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 | ||
| American Fiction that Matters: US Writing in 'The American Century' | MODL23012 | 20 |
| Anguish in Eden: Foundations of American Prose Writing | MODL23011 | 20 |
| Approaches to the Study of Religion | THRS20098 | 20 |
| Archaic Greece | CLAS22352 | 20 |
| Art in Britain (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HART20024 | 20 |
| Art in the Ancient World | CLAS22365 | 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 | ||
| Brazilian Portuguese Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG20003 | 20 |
| Brazilian Portuguese Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG20004 | 20 |
| Brazilian Portuguese for General Purposes Level 1 Grade 2 | LANG20006 | 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 | ||
| Catalan Language (Elementary) | MODL23014 | 20 |
| Changing Families and the State | SPOL21008 | 20 |
| Child and Adolescent Psychology | SPOL20032 | 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 |
| Comparative Social Policy in a Globalizing World | SPOL20048 | 20 |
| Conservation Biology | BIOL20401 | 10 |
| Czech Language (Elementary) | MODL23015 | 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 | ||
| Developmental and Cellular Physiology of the Specialised Cell | PHPH20010 | 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 |
| French for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1 | LANG21022 | 20 |
| French for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG22022 | 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 | ||
| German for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 1 | LANG21023 | 20 |
| German for Specific Purposes Level 2 Grade 2 | LANG22023 | 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 |
| History of Thought | CLAS22366 | 20 |
| History of the USA Before 1865 | MODL23009 | 20 |
| History of the USA Since 1865 | MODL23010 | 20 |
| Housing, Economy and Society | SPOL22020 | 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 | ||
| Integrative Physiology | PHPH20008 | 20 |
| Introduction to Francophone African Literature | FREN20043 | 20 |
| Introduction to Hebrew 1 | THRS20186 | 20 |
| Introduction to Hebrew 2 | THRS20187 | 20 |
| Introduction to Linguistics | MODL23013 | 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 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 | ||
| Late Antiquity | CLAS22381 | 20 |
| Laughter Through Tears: The Comic Tradition in Russian Literature | RUSS20049 | 20 |
| Life and Death in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe | ARCH20050 | 20 |
| Literature and Politics, 1800-1871 | GERM22039 | 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 |
| 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 |
| Miracles in the Christian Tradition | THRS20111 | 20 |
| Modern Art in the USA 1900-1939 (Lecture Response Unit) | HART20005 | 20 |
| Modern Latin American Revolutions | HIST20042 | 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 |
| 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 | ||
| Performance Histories | DRAM23125 | 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, Social Exclusion and Social Policy | SPOL20019 | 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 | ||
| Religion and Material Culture | ARCH20054 | 20 |
| Religion and Material Culture | THRS20096 | 20 |
| Religious and Cultural Change in India: from Indus to Islam | THRS20101 | 20 |
| Revels and Riots: Popular Culture in Early Modern England (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HIST20021 | 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 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 |
| Sixties America and its Aftermath (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HIST20052 | 20 |
| Slavery and the Modern World (Level I Lecture Response) | HIST25003 | 20 |
| Social Policy and Development | SPOL20050 | 20 |
| Social Policy and the Environment | SPOL22032 | 20 |
| Social Research Methods | SOAD20004 | 20 |
| Societal Change and the Transformation of Work | SPOL22030 | 20 |
| Soviet Experiment: Constructing Socialism 1917-1991 (Level I Lecture Response) | HIST25017 | 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 |
| Strangers in the Land: Making America and Becoming American (Level I Lecture Response) | HIST25006 | 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 | ||
| 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 Body in Antiquity | CLAS20032 | 20 |
| The Body, Gender and Religion | THRS20192 | 20 |
| The Business of the Humanities | HUMS20003 | 20 |
| The Early Reformation (Level I Lecture Response) | HIST25009 | 20 |
| The Philosophy of Religion | THRS20102 | 20 |
| The Renaissance and the Rise of the Modern Age | THRS20108 | 20 |
| The South African War (Level I Lecture Response Unit) | HIST20023 | 20 |
| Theorising Social Welfare | SPOL20024 | 20 |
| Torah through the Ages | THRS20198 | 20 |
| Translation and Adaptation | DRAM20055 | 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 and Society | HIST20035 | 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 | 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 | 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 |
