An innovative course where you will experience a range of creative outlets: widening your choice of career options.
Gain hands-on experience in a wide range of journalistic and creative work, including reporting, news and features, fiction, creative nonfiction and new media writing, working with the latest technology in TV and radio studios, fully equipped edit suites and Press Association news feeds.
Tutors are all professional creative writers with publishing and broadcast expertise - they will support you as you develop your own unique voice and channel it through your writing, and give you practical guidance for getting recognised and published.
The University of Bedfordshire’s journalism team proposed and organised, through the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, the collaboration of 13 universities reporting the general election of 2017. Bedfordshire students from across our journalism courses, from first years to postgraduate students, planned, produced and presented the overnight programme as well as joining students from other universities reporting from the counts. See the team in action here on this BJTC video.
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.
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.
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.
Contact Keith Jebb, Course Co-ordinator by email at keith.jebb@beds.ac.uk for more information about this course.
Or check out what the Creative Writing team are saying on Twitter
Throughout your course, you will be encouraged to integrate assessment and the feedback from that assessment, be it tutor, peer or self-assessed work to progress and develop your approaches and value of your work. Professional practice in presentation of your work, meeting deadlines and fulfilling word counts is part of what you do from the very start of your course. Assessment methods vary across the course, enabling you to develop strategies for a range of tasks, methods of evaluation and presentation giving you valuable employability experience. At all stages you will receive detailed feedback on your work. In journalism a wide range of assessments, including presentations and essay work is employed. In creative writing 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'). Assessments are made progressively more demanding across the levels; in length, theoretical and/or professional requirements and contexts, and in the sophistication if discussion needed for success.
We will consider you as an individual and take into account all elements of your application, not just your qualifications. We are looking for breadth and depth in your current studies and enthusiasm for the subject you wish to study.
You can work out how many UCAS points your qualifications are worth with the UCAS tariff calculator
Contact the Admissions Team for additional guidance on whether the qualifications you currently hold or are taking would be suitable for entry.
T: +44 (0)1582 743500
E: admission@beds.ac.uk
As a general guide, to apply for a place on an undergraduate course (BA/BSc) at the University you need to have completed your high school education and have the required English qualification.
We have students from all the European Union member countries so we are quick to make decisions on most qualifications. See your country page for more details
Check Your Country page to confirm that your local qualifications are suitable or contact your International Admissions Team
Print, broadcast media, online publishing, and press offices all require journalists at local, regional, national and international levels. Other career paths include research, sub-editing, production, editorial, new media production, columnists in regional, national and international media companies.
The creative writing units all contribute to producing creative work of a professional standard, with an emphasis on getting your work published, produced or performed. The creative writing units will have transferable skills which will help in the journalism side of the course.
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2020/21 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
The University of Bedfordshire offers a number of scholarships and bursaries to help you finance your studies.
See www.beds.ac.uk/scholarships
The University reserves the right to increase tuition fees by no more than inflation.
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2020/21 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees.
See www.gov.uk/student-finance
The University of Bedfordshire offers a number of scholarships and bursaries to help you finance your studies.
See www.beds.ac.uk/scholarships
The University reserves the right to increase tuition fees by no more than inflation.
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2020/21 is £12,350 per year. A prompt payment discount is available if you pay the full Year 1 fee before or at registration. There are also special scholarships available.
The University reserves the right to increase tuition fees by no more than inflation.
The Campus Centre brings together all our student services under one roof including the Students’ Union and spaces to eat, drink, relax and learn.
There's a large central lecture theatre as well as a range of study rooms & breakout spaces on the upper floors.
The University guarantees accommodation to all new students. Fitzroy Court and Wenlock Court, the two main halls of residence, are located on campus so getting to lectures, shopping in town and participating in events and activities is easy.
The STEM building is home to courses in the subject areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Opened in Autumn 2019, its cutting edge facilities provides four computer laboratories; workshops for subjects such as automotive engineering, cyber-security and robotics, along with three large teaching labs, and four specialist containment labs.
The library is a modern 9-storey building dedicated to study and learning.
As well as traditional library provisions it offers individual and group study spaces, a cafeteria on the ground floor and a ‘Study Hub’ offering guidance and workshops on academic writing and research skills to ensure all Bedfordshire students get the help they need to succeed in their studies.
The Aspire Gym has state of the art cardiovascular equipment with smart phone compatibility. There is also an extensive range of fixed resistance machines and a small free weights area.
Changing rooms with showers and lockers are available for members to use.
The Postgraduate & CPD Centre at Luton campus is home to our University's postgraduate courses and continuing professional development (CPD) students from industry.
The Centre has modern lecture theatres and seminar rooms and a large ground floor lounge area where careers fairs and speaker events take place.
Media ArtsOur Media Arts Centre has state-of-the-art facilities for students on our journalism, media and writing degrees.
Facilities include broadcast television and digital radio studios, digital video editing suites, electronic newsrooms, white space studio, multimedia suites, and additional studios for online and design work.
The School of Art and Design is located in the Cultural Quarter of the town.
The Cultural Quarter is a regeneration project to convert the old hat manufacturing area of Luton into a hub for the creative industries.
The Luton campus is right in the centre of town next to a large shopping mall and within easy walking distance of train and bus stations. Luton is the largest town in Bedfordshire, approximately 50km north of London which is a 30-minute train journey away. Luton has excellent transport links to the rest of the UK and Europe.
Application for most full-time undergraduate and foundation courses is via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
We expect to receive UCAS applications between 1 September and 15 January for courses starting in the following academic year, but may consider applications received after this date should places be available.
Please contact admission@beds.ac.uk for further details.
All UK schools and colleges are registered with UCAS to manage their students' applications. Advice on how to submit your UCAS application is available from your school or college.
If you are not at school or college (including mature students) you should apply independently via UCAS
EU students applying for a full-time undergraduate degree at the University of Bedfordshire should apply via UCAS or direct using our admissions form
International students applying for a full-time undergraduate degree at the University of Bedfordshire should apply direct using our admissions form or via our representatives in your home country
You can also apply online
Find out more about how to apply as an International student