Journalism
UCAS Code: P500
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
112-128 UCAS Tariff points from the Access course
GCSE/National 4/National 5
GCSE grade 4 or grade C in English Language and GCSE Maths pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
English grade 4 HL, Maths pass
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
About this course
This is a practice-based course with a strong academic background. It is focused on teaching multimedia and online techniques alongside traditional journalistic skills such as research, reporting and writing.
You will be taught by professional journalists and internationally renowned academics and, as well as enabling you to become a better journalist, the course will also equip you with transferable skills that will help you whatever media career path you choose. Our students have a very high success rate in gaining employment in the media industries, and recent graduates have gone on to network radio, national newspapers and magazines, respected websites, top PR agencies and major television companies.
The course has creativity, flexibility, innovation and entrepreneurship at its core. It focuses on online and cross-media skills throughout, since they are now central to everything modern journalists do, not just an add-on or afterthought.
There are three key strands to the course:
Journalism practice, which focuses on key journalistic skills, production techniques, and a final project module including running a live online site.
Journalism in context, which helps students to understand the social, political, economic, legal, regulatory and ethical contexts within which journalists operate.
Media and communications research, which develops students’ understanding of the social and cultural uses of mediated communication.
The Journalism BA has a flexible structure which, while it focuses on core journalistic and critical and analytic skills, also allows students to choose specialist options and take control of their studies.
Learning takes place through a combination of face-to-face teaching and independent study, including lectures and seminars, practical workshops, group and individual projects, and presentations.
The majority of assessment is of coursework, including journalistic news stories and features, video and audio packages, multimedia stories, blogs and blog posts, and research reports and industry case studies.
Tuition fees
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The Uni
University of Westminster, London
Westminster School of Media Communication
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Explore LondonWhat students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
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Journalism
Teaching and learning
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Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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Journalism
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What do graduate employment figures really tell you?Journalism roles are very sought after, and competition fierce, and with the Internet disrupting business models, this is likely to continue. It's not impossible to get into roles with a first degree — quite a few do - but they can often be insecure or on a freelance basis, and a lot of jobs in journalism go to postgraduates. Unpaid work is not the norm for new journalists, but it’s rather more common than for other roles, as personal contacts and work experience are important ways for would-be journalists to get their target jobs. The skills you can gain from a journalism degree can be useful in a range of industries, and so grads from these courses can be found in a wide range of jobs - first degree graduates often get jobs in marketing and PR where their skills at drafting copy to deadlines are appreciated. London tends to dominate the jobs market for journalism graduates - a quarter of journalism graduates went to work there - but 2015 graduates found opportunities elsewhere, particularly in larger cities with good local media.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Journalism
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£23k
£24k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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