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What makes Film Studies at Worcester special?

Film Studies at Worcester is about cine-literacy: studying of popular movies, art cinema and experimental film; contemporary and historical, mainstream and alternative, international and domestic cinemas as a kind of literature. Our Film Studies programme, in this sense, is an extension to our English Literature programme, studying films as text, and exploring the cultural, political, personal contexts of the text’s creation. 

We also explore the opportunities Film Studies opens by examining film marketing, distribution, exhibition, curating, festivals, film journalism and audience research.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Balance between contemporary and older films; British, Hollywood, and International cinemas.
  • Research-led teaching by internationally recognized experts in their fields.
  • Employability embedded across the course, offering students opportunities in a variety of career paths.
  • Joint Honours options with English Literature, Media & Culture, Film Production, and Screenwriting
  • Diverse team of academics with a variety of expertise.
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You can still apply to study with us after the January UCAS deadline. Don’t be tempted to rush an application together as fast as you can, you still want to make sure your application and personal statement are as good as possible.

Your teachers can still write you a reference after the January deadline so make sure to let them know you’re applying to university

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Entry requirements

What qualifications will you need?

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

104 UCAS tariff points (for example, BCC at A Level)

For international entry, please contact our Admissions team, admissions@worc.ac.uk

Other information

If your qualifications are not listed, please contact the Admissions Office for advice on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from http://www.ucas.com

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Course content

What will you study

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • World Cinema
  • Introduction to Film
  • Hollywood and Beyond

 

Optional 

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Film Theory
  • Film Genre Studies

Optional

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Dissertation

Optional

  • Film & Folklore 
  • Film Reviewing 
  • Studies in Cult & Exploitation Cinema 
  • Making Monsters 
  • Cinema & Modern Life
  • Literature & Culture: International Exchanges 
  • Asian Cinema 
  • TV Times 
Teaching and assessment

How will you be taught?

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Teaching

The two main forms of teaching on the Film Studies programme are the lecture and the seminar class. Lectures typically run 45-50 minutes each, and expose the student to a consistent argument constructed by the lecturer either introducing the student to key theoretical debates or applications of theory to a body of cinema texts. Seminars, which tend to be 2-hours in length, enable students to discuss the theoretical principles and applications made in the lecture. Seminars may feature small -group discussion, further application of theory to different films, or other research-led projects as befits the topic and the cohort of students. While lectures tend to be rather formal in structure and organisation, seminars can be more loosely structured and tailored to the specific students on a given module in any given year.  

 

In addition, meetings with Personal Academic Tutors are scheduled on at least four occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course. 

 

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip them for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement.  A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the Personal Academic Tutoring system enables students to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help them to flourish and be successful.  

Contact time

In a typical week, students will have around 12 contact hours of teaching.  The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year there is normally slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.   

Typically, class contact time will be structured around: 

  • 1-hour lectures, per module per week 
  • 2-hour seminars, per module per week 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, students are expected to undertake around 24 hours of personal self-study per week.  Typically, this will involve reading articles or chapters, and of course, watching the assigned films.  

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.   

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessment which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade.

While not exclusively, the primary form of assessment is the written essay. Essay lengths tend to run between 1000-words (at Level 4) through to 2000- and 3000-wordessays (at Level 6). This focus on essay-writing helps prepare students to write their 10,000-word dissertation topics. Beyond formal essay writing, students will also encounter other forms of assessment across all three levels, including group presentations, portfolios, oral presentations, learning logs, and data reports. Taken collectively, these different assessment forms enable students to achieve and demonstrate the learning outcomes. There are no examinations on the Film Studies course.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

  • Essays x 7
  • Portfolio x 1
  • Research reports x 3

Year 2

  • Essays x 8
  • Portfolio x 1
  • Group Presentation x 1
  • Report x 1

Year 3

  • Essays x 9
  • Portfolio x 2
  • Presentation x 1

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Teaching Staff

All teaching staff on the Film Studies course have PhDs in their field (or are working on their PhDs), and are research active to facilitate research-led teaching. Therefore, students will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The teaching team are research-active specialists in film theory, have doctoral qualifications, and HEA accreditation. Please see details of the current staff team in the School of Humanities at our website.   

Programme Specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

Dr Mikel Koven

The Film Studies course is led by Dr Mikel J Koven. His teaching areas include World cinema; genre; Hollywood cinema; horror cinema; film & folklore; and cult & exploitation cinema.

His research areas include Film & Folklore (fairy tales, myths, and legends); Exploitation cinema (with a focus on Italian horror film); Jewish cinema (representations, stereotypes, and the Holocaust); and “Cult” TV.  

Careers

Where could it take you?

Employability

Our Film Studies degree is designed around exposing students to a wide variety of employment options after a Film degree beyond being a filmmaker or reviewer specifically.

Through the programme’s core modules, employability opportunities are specifically identified and attendant skills developed. At Level 5, for example, the course team expand the student’s understanding of film-based employment options by directly addressing film cultures like festivals, programming special seasons, curetting, audience research, marketing, and distribution & exhibition contexts. Level 5 also has an optional Work Experience module which students may opt in for.

Level 6 enables students to explore more independently their own interests in further developing their employability options in two ways: potentially through their independent study projects and through the Film Reviewing module.  

The course team work closely with employers – such as Flicks in the Sticks, Rural Media Company, Worcester Arts Workshop, and Worcester Live, – to ensure that our programme is developing the right skills base that employers are looking for.

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Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential.
Costs

How much will it cost?

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2023/24 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2023/24 academic year is £14,700 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students registering on this course in the academic year 2023/24 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £122 per week to 'En-suite Premium' at £207 per week (2023/24 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

How to apply

How do you apply?

Applying through UCAS

Please visit the individual joint honours course pages for UCAS links:

English Literature and Film Studies BA (Hons) - UCAS code QP3H

Film Studies and Film Production BA (Hons) - UCAS code PW36

Film Studies and Media & Culture BA (Hons) - UCAS code P390

Film Studies and Screenwriting BA (Hons) - UCAS code PW38

Theatre, Acting & Performance and Film Studies BA (Hons) - UCAS code WP4H

 

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

 

Dr Mikel Koven

Course leader