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Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
We are members of the British Fashion Council, The Association of Fashion and Textiles Courses, the Association of Illustrators and AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges), enhancing your graduate employment opportunities
Our Fashion Design graduates have entered many areas of the fashion industry and completed internships with Alexander McQueen, Mary Katrantzou, Sophia Webster and Amanda Wakeley
Our students work on live briefs for companies such as Bedford Creative Arts, London Luton Airport, Luton Town FC, Luton Culture Trust and Penguin Books and participate in collaborative projects with leading art and design practitioners
About the course
Find your specialism and become the writer of your dreams with our innovative, skills-building course which encourages you to experiment with different modes and genres across a range of media platforms. Our small cohort sizes mean you benefit from personal, tailored support.
Explore writing in a way you might not have experienced before, from the speculative genres of horror and fantasy to scriptwriting and performance poetry. Your academic team are all experienced writers who will encourage you to find where your aptitudes and enthusiasms lie, and help you develop your own writing practice and style.
This course benefits from a close relationship with other creative courses such as media, art and design, journalism, and computer games development so you work in an atmosphere of collaborative, artistic energy. You also have many opportunities to share your work, including in our annual published anthology of student writing and at open-mic nights.
Graduates from the course have gone on to successful careers in a range of fields, from published authors of fantasy fiction and innovative poetry to editorial roles, from professional YouTubers to Creative Writing lecturers.
The course regularly receives 100% overall ratings in the NSS (National Student Survey) in eligible years.
Why choose this course?
- We are a student-centred course where the emphasis is placed on your development as a writer
- Belong to a vibrant and diverse writing community and have the freedom to focus on the aspects of writing that interest you
- Optional pathways in genre fiction, innovative forms, and screenwriting, taught by writers from those fields, and the opportunity to collaborate with students in other arts and media areas
- Meet with writers and other industry professionals
- Focus on your professional development and your future after completing the degree
For more information about this course, please contact Dr Tim Jarvis, Course Co-ordinator, at timothy.jarvis@beds.ac.uk
Also, check out what the Creative Writing team are saying on Twitter @WritingBeds
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
What will you study?
Creative Writing: Research Into Writing
Building on skills gained in Level 4, this unit provides you with the opportunity to work towards the production of one substantial piece of work in any recognised form or genre, from brain-storming ideas, through research, drafting and editing, to the final product. Taking you systemically through this process, with particular attention paid to research (both creative and academic) provides a coherent overview, and allows you to interrogate and question how you handle each stage.
Innovative Writing
This unit introduces you to cutting-edge techniques and forms in contemporary writing. Starting with theoretical writing by, and interviews with, post-War innovative poets and prose writers you will be introduced to range of genres and sub-genres, and you will not only produce texts using some of these techniques, but will be encouraged to develop your own innovations, as well as producing your own theoretical justifications for these. This unit will give you the foundation for the Experiment and Innovation unit in your final year.
Scriptwriting
To develop creative techniques for writing engaging short scripts, and to understand the function of short-form drama in the commercial marketplace.
Writing Horror And Dark Fantasy Fiction
The horror and dark fantasy fiction market continues to attract readers, and its popularity in the short form remains constant, especially in online markets. In this unit you will read, write, and gain an insight into the craft and psychology of horror and dark fantasy fictions, keeping in mind contemporary expectations of an increasingly demanding market.
Poetics: Theory Into Practice
‘Poetics,’ for this unit, is understood not as theories of poetry, but as a discourse on making (cf. Greek poeiein ‘create’). It is an essential element of any writer’s development; it is how you talk and write about your own creativity and can take many forms and appear in many places — letters, journals, emails, even in your fiction and poetry itself. Every writer does it, even if they are not specifically aware of it.
Creative Writing Professional Practice
This unit is intended to help you to answer the question ‘what next?’ when it comes to thinking about your writing beyond your university studies. What kind of a writer you are has a great bearing on what you need to do: where does your kind of writing get published? Are you more of a literary performer? Does your work belong in a community arts context? Do you need to develop artistic skills, design skills, etc?
Building on what you have done in your second year, you will use this unit to develop in at least one area of professional practice which will help you beyond academia.
Script: Writing, Editing And Pitch
In this unit you will develop your creative idea into a script that is fit for production. This unit will examine the contemporary filmmaking marketplace and investigate methods of marketing and producing your creative work. The unit will build on the techniques learnt at Level 5, and apply them to longer production-focussed script works.
Experiment And Innovation In Context
Building on your experience in MED010-2 Innovative Writing, this unit will help you develop as an innovative or experimental writer, or allow you to bring aspects of innovative practice to bear in a form or genre of writing you favour. Particular emphasis will be made on the mode of delivery of text, be that printed, performed, online or any other mode that a text can appear in.
You will be encouraged to attend events and readings, meet and network with like-minded writers, and to submit you work to appropriate publications and outlets. These activities will help you to understand professional opportunities and responsibilities relevant to your own innovative practice.
Special Project In Creative Writing
This unit allows you to demonstrate the skills, ideas and learning acquired during your degree in an extended piece of work that is self-initiated and managed, and supported by your assigned supervisor. You will work on a project that requires you to complete a creative writing product, artifact, or performance. The project content should be taken from your main area of interest within creative writing and will require the prior approval of the unit coordinator. If you are studying a specialist pathway then you can choose a project from within your specialist area.
The project is a piece of creative professional practice, and as such will form the central part of your creative portfolio on graduating form the course.
Writing Fantasy Fiction
Fantasy, as a genre, is found in many areas of the media, including fiction, film, television, and the games industry. As creative practitioners, you will build on your own writing experience and become proficient writers of original and potentially publishable fantasy texts in a popular and increasingly competitive market.
English Language Foundation
This unit focuses on your ability to understand and use the English language accurately when you read, speak, listen and write. We will concentrate on the English you need for undergraduate level study in your chosen subject area, covering grammar, subject area vocabulary and the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
A key element of the unit is the grammar of the language, and particularly the verb tense system in English, because your ability to use the verb tense system accurately will be extremely important when you come to write essays and reports. This unit will focus in particular on the grammar of the language.
We will also focus on reading, listening and speaking skills in the context of your chosen subject area. Beginning with short texts, we will practise each skill and practise it again, so that gradually you will see, hear and feel that your command of the language is improving.
A recurring focus of the unit will be your acquisition of 'learner autonomy'. This means your ability to acquire the language yourself, without needing a teacher's help. This is important because from next year you will not have an English teacher to help you. So we will consider and practise strategies to help you gain confidence in your own ability to increase your knowledge of and ability to use the language, including for instance guessing meaning of difficult words, deciding which words are important in a text, recognising differences between formal and informal language, and other strategies, so that as the first semester continues, you begin to feel more confident in your use and experience with the English Language.
Academic Skills Foundation
When you begin your undergraduate level studies, you will be expected to have knowledge of and ability to use a large range of 'study skills'. You will also be expected to have some knowledge of the subject area you will be studying. This unit deals with both of these aspects of your preparation for undergraduate level study.
All of the academic skills are practised in English, so you will use your developing acquisition of the language from the partner unit 'English Language Foundation' to practise and gain mastery of these skills. You will also use your language and study skills as you learn the foundation of your subject area, putting the skills into practice as you learn.
Developing English Language Skills
This unit builds on the progress you made during its partner semester 1 unit 'English Language Foundation' and increasing your level from that which you had achieved by the end of semester 1.
We will recycle the tense system in English and other elements of the grammar system, but you will now learn how to use other aspects of the grammar, including the passive voice, as well as linking words and phrases and devices which enable you to write longer sentences but retain grammatical accuracy.
You will notice that we gradually introduce more specialist language that you need in preparation for your degree and we will expect you to use and develop the skills that you gained in the previous units so that you are able to work more independently.
Academic Skills Development
This unit builds on the skills learnt and practised in its partner semester 1 unit 'Foundation Academic Skills'. We will add more skills to the list, including summarizing and synthesising, argumentation, critical thinking and referencing and citation skills, as well as several others and practise and test them in the same way as with the semester 1 unit.
We will also investigate the research skill and you will learn how to prepare a research proposal and conduct a literature review, and how to plan a research project, learning about the research tools available and how they can be used to conduct research in your chosen field.
You will continue to broaden your knowledge of key current issues and theory in your chosen subject area, and apply the critical thinking and argumentation skills you acquire in this unit to argue for and against propositions you have studied in the form of in both essays and presentations and in seminar situations, ensuring that you are ready to step up to your chosen undergraduate course with a base level of subject area knowledge from which to continue your academic development as you progress to level 4 study.
Creative Writing Theory And Practice
This unit introduces you to a variety of theoretical perspectives and concepts, studied from the standpoint of creative writing practice. Discussions of these subjects will form a grounding in your understanding of your creative poetics.
Writers Reading
Why is reading as a writer important? In this unit you will learn to develop active relationships between yourself and the texts you are surrounded by, examining them, critiquing them, and understanding how they work, including your own creative writing. Because genre writing of all kinds are popular with readers, you will also study aspects of genre writing.
Writing Practices
Mastering the art of short story writing, and of self-reflexive writing, which enables you to express your practice, process of writing, and poetics, are basic skills for student creative writers to learn. In this unit you will develop skills in these areas, which will form the basis for your understanding of yourself as a writer.
Composition
This unit emphasises writing as an act of composition, involving the careful crafting, editing and revision of your work. The process of writing involves the ability to reflect upon your own practice, and to engage in constructive criticism of your own and others’ work.
How will you be assessed?
Most assessment is by creative work plus a contextual study, in which you discuss aims and intentions, research, influences and precursors, and how the piece/s fit into your growing understanding of yourself as a writer (what we call `poetics'). There will be opportunities to present performances (live and recorded), text-art, online writing, and a host of other types and forms of writing practice for assessment. Written essays on your practice, presentations and pitches of your work are also included in some units. In publishing, film and television, and other writing-related careers, it is not only important to write well, but to explain what you do to prospective employers, collaborators and partners. Our assessments are designed to help you build up the confidence, and the self-reflexive skills, to do this successfully.
Careers
You will graduate from this degree having had the opportunity to develop your writing practice in the area that most interests you, and as part of a community of like-minded writers. The course will give you the opportunity to network with writers and other industry professionals, and to learn the real-world skill of collaborating with those working in other arts and media areas. You will also focus on gaining excellent written communication skills.
Professional development is at the heart of the degree, and you will leave prepared for a wide range of careers, from creative freelancing to editorial, from copywriting to teaching.
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.