Course description

The highlights

• Study our brand-new curriculum, which has been updated to keep pace with the industry. There are new modules in e-sports, commentary and punditry, data analysis, and more.
• Choose many of your modules (from the second year onwards) and focus on an area of football journalism that interests you – such as writing, podcasting, radio, TV, social media, or PR.
• Learn from tutors that are experienced and well connected, having worked for organisations like the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion, Wembley Stadium, the BBC, and The Guardian.
• Build your experience with the opportunity to work for clubs and other organisations within the game while you study – we’ll use our contacts to help you get your foot in the door.
• A high proportion of our students quickly find work in the industry.

A football degree for 2023 and beyond

Thanks to multi-billion-pound television deals, 90% of people in the UK owning a smartphone, and the explosion of social media, the desire for football content has never been greater. On this degree, we’ll teach you how to service that need.

We recognise this is an extremely fast-moving field, so we are always improving and evolving our course to reflect the industry. With this in mind, we have an updated curriculum for 2023, with new and improved modules on e-sports, video journalism, social media, feature writing, commentary and punditry, data analysis and visualisation, the societal impact of journalism, and more.  

This is in response to changes in the industry. Football clubs are now taking control of their own narrative and looking for well-qualified media professionals who can help them build their audiences and communicate directly with fans. Journalists are also building their own brands, audiences and content. The traditional forms of media are still extremely relevant, but they have had to shift their offering to reflect their audience.

Our aim is to help you develop the skills that all these employers will look for when hiring, as well as to show you how to manage your own content and brand. We want to ensure the broadest range of job pathways are open to you.

Play to your strengths

As the definition of journalism has broadened, so too has our degree. It’s extremely varied, with plenty of optional modules in years two and three, so you can tailor your degree to your own talents and interests.

We’ll cover traditional skills like interviewing, newswriting and media law, as well as those required by the industry today, such as video, social media management, podcasting, and data analysis.

As well as producing content, you’ll also be asked to analyse the work of current journalists to understand what best practice looks like. You will also learn more generally about communication, media, and societal issues in journalism.

Get professional experience

Our tutors are well-connected in the industry. They can put you in touch with football clubs and media organisations, so you can start to gain valuable work experience.

Recently for example, we arranged for groups of students to cover the 2022 Women’s Euros and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. We also have around 80 students currently working for individual clubs, such as Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Burton Albion, Walsall and Mansfield.

You’ll cover all aspects of the news cycle from previewing matches to live reporting and post-match analysis, along with press conferences, interviews and sports features. To see what our students get up to, take a look at the Derby Uni Footy Journos website and TikTok page.

By the end of the course – provided you’ve made the most of these opportunities – you should have an impressive editorial portfolio to show prospective employers.

Be inspired by guest speakers

You’ll gain fascinating insights into the profession thanks to our programme of guest lectures by sports journalists, broadcasters and football industry insiders. In recent years these have included:

• Commentator Martin Tyler
• Manager Martin O'Neill
• Player, coach and broadcaster, Kelly Smith
• Player Max Bird
• TV broadcaster, sports commentator and actor, Arlo White
• Journalist Henry Winter
• Commentator and presenter Jacqui Oatley
• Journalist Darren Lewis.

How you will learn

You will learn in a variety of ways – for example through:

• Lectures and seminars, including guest lectures from industry experts
• Practice-based workshops
• Trips to clubs, matches and tournaments
• News days
• Group work
• Independent study.

Assessment

Our assessments are focused on teaching you how to be a journalist. There are no exams and you’ll be assessed mainly on the content you produce, which might be blogs, podcasts, videos, features, and news articles. For some modules, you will need to complete more academic assessments, including essays, case study reports and presentations.

Who you will meet

• Chris Hall is the Programme Leader and supports West Bromwich Albion. He worked in the communications team for his beloved club for eight years, managing their social media and broadcast products. Chris then spent five years at The FA running Wembley Stadium’s digital team. His career highlight was organising all the on-field activity for Sir Alex Ferguson’s final game as a manager.

• Peter Lansley is a senior lecturer, Guardian football writer, and FA coach mentor. He’s had 20 years’ experience writing for broadsheets, 13 of which were as The Time’s Midlands and Women's football correspondent. Pete has reported from 20 major tournaments but says the pinnacle was reporting on the Lionesses winning the 2022 Women's Euros with Derby students. He supports Wolves.

• Neil Roberts is an Everton fan and has spent 25 years in journalism (newspaper and TV). While working for ITV News, he interviewed many sports people including David Beckham, Johnny Wilkinson, Joe Calzaghe and Sir Bradley Wiggins. Neil was also involved in the re-brand of the Premier League in 2016, as executive producer of their global TV channel.

• Niall Hickman has worked as a sports journalist for ITV, Sky Sports, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. His career highlights include covering World Cups, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, and world championship boxing. He supports Wolves as well as non-league side, Stourbridge FC.

• Neil Manship is a senior lecturer and Derby County fan. He began his career as sports reporter at the Derby Telegraph and then moved into radio and TV, working as a reporter, producer and presenter for the BBC. This included 13 years as a lead producer and manager for BBC Look North. He’s most proud of producing ‘Programme of the Year’ in The BBC Nations and Regions Awards.

• Richard Bowyer is a senior lecturer an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience. He’s worked on numerous Midlands’ newspapers, including the Wolverhampton Express and Star, Lincolnshire Echo and Stoke Sentinel, rising through the ranks to become Editor-in-Chief of Staffordshire Sentinel Newspapers (his career highlight) and later, Group Editor of West Staffordshire Newspapers and its associated websites. He’s a Manchester United fan.

• Caroline Jones is a lecturer and Derby graduate who follows Burton Albion. She gained over 10 years’ experience in the online media and newspaper industry before becoming a lecturer, working for Liverpool Echo and Derby Telegraph. Her expertise includes content management, live blogging, SEO and social media.

• Dr Beth Wood is a lecturer who spent five years working as a broadcast journalist before switching to teaching and research, initially working in colleges and schools. For her PhD, Beth explored how Gen Z are accessing and engaging with the news and the reasoning behind this.