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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, going to 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, and 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.
BA (Hons) Creative and Cultural Industries Film
Why QMU?
- Preparing you for your career: The course offers not only a unique opportunity to study the forces that shape the creative and cultural industries, but also 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 the 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 superb 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.
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;
- develop real-world technical skills in creative and digital production, teamwork, academic research, leadership, project management and a variety of forms of communication;
- explore careers and roles across the vastly diverse creative and cultural industry landscape, developing acute awareness of the challenges and opportunities faced across the various sectors; and
- build a portfolio of creative content you have produced throughout your degree which could include short films, podcasts, scripts, press releases, social media campaign content, infographics or apps.
How will I be taught?
Structure
All students enroll onto the honours degree, but you can choose to exit with an ordinary degree after three years.
Teaching, learning and assessment.
You will be taught in lectures, seminars and in practical workshops. 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.
Placement
You will complete a four-week or 150-hour placement either in the summer vacation between Years Three and Four or in Year Four alongside other modules. Students are responsible for sourcing a placement host organisation and this can be in the UK or abroad. To help with the process, we hold a speed interview event to match hosts offering placements with students. The placement is unpaid although some hosts pay a wage and others cover travel and subsistence. We are able to help students find placements in many sectors including theatre, festivals, local and national charities, Scottish Government, and film companies, as well as marketing agencies. We keep in touch with our former students and many are keen to support our placement scheme having benefitted from this themselves while they were studying with us.
Facilities
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.
Our students have access to a wealth of cameras, audio recording equipment and other related filmmaking equipment for both their studies, and extra-curricular pursuits. This includes access to Adobe’s Creative suite of programmes, including Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects and Audition.*
*subject to availability and agreement with our technician staff.
You will have access to our on-campus Business Gateway and Business Innovation Zone (BIZ)Ìýthat together provide business incubation spaces for student-led or graduate-led start-up companies and offer: desk space, a QMU business address, meeting facilities, ad-hoc rehearsal space and editing facilities, Business Gateway support and advice, a profile for your company on the QMU website, support with marketing materials and access to entrepreneurial networks within QMU and other universities (including Enterprise Campus, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, Sporting Chance and Converge Challenge).
Exchange opportunities
Studying abroad through our exchange programme can be one of the most exciting and rewarding challenges for a student to experience. The opportunity to travel and live in another country, learn different customs and traditions, meet new people and future career draws many students into the exchange programme. In Year Three you have the opportunity (subject to availability) to study for one semester at a university overseas. Please visit theÌýExchanges and Study AbroadÌýpages 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;ÌýÌý
- 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 Ìý
- Introduction to Creativity and Culture
- Media Production: Skills and Techniques
- Introduction to Theatre Production
- Media, Culture and Communication Industries
- Media Analysis
- 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
- Media, Culture and Politics
- Media Production: Podcasting
- Digital Marketing and eCommerce Management
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, visitÌýExchanges and Study Abroad.
Modules
- Working in the Film, Media, and Communications Sectors
- Fundraising in the Creative and Cultural Industries
- Creative Production: Podcasting
- Project Managing a Live Event
- 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 placement with a cultural organisation or creative business.
- complete a written or creative production dissertation. Creative production dissertations can be in photography, script, or video essay.
Modules
- Dissertation
- Placement
- The Business of Creativity
- Plus, one option
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 (Feb 2024) but may differ slightly to those offered in 2025. Please check back here for any updates.
Careers
QMU has specialised in providing courses in the area of media and communications for many years. Our graduates are highly employable and much sought after, and currently are making names for themselves in film and television production, media research, PhD and academic research, public relations, marketing, advertising, arts and cultural management.
As a graduate of this new course, which has been developed to reflect current and future trends, you will be ready to start an exciting career in the modern creative and cultural industries. You will be armed with a host of knowledge and skills. 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.
Example careers from this degree may include arts marketers, theatre managers, festival curators or programmers, sales agents or distributors, policy advisors, cultural leaders, museum or gallery managers, fundraisers, and audience data consultants.
Creative and Cultural Industries - BA (Hons): Entry requirements and application information
Entry requirements
Scottish Higher:ÌýStandard - BBBB, Minimum - BBCC
A Level:ÌýBCC
Irish Leaving Certificate:ÌýH2 H2 H3 H3
International Baccalaureate:Ìý28 points
International:ÌýIELTS of 6.0 with no element lower than 5.5
Required subjects:ÌýEnglish, 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?:ÌýWe 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 theÌýaccess and applicationÌýpage.
Mature/Access:ÌýWe welcome applications from mature students with relevant qualifications and/or experience. Visit ourÌýCollege Leavers and Mature Students Advice pageÌýfor more information.Ìý
Direct Entry:
Year Two
- HNC in a related subject with B in the graded unit
Scottish Higher: BC at Advanced Higher in relevant subjects plus BB at Higher - A Level: BBB in relevant subjects
Year Three
- Not available for this course. It is available for theÌýBA/BA (Hons) Media and Communication.
For details of related HNC and HND courses, visit ourÌýCollege Leavers and Mature Students Advice page.Ìý
Other costs
The additional costs associated with placement travel and accommodation are the responsibility of the student. Students who receive SAAS funding may be able to claim for some of these expenses to be reimbursed.
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, pleaseÌýcontact the disability serviceÌýwho 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 ourÌý2025/26 Entry Terms and Conditions (Undergraduate).
- The course information on this page is correct at the time of posting (Feb 2024) but may differ slightly for 2025 entry. Please check back here for updates.
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