| Qualification | Start dates | Entry requirement | Full- or Part-time | UCAS Code | Assessment | |
| Bachelor of Sciences (BSc Hons) | January September | A-level: BBB | Level of English required | Full-time | C8P3 | Exams and written assessment |
Course outline
Journalism often concerns writing about people’s behaviour, and thus a knowledge of psychology is very relevant to a career in the media. This combined programme provides students with a substantial grounding in psychology as a cognitive science, together with the hands-on journalistic skills to research, write and present results memorably and effectively. Whether your intention is to go into practice, or to specialise as a journalist in a related area, this programme offers valuable critical and practical training.
Teaching methods
The Psychology Department believes in using a number of different teaching methods, with a great emphasis on interaction between students and lecturers / tutors and also on active learning. Our courses consist of some or all of the following:
- lectures – the main forum for communicating factual information. Given the small number of students these can easily become interactive, and students are encouraged to ask questions
- tutorials – small groups of typically 4 – 6 students discuss specific readings relevant to the lecture course and have the opportunity to ask questions about anything unclear from the lectures
- classes / seminars – taught in larger groups, these may include demonstrations, videos, presentations to other students or other class activities
- practical classes – psychology involves designing experiments and collecting and interpreting experimental data, and these classes will help students learn the relevant skills
- computer classes – the courses on research design and statistics in particular involve the use of computers and programs such as SPSS. Students will have several classes during these courses to help familiarise them with such software
- individual research project -this very important part of your degree is carried out in your second year. For more details please see Individual Research Project.
- observational methods – use of eg. video footage for developing of critical incident criteria and interaction process analysis (for developmental psychology, personality / social psychology, crime psychology topics).
The Media minor programmes at the University of Buckingham offer students small student: tutor ratios (8:1) with a dedicated media lab at their disposal. The work is production-based, allowing students to graduate from the programme with a portfolio to present to potential employers.
This can include press journalism (news stories, features, interviews), a website (created by the student as part of the Online Media module), video and sound packages for Broadcast Journalism (for Journalism minors) or an advertising campaign (Media Studies minors).
Students also learn to use industry-standard software including QuarkXpress, CoolEdit and Photoshop, as well as DV cameras and digital still cameras.
