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BA (Hons) - Wildlife Media (with integrated foundation year)

Unleash your passion for wildlife and media storytelling by transforming them into impactful messages that inspire and influence others. Explore the fascinating world of wildlife biodiversity, habitat, and behaviour, while diving into the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking and wildlife photography.

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.

Cumbria is renowned for its diverse landscapes and rich biodiversity, offering a variety of habitats that support numerous species. These include mammals such as otters and deer; birds like kingfishers, bitterns, egrets, and ospreys; and endangered species such as curlews, red squirrels, and pine martens. As you study within a UNESCO World Heritage Site, also near the English Lake District, your studies will be enhanced by hands-on practical experiences through field trips and visits to Areas of Natural Beauty (AONB) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Our partnerships with notable wildlife organisations will allow you to collaborate and network with leading industry groups, such as Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA), RSPB, Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT), and The Royal Television Society.

You’ll be encouraged to embrace challenges, push boundaries, and embark on a journey of self-discovery within a supportive creative environment. You’ll produce experimental films, curate captivating photography exhibitions, produce thought-provoking documentaries, and take the lead planning your own expedition.

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Wildlife Media (with integrated foundation year) cover image

Course Overview

You will study wildlife biodiversity, habitat, and behaviour, alongside the theory and practice of film and photography. You will benefit from opportunities to work with leading industry professionals in a biodiverse World Heritage Site with regular field trips and visits.

Our foundation year will help you reach the right level for taking the rest of the degree, building a solid foundation of skills from which to expand upon.

This degree will both challenge and support you to produce your own short experimental films; plan photography exhibitions; film, edit and create your own documentaries; and plan and manage an expedition to a destination of your choice. Throughout your learning you will grow in confidence, developing and enhancing your personal skill set, working towards specialisms that match your interests and career ambitions.

On this course you will...

  • Explore the world beyond the classroom through field trips and project work. Learn more about a wide variety of species, habitats and behaviours in the wild.
  • Master complex technical and practical skills and develop sophisticated natural history knowledge, within the supportive and vibrant context of an arts institute community.
  • Work with industry professionals, with strong links to employers locally, nationally, and globally. This includes Cumbria Wildlife Trust, RSPB, WWT, SSSI’s, and AONB to name a few.
  • Develop a portfolio of work to display during public showcases e.g. online gallery exhibitions and the Vallum Gallery on campus. Engage in Degree Shows to celebrate the progress of your work.
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Related Courses

BA (Hons) - Wildlife Media BA (Hons) - Film and Television

Course Structure

What you will learn

Our foundation year will help you reach the right level for taking the rest of the degree, building a solid foundation of skills from which to expand upon. We will hone your skills in a diverse range of media, including photography, documentary film making and writing for wildlife media.

On our course you’ll learn to create polished, professional wildlife documentaries charting the relationship between humans and the natural world. Capture the stories of animals across different environments when you explore bushcraft and wildlife survival skills. Immerse yourself in their world and capture your experience using top-quality photographic and filming equipment.

Throughout the course, you will develop your film and photo editing skills to suit a brief or chosen goal. And, celebrate your success through showcases and presentations where you will learn how to develop a professional portfolio for exhibition and receive feedback for your work.

Year one

In your foundation year, you will develop the core skills needed to progress onto our BA (Hons) Wildlife Media 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

In your second year, you will develop the solid technical and academic skills required to understand and successfully capture the environment.

  • Media Craft Skills
    Develop a working knowledge of a range of key technical skills in the media production making process.
  • Developing Photography Practice
    An introduction to, and the experience of using, technical photographic processes to illustrate natural history.
  • Cultural Contexts
    An introduction to the cultural, historical and social contexts in which creative work from a range of disciplines will be considered.
  • Naturalist Skills
    An introduction to the relevant natural history based skills required for a career in wildlife media production.
  • Communicating the Natural World
    Develop skills as a communicator conveying key conservation messages and engender positive change and activism.
  • Collaborative Brief
    Work with other students to explore and practice the skills involved in creative collaboration.
Year three

Going into your third year, you will further develop and enhance your personal skill set working towards specialisms that match your interests or proposed career path. You'll explore and reflect on key wildlife and media-related issues, together with developing critical analytical skills.

  • Documentary
    Develop a critical understanding of documentary and non-fiction practice whilst developing an informed perspective on the genre.
  • Interpreting Animal Behaviour for Media
    Learn to interpret the animal behaviour you will encounter in practice.
  • Wildlife Photography
    Develop the principles of independent practice in wildlife photography through self- initiated project work with an individual approach looking at the natural world.
  • Natural History Filmmaking
    Prepare to research, plan and execute a natural history documentary.
  • Professional Development
    Review career attributes, ambitions, and trajectory within the context of an evolving ‘professional development portfolio’.
  • Theory & Research Methods
    Prepare to undertake and successfully complete a Research Project.
Year four

In your final year, you will take charge of your own chosen research project, working towards your major final work. This could be a substantial piece of journalism, a set of photos or a film.

  • Graduate Project
    Use practical and conceptual skills developed throughout the programme to complete a final year project.
  • Minor Project
    An opportunity to bring together the various theoretical and practical skills learnt to produce a self-directed practical piece.
  • The Application of Media in Conservation
    Explore the ways in which to deliver conservation-based theory and how this can be applied to media.
  • Festival and Exhibition
    Perfect the skills necessary to identify and successfully engage with the media industries post-graduation.
  • Research Project
    An investigation into a relevant research topic towards submission of a research output.

Example of Students' Work

Alexandros Leontiade
Brandon Down's work (left) & Matthew Laverick's work (right)
Sam Mason's work
Students filming scuba diving.
  • Image from the campus
Controls for the spotlight carousel

  • 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.

    Find out more

Find out more about studying with us

Attend an Open Day at Cumbria

An Open Day is your opportunity to explore one of 5 campuses, meet your lecturers, and find out how the University of Cumbria could become your new home.

Take the next step towards achieving your dreams.
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A student stands in front of a wall splattered with paint.