Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Journalism and Creative Writing

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

Do you have a story to tell, or have you always wanted to be a writer? Perhaps you want to learn how to be a critical reader or gain a greater understanding of the craft of writing.

Studying English Literature and Creative Writing with us will help you find your voice, whether as a poet, playwright, novelist or scholar of literature.
This joint course combines the study of literature with the practice of creative writing. Studying literature will give you a greater understanding of how literary texts work, while this improved critical insight will help you put principles into practice in your own creative writing.

We offer a stimulating and supportive place in which to explore your ideas, hone your craft and understand literary 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 literature. They include our poetry lecturer Wayne Holloway-Smith, winner of the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and Seamus Heaney Prize nominee.

Over the three years you can choose specialist creative writing modules in poetry, creative non-fiction, drama, short story writing and prose fiction. Those specialisms are reflected in our English Literature modules, which range from children’s and young adult literature to film adaptations and work written in English from all over the world.

By the time you graduate, you will have a polished piece of work which has the potential for publication. 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, introduces you to some of the most exciting new writing as a model for your own work, while an optional module enables you to specialise in writing for the screen.
The practicalities of getting published or working in literary publishing are explored in a creative writing module in your second year taught by a former editor of Granta, the renowned magazine of new writing. For your final year your particular creative interest can be channelled into a long piece of writing, which can be poetry, prose or drama.

Our sports coaching degree gives you the opportunity to explore coaching theory, research and practice. You’ll focus on contemporary areas of sports coaching study, including coach education, learning and practical skills. You’ll also develop your own specialised coaching knowledge, attributes and abilities through a whole range of theoretical and hands-on experiences. Throughout, we’ll encourage you to shape your own professional development journey and achieve the appropriate vocational coaching qualifications to take your career in the direction you want. We’ll also emphasise the importance of developing your academic and research strengths, improving your confidence, credibility and critical writing skills.

This course follows a similar path to our geography degree, but after the First Year focuses more on the processes and landforms of the natural environment whilst also looking at human impacts on these. Fieldwork learning, and practical application are at the heart of this course, and you'll develop skills using our own field station, specialist laboratories and geographical information analysis facilities. You will go on two fully-funded field trips in the UK and Switzerland to learn more about the challenges of living in mountainous environments and climate change. Specialist modules include earth surface processes and landforms, quaternary environmental change, glaciology, and natural hazards and disaster reduction. Areas of optional study include conservation and food supplies, environmental problem solving, leisure and tourism, and digital information and location intelligence. Depending on how your interests evolve, you'll have a chance to switch between the different geography courses.

• No additional charges for compulsory UK and overseas residential field courses in Year 1 and Year 2
• Outstanding employability levels after graduation
• High student satisfaction, a vibrant student society and a strong staff-student community
• Regular opportunities for students to assist staff with field research and to undertake fieldwork in pursuit of final year dissertations in locations that have included Iceland, Switzerland and the High Arctic
• Excellent work placement and study abroad opportunities and strong links with local and national employers

On the BA in Politics and International Relations you’ll study the central challenges that politics faces in the 21st century. You’ll develop the skills to understand, analyse, and critically debate the issues and arguments that shape national and international politics today. Our Politics and International Relations degree allows you to take your interest in politics and add the knowledge and training to turn it into a successful career in the world of local and global politics, the media or business.

The MSc Sustainable Planning programme for 2019/2020 consists of three courses in MSc Sustainable Planning, MSc Sustainable Planning and Environmental Management and MSc Sustainable Planning and Transport. The programme provides students with the skills and expertise they need in order to meet contemporary sustainability challenges in planning, allowing them to contribute to a much needed and fast changing professional area. 

The Royal Town Planning Institute has formally granted accreditation to the University of Hertfordshire for its Master’s degrees in Sustainable Planning.

The breadth of material covered in our MSc in Sustainable Planning gives students the skills they need in order to meet contemporary sustainability challenges in planning. Planning has a key role to play in improving the condition of life in our towns, cities and rural areas. Towns and cities themselves impact on global sustainability and can play a very influential role in tackling global environmental, social and economic problems. Equally, implementing sustainability principles within urban and rural areas is essential for the well-being of the local residents and improvement of the local environment. Creating more sustainable towns and cities will be central to the future of society and the planet. The planning system is so important because it provides one of the most sophisticated mechanisms for regulating environmental change. Recent policy changes have made planning in neighbourhoods and in communities even more important.

Increasingly planners are being required to facilitate the creation of more sustainable urban environments. This requires expertise and skills in a diverse range of disciplines and nationally there is a shortage of relevant skills. This course offers both personal opportunities for students to gain valuable skills that make them highly employable, and allows them to contribute to a much needed and fast changing professional area.

This exciting new course is specifically aimed at people wishing to gain expertise in contemporary sustainability issues. It provides graduates with excellent career opportunities in planning, environmental management, urban design, community development, regeneration, transport management, climate change mitigation and other planning related careers.

The course is Suitable for

• Students who have work experience in planning or related discipline and require a postgraduate qualification and subsequent professional accreditation to develop their career further.
• New graduates starting their career in planning with a first degree in geography, environmental science, conservation, sociology, architecture and urban studies.
• Students from other disciplines who have developed an interest in planning from voluntary work, work experience or project work.

Key Features

• A combination of stimulating academic study and strong career orientation
• Focus on the role of planning in addressing key sustainability concerns: climate change; urban sprawl; social cohesion; and demands for personal mobility
• Using the latest techniques including GIS; urban design tools and community design engagement techniques such as charettes
• Practical problem based approach to learning that uses real planning issues and case studies
• Flexibility of study based on a programme of short courses scheduled over two or three days at weekends
• UK field trips including visits to the start of town planning nearby at Letchworth and the first New Towns
• International study visit to look at European best practice in France and Germany.
• It is structured around a modular short course structure to enable flexibility whilst working. This allows part-time student to not have to take more than 12 days off a year (if studying over 2/3 years).
• Networking opportunities per module with lunch and refreshments provided within your fees.

Our BA History and Philosophy gives you the opportunity to study two subjects that will help you to make sense of the world around you. 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 beliefs, magic and medicine, campaigns for freedom and equality, Africa and the world, and America from Hamilton to Trump.

In your philosophy modules, you will be introduced to a variety of philosophical issues ranging from the nature of reality, knowledge and mind, to questions about how we should live, what we should value, and what would be the best way of organizing society.

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 Philosophy you’ll assess the arguments of others, arriving at your own conclusions on deep, important issues. 

These analytical skills, honed over the course of your studies, will benefit you in the final year, if you choose to write a dissertation. This extended piece of work, available either in History or in Philosophy, will grow out of a topic that interests you. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad. Others have worked on the history of jiu jitsu, women code breakers at Bletchley Park, the Notting Hill riots, and vice and sexuality in 17th-century London.  And Philosophy students have worked on the ethical issues of playing video games, the nature of the imagination, and environmental philosophy and the obligations of the state.

We give you: 

• An exceptional History team, conducting world-leading research (REF 2014), and a Philosophy team ranked in the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide (2017 QS rankings). 
• Stimulating, innovative courses - History students reported almost 94% overall satisfaction with their course (2018 National Student Survey)
• A flexible program of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting and the scope to write a dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate
• The opportunity to expand your horizons by studying abroad at the end of your second year
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

All three of our model design courses share the same First Year, giving you an excellent introduction to model making, prop making, sculpture and special effects. Building on this foundation, you’ll focus on developing your artistic and technical skills to produce models, animatronics and other effects. You’ll also gain hands on experience of the specialist equipment used to produce rain, fire, smoke, wind and snow, and learn about the safe use of pyrotechnics.

In Second Year, you will acquire an understanding of special effects design and receive a thorough grounding in the practical aspects of this. You will be able to combine your artistic and technical skills to produce animatronics, action props, models and special effects.

In your Final Year, you’ll work on major projects and create a professional portfolio to impress employers. Throughout your studies you’ll use a mix of traditional techniques and modern technology. This course is accredited by Creative Skillset, reflecting the highest standard of teaching and facilities.

• Combine your artistic and technical skills to produce animatronics, action props, models and special effects.
• Gain ‘hands on’ experience of special effects equipment used to produce, rain, fire, smoke, wind and snow etc. and learn about the safe use of pyrotechnics.
• Use of traditional workshop machinery and cutting-edge technologies, plus access to specialist industry standard facilities for animatronics, model making and prop making.
• Close contacts with industry, which provide outstanding work experience opportunities and collaborative projects.
• High graduate employment rates for Special Effects students. 
• The only Creative Skillset Tick accredited Model and Special Effects course in the UK.

The MSc Medical Microbiology will equip students with the skills and in-depth knowledge required to have an impactful career in a range of sectors such. The programme will develop extensive theoretical and practical laboratory skills in graduates, building on the research expertise of the programme team, including techniques and theoretical skills such as: antimicrobial susceptibility testing, antibiotic resistance-gene analysis, microbial identification (16SrRNA sequencing and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry), parasite identification, next generation sequencing analysis, bacteriophage isolation and purification, antibiotic discovery and characterisation, and mammalian cell culture. With our excellent facilities, emphasis on practical work, and teaching underpinned by the latest research, you will be qualified for research and development positions in biopharmaceutical companies as well as a wide range of other non-laboratory roles in industry and academia. The course will make use of expert external speakers from the biopharmaceutical industry as well as academic experts from other universities and from University of Hertfordshire staff.

This course will Provide:-

• Medical Microbiology is an important discipline within the biomedical sciences and there is a high demand for well-qualified graduates.
• This course is a natural progression for anyone completing an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, or Microbiology, who is interested in a career in the Pharmaceutical industry. 
• The course will enable you to apply your biosciences knowledge to the particular challenges of understanding microbial pathogenesis, disease transmission, and the challenges around the use of, and resistance to antibiotics.
• We make full use of our network of contacts and location at the heart of the UK to get numerous expert contributions from industry and healthcare professionals.
• The course is also offered as a part-time option to suit students who may already be in employment and wish to broaden their knowledge of medical microbiology with support from their employer.

Philosophy explores and challenges the assumptions that frame the way we think, act and see the world around us. Film is one particularly powerful medium in which this can be achieved. 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 whilst engaging with a variety of deep philosophical issues.

In your first year, you’ll be introduced to film criticism, genre and style. In your philosophy modules, you will be introduced to a variety of philosophical issues ranging from the nature of reality, knowledge and mind, to questions about how we should live, what we should value, and what would be the best way of organizing society. There is also a philosophy module dedicated to exploring the scope and limits film and what it can represent about reality.

All our philosophy lecturers are active researchers, so you’ll share the excitement of doing original work in a supportive and highly-rated academic community. Our Philosophy team is in the top 15 in the Guardian League Table 2019 and rates as one of the 100 best Philosophy departments worldwide in the 2017 QS rankings.

In your second year, you’ll be able to select areas on which to focus, such as on influential works of philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and social and political philosophy. There is also a philosophy of art module, which tackles the question of the relation between artistic representations (in various media) and reality. In your film modules, you’ll also gain knowledge of film production and you’ll think more about European or US cinema.

In your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to make your own video essay as one of your film modules, and will delve deeper into more specialist areas of philosophy, such as the philosophy of language, the philosophy of psychology, or feminist philosophy.

• A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
• An exceptional academic team, conducting internationally renowned research
• Stimulating, innovative courses that allow you to make rewarding connections between two disciplines
• CV-building potential 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.
• 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.

The University of Hertfordshire’s LLM International Commercial Law degree is the ideal course to equip you for a specialist career in the area of international commerce. The combination of compulsory and optional modules will ensure that you have a solid grounding on which you can build with your chosen specialisms.

You will study two compulsory modules: International Commercial Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. International Commercial Law will cover such topics as the choice of law/jurisdiction clauses, different types of international contracts and their respective implications for the parties involved, the international conventions applicable to international commerce, the role of documentation, and finance and insurance.

The Alternative Dispute Resolution module will examine commercial arbitration and investment-treaty arbitration and the issues involved, mediation as a means of dispute resolution, and the skills and attributes required of a mediator.

Both modules are assessed by way of written coursework. The Alternative Dispute Resolution module also includes a practical assessment, which might take the form of an oral presentation to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of international arbitration, along with the necessary practical skills.

Why choose this course?
You can be sure that the teaching you receive at Hertfordshire Law School is regularly reviewed and updated to make certain that it continues to be relevant in today’s rapidly changing international commercial environment. Taught by specialists in their field and underpinned by cutting-edge research, it focuses on the development of the intellectual, transferable, interpersonal and practical skills you will need for your future in the world of international commerce.

The range of optional modules that are available enable you to tailor your course according to the career route that you plan to follow, so you can be sure you will leave with the skills and knowledge you need to thrive. You can combine similar pathways if you wish, and graduate with a named joint pathway as well.

In addition to the compulsory and optional modules, the University’s co-curricular programme is specially designed to enhance these skills.