Media Communications and Publishing (Professional Placement Year)
Entry requirements
A level
A Level - grades BBC-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
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
**Revolutionise how media creators communicate to audiences with our Media Communications degree and combine it with Publishing and learn to shape stories, information and ideas for print and digital.**
Throughout this Media Communications degree, you’ll develop your creative skills in marketing, creative strategy, PR, journalism and social media management and prepare for success across the thriving communications sector. You’ll gain experience working on cross-platform campaigns on communication strategies, explore political media making and investigative journalism, and delve into producing social media content, PR packs and augmented reality trails.
Taught by a team of researchers and creative media strategists and creators, you’ll learn how to rethink media communications for social change. You’ll study online influencers and diverse forms of screen representation, explore the ethics of social media platforms like TikTok and alternative approaches to journalism, emerging marketing practices for immersive experiences and beyond.
In your final year, you’ll join The Studio in Bath, the University’s new city-centre innovation hub for creative media technology and Immersive Promotion Design, our own in-house immersive marketing company. By collaborating with the region’s media and communications sector on cross-platform campaigns, feature articles and activist media, you’ll grow into a communications professional, realising your vision for a more inclusive media landscape. As fresh voices in these organisations, you’ll gain on the ground experience in the industry which will enable you to leap into a career in communications, PR, marketing and social media.
Publishing at Bath Spa can be taken with subjects such as Creative Writing, English Literature and is also available as a Single Honours course in Journalism and Publishing. Our approach is characterised by innovative approaches, creative studio-based collaborative working, and high-quality making across all published forms from handmade and print to digital and live.
Publishing is one of the UK’s largest creative industries, which shapes and presents content across a wide range of subjects. Publishers find an audience for a variety of publications, from books and magazines to innovative apps and websites.
We’ll equip you with a wide range of the latest digital making skills, such as Adobe InDesign, web and multimedia social content, alongside core publishing skills such as copywriting and editing, design, layout and marketing.
You'll also get access to key industry resources such as Nielsen Bookscan sales data, the BookMachine online industry community and Society of Young Publishers South West events, some of which are hosted at the University.
Through collaborative project development, you'll acquire essential creative skills in working with others, carving out your own role and achieving high-quality results. You’ll graduate with industry experience and a stunning digital portfolio of your work.
**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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
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
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.
£18k
£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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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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