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BA (Hons) Media Production with Integrated Foundation Year

Get practical training in TV and radio. Pitch to industry professionals and go live on air in our award-winning radio station. Join a course which best prepares you for a career in the industry.

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A student working at a mixing desk in the Spark Sunderland radio studio
UCAS codeP310
Duration4 years
Fee (UK)£9,535
LocationOn campus

Course summary

Get practical training in TV and radio. Pitch to industry professionals and go live on air in our award-winning radio station. Join a course which best prepares you for a career in the industry.

There’s never been a better time to get into content creation. We’re watching, listening, making, and broadcasting more media than ever before. This course will give you the practical skills to join this expanding industry, and make engaging content for TV, radio, podcasts, social media, and online.

You'll work alongside experienced experts and use fantastic facilities including a broadcast-standard HD TV studio, 4K-UHD virtual studio, radio studios, and editing rooms.

You’ll develop and pitch ideas to industry practitioners and undertake placements to build your network. Our students have taken advantage of our relationships with the BBC, Capital FM, Sunderland AFC, Tyne Tees Television, and various production companies. You could also work with our very own award-winning Spark Sunderland.

Relate your learning to real-life experience through our guest speaker workshops and masterclasses. Previous speakers include our visiting professors Dr Alex Connock, Fellow in Marketing at Oxford University; Emmy award winner, David Quantick; and Nick Smith, Executive Vice President at All3Media.

We also encourage you to take part in competitions while you study. Our students have won awards from organisations such as the Royal Television Society.

In your final year, you can choose to specialise. Graduate with a degree in BA (Hons) Media Production, BA (Hons) Media Production (TV), or BA (Hons) Media Production (Radio).

This degree prepares you for careers in TV, radio, video, and new media industries. Your training in communication, teamwork, and creativity will also be relevant to roles in many different businesses and in the public sector. Recent graduates have gained jobs with employers such as the BBC, Radio 1, Channel 4, Sky TV, Capital North East, MTV, and professional production companies.

Integrated Foundation Year

This course is also available with an Integrated Foundation Year. The Integrated Foundation Year is an extra year before starting your three-year undergraduate degree, designed to build your study skills and subject knowledge so you feel ready to succeed.

If you've narrowly missed the entry requirements for the standard three-year route, or have relevant work experience and want to broaden your subject knowledge and study skills before starting your degree, completing an Integrated Foundation Year could be for you. Please note, this route isn't available to international students.

Accreditations and approvals

This course is accredited by ScreenSkills, the industry-led body for the screen industries.

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What you'll study

Many of our courses include a range of modules you can choose from. Some of these options may only be available if you’ve already studied specific required modules. If you’re not sure what you need before picking a module, your course leader can help.

Undergraduate module credits should total 120 credits per academic year. If optional modules are available alongside core modules on your course, you should choose an amount that totals 120 credits.

How you'll learn

This is a practical-based course with a 70/30 split. Most of your teaching and assessment centres on skills, coursework, and content creation (often in groups). The rest may be presentations, essays, critical evaluations, self-review, and reports.

Your first year is all about building your skills. We'll introduce you to the studios, the equipment, relevant software, and the various roles within TV and radio. This will prepare you to concentrate on content creation in the second year, while you explore roles and specialisms. By your final year, you’ll be ready to delve into the discipline you love. You'll take on your preferred role, pitch and develop proposals, and deliver a finished piece to professional standards.

Work experience is an integral part of the course, and throughout your time with us, you'll be encouraged to continuously liaise with the TV and radio industry about work experience placements and masterclasses.

Entry requirements

Fees and finance support

UK£9,535

Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2026/27 will be £9,535. You'll pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.

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See all course tuition fees.

If you're a full-time UK/Irish/EU settled/EU pre-settled student on the Integrated Foundation Year route, you may be eligible to receive financial support to cover your fees for the full four years. UK and EU settled students may also be eligible to receive a maintenance loan.

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UK students

Disclaimer

We want to make sure you have clear and accurate information about our courses. Our website always shows the latest updates. If you’ve applied and been offered a place, we’ll contact you in writing if anything important changes.

View our programme specifications(opens in new tab) for further information about what the course covers, learning outcomes and the skills you'll gain when you graduate.