Program Overview
Media and Communications BA (Hons)
The Media and Communications degree at Keele seamlessly blends theoretical and practical elements, enabling you to explore and appreciate the vital role media plays in our rapidly changing world while simultaneously developing your creative abilities and professional portfolio.
Course summary
Media plays a pivotal role in shaping our society, our worldview, and our sense of self. The BA Media and Communications programme at Keele will equip you with the essential tools to critically understand, analyse, and research the media, while empowering you to harness its potential for creative communication and impactful storytelling, preparing you for a successful career in the creative industries and many related fields.
Why study Media and Communications at Keele University?
- No. 1 in the UK. Britain's best university, as ranked by students (Student Crowd University Awards, 2022)
- Access to the Media Suite – gain practical skills using film, sound and image production facilities
- Film Studies and Media at Keele is ranked Top 10 in England for student positivity* NSS 2023 (Broad-based universities) *based on overall student satisfaction, which is an average score across 27 questions asked in the NSS
- Work Placement opportunities to enhance your career prospects
- Discover diverse cultures through an International Year at a partner university across the globe
Course overview
The Media and Communications degree at Keele seamlessly blends theoretical and practical elements, enabling you to explore and appreciate the vital role media plays in our rapidly changing world while simultaneously developing your creative abilities and professional portfolio.
Course structure
The module details given below are indicative, they are intended to provide you with an idea of the range of subjects that are taught to our current students.
Year 1
- Filmmaking Fundamentals: This first-year practice-centred module provides you with the foundational technical knowledge and theoretical tools for approaching creative filmmaking work, and an understanding of the ethics of creative work in contemporary AI contexts.
- Visual Representation: This module builds your knowledge of how meaning is constructed, communicated, and interpreted in visual media texts, from advertising to news and social media.
- Media Industries: This module introduces you to key tools you can use to analyse the social contexts, cultures, politics, and economics of media industries.
- Becoming a Cultural Citizen: This module provides you with the foundational tools and skills you need to develop your student profile.
Year 2
- Storytelling for Change: Learn how to tell compelling and persuasive multimedia stories about the issues you care about.
- Researching audiences and users: Understanding media audiences and users is fundamental to analysing how meaning is communicated and negotiated.
- Documentary Film: Building on the practical skills and critical filmmaking knowledge acquired in first year, this module introduces you to the exciting specialist field of documentary filmmaking.
- The Mediated Self: How do we draw on media texts, practices, and technologies to understand, construct, and represent who we are?
- Professional Experience for Media (Year 2): This module offers you the chance to contribute to the world outside Keele either through completing a work placement, a project for a client (or a series of projects for different clients), or working as a team to deliver a successful festival or event.
- Pathways with Media: Developing Your Profile: This module broadens your knowledge of the variety of career pathways open to you, enabling and enable you to identify, analyse, and showcase your degree skills and experiences effectively.
Year 3
- Extended Media Project: This is your chance to create a major media project, such as a narrative, documentary, or short film; a photographic project; or a multimedia display.
- Media Dissertation: The dissertation gives you the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of independent and original research.
- Media and Climate Change: Are you passionate about telling new and more powerful stories about climate change, biodiversity loss and human-nature disconnection, the key environmental concerns of our time?
- News, Politics and Power: News appears to be a neutral product but there are powerful relations underpinning its construction.
- Professional Experience for Media (Year 3): In your final year we offer you another opportunity to complete a work placement, a project for a client (or a series of clients), or work as part of a team to deliver a successful festival or event.
- Employing Media: Putting Your Subject into Practice: Now you are preparing for life after graduation, this module enables you to put your degree skills into practice and work with employer-clients on a series of real-life projects.
Additional opportunities
- Work placements: Having the opportunity to undertake a placement is a valuable experience which will enable you to demonstrate and develop your skill set further.
- Study abroad: Enhance your career prospects with an international year at one of our partner institutions.
- Learn a language: Discover languages at Keele, whether you are a complete beginner or already have a foundation of knowledge.
Entry requirements
- A Level: BBC in three A Levels.
- BTEC Extended Diploma / National Extended Diploma: DMM in any BTEC Extended Diploma / National Extended Diploma.
- BTEC National Diploma / Diploma: Distinction and Merit in any BTEC National Diploma / Diploma and C in one A Level, or Merit and Merit in BTEC Diploma and A in one A Level.
- T Level: Merit in any T Level.
- International Baccalaureate Diploma: 554 in three Higher Levels or 29 points.
Fees and funding
- Tuition fees for 2025/26 academic year:
- UK: £9,535 for the 2025/6 academic year (subject to Parliamentary approval).
- International: Band 1, £17,700 for the 2025/26 academic year
Your future career
Having a degree in Media and Communications provides a broad insight into various elements of the world we live in. You will have experience in theory and practical aspects of this industry which will be applicable to a number of different sectors.
You may wish to explore a career in:
- Marketing
- Television
- Public Relations
- Public Arts
- Journalism
- Broadcasting
- Business
- Education
At Keele, there are also a range of internships available to students that will enable you to gain real work experience with employers. This may involve full time or part time positions and roles that will allow you to gain a head start in your career.
Having the opportunity to take an internship will develop your practical skills in industries you may wish to pursue after graduation and the chance to engage with paid work during your time at university and beyond. You will be supported by staff and will be able to discuss your options to tailor your interests and career aspirations.
Media students have secured various roles in video production and other content creation for both local businesses, charities and national companies. These include Stoke Football Club, BBC Radio Stoke, NHS and Astrazeneca.
Teaching, learning and assessment
Media and Communications provides an array of diverse teaching styles to promote the understanding of the subject area. You will be taught through lectures and seminars where you will have the opportunity to participate in discussions and group work with your peers.
You will also take part in practical workshops where you will have a hands-on approach to creating content through practical methods such as film and image production.
Throughout the duration of the course, you will engage with different assessment methods to challenge the skills and knowledge you have developed. These include:
- Academic and creative portfolios
- Reflective workbooks and critiques
- Posters, mood boards, and visual presentations
- Creative content including media images, text, video, audio, and interactive content.
- Group presentations and pitches
- Critical essays and case studies
- Independent creative/research projects
- Podcasts and video blogs
Facilities
At Keele, you will benefit from the use of dedicated teaching spaces. You will also have access to filmmaking equipment, providing the opportunity to gain hands-on experience to practice your skills and create a portfolio of work.
You will have access to our photographic studio, screening room and Apple Macintosh labs. This will help to develop your editing skills further using Adobe Creative Suite and enhance your employability prospects having used specialist equipment as well as Nikon and Canon cameras.
Foundation year
Studying a Foundation Year, for whatever reason, offers an alternative route to Keele, and provides a unique opportunity to better prepare for your chosen degree.
Course content
Our Foundation Year allows you to develop your critical thinking, academic reading, writing, and communication study skills along with subject-specific knowledge and skills which will be invaluable in your academic studies and beyond.
Course structure
The module details given below are indicative, they are intended to provide you with an idea of the range of subjects that are taught to our current students.
Semester one modules
- Foundations: Breaking the code - Understanding Academic Writing: 15 credits
- Foundations of Humanities - 1: 15 credits
- Foundations of Humanities - 2: 15 credits
Semester two modules
- University Research Portfolio: 30 credits
- Advancing Humanities: 30 credits
Entry requirements
The entry grades outlined in this section indicate the likely offer or range of offers which would be made to candidates along with any subject specific requirements.
- Between 40-48 UCAS points from at least 1 A level/level 3 qualification or equivalent, or
- Relevant work experience
AND
- GCSE English Language at grade 4 (C), or Level 2 Functional Skills, or
- IELTS 5.5 (with 5.5 in all subtests)
