This course requires 104–120 UCAS tariff points including a minimum of 2 A-levels or equivalent. We are happy to consider a combination of qualifications and grades to meet the overall tariff, for example A-levels A*CC, ABC, BBB or BCC, BTECs DDM or DMM. You can use the UCAS calculator to see how your qualifications equate to UCAS tariff points.
If you do not meet these requirements, you may want to consider our foundation year, a one-year course that will prepare you for degree-level study.
IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with minimum 5.5 in each component, or equivalent.
Work with real clients, creating artefacts that impact and enhance the world around you
Access specialist facilities including kit, post-production suites, and a sound stage
Develop a dynamic range of skills across a number of disciplines including film, audio production and platform development
Learn from practising professionals and researchers and benefit from their industry connections through guest speakers and workshops
Specialise during your Graduate Production Project, allowing you to develop a piece of work in whichever media form suits your career aspirations, giving you a calling card to the industry upon graduation.
Foundation year: We have a foundation year option for UK students who do not meet the entry requirements for the degree course. This additional year of study will give you a grounding in the media & communication skills required for this course, building your confidence, knowledge and skills for further study. After successful completion of the foundation year, you will progress to the full degree.
UCAS Code: PH10
With foundation year: PH11
More info: Click here
Foundation year
Core units
Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practice them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources.
Collaborative Communication Project: The unit focuses on the centrality of communicaiton, both as a process and as a project. Through the collaborative development of a communication solution to a specific communication problem, the unit aims to promote the principles and practices of team-based iterative project work.
Media & Current Debates: You will be introduced to a) the important role and responsibilities of the news media within democratic societies and b) the varied nature of reporting of key events, issues and debates within the contemporary 24/7 news cycle. You will gain an essential level of understanding of what constitues news and what the work of journalists entails. You will also develop an awareness and appreciation of differing coverage of particular stories by a range of news organisations.
Media Work: You will become familiar with a range of profiles and career paths in the communication and media industries and be inspired to reflect on and develop your own professional identity. Through case studies of seminal campaigns, programmes and artefacts, profiles of ground-breaking personalities, masterclasses from industry professionals, and guest talks from BU staff who have worked or currently work in marketing, PR, media production, journalism and communications, you will encounter and interact with diverse role models, career trajectories, and types of profressional practice.
Year 1
Core units
Media Scholarship: Here you will be introduced to the key scholarly approaches involved in studying media in higher education.
Digital Film: In a group setting, you’ll explore the principles and practice of digital film production. We look at professional workflows throughout the pre-production, production and post-production process.
Audio Production: The focus here is a critical awareness of the professional processes and practices involved in the creative experimentation, conception, planning, design and realisation of audio content.
Scriptwriting: In this unit we examine the role of the script in media products. This will provide a foundation in the development of your scriptwriting skills for a range of platforms and formats such as film, television, radio and the web.
Digital Media Design: In this unit you will consider the basic concepts and develop key skills for understanding, designing, and producing media content for web-based and interactive platforms.
Understanding Media: Here you will develop your knowledge of the key scholarly concepts within the field, as well as how to apply these concepts in analysing media in a time of change. You will consider your own engagement with media as both producer and consumer.
Year 2
Core units
Media Perspectives: In this unit you will choose two from a menu of options as you engage with current industry debates and case studies within your discipline.
Factual: Form & Content: Running in parallel with, and complementary to, Fiction, this unit focuses on factual content with the creative emphasis being online environments.
Fiction: Form & Content: This unit will extend both your practical skills and your critical understanding of fictional forms and content, examining the similarities and differences in practice across media, with particular reference to audio and video content.
Work in Media Industries: This unit will examine the current state of the media industries, their adaptive and evolutionary nature, and the implications of this transitional culture for the professional demands upon, and subjective experiences of, industry workers.
Stories & Spaces: The emphasis of this unit is on ‘experience design’ and the use of physical spaces for media content, including event-led, live, and installation practices.
Client & Audience: This unit focuses on understanding the client relationship, responding to a brief, pitching ideas, managing client expectations, and producing a solution to a specific communications challenge.
Optional placement year
The placement element of the course is mandatory – but its duration depends on the length of your degree. You’ll have the option to complete either a four-week placement if you take the three-year version of the course, or a 30-week (minimum) placement on the four-year version.
The placement is a key feature in helping you develop your abilities and understanding of media production; it also provides a platform for successful entry into the profession following graduation.
Final year
Core units
Industry Research Project: This unit aims to give students the opportunity to critically examine their chosen area of professional interest through the application of original research into a media industry organisation.
Specialist Craft Skills: This unit will enable you to review, sharpen, and further develop your craft skills within an aspect of media production to inform your graduate project.
Ideas Development & Research: You’ll explore turning ideas and concepts into commercially viable end products to be pitched, sold, defended and tested in the global creative media market place.
The Graduate Production Project: You will individually produce a production project where you decide the mix and range of media to engage with, and the industry context it sits within. We encourage you to think of this as your ‘calling card’ for employment. See examples of student work
Career Pathways: Here you will present and reflect on your work and learning so far, as well as construct a forward-facing career profile/plan.
This course has been designed to develop the storytellers, content creators and media producers of the future and you’ll be well-equipped to enter the fast-paced media environment once you complete your degree. Our alumni work in the radio, television and interactive media industries, giving you plenty of career options once you graduate.
The placement you undertake as part of your course will give you the opportunity to network and make valuable connections in the industry that can help you find a job once you complete your studies. You’ll be career-ready with 80% of our graduates in employment after 15 months
OSHC: 624 ($) GBP per year
