Bachelor of Arts - Journalism (Honours) (with placement year)

The sandwich Journalism route inserts a salaried year in a newsroom, publisher or communications team between the taught levels, while the academic programme mirrors the standard degree across news writing, law and ethics, multimedia production and data journalism.

In a profession that hires on published work, a placement year is transformative: students accumulate a substantial clip portfolio under professional editing, learn the rhythms of a real publication cycle, and build the editorial contacts through whom most first jobs are found.

Financially and professionally this variant is the stronger recommendation for most students: journalism pays little at entry, so a salaried placement year both funds itself and produces the published clips that determine hiring, while communications placements pay considerably better and open the higher-earning adjacent career. The source records a four-year structure including the placement, at the £16,800 taught-year fee across the three recorded September cycles, with applications running through the second year, the reduced placement-year charge confirmed at offer stage, and shorthand practice best continued through the placement year itself.

Placement hosts span regional news groups, trade and specialist publishers, broadcasters and the press offices of public bodies and companies — the last of which pay best and hire most consistently, a reality the course does not disguise from students choosing where to apply.

Placement salaries make the additional year affordable, and host conversion is common in both newsrooms and communications teams. The four-year completion falls within the 18-month Graduate Route settlement covering post-2026 applications, with dependants excluded on taught study throughout.