Journalism BA (Hons)

Course overview

Our course has been designed to offer professional insight and hands-on experience in industry standard TV and radio studios⁴ as we aim to provide you with top-level writing and social media skills.

• You will get extensive time in our TV and radio studios as well as learning from our team of industry practitioners⁴. This is designed with the aim of you developing a wealth of transferable skills including self-confidence, excellent written and verbal communications and technical skills that can be applied in all areas of the communications industry.
• As well as our team of industry practitioners, you can benefit from opportunities to hear from our Industry guest speakers, recent examples include a Channel 4 documentary producer/director, a BBC6 Music DJ, the diplomatic correspondent of The Times, a producer for Sky Sports, the head of Instagram and Snapchat for LADbible and a literary agent (subject to availability).
• While you are with us, we will support you to find industry placements², previous students have secured work experience and employment at Sky, the BBC, ITV, Coventry City football club, heat magazine and the New York Times amongst many others.

What you'll study

This course has a common first year.

The common first year enables you to work alongside students doing similar courses to you, to widen your knowledge and exposure to other subject areas and professions. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with other students, so you can share your insights and experience which will help you to develop and learn.

If you discover an interest in a specific subject you have studied, upon successful completion of your first year, you could swap degrees with another course in your common first year (subject to meeting progression requirements). 

Common first year courses

• Journalism BA (Hons)
• Media and Communication BA (Hons)

We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.

How you'll learn

Based on a series of lectures, seminars, workshops, practical classes and one-to-one tutorials with teaching staff, we provide a focused approach to journalism which is underpinned by in-depth exploration of core traditional news-gathering, continuous production and experimentation in new and emerging forms of journalism.

We provide a real experience of working as a journalist and try to incorporate this into our teaching activities through our collaborations with organisations in Coventry and beyond. Previous opportunities have included collaborating with local news organisations, for instance covering the local elections for ITV².

Our excellent industry links enable us to host an exciting programme of guest speakers who have previously covered topics such as documentary film-making, TV news production, reporting from war zones, branding and magazine journalism².

Teaching contact hours

We understand that everyone learns differently, so each of our courses will consist of structured teaching sessions, which can include:

• on-campus lectures, seminars and workshops
• group work
• self-directed learning
• work placement opportunities².

As a full-time undergraduate student, you will study modules totalling 120 credits each academic year. A typical 20 credit module requires a total of 200 hours study. This is made up of teaching contact hours, guided and independent study.

Teaching hours:

Teaching hours vary each semester, year of study and due to module selection. During your first year you can expect 15-18 teaching hours each week. You will also have the option to attend optional sessions including time with a progress coach or to meet with staff for advice and feedback. As you progress through your studies, teaching hours may reduce.

Guided and Independent study:

Throughout your studies, you will be expected to spend time in guided and independent study to make up the required study hours per module. You’ll be digging deeper into topics, review what you’ve learned and complete assignments. This can be completed around your personal commitments. As you progress through your studies, you’ll spend more time in independent study.

Online learning:

As an innovative university, we use different teaching methods including online tools and emerging technologies. So, some of your teaching hours and assessments may be delivered online.

As an innovative and enterprising institution, the University may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.

Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods may include:

• coursework
• tests 
• essays 
• practical or project work
• group work
• presentations
• exams
• individual assignments.

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes.

International experience opportunities

Our course is designed to reflect the increasingly international context of journalism.

We aim to provide you with opportunities to engage with international students from at home and abroad. Coventry University is one of only two UK universities to have previously participated in the Global Pop-Up Newsroom, a global cooperative project which brings together students from the UK, Netherlands, Bulgaria, India, the United States and Lebanon in a virtual newsroom to report on issues of global significance at a local level. Our past first and second years students have previously taken part with news days focusing on the refugee crisis and an international women’s day.

Previous second-year students also collaborated with students from 13 universities in seven different countries as part of the Global News Relay initiative, an international collaboration of college journalism, multimedia and public relations students which broadcasts news live across the world².

Please note that all international experience opportunities may be subject to additional costs, competitive application, availability, and meeting applicable visa and travel requirements, and are therefore not guaranteed².

Facilities

Our facilities⁴ help develop your practical talent so you feel prepared to enter the workplace and inspire your passion for journalism.

Our extensive specialist resources include a wireless suite of newsrooms, TV studio, video editing suite and radio studio.

Facilities are subject to availability. Access to some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) may vary from those advertised and/or may have reduced availability or restrictions where the university is following public authority guidance, decisions or orders.