Proficiency in a second subject
Some courses allow you to choose up to 30 credits of modules per year in another subject, to develop career-related skills or widen your intellectual horizons.
To find out if the course you're interested in offers optional modules, check the 'course content' section of the course webpage.
Current students:
If you are a current student looking to choose modules for the next academic year, please visit the Proficiencies page here.
Example proficiency options
The proficiency pathways below are examples based on what has been offered in previous years.
Further development and expansion of these options for students starting their course in 2025 or 2026 is currently underway.
Please note, “with proficiency in Data Science” is currently only available on courses based at Streatham or St Luke's Campus, Devon.
Data science is a fast-moving field and skills in this area are highly sought after by employers. The skills you will gain through the Proficiency in Data Science are directly applicable to many job roles.
The pathway provides you with the opportunity to learn about the core competencies and application of data science and how it is transforming business and society.
The ability to manage the innovation process - from the conception of an initial idea to the implementation of a new product, service, or operational change - is a crucial additional skillset which is valued, and increasingly sought out, by employers.
This proficiency aims to develop you into a strategic thinker with the tools and mindset to identify opportunities, implement creative solutions, and lead systemic change for a greener, fairer, and healthier future in a fast-changing world.
The modules available build skills that are relevant to any discipline: such as problem-solving, creative thinking, collaboration, and flexibility, as well as learning to grow from failure as a part of the process.
This will stand you in good stead when entering the job market, or if you aspire to start your own business: giving you the practical skills to take an idea from prototype to reality. The likely career paths for graduates with this proficiency include all sectors, including private firms (start-ups, scale-ups, large existing organisations), public sector and humanitarian organisations.
If you achieve 60 credits of modules taken from approved lists, you may have the words ‘with Proficiency in Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ added to your degree title when you graduate, to help signpost your knowledge to potential employers.
Languages are an essential tool to compete in a global market, and to succeed in the workplace. Employers are increasingly aware of the benefits that language skills bring to their companies, which explains why languages have become extremely popular among our students.
Students on courses with optional modules can add “with proficiency in” a language to their degree title.
This involves successfully completing a minimum of 60 credits in one language taken through the Language Centre, of which 30 credits must be at Level 2 (Beginners Fast-Track or Intermediate 1) or higher.
You could choose to start a new language from scratch or develop an existing one.
For example, a Geography student who passes 30 credits at Spanish Beginners and a further 30 credits at Spanish Intermediate 1 could have their degree title amended to BA (Hons) Geography with proficiency in Spanish.
Please note, “with proficiency in Law” is currently only available on courses based at Penryn Campus, Cornwall.
The “with proficiency in Law” pathway allows you to study a range of Law modules delivered by the Law School in Cornwall, gaining a strand of additional legal knowledge and skills that adds value to your degree.
With topics ranging from legal foundations to environmental, criminal and corporate law, you can select modules which align with your core programme of study or strike out in studying something for the pure intellectual curiosity.
The modules will develop your analytical and argument abilities, exposing you to a range of legal source material from international treaties to domestic statutes, court judgments and scholastic articles, delivered by a variety of research-active academics and former practising lawyers.
The ‘Proficiency in Law’ modules are suitable for students wishing to develop their skillset to work across the environment and sustainability sector and in wider business.
They provide a theoretical and technical basis for understanding the regulatory and legal frameworks that you might encounter within your main field of study.
Please note, “with proficiency in Leadership” is currently only available on courses based at Streatham or St Luke's Campus, Devon.
Developing your own leadership skills and experience, and learning how to apply them, is a signal to employers that you have prepared yourself to become a leader and have taken steps to ensure you are workplace-ready.
It is also a chance to diversify your learning and join vibrant, challenging and topical modules that engage in the ongoing debates surrounding leadership in our ever-changing and complex world.
Gain an understanding of leadership models, challenges and competencies, and skills such as managing change and crisis, leading teams, and managing equality and diversity at work.
Please note, “with proficiency in Management” is currently only available on courses based at Streatham or St Luke's Campus, Devon.
Whatever subject you study at university, you are very likely at some point early in your career to be given some formal management responsibility.
You may be charged with the task of line managing a team of colleagues, or with the management of a team tasked with product delivery. Later, you may aspire to a more senior management position or to managing your own company.
Our 'with proficiency in management' pathway will help to provide you with the underpinning knowledge and understanding to achieve any or all of these ambitions.
The ability to manage complex organisational systems and problems is a crucial additional skillset which is valued, and actively sought out, by employers.
Please note, “with proficiency in Social Data Science” is currently only available on courses based at Streatham or St Luke's Campus, Devon.
As every aspect of society and our daily lives become increasingly data-driven, there is growing demand in all sectors, including business, public sector, policy making, security and law enforcement, and academia, for graduates with social data science skills.
Social data science combines expertise in data and computational methods with in-depth substantive understanding in a particular area of interest to provide actionable, data-driven insights.
The Proficiency in Social Data Science programme is suitable for students who have no prior experience with data or coding. It will provide you with these transferable skills that will make you more employable in numerous different sectors, offering career flexibility.
The proficiency in Sustainable Solutions aims to empower you to become a change agent: driving the transition towards a fairer, greener, and healthier world.
Employers are increasingly seeking graduates who can contribute to sustainable employment and hold skills relating to cutting-edge, market-leading digital technologies and methods, such as the use of AI through a critical and sustainability-focused lens.
Taking modules in sustainable solutions can equip you with a practical understanding of sustainability principles and how to apply them in diverse contexts.
The modules available enhance skills that are relevant to any discipline, such as:
- innovation and entrepreneurial skills for developing and implementing sustainable solutions, leveraging technologies and tools
- critical thinking skills and systems thinking approaches to analyse complex sustainability challenges
- leadership and advocacy skills to identify and communicate sustainable interventions, and engage with stakeholders.