Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
Our students have gone on to work for some of the biggest film and TV programmes including James Bond: No Time to Die, Mission: Impossible, The Wheel, RuPaul's Drag Race, Dr Who, 24-hour news stations and BT sport.
Our cinematics courses rank UK 1st in their subject field for teaching quality and student experience (Times, 2026).
Our cinematics courses rank in the UK top 5 (tied) in their subject field for academic support, learning resources and learning opportunities, including developing knowledge and skills for the future (NSS, 2025).
About the course
On this highly practical course, you study ‘hands on’ in our state-of-the-art TV studios, using a range of industry-standard camera, sound, lighting and editing equipment. At the end of your three years, you will be multiskilled, industry-ready practitioners. Employability is a core feature of this course: it is our job to help you break into TV and film and we work with you to develop industry links and find paid work or internships during your time with us.
Facilities and specialist equipment
- High-spec multi-camera television studios
- Industry-standard radio facilities
- Award-winning, Ofcom-licensed radio station, Radio LaB
- 3D green-screen room
- Digital video-editing suites including Adobe Creative Cloud software (Premier Pro)
- Specialist make-up studios
- Location-recording equipment
- Netflix-approved Sony FX6 cameras for broadcast-quality film and television content
- Sony FX3 Cinema Line camera with full-frame sensor and enhanced mobility for easy solo hand-held shooting
- Industry-standard sound and lighting equipment
Industry links
We have established relationships with a wide range of leading organisations and companies across film and broadcasting.
We also have active partnerships with:
Coolr Social Media Agency who are involved in the delivery of relevant course units as well as offering students workplace opportunities and live projects.
Merge XR Virtual Studios who deliver expert industry lectures and workshops using the latest virtual production techniques; student work placements; use of facilities including Unreal Engine and a virtual production studio and potential graduate employment.
Student experience
Learn how to create content on location and in the studio, and how to pitch, write, produce and direct film and TV programming.
Learn from an academic team who are also TV and film industry professionals across fields including podcasting and radio, TV operations management, producing, scriptwriting and journalism..
Take on live creative briefs through our links with the local film and TV community, including Luton Culture and Clearhead Production.
Take up work experience opportunities at industry organisations including an annual placement scheme with the BBC's The One Show.
Broadcast your own work and assist with the running of a TV studio through BedsTV, the University’s student-run online television channel.
Engage directly with the industry through networking events, guest talks and workshops with film professionals.
Build your knowledge through field trips to studios, film festivals, award shows, conferences and other destinations including BBC Studios; BBC Broadcasting House; BT Studios; Sky Studios; RTS Awards shows; Bafta networking events; Berlin Shorts Festival; Pinewood Studios; and the TechCon, broadcast media’s technical conference.
Benefit from regular opportunities to meet visiting, industry-active professionals. Past guest speakers include Julian Dismore, series producer for the BBC; Hayley Morray, assistant producer at ITV; Stuart Pinfold, BBC sound supervisor; Tom Wall, TV producer/director for Channel 4, Channel 5 and Netflix; BBC Radio 1 hosts Melvin Odoom and Rickie Haywood-Williams; station sound producer Matt Fisher.
Our Netflix Approved Cameras will allow you to produce broadcast quality Film and Television as part of the course. The Sony Fx3 Cinema line camera has a full frame sensor and is in an amazingly compact design and enhanced mobility for easy solo hand-held shooting. The Sony Fx6 Cinema line camera delivers compactness and performance, with a full-frame image sensor and a library of pre-set looks allows stunning cinematic expression to be achieved easily.
Photos taken by Vasile Burla, a student on our BA Photography course.
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
What will you study?
Year 1
TV studio production – Gain practical television production skills while learning to evaluate your own work. Film production – Understand continuity, blocking and choreographing shots; being part of a production team; and working with performers. Making images – Explore the techniques and practice of capturing still and moving images. Scriptwriting - Creative techniques for writing engaging and original short scripts.
Year 2
Cinema and narrative – How films tell their stories. Non-fiction film-making – Develop your film-making skills by creating a portfolio of non-fiction productions. Becoming a freelancer – Ways to promote yourself as a freelancer, create an industry-facing presence and make contacts.
Optional units:
Fiction film-making – Develop your film-making skills by creating a portfolio of fiction productions. Writing for the screen - Understand the craft of writing and write your own screenplay. TV studio music – How to produce TV music programmes. Picture editing – Produce, retouch, select, combine and sequence images to create a visual story.
Year 3
Beds TV: studio - Produce high-quality live television for the University’s Beds TV station. Special project – Demonstrate your skills in an extended piece of work that can be either a practical project or dissertation.
Optional units:
The creative agency - Put your skills into practice, creating content for live commercial briefs. Post-production - Non-linear editing and post-production for digital sound and image.
How will you be assessed?
Assessment will test both the processes that you go through to develop your production and writing as well as the quality of your final work. Assessments will range from directed short assessments in level 4 which will enable you to build up your skills and your confidence in both writing and production progressing to more open briefs at levels 5 & 6 which will allow you to generate your own ideas and new ways of working. You will learn to reflect on your work and to identify where you excel and where you need to improve.
You will have regular feedback sessions with your tutors and feedback sessions with your peers. Practical work for portfolio submission or your film work will be reviewed during the unit to ensure that you are on target and to enable you to respond to peer and tutor feedback to re-evaluate and improve your work. Essays will be submitted via Turnitin. You will work in teams and individually and your assessments will test your abilities to think creatively write effectively and to know what is expected in terms of professional standards within the creative industries. You will work in groups on production to replicate working patterns in the film and television industries however all marks for production work are individual and are assessed through your own contribution within the group and through your individual component to each unit. The assessments are designed to enable you to develop your own voice and your own creative signature in your work.
Careers
This degree recognises the need to emphasise the development of your key employability skills alongside critical and analytical judgement in order to equip you to adapt to change to grasp opportunities and to move upwards in your career paths.
The course systematically develops skills and qualities in critical thinking, creativity, autonomy, employability and professionalism which will enable you to seek employment in a wide variety of career destinations.
Currently alumni can be found working in the arts, in entertainment and in film or television including:
Ram Tripathi, Editor, on Crazy Rich Asians and His Dark Materials
Carl Akkouh, Producer/Director on Strictly Come Dancing, The Apprentice and Married at First Sight
Sakkina Merali-Piercy, Producer, on The Wheel and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
Ben Blakey, Production Manager, for Gogglebox, Three in a Bed and Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
Tom Wall, Producer/Director, on A League of their Own, Great British Menu and RuPaul’s Drag Race
David Wiseman, Video Editor, for Celebrity Hunted and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Stuart Pinfold, Audio Engineer, at BBC Broadcasting House
Ayanna Golding, Researcher, for The Jonathan Ross Show, The Voice and The Greatest Dancer
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
- 112 UCAS tariff points including 96 from at least 3 A-levels or equivalent
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See www.gov.uk/student-finance
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
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