Creative Media (Professional Placement Year)

On our Creative Media degree, you'll experiment, gain technical skills, understand the media and collaborate with industry to kickstart your career.

• Taught by expert practitioners, industry professionals, media theorists, artists and filmmakers, with guest lectures by visiting speakers from across the creative industries.

• Work on live briefs, expand your skillset with new technologies, and personalise your experience by specialising in cutting-edge mediums.

• In your final year, join Artswork Media: a professional production company where you can collaborate directly with industry partners.

Creative Media at Bath Spa University is more than a typical media studies degree. Yes, you'll learn digital techniques, media knowledge and how to excel in the industry. It's also a practical, personalised experience, where much of what you work on is led by you.

Focus on what the industry wants and on your passions. Each of our modules emphasises creating practical projects using the mediums that interest you, and that express your views of the world around you.

Whether you want to be an exhibiting video artist, a marketing and social media guru, a freelancer with your own business or are simply passional about independent and proactive media-making, our experienced staff can guide you on the path to success.

We offer state-of-the-art equipment and will push you to engage with the most cutting-edge media practices. You'll gain experience in:

• digital and social media

• moving image content production

• post-production

• experimental media-making

• sound design

• podcasting

• animation

• graphic deign

• project management

• pitching

• user experience (UX) design

• audience research

• digital marketing.

On successful completion of the course, you'll be able to specialise in any of these areas.

We prioritise not only what you create but also why you create, with a focus on activism and personal expression as well as opportunities to research many aspects of the media ecosphere.

More about the Professional Placement Year
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in multiple placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.

Year one
Develop your skills, discover ways of evolving your creative practice and build your production and problem-solving abilities individually and in teams.

You’ll be exposed to critical media practices that engage with key social, political and environmental issues. You’ll develop skills in digital storytelling, digital content production, image manipulation and moving image production.

You’ll begin to develop your industry-standard production skills by working on a series of live client briefs for multi-platform content projects. You'll also learn independent project production skills by creating personal work supported by staff and led by your medium of choice and personal passions.

Year two
Begin to specialise. Hone your skills on larger scale creative content projects, learn post-production and animation skills, work on experimental, socially engaged and critical media making projects, and build your contextual skills.

You’ll produce a range of creative projects including:

• multi-platform digital experiences
• podcasts
• animations
• short films
• interactive documentaries
• remixed media and digital campaigns.

Your responsibility will also grow, as you’ll be tasked with creating real- world media works for local activist groups, allowing you to synthesise your thematic knowledge with practical enterprise.

Year three is your professional placement year.

Final year
Join Artswork Media, a student-led production house supported by tutors, media practitioners, alumni and industry mentors.

You’ll work on a variety of live client briefs, hone your individual creative practice, and develop your professional identity and portfolio.

Artswork Media provides a unique opportunity to transition from being a Creative Media student to becoming an industry professional.

You’ll also be free to follow your passions in a personal project, allowing you to synthesise all you’ve learnt in the past three years into one “calling card” piece of work that fully expresses your style, skills and employability.

Creative Media assessments are all based around coursework. Throughout your time studying with us, you’ll work on a variety of independent and brief-led projects across different media.

You’ll produce digital and moving image artefacts, digital portfolios, and supporting documentation such as reflective reports and research journals which explain your process.