Teaching and assessment
You’ll study and learn with academics who are active researchers, experts in their field and have a passion for their subjects. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities, and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace. Find out more about our approach to teaching and learning.
Teaching format
We teach you in a variety of formats, from lectures, seminars and workshops, through to problem-based learning sessions where you will work on business and creative challenges. In your third year, there will be one-to-one or Executive Producer style supervision for individual and group projects.
You'll progress rapidly, guided by our experienced academics who will ensure you're in contact with the latest ideas, trends and technologies. You'll be able to meet industry experts through masterclasses and our professional visitors programme. Our staff are always happy to discuss your ideas, and provide support and advice.
You'll also have the opportunity to step outside your degree programme and expand your knowledge with a range of elective modules.
Timetabled activities
In your first year, you can expect:
| Lectures |
3-6 hours per week |
| Seminars |
4 hours per week |
| Workshops |
26 hours |
| Practicals |
60 hours |
| Film Screening |
6 hours per week (in Semester 1) |
These figures are representative of a typical week. Your contact hours will vary throughout the year due to your module choices, non-compulsory classes, exam periods and changes to scheduled activities.
Outside your timetabled hours, you'll study independently. This may include preparation for classes, follow-up work, wider reading, practice completion of assessment tasks, or revision.
In the UK, full-time students are expected to spend 1,200 hours a year learning. That's about 40 hours of classes and independent study each week during semesters. Everyone learns at a different rate, so the number of hours you spend on independent study will be different to other students on your course.
Facilities
You will study in our comprehensively-equipped £35m arts and media complex. Depending on your choice of project and specialism you will have the opportunity to work in:
- a professional scenic stage theatre
- a black box theatre and sound stage with a lighting grid and gantry as well as a two-wall cyclorama for live action and visual effects film shoots
- two rehearsal rooms
- a 4K digital cinema with surround sound and digital projection
- three broadcast-ready HD television studios
- two post-production labs featuring Adobe Creative Cloud, Pro Tools, DaVinci Resolve, Nuke, and other industry packages
- an Interactive Media lab with interactive peripherals such as a Wacom Cintiq, game consoles, Leap Motion sensors, tracking cameras and immersive VR headsets
- a design lab for user experience evaluation and creative design work.
You will also have access to some of our extensive range of cameras and location recording equipment. You'll be able to join and realise theatre projects with Platform, our student-run drama society. You'll be able to make your own screen projects through FilmLab, our students' own, well-equipped, film society.
Teaching location
You will be based in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies with some additional teaching elsewhere on Campus East.
About our campus
Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can use the fast and frequent bus service. Take a campus tour.
Assessment and feedback
Assessment methods vary according to modules and include practical exercises, presentations, essays, scripts, project proposals, strategy documents, reports and in some cases production work.
Most modules will have formative assessments which do not count towards your final work but help guide your progression.
In the majority of cases you will assessed individually. The collaborative nature of the creative industries however means that some of your modules will involve group work. In these you will be assessed on work that you have produced as a team, as well as on your individual contribution to the project.
