Mathematical Sciences
Awarded 4 out of 5 for ‘Student Satisfaction’ in Mathematics and Statistics
National Student Survey 2011
The Department
The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers a broad range of degree courses, with about 580 undergraduate and 50 postgraduate students. There are over 30 academic staff with a wide variety of research interests in both pure and applied mathematics.
Principal research areas are nonlinear mathematics and its applications, geometric analysis, mathematical biology, spectral theory and waves, stochastic analysis, mathematical physics, fluid mechanics and materials modelling.
The Difference between BSc and MMath
All our undergraduate courses are designed to ease the transition from school to university level mathematics. The extended course leading to a Master’s degree (MMath) is for students seeking a broader and deeper study of mathematics than is possible within three years.
All BSc courses are available as three-year full-time or four-year sandwich courses; the MMath degree is available as a four-year full-time course or a five-year sandwich course.
Mathematics Support
The award-winning Mathematics Learning Support Centre is available at two locations on campus for students to get help with mathematics. As well as giving access to a wide variety of printed and online resources, a member of academic staff is available in the Centre for four hours each day to provide one-to-one help.
Merit Scholarship for UK students
Year-of-entry scholarships, worth £1000, will be awarded to students with excellent A-Level grades who make Loughborough their firm choice and enter the MMath or BSc Mathematics, Mathematics with Statistics or Mathematics with Mathematics Education course. Scholarships worth £500 will also be available in each of the subsequent years, based on the previous year’s performance, while more generous scholarships will be given to the best students in the final year of the MMath course.
Industrial Placement
All courses are available as either full-time or sandwich courses, with the sandwich course including an extra year spent on professional training in an industrial, commercial or research establishment. The academic content of a full-time and a sandwich course is identical.
Satisfactory completion of the professional training in the sandwich course leads to the award of the Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS).
A variety of industrial, commercial and research companies have received our students in recent years and good relations have been established between these companies and the Mathematical Sciences Department. Examples include Advantica, Ernst & Young, IBM, Aston Martin Lagonda, ICI, Hitachi and GSK. We are able to assist you to obtain suitable placements but the final responsibility rests with you.
Entry Requirements
Entry requirements are the same for all courses run by the Department of Mathematical Sciences. If you have applied to one of this Department’s courses, it is possible to change to any of our other courses simply by notifying the Admissions Tutor at any time before the start of your course. The exception to this is Mathematics and Sports Science: requests to transfer to this course will be considered by the Admissions Tutor on an individual basis.
Applying for more than one of the courses run by this Department will therefore be a waste of one of your UCAS choices, except where one of the courses is Mathematics and Sports Science.
Although Further Maths A-Level is not required for any of our courses, it will make a difference to your offer. If you wish to take Further Maths but your school or college is unable to provide tuition, you should consider enrolling on the Further Mathematics Support Course.
Selection
Decisions will normally be made on the basis of the UCAS form but occasionally interviews may be considered necessary. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Department for an informal half-day meeting with staff and current students at one of the Department’s open days, held between December and April. Applications from mature students are welcomed, and are considered on their merits.
Teaching
Teaching on all courses is by lectures, directed study, problem classes, small group tutorials, computer laboratory classes and project work. No previous knowledge of computing is required. Your personal tutor in the Department is available to help and advise you throughout the entire course.
Assessment
Modules are assessed in a variety of ways, depending on the subject matter. Some are assessed solely by examinations, a few solely by coursework, and others by a suitable blend of coursework, examinations and class tests. Projects are assessed by a report and, in some cases, an oral presentation.
Study Abroad
If you choose one of our sandwich courses, an alternative to professional training is a year spent studying at a university in another country through a student exchange scheme, leading to the award of the Diploma in International Studies (DIS).
We currently have exchange agreements with universities in the following countries: France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Lithuania, Australia, Canada.
Career Prospects
Opportunities include actuarial work (which involves application of probability and statistics), computing (particularly systems analysis and programming), financial work (accountancy, insurance, banking etc), management (which might involve operational research, a branch of applied mathematics), engineering (for example mathematical modelling and simulation in a design team), scientific research, design and development (perhaps using numerical methods and other techniques of advanced applied mathematics), statistical work (for example, Government departments) and teaching and lecturing.
Recent employment destinations include: Rolls-Royce – Graduate Engineer; Certegy – Risk Analyst; Bank of America – Treasury Sales Analyst; British Gas – Data Analyst.