Media and English Literature BA(Hons)

Course in brief

Our Media and English Literature degree, based at our Falmer campus, merges the study of contemporary and historical media and literary texts.

You will examine print, television and film and deepen your understanding of the complex relationships between society, cultures and the media. You will produce television programmes using our on-site studio and editing suites and can opt to explore photography, documentary making, journalism and scriptwriting.

In English literature you will study core texts, consider relevant theories and debates, learn in depth about genres and styles and develop an advanced awareness of cultural contexts.

Learning through both theoretical and practical study will enable you to acquire an enviable set of skills. You will become adept at critical analysis but also gain insight into media production and writing for different genres.

This degree is an ideal pathway into graduate entry jobs in television, film and publishing. Our graduates have also secured employment as journalists and public relations consultants or have progressed to postgraduate study.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Falmer

UCAS code PQ33

Full-time 3 years
With year abroad 4 years

Book your open day place

Meet our students, see our accommodation and find out more about your course.

Applying for 2017

Places are available on this course for UK, other EU and international students.

Apply now with UCAS

Entry requirements

A-levels or BTEC
Entry requirements are in the range of A-level BCC–CCC (104–96 UCAS Tariff points), or BTEC Extended Diploma DMM–MMM. Our conditional offers typically fall within this range.

A-levels must include English literature or a combined English language and literature.

We will generally make you an offer if your predicted grades are at the top of this range. If your predicted grades are towards the lower end of this range we may still make you an offer if you have a good GCSE (or equivalent) profile or relevant non-academic achievements.

International Baccalaureate
27 points.

Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 60 credits overall. Humanities, history or politics courses preferred. At least 45 credits at level 3.

GCSE (minimum grade C or grade 4)
At least English language and maths.

Foundation degree/HND/HNC
May enable you to start the course in year 2.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.0 overall, minimum of 6.0 in all four skills.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Course in detail

Why study with us?

You’ll study at our Falmer campus with its outstanding modern facilities, including an excellent television studio and editing suites, and also have easy access to vibrant Brighton with its well-established arts, media and social scene.
By studying this joint honours course, you will combine different but related subject areas, simultaneously exploring the classic and the contemporary in context.
You’ll acquire a core grounding in both media and English literature, but can tailor your degree to your interests according to the modules you choose. You can take more practice-based options such as documentary making for a more creative edge or focus on theoretical study for a more analytical degree.
You will be able to use skills acquired through this course and enhance your individual professional and personal development by taking advantage of volunteer placements with local community projects and city schools and becoming involved with local events.
You can ensure that your work reaches a wider audience through submissions to online journal brightONLINE and blog L@B Notes or through joining subject-related student societies in film, drama or literature.
Our experienced course tutors are well placed to guide you through this course; they have a strong record of research and publications and several members of our team have won the university’s Teaching Excellence awards in recent years.

Year 1

In year 1, you will study the principal concepts and approaches to the study of the media in both theoretical and practical ways. These core media modules illustrate the complexities around representation, narrative and communication. The core literature modules will enable you to engage with a variety of genres and approaches, and to unravel meaning with a variety of critical and theoretical tools and approaches.

Modules

Digital Storytelling: Theory and Practice
Media Communication and Representation
Narrative Literary Texts
Popular Television
Drama in Society
Literature and Theory

Year 2

In year 2, you take a broadly period-based approach to the study of media and literature. You will study the history and theory of film, followed by a module examining digital media and culture. The second year also provides an essential grounding in understanding literature in context, from the sixteenth century to the present. The focus of several year 2 modules is also on enabling independent study and research in preparation for the skills required in your final year dissertation or creative project.

Modules

Cinema and Society
The Nineteenth Century in Literature
Digital Media and Culture
British Literature and Twentieth-century History

Options*

One from:

Videogames Cultures
Studying Travel Writing
Queer Writing
Modernisms
Introduction to Journalism
Contested Stories/Contesting Stories
Creative Writing: Process and Craft
Reading the Graphic Novel
Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
Spoken and Written Language
Mind and Language
Linguistics and Grammar: Concepts and Analyses
Literature and Art History
Regional Englishes
Television Studio Production
French, German or Spanish

One from:

Creative Writing: Process and Craft
Introduction to Journalism
Studying Travel Writing
Spoken and Written Language
Reading the Graphic Novel
Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
Media in Practice
American Literature 1850–1945
Literature in Practice
Photography
Memory, History and Trauma Onscreen
Science Fiction: Screens, Texts, Theories
Modern History, Trauma Onscreen

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Final year

In year 3, besides your dissertation or creative project, you have the choice of a wide range of options, from popular culture to postcolonial literature, and from personal documentary to television news production.

Modules

Dissertation

Options*

Three from:

Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
Literature and the World Wars
Creative Writing Project
From Script to Screen
Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
Gothic: Texts and Contexts
Popular Culture: Europe and Beyond
Television News Production
Post-war American Literature
Postcolonial Literatures
Adaptations
Contemporary British Narrative Cinema
Community Engagement in Practice
Beyond the Screen
Film and Screen Journalism
Framing Women
The Cultural Politics of Screening Race
World Englishes
Language of Gender and Sexuality
Approaches to Analysing Discourse
English Language Teaching

One from:

Victorian Sexualities
Conflict, Migration, Borders
Writing the Contemporary
Culture Wars: Recreating the Great Divide
Russian Literature
Literature and Philosophy
Approaches to the Study of Meaning
Images of War
Autobiography and the Screen
Children's Screen Cultures
Screen Comedy
Community Engagement Practice
Adaptations
Language, Culture and Ideology
Modern Languages: French, German or Spanish

The following options may run semester 1 or 2.

European Literatures and Film
Media, Ethics and Conflict
Brighton Rocks: The City in Literature and Film
Restoratiopn Dramas
(Re)Viewing Shakepeare

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Staff profile

Patricia McManus Course leader

Her teaching crosses contemporary media theory and mass-mediated forms of narrative, with particular interests in feminist, Marxist and post-Marxist theoretical traditions.

Her research has primarily examined the history of the novel, particular the interaction with film and of television drama in terms of story-telling practices.

Student work

Student film-making

Our student film-makers have the opportunity to show their work on Brighton's popular Big Beach screen over the summer months.

You'll find samples of work from this course on our Arts and Humanities Vimeo page.

Careers and employability

Our graduates are working in television, film and publishing industries, as well as related fields including journalism, public relations and the public and voluntary sectors.

The creative, intellectual and transferable skills gained by any arts and humanities students are relevant to the rapidly changing demands of work and life in a globalised world.

Careers advice and training are built into the student experience at the University of Brighton, with targeted workshops in years 1 and 2 and an annual employability event, offering meetings with local and national employers, advice sessions, presentations by ex-graduates, and more formal speaker events. Our alumni are also keen to offer advice and support to current undergraduates.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time) 13,920 GBP

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2017–18. Tuition fees are payable for each year that you study with us.

Where UK/EU students are subject to regulated fees, the annual fee increase cannot exceed the UK government’s maximum regulated tuition fee limit set for the relevant year. For all other students, ie those not subject to regulated fees, tuition fees are subject to a maximum annual increase of the higher of 5% or RPI.

You can find out more about our fees in the the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Falmer campus

Surrounded by the South Downs National Park and just five miles from the centre of Brighton, our Falmer campus has benefited from over £60million of investment over the past 10 years. 7,000 students are based here, studying subjects including English, education, social science, nursing and medicine.

Recent developments include the Falmer Sports Centre – with its fitness suites and sports hall – and the innovative Checkland Building, which has natural ventilation systems and an insulating green roof.

Falmer has also recently installed more than 600 solar panels, which reduce the campus’s carbon emissions by more than 80 tonnes. The renovation has made us one of the top universities in the UK for on-site renewable energy production.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

Find out more on our Brighton accommodation webpages and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field

Moulsecoomb Place

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Falmer campus and Brighton and Sussex Medical School map

Unistats

Unistats and key information sets

Unistats is an organisation that collects specific data about university courses in the UK which enables you to compare information that is important in your decision-making when choosing a university. All universities publish Unistats data on their online course pages.

Wherever we can we have provided extra information here to help put the data into context so that it is as useful as possible when you are making decisions.

Programme specification

The programme specification is the official university document for each course. They are updated each year, and give a very detailed breakdown of what your course might look like.

Programme specification