Why study Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University?
- 90% of our students are in work or postgraduate studies 15 months after graduation - 2020 NSS
- Accredited by the the National Council for the Training of Journalists and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. Both industry accreditations means that the course focuses closely on UK employer requirements
- Practical training in research and writing as well as broadcast, print and online production
- Option to learn invaluable Shorthand techniques
- Opportunities to write for the highly-regarded MerseyNews Live website
- Teaching from journalists with many years experience and links to local and national newspapers, TV companies and radio stations
- Opportunities for industrial placements with media organisations, including a paid internship with the Index on Censorship
- Use industry-standard facilities including newsrooms, studios and editing booths
- Visit the 2022 Degree show website
About your course
A highly vocational programme, the BA (Hons) Journalism is taught using industry-standard facilities so you gain the hands-on experience you will need in your day-to-day work as a journalist. Facilities include edit suites, newsrooms, radio sound studios and a TV studio.
This highly vocational BA (Hons) degree programme provides practical training in these areas, and will further your understanding of the law and how public bodies work. You will also develop skills in analysis and interpretation, initiative and research, which are useful in any career, not just journalism. In your third year you can specialise in an area related to your future career aspirations.
You will have access to the Liverpool Screen School's industry-standard facilities, helping you secure the hands-on experience you will need in your day-to-day work as a journalist. These facilities include edit suites, newsrooms, radio sound studios and a TV studio.
Our strong links with local newspapers, television companies and radio stations mean that there will be opportunities for invaluable work experience during the course, and you will be encouraged to get involved with various student media outlets in Liverpool, including our own website.
If you would like to see some of the work published by our students, take a look at their website.
"Once I graduated, I moved to London and worked for a small media company. This allowed me to express my creativity and produce short TV news packages for an online audience. Skills I had gained at university matched perfectly with those required, so I was in my element."
Professional accreditation/links
Accredited by the The National Council for the Training of Journalists and the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. Both industry accreditations means that the course focuses closely on UK employer requirements
The Liverpool Screen School has strong links with local, national and international media organisations including the BBC, ITV, Trinity Mirror, Lime Pictures, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, National Union of Journalists, Radio Academy, Institute of Communication Ethics, Association for Journalism Education and One World Media. Such connections provide excellent opportunities for student work placements and research projects.
Find out more about the NCTJ Journalism Diversity Fund to help cover some costs of training.
Fees and funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students
Fees
The fees quoted above cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as:
- Library membership with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources
- Access to programme-appropriate software
- Library and student IT support
- Free on-campus wifi via eduroam
Additional costs
Although not all of the following are compulsory/relevant, you should keep in mind the costs of:
- accommodation and living expenditure
- books (should you wish to have your own copies)
- printing, photocopying and stationery
- PC/laptop (should you prefer to purchase your own for independent study and online learning activities)
- mobile phone/tablet (to access online services)
- field trips (travel and activity costs)
- placements (travel expenses and living costs)
- student visas (international students only)
- study abroad opportunities (travel costs, accommodation, visas and immunisations)
- academic conferences (travel costs)
- professional-body membership
- graduation (gown hire etc)
Funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you'll find all of the information you need on our specialist funding pages.
Employability
Once you successfully complete the BA (Hons) degree programme, your practical skills in print, broadcasting and online journalism will qualify you to work in a variety of roles within this industry.
Our graduates have a good record of employment, forging successful careers as reporters, writers, editors, specialist correspondents, freelance journalists and television presenters. As well as working in television and news publishing, they can be found in broadcasting and news agencies, public relations departments and consultancies, web-based media and local authority press departments.
Student Futures - Careers, Employability and Enterprise Service
A wide range of opportunities and support is available to you, within and beyond your course, to ensure our students experience a transformation in their career trajectory. Every undergraduate curriculum includes Future Focus during Level 4, an e-learning resource and workshop designed to help you to develop your talents, passion and purpose.
Every student has access to Careers Zone 24/7, LJMU's suite of online Apps, resources and jobs board via the LJMU Student Futures website. There are opportunities for flexible, paid and part-time work through Unitemps, LJMU's in-house recruitment service, and we also offer fully funded Discovery Internships.
One-to-one careers and employability advice is available via our campus-based Careers Zones and we offer a year-round programme of events, including themed careers and employability workshops, employer events and recruitment fairs. Our Start-Up Hub can help you to grow your enterprise skills and to research, plan and start your own business or become a freelancer.
A suite of learning experiences, services and opportunities is available to final year students to help ensure you leave with a great onward plan. You can access LJMU's Careers, Employability and Start-up Services after you graduate and return for one-to-one support for life.
Go abroad
LJMU aims to make international opportunities available to every student. You may be able to study abroad as part of your degree at one of our 100+ partner universities across the world. You could also complete a work placement or apply for one of our prestigious worldwide internship programmes. If you wanted to go abroad for a shorter amount of time, you could attend one of our 1-4 week long summer schools.
Our Go Citizen Scheme can help with costs towards volunteering, individual projects or unpaid placements anywhere in the world. With all of these opportunities at your feet, why wouldn’t you take up the chance to go abroad?
Find out more about the opportunities we have available via our Instagram @ljmuglobalopps or email us at: goabroad@ljmu.ac.uk.
A life-changing experience
There's so much more to university than just studying for a degree.
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What you will study on this degree
Please see guidance below on core and option modules for further information on what you will study.
Further guidance on modules
Modules are designated core or optional in accordance with professional body requirements, as applicable, and LJMU’s Academic Framework Regulations. Whilst you are required to study core modules, optional modules provide you with an element of choice. Their availability may vary and will be subject to meeting minimum student numbers.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Level 5
Core modules
Journalism Issues
20 credits
You will gain knowledge of key contemporary issues within the journalism industry and explore questions about the media's role in a modern, democratic society. This will include questions of diversity and inclusion such as changing attitudes towards the representation of different demographic groups and questions of inclusion within the media workforce. The module will include an examination of the international context of UK journalism and consideration of issues around decolonising journalism, for example questions of stereotyping in reporting of the developing world, and questions of universal news values. Students will develop an understanding of the ways in which the historical development of journalism continues to shape and influence the modern industry (for example through regulation, ownership, economic and technological factors).
Level 6
Optional Modules
Public Interest Journalism
20 credits
This module will prepare you for the NCTJ professional diploma examinations in Court Reporting and Public Affairs.
Teaching and work-related learning
Excellent facilities and learning resources
We adopt an active blended learning approach, meaning you will experience a combination of face-to-face and online learning during your time at LJMU. This enables you to experience a rich and diverse learning experience and engage fully with your studies. Our approach ensures that you can easily access support from your personal tutor, either by meeting them on-campus or via a video call to suit your needs.
Teaching is delivered via a combination of lectures, seminars, online activities and workshops, in addition to around 22 hours weekly production work and independent research. As you progress through the course, you will be expected to do more project research so you will only spend two days per week in class in your final year.
Work-related Learning
This vocational course offers many opportunities for practical, hands-on experience and work placements, thanks to our connections in the local, national and international media. For instance, LJMU and the Index on Censorship offer a 12-month paid internship for a journalism student at the IoC headquarters. This is a great way to meet industry experts and learn about free speech around the world, as well as building skills in public relations, lobbying and campaigning.
Work experience like this is an invaluable opportunity to practise your skills in a high-pressure news media environment and will put you at a distinct advantage over other applicants once you enter the competitive job market. In fact, many students are offered permanent jobs at institutions like the BBC, Trinity Mirror and Lime Pictures on the basis of a successful work placement.
Liverpool has a thriving journalism industry, with one of the UKs largest and most successful evening newspapers and the largest newspaper publisher on its doorstep. Several TV companies are based in the city, including the BBC, Granada and Hollyoaks creators, Lime Pictures. The region also has around 25 radio stations.
Support and guidance
Dedicated personal tutor, plus study skills support
If you decide to study with LJMU, you will join a warm and friendly learning environment where creativity is nurtured and supported by excellent learning resources. Throughout your studies you will be supported by a dedicated personal tutor who will be available to discuss course-related issues, monitor your progress, and meet with you twice a year to discuss your educational and career plans.
Assessment
Assessment varies depending on the modules you choose, but will usually include a combination of exams and coursework.
We acknowledge that all students perform differently depending on how they are assessed, which is why we use a range of assessment methods. These include: essays, projects, portfolios of work, exams, reports, group and individual presentations, and dissertations. Much of the work is journalism based and supported by academic essays and presentations.
Assessment will be mostly portfolio-based, with some exams in law, shorthand, media regulation and court reporting. Your Major Project/Dissertation will be 15,000 words or equivalent.
Course tutors
Our staff are committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning
Frances Yeoman
Programme leader
Fran runs the journalism department at LJMU and teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level across our courses. She holds a British Academy grant for her research into news literacy, on which she has worked with stakeholders including Ofcom, DCMS and the News Literacy Network. Before joining LJMU, she spent over a decade on national newspapers, most recently as Assistant Editor of i, where she oversaw the papers news output, as well as The Times and Independent.
This course will see you working as a trainee journalist in a realistic newsroom environment, taught by industry experts and gathering your own stories for our live websites, TV and radio bulletins. Our extensive links across journalism, including with newspapers, TV and multimedia platforms, create fantastic opportunities for work experience and help our industry-ready graduates go on to secure jobs across the sector.
Facilities
What you can expect from your School
The School is based in the Redmonds Building, in the heart of the bustling Mount Pleasant Campus and Liverpool's growing Knowledge Quarter. The building is home to high quality lecture theatres and seminar rooms, TV studios, radio suites, green screen, editing rooms and news rooms, social spaces, and a caf. It is only a short walk from LJMUs Aldham Robarts Library, which contains all the resources you will require for your studies, and is open seven days a week.
Entry requirements
Please choose your qualifications below to view requirements
Grades/points required from qualifications: BBC-ABB (112-128)
Qualification requirements
GCSEs and equivalents
A levels
BTECs
Extended Diploma: DMM-DDM
Access awards
International Baccalaureate
Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
OCR Cambridge Technical
Extended Diploma: DMM-DDM
Irish awards
Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
T levels
International requirements
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IELTS
7.5 overall with no component below 7.5, taken within two years of the course start date.https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/study/courses/international-entry-requirements
Further information
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DBS, Occupational Health requirements
Can this course be deferred?
Yes
Is a DBS check required?
No
Courses_UG_EntryRequirements_InternationalEntryRequirementsLink
Please Note: All international qualifications are subject to a qualification equivalency check.
Application and selection
Securing your place at LJMU
UCAS is the official application route for our full-time undergraduate courses. Further information on the UCAS application process can be found here https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/study/undergraduate-students/how-to-apply.
We are keen to recruit students who will make the best use of the opportunity to study with us. So we are looking for students with a flair for writing factual material. They need an enthusiasm for seeking out what's new, then asking why it is new, what's different, what's special, why it will interest the viewer, reader or listener - why, in short, it will be a good piece of journalism.
You should be able to demonstrate an interest in news and current affairs and, ideally, have a specialist area which you might like to develop such as music, sport or fashion, for instance. Enthusiasm for news and current affairs needs to be supported by general knowledge, an awareness of what's going on in the world and a burning desire to know more.
You should be interested in and sympathetic to people and their activities. You may well have studied a humanities and/or social science subject at school or college (e.g. English Language, English Literature, History, Politics, Sociology, Media Studies).
In particular, you will need to possess the following qualities:
Good communication skills, as you will be expected to contribute to tutorials and host presentations.
Time management, as you will have to work to deadlines on a regular basis - essential for a journalist.
Good IT skills, as you will be expected to submit work that has been word processed.
Good analytical skills, so that you can critically assess news sources.
Information retrieval techniques, as you will be expected to read around the subject and draw upon your findings for news and feature writing, essays, reports and projects.
Teamwork, as you may have to work closely with others which is essential in journalism.
You should ensure that your UCAS application shows that you meet the following essential criteria:
The ability to communicate ideas logically and in an easy-to-read, error-free style is vital and will be measured by your personal statement.
Evidence of an interest in news-orientated media, including activities such as student newspapers/magazines, hospital radio or work placements.
Evidence of an interest in the world around you: politics, science, history, finance, business, art, theatre, sports are among the areas for which we would expect you to have enthusiasm.
Evidence of additional skills or knowledge in one of these areas: knowledge of current affairs, a foreign language (GCSE level or above), knowledge of different countries and cultures, or relevant work experience.
It would also be helpful if you are able to show the following in your UCAS application:
An enthusiasm for IT and the new communication tools available on the internet and on mobile communication.
Evidence of personal development such as art, music, creative writing, sport, outdoor activities, D of E award scheme.
Involvement in social, community, political or charitable activities.
The university reserves the right to withdraw or make alterations to a course and facilities if necessary; this may be because such changes are deemed to be beneficial to students, are minor in nature and unlikely to impact negatively upon students or become necessary due to circumstances beyond the control of the university. Where this does happen, the university operates a policy of consultation, advice and support to all enrolled students affected by the proposed change to their course or module.
Further information on the terms and conditions of any offer made, our admissions policy and the complaints and appeals process.