Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Language and Media

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

The MA Journalism and Media Communications (with Advanced Research) is a two-year, full-time taught programme. This route is available to those students who would like the opportunity to have a research focus in a specialist area of media practice developing innovative solutions to ‘real world’ problems. 

Study our MA in Journalism and Media Communications and gain the skills you’ll need for a successful, dynamic career in today’s complex global media industries.

This Masters course aims to prepare you in both practice and analysis of global journalism and media. You’ll benefit from our extensive links with the media industry, including the BBC and the Sunday Times, and gain a grounding in all its aspects, from fast-changing multimedia to magazines, advertising and the excitements of sports journalism.

You may have studied humanities subjects and be looking to deepen your research interests. Or you may have been working in areas such as business or healthcare and need communications skills. Whatever your background, taking this MA will enhance your career by equipping you to operate effectively in a professional media environment. Our business-facing approach means you’ll be taught by lecturers with extensive professional experience of print, web design, journalism and PR, giving this MA its strong focus on your future employability.

During the course you’ll explore the synergies between social media, PR and journalism, focusing on current media practice and the technologies of convergence. You’ll consider how to make communication more effective in professional settings by looking at journalism and its associated business models; learn how to interview and report on events; gain expertise in internal and external corporate communications; and analyse the impact of technology on the communications industries.

Modules may change from year to year but are likely to include Corporate Communication, PR and Advertising; International Journalism Trends; Writing for Magazines; Sports Journalism; and Media Production as well as modules on research methodology. You also have a range of options for your final project. This can be a dissertation on a media subject of your choice, a short work placement, the one-year sandwich placement or a larger media research project, depending on your chosen route.

For Media Production you’ll create multimedia – podcasts, video and advertising – for online magazines, pitch and measure a campaign and use social media to promote your work.  A strong practical element in Writing for Magazines will equip you to write for social media and understand how to create content and engage audiences.

Our module International Journalism Trends explores news ownership and media production on a global scale and provides deeper insight into the theoretical and cultural framework of media and journalism. Sports Journalism will give you a grounding in the exciting practices of sports journalism, from interviewing top stars to reporting on breaking sports stories.

Two modules on research methods and critical and theoretical debates will equip you with advanced research skills and the transferable communications skills - including interviewing, identifying a story and building connections - that are vital for roles in PR and Corporate Communications.

In addition to these modules, in your second year you will also take Advanced Media Research (30 Credits) and the Media Project (60 Credits). The focus of these modules is to develop your professional practice by applying skills learnt to advance your career.

Why choose this course?
We give you:

• A broad range of media communications skills with a strong focus on digital media
• Expert lecturers widely experienced in the communications industry
• An opportunity to take a short work placement in a media-based environment
• Insights into emerging trends in the fast-changing digital media world
• Research and transferable skills valued by a range of related industries

This dynamic two year course gives you the knowledge, skills and placement experiences to become a contemporary physiotherapist with a masters qualification. The contemporary curriculum considers the care settings primary, secondary and tertiary to reflect modern patient centred healthcare. Research will underpin practice including a focus on leadership and innovation. You’ll be exposed to seven different placements, usually starting from the first semester, providing you the opportunity of gaining hands-on experience and practical knowledge.

Study with a top History department and be taught from the cutting edge of historical research. Further your skills with a unique film course which combines the study of film as an art form with learning the practical skills of film making.

Through our diverse and inclusive History curriculum you will learn about an array of cultures and identities. What links our work is our focus on people’s history and everyday lives. This is represented strongly in our first year programme, which will give you an insight into the making of the modern world through exploration of faith, magic and medicine, campaigns for freedom and equality, Africa and the world, and America from Hamilton to Trump.

Our expert colleagues in Film take a similar international approach. You will explore the fascinating world of Hollywood, World Cinema, European Cinema as well as the film industry in Britain, so you have insider knowledge of what makes a successful film and appreciate diverse genres, contexts, cultures and filmmaking techniques. 

Throughout your degree, the common link between the two disciplines will be the development of analytical skills. As historians you will learn to analyse historical documents and debates among historians, while in Film you’ll develop the ability to analyse visual material, understand the craft of film making and gain new perspectives on the world.

These analytical skills, honed over the course of your studies, will benefit you in the final year of History if you choose to write a dissertation. This extended piece of work will grow out of a topic that interests you. Previous students have combined their Film and History studies to explore issues of propaganda or the depiction of historical events in film.

We give you: 

• An exceptional History team, conducting world-leading research (REF 2014)
• Stimulating, innovative courses - our History students reported almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course (2018 National Student Survey)
• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• The scope to write a History dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate, potential blending your interests in film and history
• A mixture of intellectual and practical skills.
• An expert film team with in-depth knowledge of the film industry plus the opportunity to get involved with local cinemas and our own bespoke film club.
• CV-building potential and practical experience through work placements and extra-curricular activities. Previous students in this department have had year long paid placements at Warner Brothers in London, Hatfield House and local museums.

Social workers help people find solutions to their problems and live more successfully in their communities. Sometimes this includes helping them confront and manage behaviours that put themselves and others at risk. To succeed, social workers must work not only with service users, but also with their service user’s families and friends, as well as other organisations including the police, NHS and schools. This course covers subjects such as law, partnership working, assessment and interventions, social science, mental health, disabilities, and families and children.

During the three-year BSc programme, you will learn the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the social worker role.  In your first year of study you will undertake modules which provide core knowledge and skills, including human development across the lifespan, working with diverse communities and service users, key methods and interventions and the policy and legislation which underpins practice. The second year and third years of teaching builds on this to explore ideas in depth including issues of risk and need which social workers manage.  The programme concludes in the writing of a dissertation on a topic area of interest to you. Your learning will be supported by a total of 170 placement days and 30 skills development days.

Our BA English Language and Literature enables you to combine your study of the structure, development and use of English as a world language with your reading of literature written in English from all parts of the globe.

You’ll be taught by research-active academics who bring fresh thinking to our accessible, engaging courses. We’ll introduce you to writers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from your own, and also help you explore more familiar literature in ways that challenge your preconceptions.

You’ll enrich your study of English literature in its cultural and historical contexts through modules on the history of the English language. You’ll balance your reading of poetry and drama with analyses of how language is used in the media, to inform or persuade. The common link between the two disciplines will be your analysis of language and how it operates in literature and in real life.

A core module in your first year will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. You’ll also be introduced to English Linguistics, the scientific study of our language, from how language develops in children, to the ways it reflects society and how it changes over time.

Your second-year core modules will focus on English grammar and the sounds of English, and you’ll also study period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards, gaining an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama to the emergence of modernity in the 20 th century. A core module in English Literature will introduce you to a range of theoretical lenses which you can apply to your further study of texts.

You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your degree to reflect your own interests. English Literature options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, 21 st century American literature and literary adaptations, amongst others.

Alongside these, a module on Corpus Studies in English Language will allow you to bring your literature and language interests together. Using Sketch Engine, a text analysis tool that enables you to search vast databases of language, you’ll be able to search literary texts to identify how particular words have been used in novels or literature. With more than 15 billion words available to you, you’ll be able to ask questions no one has asked before and pursue uniquely creative research projects.

One of a range of degrees from the taught Master's Programme at the Department of Computer Science.

This course considers current research and practice in cyber security. You will build the fundamental and advanced aspects of cyber security in terms of theory, practice, policy and security standard to enable critical cyber security decision marking, the extant threats to current and emerging systems and networks and the effective countermeasures to such threats in compliance with information security management standards, and the social, legal and ethical issues relating to cyber security in the context of digital forensics, information security management, penetrating testing and cyber operations.

Our Creative Writing course explores and develops your creative writing practice. We offer a stimulating and supportive place in which to explore your ideas, hone your craft and understand a wide variety of texts. Our creative writing modules are taught by lecturers who are themselves award-winning practitioners and who bridge the gap between creative and academic approaches to writing. They include:

• Poetry lecturer Dr Wayne Holloway-Smith, winner of the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and Seamus Heaney Prize nominee.
• Fiction and Non Fiction writer, Dr Lorna Gibb, author of five books, winner of the Granta Memoir prize and shortlisted for the Sperber Biography prize in the US.
• Dramatists Simon Vinnicombe and Drew Pautz, with writing credits that include the whole gamut of scriptwriting, from work in current production as feature films to Eastenders to the Old Vic and Royal Court. They have international reputations with performances, in original and translated versions, in Canada, Europe and the United States.
• Fiction and non-fiction writer, Helen Gordon, a former editor of Granta, with two acclaimed books and numerous short publications.

Over the three years you can choose specialist creative writing modules in poetry, creative non-fiction, drama, short story writing and prose fiction. As well as fostering your own creative writing skill, you will study a huge range of different texts, both literary and commercial, to gain understanding of what makes a piece successful as well as have an overview of the industry marketplace.

Recent successes for our students include short stories published in Bandit and AnotherLenz magazines and poetry published in Rising and international magazine Poetry London.

In your first year, an underpinning core module, Becoming a Writer, will introduce you to genres and forms and examine the universalities of dialogue, plot and language. A second core module, Identity and Contemporary Writing, presents some of the most exciting new writing as a model for your own work, while optional modules enable you to specialise in writing for the screen, develop your critical skills with texts in different genres, or explore twentieth century culture and society.

Other core modules will develop your writing practice in creative non-fiction, short stories, poetry and writing for the stage, while a range of options will allow you to choose between literary analysis, 20th century English literature or writing a historical documentary.

For your final year, your particular creative interest can be channelled into a long piece of writing, which can be poetry, prose or drama. This work will be discussed and reviewed in tailored workshops that will allow you to both explore and develop your own voice. The third year also offers a wide range of core and option modules that look at different fiction genres, including fantasy, crime, horror and romance, as well as writing serial drama, late Victorian literature, and exploring the lives of women from a historical perspective.

Top reasons to study Creative Writing at the University of Hertfordshire:

• The opportunity to develop and explore your writing skill in an encouraging and supportive environment.
• A brilliant team of lecturers who are all recently published writers in their own field and can use their industry experience, as well as their academic skill and knowledge, to nurture your talent.
• A flexible course of study with a wide range of options to choose from, allowing you to focus on the topics that interest you most.
• Careers development helping you to understand the practicalities of how to get published.
• The chance to study at a University with a Gold Rating for Teaching.
• A dedicated (and free!) writing academy before the academic year starts to help with the return to learning, if you have been away from education.

MSc International Business is an innovative flagship programme designed to help you build a strong understanding of the way organisations operate globally, and help develop specialist skills that enable you to work effectively across national borders.

The programme gives you the opportunity to explore international business from a number of perspectives, including economics, finance, strategy, marketing, management, human resource, and supply chain. There will also be the opportunity to conduct an independent major research project in your area of interest.

Throughout the programme, you will gain a unique combination of skills sought after by employers all over the world. These include communication, numeracy, graphics, team-working, cross-cultural awareness, reflective learning and the ability to critically analyse complex business challenges to reach considered creative solutions.

You will also build a strong network of international contacts – some will become their close friends and a few may even become their future business partners.

Graphic Design is a very broad subject, with students increasingly able to choose a wide variety of career paths after they graduate. This pathway, based around the current successful BA (Hons) Graphic Design course, allows students to gain the specialist skills required for advertising and branding projects. Workshops will introduce art direction, copywriting, campaign development, brand strategy and how to design dynamic visual identities. Dedicated modules will give a thorough grounding and understanding of the commercial applications of both subjects, as well as exploring creative applications of emerging technologies

Our location on the doorstep of London means we’ve been able to develop relationships with some of the world’s biggest and best agencies and brands. In recent years our students have worked on live briefs with the likes of Prada, Lacoste, Sky, and Mini. We’ve also partnered with design and creative agencies that include Droga 5 (named D&AD’s ‘Best Agency 2019’ and Campaign Magazine’s ‘Agency of the Year’ 2019) and DesignStudio (the designers of the Premier League, Airbnb and Deliveroo branding). Students on the Graphic Design & Illustration programme have a phenomenal record in the highest-profile award schemes, including winning a prestigious D&AD New Blood pencil every year since 2011.

• Outstanding connections to industry, including high profile live briefs.
• A forward-thinking curriculum which prepares our graduates for a career in rapidly evolving industries.
• A reputation for success in the most-coveted student award schemes.

This course will give you a deep, considered appreciation for the role physical activity and sports play in today’s global society. You’ll explore the importance of both community and high-performance sport, while looking at the challenges involved in engaging an inactive population. You’ll also examine the significance of large-scale sports events, using key concepts and theories to appraise sports policy and individuals’ behaviour. At every stage, and in every context, we’ll encourage you to use your new-found insights to evaluate sports development practice.