Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Communications

at University of Hertfordshire - De Havilland Campus United Kingdom

This is a fascinating time to be a journalist, with traditional media like newspapers, magazines, television and radio, jostling for attention alongside online news, blogs, podcasts and social media. This exciting course will develop your practical, professional writing skills, shed new light on how the media works and get you some hands-on experience that employers are really looking for.

Our inspiring, industry-experienced academic team will develop your journalistic skills, introducing you to the concepts of ‘news’ and ‘features’, and teaching you how to carry out research, conduct interviews, structure your writing and get published. As the course progresses, you’ll discover how journalism varies across video, radio and the internet, hear from inspiring industry guest speakers and take placements in real newsrooms.

You’ll also delve into the history of media, its role in society, how it shapes our views and how new technologies are disrupting traditional communication channels. It’s this combination of the theoretical with the highly practical that will turn you into a skilled, well- rounded media practitioner ready to launch an exciting, rewarding career.

Real-world skills — Learn how to create and publish content on a broad range of formats including print multimedia and within online platforms?

Bridging theory and practice — Students studying this course will gain a theoretical and critically reflective understanding of media whilst gaining practical skills as an author and designer of published material in variety of formats including print based publications to broadcast and advertising campaigns to web based publications. This means that The majority Almost all of our courses taught are assessed by 100% coursework.

Value added — Every student is allocated a personal tutor to monitor and advise on their overall academic and personal development supplemented with drop-in skills sessions and specialist tutors to refine and polish your writing. Our Media Matters series of Media Industry talks and Creative Writing talks are career-focused, delivered by industry specialist professionals.

Further information on the opportunities available for students and graduates on this degree.

Indicative course structure
A strong business degree is an incredible start to your career. By combining it with accounting you’ll have the chance to build a firm foundation in business with a strong focus on accounting practices.

You’ll study a whole range of key business areas, including accounting, marketing, operations, management, human resources and the role of business in society. We’ll also help you explore everything from strategic leadership, performance and business management to ethics, enterprise and creative problem-solving.

• Develop important skills and knowledge required to become an accountant.
• Enhance your employability skills by undertaking a 12-month work placement to gain the first-hand experience.
• Develop strong intellectual capabilities.

• BAFTA approved. BAFTA endorsement is a significant recognition of the industry focus of the course and means that you can be sure you will be studying on a course that has been recognised as fully industry-relevant by THE leading organisation in the sector. As stated on the BAFTA website, "The eligible courses have been identified by industry professionals as producing students ready to work in film, games or television".
• Develop a showreel demonstrating your creative talent in composing music and designing sound for a wide range of media (video, film, video games), opening up a 360º horizon of possibilities and opportunities for work.
• Collaborate with MA Film students in our School of Creative Arts.
• Learn in the university’s top-class facilities, assisted by tutors who are themselves industry professionals

Why choose this course?

• This course is conceived to meet the current industry’s demand for creative professionals who are equally versed in music composition as well as sound design, and can work effectively across a range of media – whether it’s video, narrative film or interactive games.
• All aspects of the soundtrack are systematically explored in both linear and non-linear environments, leading to a fuller understanding of the discipline, of the industry, and of the production processes.
• On this course, you will harness the whole gamut of sonic resources for your creative practice – from acoustic instruments to electroacoustic sound, utilising all the latest studio techniques and technologies.
• You’ll study in the University’s top-class studios, supported by tutors who are experienced industry professionals, with potential to collaborate with students from our MA Film course.
• With targeted sessions and expert guidance, you’ll develop a showreel demonstrating your creative talent in providing sound and music for a wide range of media (video, film, video games), opening up a 360º horizon of possibilities and opportunities for work.
• Explore our Master of Sound Student Success blog to find out how our alumni have progressed since completing the course.

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

This course brings together several distinct but interrelated themes, to promote broad understanding and the examination of diverse areas in Sports and Psychology. The dominant programme themes are Physical Activity and Sports Development, and Sports Business Management which develop in terms of depth and complexity as the level of study increases. These are studied alongside research methods required for Higher Education, where students have the opportunity to further develop their research skills and experience within the second and third year. Students will also study Social, Cognitive and Developmental Psychology, and will be introduced to study skills for psychology.

• Opportunity to visit Utrecht University as part of a Sports Business Management exchange
• Final year project poster presentation day: opportunity for final year students to experience a conference-style event, which is attended by the External Examiner. 
• Excellent links with alumni who often offer opportunities to current undergraduate students
• Student mentoring scheme whereby first year students access support from postgraduate, final year and second year students who, in turn, enhance their CVs by acting as mentors
• You will benefit from some of the best university-based sports and fitness facilities in the UK.
• Opportunities to support research.

Excitement, international travel and working in a high- performing team to achieve success are just some of the major attractions of motorsport. It’s an industry that allows you to work at the cutting edge of automotive technology. This course will give you the skills necessary to support motorsport engineers as they push the boundaries and strive for optimum vehicle performance. Benefiting from world-class expertise and facilities, you’ll study a wide range of modules, including the fundamentals of vehicle and engine design, as well as high-tech computer-aided design and manufacturing techniques. You’ll also have the unique chance to work with engineering students in designing, building and racing a Formula Student race car.

• This BSc Honours degree course in Motorsport Technology is part of a suite of automotive related degree courses
• Involvement in Formula Student Competition from year 1 - design, build and race single-seater race car
• Excellent facilities in automotive engineering technology
• World Class Expertise NB materials, vehicle dynamics, structural analysis, aerodynamics and CAE
• Our BSc Motorsport Technology students have previously completed work placement years at companies including: VW Racing, Hyperion Motor Racing, and RP Aero Systems
• Recent Automotive Technology graduates have gone on to work at organisations including: Mercedes Benz, Vantage Engineering, and Bentley Motors
• You do not need an A-level in Mathematics or Physics to gain entry to this course, you simply need the correct UCAS points and your enthusiasm for the subject.

More about the Course
Motorsport is not just exciting entertainment, but also an important part of the development side of the automotive industry.  The competitiveness of the sport drives engineers to develop innovative ideas and take advantage of up and coming technologies that, if successful, could be employed across the main automotive industry in future.  This course will give you the combination of skills necessary to support motorsport engineers as they strive for efficiency and optimum performance in their vehicle design.

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 School has a strong international reputation for research in this area and this expertise influences this course which explores current research and practice in data science and analytics, extending your knowledge and understanding of the principles and practice of obtaining data from various sources, the essential methods for pre-processing and cleaning data, data analytics and modelling. This MSc can lead to a career such as a data scientist.

Graduates obtaining this award will be equipped to pursue research to PhD level, or to enter specialist employment in technically advanced and unpredictable working environments requiring sound judgment and the exercise of personal responsibility and initiative.

The BA (Hons) Education Degree provides important multidisciplinary tools for studying education. It selectively draws from fields such as history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics aiming to promote critical understandings of such things as teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment. Importantly, it considers the moral, social and political issues which intertwine with these, such as inclusion, access and equity.

Education is important to the world. Studying it to the best of your ability is to exercise an equally important responsibility.

Joining a university is joining a culture. We co-create this culture through the way we behave:

• As open-minded scholars
• As caring individuals respectful of each other’s stories and ideas, and by
• Making the best use of the rich resources the University has to offer such as studying the core texts and beyond. 

In this spirit, and throughout the program, you will:

• Routinely be encouraged to share your works-in-progress in both face-to-face and online environments
• Be given tools with the expectation that you’ll use to think reflexively about education and your own learning journey; and
• Be given many opportunities to experience and explore real work environments inside and outside the University that will help to prepare you for the next phase in your journey.

Our BA Politics & International Relations and Philosophy degree allows you to explore the ethical and philosophical questions that help to shape and challenge national and international politics and political agendas.

Here at Hertfordshire, as well as learning about philosophical and political theory, you’ll be doing rigorous and creative thinking of your own. Our internationally regarded academics will help you learn to address the arguments of others, to understand and engage with them so that you can arrive at your own conclusions and create your own original work.

You will also explore topical practical questions. Issues that arise as a result of increasing political focus on different dimensions of security, for example, are raised in the modules ‘Terrorism and Security’ and ‘The State in the 21st Century’. Philosophy will help you to understand the ethical implications and social situatedness of security politics through modules such as ‘Social and Political Philosophy’, ‘Contemporary Moral Philosophy” and ‘Nietzsche, Genealogy and Morality’.

Key social issues, such as, gender equality will be addressed from the perspective of both disciplines in ‘The Politics of Gender’ and in ‘Feminist Philosophy’. Modules will also debate the ways in which religious belief is a driving force behind social and political events in today’s globalised world.

You will be taught by experts who work at the cutting edge of their research disciplines and will 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.

You will be able to undertake a placement or study abroad year to gain professional experience or increase global awareness to build skills relevant to your studies in Politics and International Relations and Philosophy.