Rehearse for your career as a music journalist in East London, the heart of global music culture. You will learn music journalism by doing it, as a reporter and editor working for UEL Journalism’s publications and for external clients. In addition to practicing music journalism, you will plan your role in its future and develop your own creative projects.

Our three-year course offers the complete music journalistic education, covering a broad spectrum of subjects.

- Professional, editorial formats (text, photo, audio, video, social media) for music journalism
- Story ideas and how to identify them
- Storytelling – what works and why
- Interviewing
- Reviewing
- How to collaborate on editorial outputs
- How to pitch ideas to commissioning editors
- How to work to a client’s brief
- How to be a commissioning editor
- Media law
- Journalism ethics
- Past, present and future projections of music journalism
- How to conduct original research and develop commercially viable projects

You'll be taught by a range of staff, many of whom are practitioners in the area they teach. Some of the assessments focus on practical skills and are presented as ‘live or simulated briefs’. This ensures that the practice-led teaching is relevant to industry and practice. Our staff are well placed to take advantage of a range of professional networks and industry contact. Each module is designed with practical componentsand a reflective component, with the intention that students develop an ability to comment on and justify their creative process.

Guided independent study
When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, specialist facilities, such as edit suites, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.

Academic support
Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas – including learning and disability support.

Dedicated personal tutor
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of the academic course team who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.

Workload
Each year you will spend around 300 hours of timetabled learning and teaching activities. These may be lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary depending on each module.

The approximate workload hours per year for this course are:
Scheduled teaching – 318 hours;
Guided independent study – 882 hours.

Your timetable
Your individualised timetable is normally available within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

Class sizes
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 5 - 10 students a year. Lecture sizes are normally 20 plus students. In the classroom you will be taught in groups of 18–20 students. However, this can vary by academic year.