Media Communications and Publishing (Professional Placement Year)
Bath Spa University
UCAS Code: S149 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
A Level - Grades BCC-CCC preferred
Access to HE Diploma
Typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, including 30 at merit or higher).
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
A minimum score of 27 points required
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Extended Diploma grades Merit, Merit, Merit (MMM) accepted
T Level
Grade Merit is preferred.
UCAS Tariff
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About this course
Publishing is one of the UK’s largest creative industries and needs new tech-savvy creatives who can work collaboratively to harness the many opportunities digital brings, and to reach readers in new and effective ways. This is where our graduates come in. Publishing taken as part of a Combined Award gives you the chance to experiment with various forms of digital and print making and content development. It adds a practical dimension to your study at university and will give you the edge when applying for jobs, in terms of practical industry experience and a stunning portfolio of varied, relevant work.
This course is carefully-designed (and taught) by experienced industry professionals to combine core traditional publishing skills of editorial, copywriting, layout and marketing with the latest developments in digital platforms, multimedia content creation and audience development. Our students are the content creators and shapers of a future where print and the handmade; vintage and futuristic sit happily alongside digital. Publishing is being transformed and so you will develop an understanding of user experience, data analysis and how this can inform publishing decisions, and audience development and community-building. We make sure you’ve got the core skills to be confident publishers. You’ll experience a wide range of learning opportunities which will help you develop into a confident content maker and shaper: from working in a collaborative team to develop a social media multimedia content strategy for a literary festival to editing fiction anthologies; using industry-standard software to layout pages for a cookery or history book to copywriting for promotional campaigns; publishing real-time video interviews through social media platforms to creating a new carefully-branded vintage clothing website and commissioning the text and image for this. To find out about Media Communications, please view the UCAS single honours course profile.
**Combined Honour Awards**
At Bath Spa University many of our undergraduate programmes can be combined, so you don’t have to limit yourself to one subject. If you choose to study a combined award then in Year One you’ll start by studying both subjects in equal depth, then from Year Two you can choose whether to continue with an equally joint course, or a Major/Minor route.
**More about the Professional Placement Year**
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where a student undertakes a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between the students' second and third years of undergraduate study. Students can engage in up to 3 placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) themselves with support from the Careers and Employability Team.
Modules
Modules are self-standing units of study, and you earn credits when you successfully complete them. As a full-time student you will take 120 credits each year (part-time students take between 40 and 80 each year). All courses have compulsory core modules each year, worth 40 credits. Then you can choose from a range of optional modules. Year 1: Introduction to Publishing: Copywriting and text editing (40 credits); Digital Natives (20 credits). Year 2: Contemporary Publishing: The Business of Publishing (40 credits); The Editor (20 credits); Writing for New Media (20 credits); Feature Journalism (20 credits). Year 3: Digital Publishing (40 credits); Make a Book; Digital Literatures; Professional Writing (20 credits); Food Writing and Editing (20 credits); Creative Enterprise Project (40 credits). Combined awards are a very popular choice for many students, allowing flexibility and breadth of study. For information on Media Communications, please view UCAS single honours course profile.
Tuition fees
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What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Publishing
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Media studies
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Publishing
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Media studies
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Only a small number of students study courses within this catch-all subject area, so there isn't a lot of information available on what graduates do when they finish - bear that in mind when you look at any stats. Marketing and PR were the most likely jobs for graduates from these courses, but it's sensible to go on open days and talk to tutors about what you might expect from the course, and what previous graduates did.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Media, journalism and communications
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£17k
£22k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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