Creative Media

Throughout the course, you’ll work with a range of digital and interactive media tools and platforms in our purpose-built production facilities at our Newton Park campus in Bath and at our Artswork Media site in Bristol’s creative enterprise area, Paintworks.  

You’ll nurture and extend your creative thinking and digital making skills, to learn techniques such as image manipulation, sound and video production, non-linear audiovisual editing, digital storytelling, graphic design, social media content production and interaction design.  

You’ll bring together your skills through a variety of projects, which include producing:  

• documentary and fiction-based video and sound 
• experimental and socially-engaged media 
• social media content 
• site-specific media. 

By the final year, you’ll be leaving with technical prowess, a wider understanding of why we make media, industry experience, and a bold, expressive portfolio to help you launch your career in media.  

Year one

Develop your skills, discover ways of evolving your creative practice and build your production and problem-solving abilities individually and in teams.

You’ll be exposed to critical media practices that engage with key social, political and environmental issues. You’ll develop skills in digital storytelling, digital content production, image manipulation and moving image production.

You’ll begin to develop your industry-standard production skills by working on a series of live client briefs for multi-platform content projects. You'll also learn independent project production skills by creating personal work supported by staff and led by your medium of choice and personal passions.  

Year two
Begin to specialise. Hone your skills on larger scale creative content projects, learn post-production and animation skills, work on experimental, socially engaged and critical media making projects, and build your contextual skills.

You’ll produce a range of creative projects including:

• multi-platform digital experiences
• podcasts
• animations
• short films
• interactive documentaries
• remixed media and digital campaigns.

Your responsibility will also grow, as you’ll be tasked with creating real- world media works for local activist groups, allowing you to synthesise your thematic knowledge with practical enterprise.  

Year three

Join Artswork Media, a student-led production house supported by tutors, media practitioners, alumni and industry mentors.

You’ll work on a variety of live client briefs, hone your individual creative practice, and develop your professional identity and portfolio.

Artswork Media provides a unique opportunity to transition from being a Creative Media student to becoming an industry professional.

You’ll also be free to follow your passions in a personal project, allowing you to synthesise all you’ve learnt in the past three years into one “calling card” piece of work that fully expresses your style, skills and employability. 

Creative Media assessments are all based around coursework. Throughout your time studying with us, you’ll work on a variety of independent and brief-led projects across different media.

You’ll produce digital and moving image artefacts, digital portfolios, and supporting documentation such as reflective reports and research journals which explain your process.

Your learning is supported in a variety of ways. You’ll take part in media production sessions making use of the purpose-built media facilities at Bath Spa.

You’ll plan and discuss work and reference points in seminars and workshops, and stage exhibitions and showcases of your work.

You’ll be supported by an experienced team of media professionals and technical support staff. Visiting speakers and mentors from the media industries enrich your experience and connect you with contemporary production and the landscape of the creative sector.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

Our students have worked with clients such as:

• The Royal Photographic Society
• Bristol Old Vic
• St. Paul’s Carnival’s Black History Month programme
• Somerset Wildlife Trust
• Dickies
• Minirigs
• Rough Trade
• Shangri-la
• Somerset Football Association
• Glastonbury Music Festival.

Bath Spa's Creative Media course is designed to help you bridge the gap and evolve from Media student to media professional.

Our graduates are employed in a range of roles including Digital Content Creator, Marketing Executive, Digital Agency Assistant, Social Media Manager, Editor, Director, Producer and Director of Photography.

Alumni have also gone to secure agents and have their work screened on broadcast channels such as Sky Arts, and on the big screen at Cannes Film Festival. They have also secured work on feature films including Guardians of the Galaxy and Stars Wars: The Force Awakens.

Creative Media graduates have gained employment in companies including Aardman Animations, BBC and Warner Bros. Some of our Creative Media graduates have gone on to further postgraduate studies in creative media, filmmaking and fine art.

We’ll encourage you to participate in media festivals and competitions. Our students have been nominated for and won awards such as the Royal Television Society Awards (RTS) West of England Student Awards.

Each year we award a prize to our students: the Artswork Media Student of the Year Prize

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Certificate in Global Citizenship, which you’ll study alongside your degree.

You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience, and funding is available. On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

The Professional Placement Year (PPY) provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your PPY, you'll work to identify roles of interest and secure a placement. The Placements Team will support through timetabled sessions and 1:1 appointments.

As well as completing a minimum of 900 placement hours, you will complete two assessments demonstrating your skill development, growth in professional behaviours and how the PPY has impacted your future career aspirations.

• Newton Park Campus
• Commons
• Newton Park Library
• Paintworks in Bristol

Creative Media Practice students can make full use of Bath Spa University's purpose-built media production and post-production facilities at Newton Park and Paintworks.

Creative Media Practice students can hire out equipment using SISO, Bath Spa University’s free equipment loan service. We provide a huge variety of equipment and resources from multi-camera TV studios through to digital cameras and field recorders.