This course is still open for entry in September 2024 – please visit our Clearing and Late Application page.

Undergraduate

Creative and Cultural Industries - BA (Hons)

This BA (Hons) Creative and Cultural Industries course will give you the expertise to succeed in a wide variety of careers. You will learn about the creative and cultural industries landscape and develop the critical thinking and content creation skills that will set you up for a career in the exciting and thriving creative and cultural sectors.

Creativity and culture play a vital role in our daily lives. Each day we engage in, or with, creativity and culture in some regard – uploading content to social media, attending the theatre, watching a TV show, attending a festival, or visiting a museum or gallery. Somewhere, at some point, a team of people conceived, produced, managed, and shared that creativity for us to experience. These people work in the creative and cultural industries.

This course will encourage you to think critically about creativity and culture – what it is, how, when, where and why it is produced and consumed. It will provide you with an in-depth understanding of the creative and cultural sectors and how they are shaped by other factors – such as technology, economics, cultural shifts, and crisis. With creative production and industry engagement intrinsic to the course, it will provide you with the industry networks and knowledge and practical creative production skills you need to become one of the creative leaders and producers of the future.

NB This course is subject to validation, and the course content on this page will be updated after validation.

A quick fire video showcasing this course

Why QMU?

Preparing you for your career: The course offers a unique opportunity to study the forces that shape the creative and cultural industries, and to develop the practical creative skills to help you carve out a career in the creative workplace.
Industry-networked learning: The course team is closely connected to the sectors and industry, ensuring our students are known to the creative leaders in the workplace. Throughout the degree students will hear from visiting industry guest speakers, work on client briefs, embark on field trips, attend networking events, and have the opportunity to conduct a fourth-year placement within a creative or cultural organisation.
Become a digital content creator: In each level of your course, you can engage with digital learning and production to ensure that you have practical skills in creative production, and solid understanding of how fundamental digital is to the creative industries.
Superb facilities for learning and teaching: You’ll learn in our specialist on-campus facilities including digital editing suites
Hone your entrepreneurial skills: Students have access to the University's Business Innovation Zone and many of our students have gone on to create their own creative businesses.
High ranking: QMU is ranked in the top 6 of Scottish higher education institutions for Media in the Guardian University Guide 2024.

Watch a course film

Creative and Cultural Industries - BA (Hons): The course in brief

On this course you will:

build your industry network and knowledge through networking events, client-based assessments, field trips, industry speakers, and an optional industry placement with a creative business or cultural organisation for your final project; and
develop real-world technical skills in creative and digital production, teamwork, academic research, leadership, project management and a variety of forms of communication.

How will I be taught?

Structure

You can opt to study for an honours degree over four years or an ordinary degree over three years. You will complete a range of modules each year as outlined.

Teaching, learning and assessment.

You will be taught in lectures, seminars and in practical workshops. We have superb on-campus resources and media production equipment, including a recently upgraded film editing suite and dedicated production and photography area equipped with a green screen and on-site lighting equipment, plus a fully equipped studio theatre and construction workshop. You will be assessed in a wide array of ways across the course, including presentations, case studies, podcasts, blogs, videos, essays, video essays and some written exams.

Exchange opportunities

In Year Three you have the opportunity (subject to availability) to study for one semester at a university overseas. Please visit the Exchanges and Study Abroad pages for more information.

Teaching staff, class sizes and timetables

You can read more about the teaching staff on this course at the bottom of this page. Please note that the teaching staff is subject to change.

For more information, please also visit ‘How we teach and how you’ll learn’.

What will I learn each year?

Year One

You will:

explore the concepts of creativity and culture and their meaning, value, and function in society;
learn the basic principles of different forms of creative production; video (editing, framing, composition, lighting, and story), photography, and digital media content; and
develop your knowledge and understanding of the diverse range of sectors that sit within the broader creative and cultural industries.

Modules

Introduction to Creativity and Culture
Media Production: Skills and Techniques
Introduction to Theatre Production
Media, Culture and Communication Industries
Media Production: Video Project
Creative Production: Digital Content Creation

Year Two

You will:

develop your knowledge and understanding of how creativity and technology intersect and think critically about how technology has reshaped cultural participation, experience, and consumption;
strengthen your creative production skills and develop more complex stories in your creative practice; and
apply your skills to real-world situations with our Digital Communication Campaigning module, where you will develop a digital strategy for a media project for a business or charity.

Modules

Creativity and Technology
Digital Communication Campaigning
Contemporary Scottish Theatre in Context
Event Management
Disruptions in the Media, Culture and Communication Industries
Audiences, Engagement, Participations

Year Three

You will:

learn important research skills to prepare you for Year Four and life beyond university;
develop a plan for your post-university creative career and understand working in the creative industries;
choose specialist options in, for example, film festivals, communication, arts and activism, screenwriting, photography, or writing for radio; and
have the opportunity (subject to availability) to study for one semester at a university overseas. For more information, visit Exchanges and Study Abroad.

Modules

Working in the Film, Media, and Communications Sectors
Arts Funding in its Policy Context
Creative Production: Podcasting
Designing a Research project
Plus, two options

Year Four

You will:

choose further specialist options in, for example, film festivals, communication, arts and activism, screenwriting, photography, or writing for radio;
develop your understanding of creative and cultural management and the business side of the creative and cultural industries, gaining skills in project planning and management, marketing, leadership, as well as the financial side of the creative and cultural industries; and
complete a written or creative production dissertation or complete a placement with a cultural organisation or creative business. Creative production dissertations can be in film, photography, screenwriting, video essay or a group video dissertation format.

Modules

Dissertation or Placement
Planning and Marketing Cultural Projects
The Business of Creativity
Plus, two options

Year Three and Four options may include:

Advanced Theatre Production
Communication, Arts and Activism
Experiential Learning Placement
Film and the Family
Film Festivals
Photography and Visual Culture
Photography Practice
Playwriting
Popular Music
Radio and Audio Media
Reputation Issues and Crisis Management
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
Screenwriting
Site-specific Performance
Student Initiated Module
The Only Way is Ethics
The Video Essay
Video Production

NB The modules listed here are correct at time of posting (June 2023) but may differ slightly to those offered in 2024. Please check back here for any updates.

Careers opportunities

You will graduate as a critical maker and consumer of creative content, with project management experience. You will be technically competent in digital content creation, with well-rounded practical skills and ready to succeed in a career in any of the creative and cultural industries.

QMU graduates are making names for themselves in film and television production, media research, PhD and academic research, public relations, marketing, advertising, arts and cultural management.

Creative and Cultural Industries - BA (Hons): Entry requirements and application information

Entry requirements

Scottish Higher: Standard - BBBB, Minimum - BBCC

A Level: BCC

Irish Leaving Certificate: H2 H2 H3 H3

International Baccalaureate: 28 points

International: IELTS of 6.0 with no element lower than 5.5

Required subjects: English, Media Studies, or Film Studies preferred at Higher/A level or equivalent. English required and Maths preferred at Nat 5/GCSE. We can also accept National 5 Application of Maths or Lifeskills at the same grade.

Am I a Widening Access student?: We apply the minimum entry criteria to applicants who meet one or more contextual factor. To see if this would apply to you, please refer to the access and application page.

Mature/Access: We welcome applications from mature students with relevant qualifications and/or experience. Visit our College Leavers and Mature Students Advice page for more information.

Direct Entry:

Not available for 2024.

Disability/health conditions

If you have a disability, long-term physical or mental health condition, or learning disability, it should not stand in the way of your studying at QMU. However, if you are not sure whether your disability might be a barrier in your studies or in relation to the professional standards, please contact the disability service who will be able to have a conversation with you about reasonable adjustments and supports available to you.

Terms and Conditions

The delivery of this course is subject to the terms and conditions set out in our 2024/25 Entry Terms and Conditions (Undergraduate).