Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Communications with Advanced Research

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

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.

This award is designed to enable students to focus on their own individual interests and professional priorities in any of the modules studied. This award enables experienced professionals to demonstrate the breadth of their experience and professional interests in creative and innovative ways. Less experienced professionals are supported in developing their professional interests in creative and innovative ways.

The MA Education is offered as part of a suite of awards available through the MA Education Framework.

The programme supports you in developing your knowledge and understanding of issues and practice through enquiry and research. The programme provides a range of module choices, but you are encouraged to bring your own ideas and focus on your own particular professional interests.

Through this programme you will

• Develop and deepen your knowledge and understanding of issues relating to education practice through critical reflection, analysis and enquiry
• Develop your ability to critically analyse educational theory and how it links to practice
• Become a member of a supportive learning community and learn from professionals from a range of educational settings
• Become a successful practitioner researcher

With input from professionals, you’ll investigate the tools used by some of the world’s most successful engineers and producers. Using industry-standard studios and technology, you’ll learn techniques to record, process and mix your work to the highest professional standards. You’ll also gain an in-depth understanding of acoustics, studio design and installation, monitoring, webcasting and advanced digital signal processing techniques.

Our programme is Industry Accredited by JAMES, who represent the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS), the Music Producers Guild (MPG) and Associate Industry Bodies.

• Develop excellent technical skills over the course of your degree, and benefit from our high quality studio, listening room, venue and sound resources including those by SSL, Yamaha, Avid, Focusrite, Quested, Genelec, Neumann, TLA, Lexicon and Drawmer to name but a few.
• Excellent industry input is built into the design of the degree awards from a huge number of areas within the wider music industry.
• The degree awards within the programme are designed to expose you to areas of music, sound and audio technology that you might not even know exist yet.  "Coming to this course has really given my brain the kick-start it needed, and I'm beginning to see near endless possibilities with where I can go." - Glenn Osborn, second year student.
• We have a strong record of students from the programme securing placement years between years 2 and 3 of their studies.  Placement destinations include Focusrite, Sound Technology (a leading distributor of high profile brands for the Music Retail and Professional Audio industries), The Famous Company, and a number of recording studios.
• Every year, organisations and companies approach us to recommend our graduating students.
• Music business is woven into your degree study at every year giving you the skills to slot into the music industry (or create your own business).
• Organise and Participate ‘live’ projects, and our ‘JamJar’ showcase live events.
• Benefit from studying in creative arts school and collaborate with filmmakers and animators in realising fully featured, professional standard media projects.
• We have some of the best resources in the UK, including the 39 million pound entertainment venue – the Forum where our students perform, and engineer every month, and state-of-the art music studios and film and TV facilities in our 12 million pound building for Music, Film and media.

As with our aerospace technology with management degree, this broad-based aviation course has an emphasis on computer-aided engineering – including 3D modelling, computer-aided analysis, simulation and computer-aided manufacture. You’ll develop your practical skills in workshops and well-equipped laboratories, while your piloting skills are developed in the second half of the course through the University’s flight simulators and tuition at a nationally recognised flight centre in the UK or US. There are additional fees for this but at a discounted rate. You’ll also take part in group work, which will enable you to develop your team-working skills and improve your employability.

More about the Course

This programme develops a range of skills applicable in different branches of engineering, reinforcing them through practical experience as you work towards obtaining a UK National Private Pilot's Licence.  Flying lessons are offered by a nationally-recognised flight centre.  Whilst this is an additional expense for students on this course they will give University of Hertfordshire students an attractive discounted rate.

In the first year of your BSc Honours degree course in Aerospace Technology with Pilot Studies you will gain a broad grounding in engineering, focusing on technology, information technology and management, including a basic introduction to the aerospace industry.

In your second year you will build on your knowledge of core technologies, IT and management skills as they are applied within the aerospace industry. This includes studying aerodynamics with, wind tunnel testing, design of aircraft structures and components, using commercial standard software used within the aerospace industry. You will also study elements of the PPL ground school syllabus such as meteorology, human factors, air law and navigation topics.

In your final year you concentrate on the application of aerospace technology - including aircraft performance, propulsion, manufacturing, and avionic systems - and key business skills. A project to design a complete aircraft fosters teamwork capabilities where your skills as a pilot will be put to the test in validating the design through the use of a flight simulator. You will also develop specialist knowledge by undertaking a major project on a relevant topic, and have further opportunity for flying. A key element is undertaking all pilot training necessary to take the NPPL examinations at a local flying school.

• This is the ideal course if you are interested in a role that combines technical knowledge with piloting
• The student with greatest flying performance is awarded a Scholarship, to extend their pilot training after graduation
• You will have access to excellent equipment: flight simulator, wind tunnels, specialist laboratories and CAE software
• Provides potential pilots with a high-level qualification for alternative employment in the aerospace sector
• Our BSc Aerospace Technology with Pilot Studies students have previously completed work placement years at companies including: Inflite Services, Virgin Atlantic Engineering, and British Airways
• Recent Aerospace Technology graduates have gone on to work at organisations including Airbus Defence and Space, Fujitsu, and Toyota
• You can gain access to this course with a broad range of entry qualifications and an enthusiasm for flying

Motorsport’s not just exciting entertainment, but also an important part of automotive development. It challenges engineers to be innovative in using the latest technologies to design high-performance vehicles. You’ll find most modules on this course are common with those on our general automotive engineering degree. However, you’ll also learn about aerodynamics of high- speed vehicles and high-performance engine design, testing and mapping. In your MEng year, you’ll deepen your understanding of the industry. One of the big highlights is to get involved in designing, building and racing a car at the IMechE Formula Student events. This course is accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is the first step towards chartered engineer status.

• This MEng in Automotive Engineering with Motorsport gives you the opportunity to design, build and race a single-seater race car in the UK Formula Student Competition and can get involved from your first year onwards, if you wish
• You will have use of our excellent facilities within the Automotive Centre i.e. advanced engine test cells and a vehicle ride simulator for the testing of car suspension systems, plus the latest software packages for CAD/CAM
• You will benefit from studying at a very well established university within the automotive industry as we have been running automotive degree programmes for some forty years
• Our MEng Automotive Engineering with Motorsport students have previously completed work placement years at companies including: McLaren Automotive, Mercedes-Benz Grand Priz Limited and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains;
• Your MEng studies involve an extra year and will provide you with a broader and deeper understanding of the subject;
• Recent Automotive Engineering graduates have gone on to work at organisations including: Williams Grand Prix Engineering, McLaren Racing Limited, and Renault Sport.

The course has been developed to enable you to develop advanced knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Business Analytical Methods and Information Technology
• Business Problem Structuring and Solving
• Consultancy Skills in the Business Environment

These themes are explored through modules in Business Analytics, Computer Simulation, Creative Problem Solving, Consultancy Skills and Business Statistics. The course also includes a project based module where you will solve a problem for a client using the knowledge and skills acquired during your study. There is then a further applied consultancy project, which allows you to independently research, investigate and analyse a current business problem.

The course focuses on

• Computational, mathematical, philosophical and management science approaches to business analytics
• Developing problem solving skills
• Enhancing your ability to use business software and other information technology
• Encouraging independent and creative thinking
• Effective communication in all formats appropriate to a business environment.

In today’s fast-paced media world, people with the ability to write, design and harness new technologies are in high demand.

Studying our BA Media degree will equip you with a portfolio of practical skills as well as a theoretical and critical understanding of Media. Our industry-focused approach, combining theory and practice, will help build your confidence, give you the  communication and technological skills required for the industry and help you plan your career.

You’ll learn how to design your own app proposal, build and edit brilliant websites and create a hard-hitting ad campaign, including PR. You’ll also learn what makes a good news story or feature, and how to write one. Using industry standard software and equipment, our professionally-experienced academics and researchers will help you develop skills across divergent platforms and for different audiences.

These hands-on skills will be underpinned by an understanding of the global media industry, and the legal and ethical contexts of your work. In your first year you’ll explore Global Media and Society, looking at who owns the news, at the influence of the BBC and commercial entities such as Sky and Murdoch’s News Corporation, and consider issues such as fake news.

Other core modules (courses) include introductions to Media Communications and Visual Communications – how to use text and graphics to reach key audiences – while you’ll gain technical skills through Photoshop or animation projects.

In your second year you’ll learn key research methods and skills including how to conduct interviews and run focus groups, and how to pitch to different client groups. You’ll explore radio journalism and social media, while a module on App Design will help you understand the commercial potential for your ideas.

If you’re into music, film, food or travel, you’ll have opportunities to create magazine layouts and pdfs for online publications on whatever subject interests you. A video option will give you the chance to create a brand for a product or service.

In your final year you’ll develop and refine your ideas and skills further. Whether you’re keen to work in web design, social media, customer relations, PR or advertising, the skills you’ve gained will prepare you to be tomorrow’s creative entrepreneurs, confident in using different platforms to get ahead in your chosen career.

• Communication skills (both oral and written),  enabling you to create and publish content across a broad range of formats
• Theory and practice – your critical understanding of Media will help futureproof your practical skills as an author and publications designer
• Individual support – a personal tutor will help you grow in confidence and support your development
• Industry insights – our Media Matters series of talks are delivered by professionals from a wide variety of media including TV, national newspapers and start-ups.
• An international perspective through the chance to study abroad 

A degree in English Literature with Film will help you grow from passionate reader and film-fan into a critical thinker able to understand literary and cinematic works by applying a wide range of critical, theoretical, political and historical perspectives. The disciplines of Literature and Film Studies are highly complementary, and as you progress through your degree you will find many fruitful connections between them.

This fascinating degree is both geographically and historically wide-ranging. This means you’ll study literature written in English from the Renaissance to the present day, by writers from all parts of the globe; and alongside this, you’ll explore film and television from America, Asia, Britain and the rest of Europe, from the earliest days of moving images to some of the most exciting contemporary work being produced today.

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

Whatever your taste in literature, there will be something to interest and provoke you. From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Jane Eyre, from Paradise Lost to Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, we’ll broaden your literary horizons and hone your critical thinking.

A core Literature 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. Alongside this you can choose to revisit Shakespeare and consider his cultural relevance today through fictional, cinematic and TV adaptations; or to deepen your understanding of Gothic writing by tracing its origins back to the Romantic era.

In your second year you’ll focus on period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards and gain an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama, via Augustan poetry and the emergence of the novel in the 18 th century, to the radical transformations of the Victorian age, and the emergence of modernity in the twentieth century.

You’ll also have the opportunity to consider ways of reading that go beyond textual analysis or historical context, such as understanding literature through the political or ideological lens of Marxism, feminism and post-colonial theory. You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your literary study to reflect your own interests. Themed options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, Renaissance tragedy, European crime fiction, literary adaptations and the culture of print in the 18th century.

At the same time, your minor in Film will further hone your analytical skills, and give you a sophisticated appreciation of the craft of filmmaking. You’ll look at how the film and television industry has evolved and adapted to new technologies, how novels are recreated in film and how film gives us fresh perspectives on the world. You’ll also have opportunities to design and run film programmes, write and produce your own short films and hear guest lectures by film, television and media professionals. Topics covered range from silent movies to the Golden Age of Hollywood, the birth of the blockbuster, the influence of European style on American film, the way digital technology has transformed the industry, and why franchises have proved so successful, from James Bond and Star Wars to the Marvel cinematic universe.

Study with a top history department and be taught from the cutting edge of historical research. We are ranked first among all History departments in the country for the social and cultural impact of our research and fifth for the overall quality of our research. Our world leading experts have published widely, won prizes for their work, and contribute to national and international television and radio. Our publications include a contribution to Harry Potter: A History of Magic, the companion book to the recent exhibition of the same name at the British Library.

Through our diverse and inclusive curriculum students will learn about an array of cultures and identities. Topics range from magic and witchcraft, to propaganda and popular protest, to health and family life.

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.

The modules you take in your second and third year allow you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting; you might focus on a region, such as Europe, or a particular period, such as the twentieth century. Whichever path you choose, you will find challenging and stimulating courses.

In your final year, you demonstrate your research skills by producing a dissertation on a topic of your choosing. Previous students have been inspired by their year of study abroad, while 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. One of the recent presidents of the University’s Students’ Union wrote her dissertation during her final year of study with us on changing perceptions of the devil, while one of our final year students won the British Commission for Maritime History Prize in 2016 for his dissertation on the East India Company.

We give you: 

• An exceptional academic team, conducting world-leading research
• Stimulating, innovative courses - our 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 opportunity to write a dissertation on a topic about which you are passionate
• CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities

This course has been developed in accordance with industry guidelines to give you a professionally grounded, challenging and creative education, focusing on architecture, principles of urbanism, landscape and building construction. You’ll work within a professional, studio-based architectural environment on a variety of industry projects, including houses, shops, museums, public buildings, squares, cities and civic centres.You’ll also visit and analyse places and engage with the social, political and economic factors that influence architecture and society. By working individually and in multidisciplinary teams, you’ll gain an understanding of cultural and urban conditions, learn how to improve the built environment and develop a sharp commercial awareness of the architecture industry.

The BA (Hons) Architecture award will provide graduates with a professional network to facilitate early career development after graduation.

The School of Creative Arts prides itself on providing our students with a strong technical and professional design education, and we place significant value on the preparation of our students for the world of work.  

The Architecture programme has a range of world-class industry partners who engage with us in teaching and learning and in providing current and future thinking on contemporary practice.

We place our students in a unique position to understand, explore, and intervene in the changing landscape as it evolves from the ideal social settlement of the Garden Cities of the early twentieth century to the post-war New Towns and future cities.

Find out more about our expert teaching staff.