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Communications and Linguistics BA (Hons)

Start date

  • Level(s) of Study: Undergraduate
  • Typical Offer: 104 - 112 UCAS tariff points
  • UCAS Code(s): LQ31
  • Start Date(s): September 2024
  • Duration: Three years full-time, four – seven years part-time
  • Study Mode(s): Full-time / Part-time
  • Campus: Clifton Campus
Information for 2024

Introduction:

Communication is key to understanding the contemporary world and our place within it.   To understand language is to empower ourselves for the challenges of the future.

In the 21st century, as professional work becomes ever more specialised and shaped by the demands of the digital world, there will be a corresponding need for the next generation of graduates to become highly skilled communicators with a capacity to speak and write effectively, eloquently, with cultural sensitivity and technological sophistication – across a range of different media.

The Communications and Linguistics degree will address these issues explicitly by developing your knowledge and understanding of the way in which linguistic processes and practices shape and continue to shape the fundamental contours of culture and society.  You will study the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic dimensions of language, explore the globality of spoken and written English, as well as develop an understanding of the psychological, sociological, and political dimensions of contemporary communications processes and practices.

With these in focus, the course will offer an interdisciplinary approach to language and communication in order to analyse and explain the complex interrelations between social, political, institutional and technological dimensions of language in its multivariate forms, with a specific emphasis upon the way that an understanding of these is key to unlocking the employability potential of undergraduates in the Humanities for future, high skilled, professional roles.

  • You will get the best preparation for your future career through work-like experiences that are embedded throughout the length of the course.
  • The course is fully interdisciplinary – both subjects work together to produce a unified course and a coherent student experience. Interdisciplinary options available in both the second and the final year.
  • You will get the best preparation for your future career through work-like experiences that are embedded throughout the length of the course.
  • The course will allow you to develop the knowledge and critical skills that are valued by employers and are required to become an expert practitioner across a range of future professions.

What you’ll study

Each year you’ll study a number of core modules from the lists below and you’ll have the opportunity to select from a range of optional modules to give yourself a more specialised pathway, depending on your interests.

In the second half of Year Two you can take your learning into your own hands and choose an extended work placement, learn at one of our many partner institutions worldwide, or continue to study here with a wide range of interesting optional modules to choose from.

Work-like experience

Work-like experience is embedded throughout your degree, ensuring that you are given multiple opportunities across three years to develop your career goals and build the skills and experience needed to achieve them. These embedded work-like experience opportunities are much more than a placement, and ensure that you develop the skills and competencies that employers demand. You will take part in a minimum of 240 hours of work-like experience during your course, with the option to take an extended 10-week work placement in your second year.

What does work-like experience mean?

Work-like experience defines a wide range of activities which will build your skills and hone your confidence to prepare you for a professional career after graduation. You will be given opportunities to engage in client-led projects, volunteering, consultancy, professional development, vocational training, project management and team work. You will expand and enhance your creative and communications skills through practical projects, producing podcasts and videos, organising campaigns, curating social media content and visual media. This rich and diverse experience will ensure that you graduate with the skills and confidence to thrive in your own career path.

Interdisciplinary modules

Our students are curious, creative and forward-thinking, so in your second and third years of study you can join your colleagues from across Humanities to take a module which is not traditionally associated with your subject, but is related to some of the big issues in the world today. For instance, interdisciplinary humanities modules on sustainability or artificial intelligence take your subject knowledge in surprising and innovative directions. See below for the current list of these modules.

Transformation modules

Each year you will take a core collaborative module. These modules are linked and will build on each other to ease you into University life, support you with mentoring and personal tutoring, begin your professional development, and expand your horizons with collaborative projects and assessments both within your subjects and wider afield. They include work-like experiences, and will build towards a Developing with NTU employability award.

Core modules

Understanding the Communications Revolution

Explore the dynamics of digital culture which underpin the ‘communications revolution’. You’ll examine a range of media technologies and creative industries centred on the internet explosion, which together have arguably transformed the nature of life in the 21st century. And you’ll be asked to consider some of the key questions – about ownership, power and control - which accompany these changes.

Psychology of Communication

This module is designed to demonstrate the centrality of communications, not just to the functioning of society, but also for the very constitution of who we are as individuals. Based within, but by no means contained by, the field of Social Psychology, it looks at how people communicate with one another both verbally and non-verbally. It also considers the role of both conscious and sub-conscious processes. Other key topic areas include the arts of conversation and persuasion, the psychology of leadership, group dynamics and intergroup relations.

Morphology and Syntax

With language, we are able to express almost anything we want, and a large part of this is because languages have a grammar. In this module, you will learn the fundamentals of how to analyse the word and sentence structure of languages. You will start each topic by looking at English, and then begin to explore how languages from around the world differ from and are similar to each other. Also, you will look at the applications of grammatical analysis, including in the study of child language and computational linguistics.

Semantics and Pragmatics

In this module, you will explore meanings in language and communication. Building on first semester modules, you will examine literal and implied meanings in the relationship between what is said and what is meant. You will answer questions such as what meaning is as it relates to words and sentences, and how meaning works in context. You will also explore essential notions of semantics and pragmatics, such as deixis, politeness, and speech acts. Broadly, the first half of the module will consider semantics and then move to pragmatics in the second half.

Transformation: Agency and Self

In this module you will build the foundations for a successful University life through developing understanding and knowledge of your sustainable self. Exploring mental health (in)justice through academic research and project work, this module will demonstrate that knowledge of self, leads to a greater sense of community, key to overall wellbeing and academic success.

The main assessment will be the pitch of an initiative/resource/activity that will encourage and sustain wellbeing across the Joint Honours cohort to internal clients, NTSU, NTU Sport, or the Arts and Humanities Wellbeing team and a professional development reflection. The assessment is a personal reflection alongside the completion of the Developing with NTU award.

Optional modules typically include - choose one

Journalism and Promotional Cultures

Your introduction to the field of professional media communications.  By looking at debates around fake news, the operations of propaganda and controversies around celebrity culture, you will develop a combination of theoretical insights and practical skills, which will hep you produce a PR campaign around a person of your choice.

Language, Society and Culture

Examine language beyond the level of the sentence, including both spoken and written discourse. You will learn how to analyse language, engaging with both the producers and users of texts. You will learn the basis of discourse analysis and explore why texts are structured and created to achieve different purposes in society.

Core modules

Problems of Language

Adopt the role of a consultant operating in areas such as market research, activism or language learning to respond to client briefs themed around prominent social issues such as equality, diversity & inclusion and sustainability. In doing so you will learn about the various methods of data collection in applied linguistics, such as recording and transcribing conversational data, designing questionnaires, carrying out interviews and conducting online data collection. You will also explore ways of analysing such data so that you can include proposals for analysing data in the pitch to your designated client.

Explorations in Identity and Selfhood

This module looks at a range of psychological and sociological theories of identity and selfhood.  Starting with our common sense understandings and a focus on 'personality', it moves out towards more radical theories and arguments, which see identities as more contingent and de-centred.

Transformation: Agency and World

What purpose do the humanities serve in today's society? How can the humanities help in the process of "healing and securing our planet" and "freeing the human race from poverty" as stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations?

This module focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and encourages you to develop your awareness of how your own field of study as well as cross- and inter-disciplinary actions can result in real, quantifiable change. Alongside a personal reflective portfolio, you will share your knowledge and understanding developed through the module to produce a news reel of how a contemporary sustainability goal relates to your discipline.

In this module you will either undertake an 80 hour placement, supported by the Arts and Humanities employability team, or will engage in an 80 hour project, responding to a supplied employer brief  and producing a solution to the brief given.

Optional pathways

Pathway 1: Extended work-like experience

Get the experience you need for after you graduate, and really understand how the things you study translate into the world of work with a work placement. Your highly experienced Employability Team will help you find a placement to suit your career goals from our huge network of companies, charities, institutions, and beyond.

Pathway 2: An international exchange

Travel the world, meet new friends, and have experiences you will remember for the rest of your life.

Our flexible curriculum has been designed to allow some amazing opportunities for you. Your second year of study is divided into two semesters, giving you the opportunity to take part in an international exchange. You could study with one of international exchange partners in Australia, Europe, USA, Canada, Thailand and many, many more.

Our dedicated team will support you in finding and arranging a suitable exchange. And don't worry about the cost, they will help you apply for any grants or loans you may need, as no one should miss out on the chance to broaden their horizons.

Pathway 3: Taught modules

Interdisciplinary optional modules typically include:

Intercultural Communication at Work

Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to build your intercultural communication competence. Analyse and reflect on the impact of culture(s) on your values, assumptions, perceptions, expectations, and behaviours. Build successful verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in different intercultural settings.

People and Planet: pasts, presents, and futures

In this module you will develop an understanding of the human impact on the environment from the 15th Century to the present as a form of slow but sustained violence enacted against the planet. It will also explore how such long-term change can interact with social justice in the present day.

Language, Inequality and Social Justice

Whether it’s racial abuse on social media, prejudice against regional accents in schools, or sexist advertising campaigns, discrimination is a social issue that affects us all in one way or another. This module examines how language can be used to both promote social justice and tackle prejudice and discrimination in a range of institutional and everyday contexts. This module will be particularly useful if you are looking to pursue a career in advocacy, human resources or journalism.

Communications optional modules typically include:

Journalism and PR: Critiques and Practice

This module explores the new ways of working and new modes of creativity in today's economy. Ranging across the fields of advertising, PR and journalism, you’ll interrogate the economic, psychological and sociological coordinates of the new forms of communication and media technology used in those industries, and you’ll examine the new types of creativity which have arisen as a result.

Media, Communication and Culture in East Asia

This module provides an insight into contemporary media development and cultural change in East Asia, placing this in the context of broader historical, economic and cultural debates. It will examine a wide range of media forms including print media, broadcasting, film and new media technologies, assessing their cultural impact in East Asian societies. It will explore contemporary issues of media development and policy and it will relate these to longer historical contexts.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender’ and ‘sexuality’ are familiar terms; however, they are also highly complex and contested. This module examines the ways these concepts have been theorised from a range of academic perspectives - including psychoanalysis, cultural history and feminist theory. It also orientates around three central questions: i) what is the substance of gender? ii) how do we become gendered? and iii) why do masculinity and femininity take the forms that they do and how do they change over time?

Linguistics optional modules typically include:

Communications Disorders

For many of us, understanding and producing language is something that happens easily. But for millions of people in the UK and around the world with a speech and language disorder, language is understood, produced, and learned differently. In this module, you will gain an understanding of a variety of medical conditions, including aphasia, dementia, cleft palate, schizophrenia, and learning impairments, and discover how their language differs from other people. You will not only consider the difficulties such people can face, but also what studying such people can tell us about all of our minds, brains, and bodies. You will also get an overview of how speech and language therapists aim to help people who have communicative difficulties.

Language and Local Community

Examine the ways in which language can vary in communities, considering issues such as accent, dialect and identity. You will develop a critical and informed stance about contemporary language-related issues in sociolinguistics including issues such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity and age to understand how language is used by speakers to create their own identities.

Core module

Major project

For your major project in your final year of your studies, you can choose to undertake a project in either one of your two Joint Honours subjects.

Communications Major Project

The Communications Major Project will provide you with a unique opportunity to choose a topic relevant to the field of Communications in which you have a special interest, and to explore it in depth over a sustained period of time. You can either produce a traditional, written dissertation, in which you will interrogate your chosen area of study and develop an argument of your own; or you can produce a media artefact (such as a screenplay, a podcast or a video), along with an accompanying critical analysis, in which you might explore your topic more creatively. Whichever format you choose, you will be supported throughout both by regular workshops, and by your own dissertation supervisor.

Linguistics Major Project

The Linguistics Major project offers you an opportunity to research a language-focused topic of your own choice in depth and in detail.  This can take to form a standard long-form dissertation or another agreed format. You will be encouraged to collect and analyse naturally occurring language data, carry out different types of linguistic analysis and come to your own conclusions.

Humanities Research Project

The Humanities Research Project provides you with the opportunity to work with the combined knowledge and skills you have gained in each of your subjects and further develop them to create a substantial and independent piece of research. The Research Project can be fulfilled through either the writing of a dissertation or through a project in an alternative practice-based format (e.g. publication, film, (video)game, performance, report, podcast, creative writing, exhibition, web-based etc.) accompanied by a shorter essay.

Transformation: Agency and Social Change

In this module, you will engage in a 'live partnership' with a cultural festival that is designed to deliver social change through the Arts and Humanities: the Counterpoints-run initiative, Refugee Week. Over the course of the module, you will gain insight into the sociocultural challenges faced by refugees in the C21st, and will explore the work of Counterpoints Arts as an organisation that seeks to address those challenges via cultural activity. Drawing on these insights, you will work in interdisciplinary teams in order to create a Refugee Week campaign that champions positive social change in attitudes or behaviours towards refugees. Ultimately, the module invites you to consider how your disciplinary knowledge of the Humanities enables you to become a responsible global citizen, and to assume responsibility for championing positive social change, whatever your chosen career.  The main assessment for this module is the creation of a ‘campaign tool’ (blogpost, podcast, social media post series, educational pack or other, that will be presented as part of a team ‘campaign’ at the end-of-module ‘festival’. You will also complete the Developing with NTU Award.

Interdisciplinary optional modules typically include:

Artificial Intelligence: Human Factors

This module will introduce you to problems and issues associated with technological change, automation and digitization, with a specific emphasis on the likely future impact of artificial intelligence on the wider human dimension, both individual and collective. Providing you with expertise required to become managers and policy-makers in the AI future, the module will take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the insights of philosophers, literary theorists and practitioners, historians, and social theorists.

Humanities in Action

What is the value of 'Humanities'? Answer this question from multiple perspectives - knowledge and intellectual value, economic value, humanities and "hard" and "soft" skills, social value, the value to the individual - and find it's place in society.

Communications optional modules typically include:

Persuasion, Promotion, Propaganda

We live in an age of systemic propaganda where the manipulation of others is normalised and sometimes even praised. Indeed, we live in time when almost all of us are propagandists through our attempts to manufacture a public images online that may or may not conform to the reality of who we really are. Through case studies from politics, business and non-profits, this module examines efforts to persuade mass audiences to think, feel and act in ways deemed desirable to the source of the communication. We will critically explore fundraising communications by charities, electioneering by politicians and political parties, and efforts by private citizens and organisations to generate attention for themselves or for the causes and interests that they represent.

Natural Futures? Global Environmental Catastrophes and the Fate of Life on Earth

This module will help you understand our contemporary environmental emergency by grasping its roots in the past, comprehending the shape it takes today, and envisioning a range of possible future scenarios for a new flourishing of life on Planet Earth. As well as exploring theoretical, political and activist perspectives on environmental catastrophe, this module will support you in becoming an imaginative agent of change in the fight to shape better global futures.

DJ Cultures: History, Theory and Technique

From obscure roots, the art of DJing has in recent decades exploded into the limelight as a major form of popular culture. No prior experience of DJing is required to take this module, which combines a basic ‘taster’ introduction to DJ technology and the practical techniques of DJ performance with a theoretical consideration of various styles of DJing, their histories, their related musical experiences and their wider cultural significance and influence.

Self in Crisis: Power, Prejudice and Otherness

This module brings together debates which contend that, in various ways, contemporary selfhood is in a profound state of crisis. One part explores the idea that the very concept of the self – which, for so long, has sat at the very heart of the humanities - is itself problematic. Another considers the troubling of contemporary selfhood in more existential terms; that is, in terms of people’s actual lives and experiences. Here, special emphasis is placed on the status of mental illness and the roles of psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Advertising, Journalism and the PR Project

This module explores contemporary communication industries through the concept of ‘convergence’. This idea refers to the way in which individuals working in areas such as advertising, PR and journalism increasingly have to take on a variety of roles which cut across the traditional boundaries of each sector, and need to learn to use a variety of working practices and technologies as a result. The module culminates in you developing a PR project..

What's New: the Future of Media Communications

This module looks at innovations and challenges that face media communications professionals as they look to the future. Using practical assessments such as blog writing, producing a radio advertisement and making an audio slideshow, students will advance their media skills in preparation for future employment as digital, multi-media producers. You will examine the issues, ideas and debates which contemporary journalism and marketing have to engage with, such as the funding and accessibility of news on the internet, the nature and trends of popular content, new styles and forms of presentation and the blurring of fantasy and reality in digital communications.

Linguistics optional modules typically include:

Language and Health

We all aim to live a healthy life, and this module will explore the role that language plays in health-care settings, the communication of health topics, and our understanding of what “being healthy” means. You will explore questions such as: how do doctors and healthcare workers communicate effectively to patients? How does the media and other forms of texts influence our ideas of what is healthy? How do governments advise and encourage populations to live a healthier life? In doing so, you will learn practical tools to analyse language and images while also designing a health communication tool based upon academic research.

Ecolinguistics

There is no greater challenge facing the world than the state of the environment. And like most areas of life, our interactions with the environment are influenced by the ways we talk about these issues. In this module, you will learn about how societies, both home and abroad, talk about ecological topics and how the metaphors we use can have beneficial and negative consequences for how people view and engage with the environment. You will also look at how climate science, a complicated topic, is framed by various people for their own agendas and aims, examining the topic of science communication. Through engaging in tutor-guided research topics, you will examine the representation of the environment with how things “really” are, and how to communicate these topics to a general audience.

Language and Heritage

This module will allow you to increase your knowledge about the ways language forms a crucial part of people’s identity, heritage, and culture. The UK currently does not recognise or safeguard linguistic heritage. You will examine sociolinguistic issues around the role of language in communities, including language usage in multilingual societies and language policy.

Forensic Linguistics

Examine language and the law, crime, and justice. You will review language in the criminal justice system, including the linguistic disadvantages that witnesses, victims, and suspects face in legal contexts. You will also look at the role of the forensic as expert witness and the different ways in which language analysts can provide investigative assistance to the police and reliable evidence to the courts.

Language, Gender, and Sexuality

Language forms a central part in how gendered meanings are made, and this module will encourage you to think about, and challenge, how gender and sexuality-based stereotypes are formed and circulate in and through language. You will explore contemporary debates, such as whether language is inherently sexist, and how increased awareness of gender diversity impacts on how people use language and are referred to by others. You will also examine how expectations of gendered behaviour can infiltrate our daily lives, such as the gendering of children’s toys, fat-shaming female celebrities in the news, and toxic masculinity in the ‘manosphere’.

Further information on what you'll study

Natalie Braber

Professor Natalie Braber, Professor in Linguistics gives us an insight into her subject, research and  what makes Linguistics at NTU so special

"There’s a question that’s been doing the rounds recently: ‘what are arts and humanities degrees good for?’ Well, try living in a world that doesn’t have them; a world that doesn’t have people asking the kinds of questions we ask. Try and do anything without language, whether you’re listening, speaking, engaging or convincing. It’s almost impossible — and that’s why linguistics matters so much." Read more...

Don’t just take our word for it, hear from our students themselves

Student Profiles

Michèle Croll

My course is really engaging and both my subjects tie in well together... I find there’s also a good balance between practical and theoretical learning.

How you’re taught

How will I learn?

Teaching takes a variety of forms and during your degree you will experience many different types of learning activities. Some of our modules are delivered entirely online, allowing you the flexibility to study at a time that is convenient to you. Other modules use interactive lectures and workshops that are supplemented by smaller group sessions, including:

  • seminars
  • tutorials
  • problem-solving workshops
  • training workshops
  • hands-on practice
  • group projects and presentations
  • guest speakers
  • field work

You will also be able to take part in lots of extra-curricular activities outside your course, including debating, research seminars, student challenges, Sustainability and careers training, sports, student societies and much, much more.

Contact hours

  • Year 1 lectures/seminars/workshops (24%), work-like experience (7%(), independent study (69%)*
  • Year 2 lectures/seminars/workshops (24%), work-like experience (7%(), independent study (69%)*
  • Year 3 lectures/seminars/workshops (20%), work-like experience (7%(), independent study (73%)*

* Based on a taught module pathway. Statistics will vary depending on optional modules, work experience, and pathways chosen.

All Arts and Humanities students will complete a minimum of 240 hours of work like experience over the three years of the course.

Study abroad in Year Two

You’ll have the option to take part in an international exchange at a partner university in the second half of Year Two. This will enable you to gain impressive international experience, and broaden your perspective and career ambitions.

You’ll experience other cultures, travel the globe and open your eyes to a world of opportunities. Our exchange partnership with a number of international universities enables you to live and study in another country in your second year. Find out more about international exchange and study abroad.

Learn a new language

Alongside your study you also have the opportunity to learn another new language. The University Language Programme (ULP) is available to all students and gives you the option of learning a totally new language or improving the skills you already have. Learning a new language can enhance your communication skills, enrich your experience when travelling abroad and boost your career prospects. Find out more about the University Language Programme.

Supporting you

If you’re struggling with a topic or require additional support or guidance, you can arrange to see your tutors in small groups or one-to-one, to discuss essay plans or to seek some specific academic guidance.

It is the nature of the subjects offered in the School of Arts and Humanities, however, that much of your time will be spent engaged in independent study. We recognise that this marks a change of culture from school or college, and we have in place a system of study support to help you adapt to this.

Assessment

Assessments take place within each module and the type of assessment will be related to what the module covers, and what you are learning in it.

Our approach to assessments is very diverse and although you will still produce written assignments like reports and essays many of our modules ask you to produce a creative element. These include blogs or social media campaigns, exhibitions, posters and other visual assessments, podcasts and videos. These are designed to ensure that you are building a portfolio of evidence and creative and communications skills to give you a head start in finding your perfect job after graduation.

Whatever the type of assessment, we will ensure that it will develop your skills, confidence and CV to fulfil both your academic and longer term potential.

Staff Profiles

Natalie Braber - Professor

School of Arts & Humanities

Natalie Braber

David Wright - Associate Professor

School of Arts & Humanities

Dr David Wright is a forensic linguist and a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University. His research applies methods of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis in forensic contexts,…

Nigel Edley - Senior Lecturer

School of Arts & Humanities

Nigel Edley

How you’re assessed

  • Year 1 coursework (75%), written (17%), oral assessment (8%)
  • Year 2 coursework (77%), written (17%), oral assessment (6%)
  • Year 3 coursework (100%)

* Based on a taught module pathway. Statistics will vary depending on optional modules, work experience, and pathways chosen.

Careers and employability

Your career development

This is a major part of the curriculum, recognising the importance of University study as a route into graduate level careers. We don’t expect you to have a target career from the outset, but we will support you to develop your career aspirations, and provide multiple opportunities for you to work towards this, during your degree.

The structure of your degree, the assessments that you will undertake, and the opportunities we provide are designed to help you develop key transferable skills and competencies demanded by employers. We work very closely with a range of employers, and many employers helped shape our degrees. Our courses provide lots of opportunities for you to develop your own links with organisations and potential employers.

Joint honours humanities students develop a wide range of complementary skills. These include key skills of communication, project management, analysis, creativity, digital skills, collaboration and leadership, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and inclusivity. Through this course you’ll become more confident and self-motivated, be able to work independently and in teams, and develop excellent time management skills.

Career destinations can include speech therapy, first and second language teaching and across the creative industries, including journalism, public relations and marketing.

Many graduates also choose to undertake further study on one of our masters-level courses or MPhil and PhD research degrees.

Campus and facilities

Here are some of the free services, student discount and benefits you'll get studying at NTU

We've carefully considered what benefits and services you need for your studies, so when you join NTU you'll get free printing and materials credits, access to our free WiFi, a copy of Microsoft Office, and even borrow a laptop if yours is out of commission.

For life outside your lectures, you'll enjoy access to over 60 sports clubs and 130 student societies, discounted travel and bike hire, free language learning, award-winning student support and an entertainment programme which is second to none.

See all the benefits and free services you will enjoy as an NTU student.

Books and library resources

In our library you’ll have access to an extensive and diverse range of books including those on your reading list.

The library's online resources and NTU Online Workspace (NOW) also provides digital access to the core resources for your modules and a wide range of specialist collections, texts, and databases

Nottingham Trent University has its own Blackwell’s Bookshop which stocks relevant academic texts plus a wide range of bestselling novels.

IT Resources

Our IT resource rooms and PC clusters are distributed across the campus, with PCs providing access to: Microsoft Office, email, web browsing, networked file storage and high-speed online printing services (with a free printing allowance for each student). Resource rooms are available 24 hours a day.

Societies

Current students run societies in a range of Humanities and Arts subjects including History, Medieval, Film, Filmmaking, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations, and the Book society.

There are also a number of media channels which our students get involved in such as the NTU radio station FlyLive, our student magazine Platform, and TV station TrentTV.

Find out more about student societies at the Student Union website.

Entry requirements

  • Standard offer: 112 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications
  • Contextual offer: 104 UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications.

Contextual offers

A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here but who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Find out how we assess your application.

Other qualifications and experience

We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry, or beyond the beginning of a course where applicable, for example, into year 2. Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route.

Meeting our entry requirements

Hundreds of qualifications in the UK have UCAS tariff points attached to specific grades, including A levels, BTECs, T Levels and many more. You can use your grades and points from up to four different qualifications to meet our criteria. Enter your predicted or achieved grades into our tariff calculator to find out how many points your qualifications are worth.

Getting in touch

If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form

You will need the equivalent to:

  • 112 UCAS tariff points from four A-levels or equivalent qualifications

International qualifications

We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:

English language entry requirements

You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:

Undergraduate preparation courses (Foundation)

If you don’t yet meet our entry requirements, we offer Foundation courses through our partner Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC), based on our City Campus:

Advanced standing (starting your undergraduate degree in year 2 or 3)

You may be able to start your undergraduate course in year 2 or 3 based on what you have studied before. This decision would be made in accordance with our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy.

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

Fees and funding

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

Getting in touch

For more advice and guidance, you can contact our Student Financial Support Service on +44 (0)115 848 2494.

Additional Costs

Your course fees cover the cost of studies, and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.

Library books

Most study modules will recommend one or more core text books, which most students choose to purchase. Book costs vary and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential text books, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.

Field trips

All essential field trip costs will be included in your course fees. There may be the opportunity to take part in optional field trips, which do incur additional costs.

Placements

If you're undertaking a placement year, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst on placement. Many of our placement students do earn a salary whilst on placement which can help to cover these living costs.

Print and copy costs

The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.

Please see our fees page for more information.

Tuition fees are payable for each year that you are at the University. The level of tuition fees for the second and subsequent years of your undergraduate course may increase in line with inflation and as specified by the UK government.

Scholarships

We offer scholarships of up to 50% of your tuition fee. You can apply for your scholarship when you have an offer to study at NTU.

Living costs

Get advice on the cost of living as an international student in Nottingham and how to budget:

Paying fees

Find out about advanced payments, instalment plan options and how to make payments securely to the University:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

How to apply

Ready to join us? Then apply as soon as you can.

Full-time courses

For the full-time route just click the Apply button at the top of the page and follow our step-by-step guide.

UCAS CODE: LQ31

NTU Code: N91

Part-time courses

If you're applying for the part-time route please apply online using the NTU Applicant Portal.

Make sure you check the entry requirements above carefully before you do.

Writing your application and personal statement

Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. So include all of your qualifications and grades, including resits or predicted grades.

Your personal statement is a really important part of your application. It’s your chance to convince us why we should offer you a place! You've got 4,000 characters to impress us. Make sure you use them to show how your skills and qualities are relevant to the course(s) you’re applying for. For more hints and tips, take a look at our page on how to write a good personal statement.

Keeping up-to-date

After you've applied, we’ll be sending you important emails throughout the application process so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.

You can get more information and advice about applying to NTU on our Your Application page. Good luck with your application!

Need help with your application?

For admissions related enquiries please contact us:

Tel: +44 (0)115 848 4200

Ask us a question

You can apply for this course through UCAS. If you are not applying to any other UK universities, you can apply directly to us on our NTU applicant portal.

Application advice

Apply early so that you have enough time to prepare – processing times for Student visas can vary, for example.  After you've applied, we'll be sending you important emails throughout the application process – so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.

Writing your personal statement

Be honest, thorough, and persuasive – we can only make a decision about your application based on what you tell us:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

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