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BA (Hons) - Film and Television (with integrated foundation year)

Immerse yourself in the world of storytelling, cinematography, and production on our BA (Hons) Film and Television with Integrated Foundation Year course. Unlock the art of crafting captivating film and TV from concept to completion and discover the power of visual storytelling to engage and inspire audiences.

Your journey begins with an introductory foundation year, designed to develop your skills, confidence, and core knowledge in a supportive and creative environment. This year helps you build strong artistic and academic foundations, ensuring you’re fully prepared to progress smoothly into the undergraduate degree.

From here, you'll develop expertise in camera work, lighting, sound, editing, scriptwriting, producing, and directing, empowering you to create exceptional original content. You'll also have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects and live briefs, including short films, TV studio productions, documentaries, experimental pieces, and music videos.

Take advantage of our industry standard Media Suites, TV Studio facilities, and professional AV Department, which provide high-quality cameras to give you every opportunity to realise your potential.

Your learning will be guided by experienced academics, and you’ll gain insight from workshops led by industry experts to help refine your unique creative voice and expand your professional network.

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Film and Television (with integrated foundation year) cover image

Course Overview

The practical nature of our film and television degree ensures you will develop a complete range of production skills covering all aspects of the film and TV making process, from idea to finished product. This will help prepare you to become a filmmaker, scriptwriter or TV producer.

Throughout this BA (Hons) Film and Television with an Integrated Foundation Year, we will focus on developing your ‘voice’ as a creative. This is done through weekly practical tasks that build to a cohesive set of production skills.

Together, these will equip you with all you need to make great content and enhance your employability in film and television. Short films, multi-camera TV productions, documentaries, scriptwriting and experimental/music videos alongside regular workshops from professional practitioners will help you find your voice.

Our production facilities and specialist staff provide all the tools and support you need to bring your creative ideas to life. Between them, our staff have over 20 years' experience in this exhilarating and vibrant industry.

Our students regularly win awards and attain festival success. What better way is there to kickstart a career in film and TV?

On this course you will...

Study within a safe, creative and vibrant environment that allows for individual approaches to filmmaking. There is an emphasis on practical learning with practical tasks and collaborative work.
Develop close but meaningful working relationships with industry partners and critical friends to enhance learning and experiences for our students.
Benefit from a flexible programme that reacts to industry/market needs when shaping the course.
Have access to industry-standard equipment with managed access to kits where individual personal projects are encouraged.
Prepare for the employment of tomorrow by learning future-proof, broader skill-base, transferable skills and adaptation – learners must show resilience, confidence, and ingenuity.

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Key Details

Recruiting toUK / RoI / Settled in UK
EU / EEA / International
Course LocationCarlisle - Brampton Road
Institute Institute of Education, Arts and Society
UCAS CodeP314
Mode of DeliveryBlended learning
Course DurationFull-time: 4 Years
Course Start PointSeptember
AwardBA (Hons)
More informationProgramme Specification
Prospectus
Open DaysCarlisle - Brampton Road
All

Minimum entry requirements

UCAS Tariff points

UK Tuition fees

£9,535

Entry in academic year 2025/26

£9,970

Entry in academic year 2026/27

International Tuition fees

£14,900

Entry in academic year 2025/26

£16,000

Entry in academic year 2026/27

Tuition Fees Policy

Course Structure

What you will learn

This full time 4-year degree in film and TV production has been designed to ensure that you not only graduate with writing, shooting, and editing technical skills, but also as a creative practitioner with your own unique voice. Each year will build on the skills you developed in the previous year as you take on more challenging projects of bigger scale.

Our foundation course will teach you the core academic skills you need to progress onto the full degree programme.

We see your time with us as an opportunity to embark upon a voyage of discovery. One where you are given the freedom and confidence to discover yourself, who you are and who you wish to become. One where you are guided through and towards possibilities that you never even considered were even options for you. Whether that be in the creation of new ideas to developing a love for technical proficiencies. A discovery where you stand at the very centre of your education.

Year one

In your foundation year, you will develop the core skills needed to progress onto our BA (Hons) Film and Television course. During this time, you will work with students from across art, design and media disciplines, exploring your place in the wider creative community.

Introducing Creative Research Practice
Begin to build the knowledge, skills and ways of working to become a creative practitioner.
Seeing, Thinking, Making Meaning
Learn more about the history and theory of the creative arts and work with others to discuss why context is so important.
Ideas, Images and Objects
Begin to apply your skills and develop your own individual creative projects.
Innovation Lab
Work with others to test out ideas through making and breaking to explore innovative ways of working.
Creative Industries Toolkit
Learn more about the industries you will work in and acquire the professional skills and attributes you will need to succeed.
Creative Playbook
Have the opportunity to negotiate your own brief with support from your tutors and apply all the knowledge and skills you have gathered throughout the year.

Year two

You are introduced to a broad range of skills which will benefit your future projects, including TV studio production, script-writing, lighting, camera operation, shot choice, composition, location sound recording, producing, directing and a host of other relevant skills and technique.

Media Craft Skills
Develop an understanding and working knowledge of a range of key technical skills in the media production making process.
Lens and Edit Craft
Introduction to projects and tasks that give you a focused working knowledge of key technical skills in film and TV, and professional photographic production, postproduction, and disciplinary practices and processes.
Cultural Contexts
Introduction to the cultural, historical, and social contexts in which creative work from a range of disciplines will be discussed, examined, and analysed.
Applied Storytelling
Introduction to the technologies and production processes involved in Film and Television production, promoting an understanding of the research techniques underpinning dramatic scripted fictional and non-scripted factual productions.
Collaborative Practice
Explore professional scenarios through problem-solving and project-based learning.

Year three

You will start to specialise and build on your technical & creative skill set through a range of production and large scale projects, including advanced script-writing, TV production, cinematography, experimental film, documentary, and short film.

On Set
Work on a series of full Film & TV productions to study single and multi-camera work.
Scene Craft
Tackle creative and professional challenges with space for experimentation and production of visual work, narrative, ideas, and concepts.
Script and Narrative
Introduction you to the concepts and techniques employed in writing for a variety of media forms.
Unscripted TV Idea and Concept
Explore the creative and professional challenges in designing ideas, presentations, and pitches for unscripted television, factual programming, documentary films and digital production commissions.
Professional Development
Explore career attributes, ambitions, and trajectory within the context of an evolving ‘professional development portfolio’.

Year four

All your acquired knowledge, creative technique, and skills will be focused on professional production, putting into practice all you have learned in the creation and exhibiting of award-winning, festival-ready work.

Research Portfolio
Promotion and Pitch
Prepare to engage with creative industries and external audiences through the promotion of media professionalism, self-confidence, collaboration, and team strategies.
Graduate Project
Consolidate the practical and conceptual skills developed throughout the course into one final project.
Festival and Exhibition
Perfect the skills necessary to identify and successfully engage with media industries post-graduation.

Teaching & Assessment

How you will learn

To succeed in the creative professions, individuals need to be highly skilled, competitive, and independent. As well as developing the knowledge and skills necessary to enter their chosen discipline, the programme seeks, from day one, to inculcate a strong professional ethos and values which make University of Cumbria graduates stand out in the workplace.

BA (Hons) Film and Television use a range of learning approaches such as lectures, demonstrations, seminars, workshops, critique reviews, pitching, and one-to-one feedback tutorials to monitor the progress of various projects, all with a bespoke VLE.

You will also undertake self-directed research and within the VLE environment, participate through forums, seminars, and lectures. As an undergraduate, you are continually involved in the assessment of your own work and that of your peers. You are required to develop interpersonal and team working skills within this context. You will also receive formative critical feedback from tutors.

A distinct feature of studying at the University of Cumbria is that in your first year, you will study two modules alongside other first year students within the Institute of Art. These modules are Cultural Contexts and Collaborative Practice. Additionally, you will work alongside Wildlife Media and Animation students for your first year 'Media Craft Skills' module.

Going into your second year, you will begin to specialise in Film & TV. However, you will still study alongside other Art students for modules like 'Professional Development' which explores professional skills and presentation in screen-based industries.

Learning will take place in person, online, and in the field.

How you will be assessed

The range of assessment modes used by Film and Television include:

critical reflection
group work
individual presentations
practical productions
essays
graduate project
research portfolios
reflection of creative actions

Our Film & TV programme will use an innovative model of combining industry proven Mentors with experienced academics. Online academic sessions will be available for you to access at a time that suits you, while others will be at set times, offering the benefits of face to face learning with online learning. The range of assessments is used because this enables different aspects of your learning to be tested.

Overview

48 UCAS Tariff Points. You can find out more about the tariff and qualification options from the UCAS tariff table.

Qualifications

Entry Requirements

A-levels: A

T-levels: P (D or E) All subjects are accepted for entry to this course.

Access to HE: 45 Credits at Pass.

Scottish Highers: 48 UCAS Tariff Points.

Irish LC Highers: 48 UCAS Tariff Points.

Other experience: Pearson Level 3 National Diploma MP.

Fair Admissions

When you apply, our Admissions specialists will review your whole application. We are looking for your potential to succeed so will assess your qualifications, any relevant work experience, your personal statement, and references.

Where you have received a conditional offer subject to achieving particular grades/UCAS tariff scores, and do not quite meet these scores, please try not to worry, where vacancies exist our Admissions specialists will review your whole application again and take account of any mitigating circumstances and reassess your suitability for the course.

Selection Criteria

As part of the application and selection process, we are looking for your commitment to this programme. In your personal statement, you should demonstrate your motivation for choosing this course and reflect upon any experience you have gained.

The Integrated Foundation Year programme supports your return to education and are specifically designed for students who have the ability to study for a degree but may not have all the necessary qualifications, skills or experiences to join the degree in Year 1

Contextual Admissions

Going to higher education can transform a person’s life. We use contextual admissions to make sure that we are accessible to everyone who has the potential to succeed. Qualifications and grades are important, but they are considered alongside other information that helps universities to identify potential and widen access to university level study. For some individuals, the disadvantages they have experienced in their life mean that they have not been able to demonstrate their full academic potential. Where a person lives and their personal circumstances can all affect their educational attainment.

We take this context into account and look for an applicant’s potential when making admission decisions. The University of Cumbria will make offers at the bottom of any UCAS Tariff range to applicants that live in postal code regions with the lowest participation in Higher Education (Polar 4 quintile 1 – you can check your postcode here), applicants that are estranged from their parents, are care leavers or have caring responsibilities or are in receipt of or received free school meals during their secondary education. Attendance at our Masterclasses and Summer Schools will also allow applicants to receive an offer lower within the tariff range. (T&Cs apply)

Contact ugadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk for more information.

Returning to Education

If you are over 21 and returning to study after being in relevant employment for a minimum of 3 years and do not meet the published entry requirements for Year 1 of our degree courses, please do not assume you are not qualified to join us. Our experienced Admissions and Academic staff will review your prior qualifications and professional experience to support your application.

Language requirements

Please follow the link to check language requirements for this programme here.

Fees & Funding

Tuition Fees

UK Tuition fees

£9,535
Entry in academic year 2025/26

£9,970
Entry in academic year 2026/27

International Tuition fees

£14,900
Entry in academic year 2025/26

£16,000
Entry in academic year 2026/27

The figures above don't include accommodation and living costs.

Tuition fees are set annually and are subject to review each year. The University may therefore raise tuition fees in the second or subsequent years of a course, in line with inflation and/or the maximum permitted by law or Government policy. Students will be notified of any changes as soon as possible.

International Finance

At the University of Cumbria, we offer affordable tuition fees for international and EU students looking to study at one of our main four campuses. No matter your choice of course or career path, our International Team is here to support you.

Funding

Fees for foundation year studies are as stated. Standard student finance for years 2-4.

For information about funding, please visit our undergraduate funding page.

More Information

We have a wide range of scholarships, bursaries, grants and funds available to support you throughout your studies with us. This includes the Cumbria Bursary - a non-repayable bursary designed to support first year students with a household income of less than £25,000..

Student Finance

Additional Costs

There will be some additional costs. For example all students will need to purchase stationery and may wish to purchase some text books. Extra costs may also be applicable to cover field trips, membership fees etc. although such features are usually options within the course.

Books are reviewed annually and are therefore subject to change, course welcome information will provide you with an indicative list for the year.

Books and Journals

Most core text books are available via the University's library, however students may wish to buy copies of any texts used to support your learning on your course. This could cost between £50 - £100 per year.

Stationery

Students should budget for stationery and consumables for your own personal use. This should include notebooks, pens and pencils for taking notes in class and/or in the field. Students should also budget for the purchase of USB pen drives, as well as occasional printing and photocopying costs incurred in the preparation or submission of coursework. Whilst you will choose how much you need, expect to pay around £30 - £40 per year for these items.

Stay Focused. Go Far.

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Location
Carlisle - Brampton Road Campus
Located just outside the city, right on top of Hadrian's Wall, the Brampton Road campus is full of history, buzzing with excitement, creativity, and a sense of endless possibility. The home of creators, entertainers, rule breakers, and change-markers.
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BA (Hons) - Film and Television (with integrated foundation year)