Social Welfare	SPOL20024	20
Theorising Social Welfare 1	SPOL31001	20
Torah through the Ages	THRS20198	20
Translation and Adaptation	DRAM20055	20
Translation and Adaptation	DRAM30055	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