Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course.

Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised.

If you spend a full year abroad you’ll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won’t pay any tuition fees to your host university

Our expert staff

At Essex you learn from the best. Our course director Tim Fenton, is a former managing editor of the BBC News Online website and a journalist with more than 35 years’ industry experience ranging from sports reporting for local radio to presenting and producing national current affairs programmes on TV and radio.

Other core staff include:

• Penny Wrout, a former BBC correspondent and producer for TV, radio and online with more than 20 years in the journalism business, including seven years in charge of the BBC’s social affairs coverage of London. As well as teaching broadcast and online journalism at Essex, she continues to work as a freelance documentary film-maker and multimedia arts producer.
• Paul Anderson, former editor of Tribune and deputy editor of the New Statesman, who has worked as a journalist since the early 1980s. He combines teaching print and online production at Essex with working as a print/online subeditor on the Guardian, running a small publishing company and freelance writing about politics and history.
• Dr Fatima el Issawi, an international correspondent with more than 15 years’ experience covering conflict zones for a wide range of broadcast and online outlets including Agence France Press and the BBC, teaches journalism theory and international reporting. She is the author of Arab National Media and Political Change, published by Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dr Alexandros Antoniou is lecturer in media law. His research interests lie principally in the fields of communications law, intellectual property asset management and cybercrime.

Throughout the course you will also hear regularly from visiting lecturers and teachers who are leading figures in different branches of journalism, and who provide an important link to an extended network of industry practitioners.

Specialist facilities

As a journalism student at Essex, your material will be published on a dedicated website, but you will also spend time gaining on-the-job experience with a range of professional news operations, creating and publishing ‘real’ stories and building up a portfolio of published and broadcast work.

You will work in a purpose-built newsroom with access to television, radio studios, and computer software that allows journalists to create and edit content across all media and platforms quickly and professionally. The university’s Media Centre is equipped with state-of-the-art studios, cameras, audio and lighting equipment, and an industry-standard editing suite.

You will have the opportunity to contribute to student journalism, which includes a magazine, a radio station and a television operation.

You can also benefit from our experience in film production and creative writing as well as our University’s wider expertise areas such as politics, sociology and human rights:

• View classic films at weekly film screenings in our dedicated 120-seat film theatre
• Hear writers talk about their craft and broaden your knowledge beyond your course at weekly research seminars
• Our on-Campus, 200-seat Lakeside Theatre has been established as a major venue for good drama, staging both productions by professional touring companies and a wealth of new work written, produced and directed by our own staff and students
• The Lakeside Theatre also runs regular practical workshops, enabling drama enthusiasts to get involved in both front-of-house and behind the scenes

Your future

Essex journalism graduates are equipped to embark on any one of a number of career paths within the industry.

You graduate with all the core skills of a professional journalist, underpinned by the Diploma of Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists, which you attain as part of our course. This is an industry standard and is recognised and valued by editors when recruiting staff.

You will compile an impressive portfolio of published work and complete a detailed multimedia project in your final year, allowing you to offer real evidence of your range and capabilities to future employers. You also develop knowledge of a specialist subject – such as business, politics, international affairs or sport – giving you a head start if you want to pursue a career in one of those areas.

You will be multi-skilled, familiar with production techniques in television, radio, online and newspaper journalism, and with the option to gain advanced skills in specific areas in your final year.

Digital technology encourages entrepreneurship, and allows young journalists to work outside traditional employment routes with established media organisations in favour of creating their own niche brand online. Our BA Multimedia Journalism course gives you the skills and confidence to succeed in whatever path you choose.