Developments in digital technology range from overly friendly chatbots to inconspicuous algorithms. But what role do digital media technologies, in their many forms, play in our everyday lives, our local communities and cultures, and the global societies we live in? The skills you’ll develop on this programme will prepare you for a dynamic career in one of the many areas where digital innovation is fundamental.

Why study Digital Media at Lancaster?

Taught by world-leading experts in digital media, you will learn from academics who shape conversations in areas such as media power, ethics and AI

Take advantage of our fully equipped digital media studio and specialist equipment to support your studies

Dive into a field that is constantly evolving, preparing you for a fast-paced industry where no two days are the same

Discover the relationships between digital developments and social concerns, and how technologies are affecting societies around the world

Build strong contacts through networking opportunities, guest lectures and workshops with industry professionals, and field trips

How is Digital Media taught at Lancaster?

This course explores the question of how digital technologies, in their many forms, function in our everyday lives and the global societies we live in. You will develop awareness of how the design and deployment of digital technologies orders, shapes and disrupts society, often having more complex consequences than imagined or acknowledged.

You will discover how digital media is constantly evolving, exploring the past, present and future of media and its role in society. You will analyse key themes in digital societies, such as artificial intelligence and creativity, social media, digital tracking, algorithmic power, surveillance and quantification, and how these themes are presenting both opportunities and challenges within our everyday lives and the creative industries.

What specialist areas does the course cover?

Our research is world-leading. You will be taught by our team whose expertise covers a wide range of fascinating topics, from artificial intelligence and algorithmic cultures to fandom, sustainability, media activism, gender and sexualities, and more. Our international experts intervene in key debates about our “mediated world”, including consulting on media ethics and policy.

Your final project allows you to pursue you own intellectual interests and creative passions through a piece of original research. You might choose to write about the research you have carried out or produce a media piece like a website, a podcast, a music video, journalistic interviews, or a social media campaign. You can let your imagination run wild!

You will have access to the latest digital media equipment to help you complete your assessments, and you’ll be able to showcase your work at our Final Degree Show.

How will Lancaster support my future career?

You can build your creative portfolio by getting involved with our student media societies. Lancaster University has a television station, a newspaper, a radio station and a cinema where you can take on all sorts of roles, from social media management and digital content creation all the way to presenting live – if you dare!

We organise bespoke careers’ sessions on employment opportunities in the media and creative sectors, with the opportunity to join expert led workshops, creative sessions with media activists, and visits to heritage organisations. In the past we have run workshops with journalists from organisations such as the BBC; masterclasses in areas like podcasting; and career talks with professionals based at think tanks and NGOs.

Throughout your time at Lancaster, you will build a strong network of contacts that will be valuable as you start your career as a digital media professional.

Your department

School of Arts

Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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Your Placement Year

Sometimes known as a year in industry, your placement year will take place between your second and final year of study and this will extend your degree to four years.

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Placements and Internships

Hear from students and employers on how Lancaster University could support you to gain real-world experience and bolster your CV with a placement or internship as part of your degree.

A placement year is an excellent way to...

try out a role that you may be interested in as a career path

start to build your professional network (some placement students are offered permanent roles to return to after they graduate)

develop skills, knowledge and experience to put you ahead of the field when you graduate

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in a graduate-level position, where you’ll work for between nine and twelve months in the type of role that you might be considering for after you graduate. A very wide range of companies and organisations offer placements across all sectors.

As a full-time employee, you’ll have a job description with specific responsibilities and opportunities to access training and development, the same as other employees.

Our Careers and Placements Team...

will help you to search and compete for a suitable placement with expert advice and resources, such as creating an effective CV, and tips for applications and interviews.

You will still be a Lancaster University student during your placement and we’ll keep in touch to check how you are getting on.

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use all reasonable effort to support you to find a suitable placement for your studies. While a placement role may not be available in a field or organisation that is directly related to your academic studies or career aspirations, all offer valuable experience of working at a graduate level and gaining a range of professional skills.

If you are unsuccessful in securing a suitable placement for your third year, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent non-placement degree scheme and continue with your studies at Lancaster, finishing your degree after your third year.

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What careers are open to me with a degree in Digital Media?

As a graduate of this programme, you will have impressive knowledge of digital media and its impact on society combined with skills in critical analysis, research, presentation and writing. This means you will be well-placed to enter careers in the varied digital media and creative sectors.

You may go on to a career in roles such as:

Digital marketing executive

Social media manager

Digital content creator

Digital project manager

Journalist

Content editor

Communications consultant

Strategic communications specialist

Media researcher

Media buyer

Publisher

Arts manager

The programme will also prepare you for a career in areas beyond the media industries, where your critical understanding of digital media technologies will be vital for everyday working life. These include:

Teaching

Government and research bodies

Research or ethics units in industries, governance and policy

Think Tanks

This course also provides a strong basis for diverse types of postgraduate study, including areas like television production or teaching.

You’ll even have the foundation of knowledge you need to create your own media company.

Careers and employability support

Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas.

We run a paid internship scheme specifically for our arts, humanities and social sciences students, supported by a specialist Employability Team. The team offer individual consultations and tailored application guidance, as well as careers events, development opportunities, and resources.

Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.

Lancaster is unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which recognises activities such as work experience, community engagement or volunteering and social development. A valuable addition to your CV!

Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability.

Find out about some of the careers our alumni have entered into after graduation.

Entry requirements

These are the typical grades that you will need to study this course. This section will tell you whether you need qualifications in specific subjects, what our English language requirements are, and if there are any extra requirements such as attending an interview or submitting a portfolio.

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A levels

Access to HE Diploma

30 Level 3 credits at Distinction plus 15 Level 3 credits at Merit

Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales

We accept the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales in place of one A level, or equivalent qualification, as long as any subject requirements are met.

BTEC Extended Diploma

BTEC in combination with A levels

A level at grade B plus BTEC(s) at DD, or A levels at grade BB plus BTEC at D

International Baccalaureate

32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 HL subjects

Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers

We are happy to admit applicants on the basis of five Highers, but where we require a specific subject at A level, we will typically require an Advanced Higher in that subject. If you do not meet the grade requirement through Highers alone, we will consider a combination of Highers and Advanced Highers in separate subjects. Please contact the Admissions team for more information.

T levels

Distinction overall

GCSE requirements

English Language grade 4/C.

We will also look at your overall GCSE profile when considering your application as a whole.

We do have flexibility when considering GCSE requirements. Go to our GCSE information for more details.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, we require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component for this programme. English language qualifications for undergraduate study.

Help from our Admissions team

If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, complete our enquiry form and one of the team will get back to you.

We also have more details on our website about:

Other qualifications we accept

International qualifications

How to apply and what happens afterwards

International foundation programmes

Delivered in partnership with Lancaster University International Study Centre, our one-year tailored foundation pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University degrees. Visit the Lancaster University International Study Centre for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.

Contextual admissions

Contextual admissions could help you gain a place at university if you have faced additional challenges during your education which might have impacted your results. Visit our contextual admissions page to find out about how this works and whether you could be eligible.

Course structure

We continually review and enhance our curriculum to ensure we are delivering the best possible learning experience, and to make sure that the subject knowledge and transferable skills you develop will prepare you for your future. The University will make every reasonable effort to offer programmes and modules as advertised. In some cases, changes may be necessary and may result in new modules or some modules and combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Where the course offers optional modules, they may not all be available every year.

core modules accordion

Understanding Media and Culture

What does it mean to study media today? In this module, you’ll be introduced to major debates, theories and thinkers in studying media and culture.

You will encounter a diverse range of material from different media, including: television, film, news, advertisements, social media, video games and more.

You will explore the intersections between our cultural environment and our identities, aspirations, beliefs and value systems, to develop essential skills in critical thinking and analysis.

Transformations in Digital Media

Digital media both displaces and complements ‘traditional’ media, in ways that complicate the current media landscape and challenge some of our most fundamental media concepts.?This module explores how this happens through the integration of “old” and “new” media and ongoing transformations in the media industries.

We examine how relations between consumers and producers are changing as the boundaries of media cultures are shifting, producing intercultural exchange but also fragmentation and radicalisation.?This module invites students to investigate their everyday digital media use and reflect on the expansion of digital media, its potentials and its pitfalls.

AI, Media and Creativity

Does AI kill creativity or encourage it? Or how do emerging media transform the meaning of creative expression? What kinds of histories of media forms and cultures are informing current digital media and where can we spot their forgotten predecessors?

While public debate alternates between celebrating and lambasting the impact of digital media and AI on creativity, this module introduces you to various aspects of this complex and evolving relationship. You will explore the distinctiveness of media forms as well as their social and cultural contexts, taking an interdisciplinary journey that brings together different approaches, offered to you by a team of experts from across the School of Arts. You’ll explore a range of themes and theories such as:

AI, creative labour and community

AI and ethics

Open media and creative ownership

AI in art

Histories of media as form

Sci-fi, imagination, and speculation

Digitally-mediated creativity

Applying a cultural lens, you will explore the role of social groups such as creative workers, artists, users, and fans in the context of digital media, machine learning and generative AI. Applying a media-theoretical lens to media forms, you’ll explore topics such as “small AI,” media art, and evolving media forms and ecologies.

Drawing on both approaches, you will learn how not to take media for granted but appreciate their open-ended futures and the role of imagination and speculation in their formation.

Screens and Selves

Media do not just reflect identities, but play an active role in bringing them into being. In this module, you will consider the role our screens – in all their many forms – play in producing our sense of self and the world around us. From selfies and avatars to being the subjects of film or advertisements, our ‘mediated selves’ cannot be avoided.

How do we use media to represent and transmit a sense of ourselves to others? In what ways does self-representation allow us to assume and feel agency in our lives, and to connect with other selves? What does it mean to be shaped by media culture? You will critically engage with various media forms to understand their influence on identity formation and societal perceptions.

Optional

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Art Histories and Contexts

Providing you with a solid grounding in art history, this module will take you on a journey, from the modernist period to the present day.

Beginning with the emergence of Modernism in Europe, you will follow its impact in the United States, China, India, South America and beyond. You will learn about alternative and under-represented histories that challenge mainstream thought, whilst exploring how artists have responded to pressing societal issues such as:

Post-colonialism

Equal rights

Gender identity

Digital revolution

Environmental crisis

These movements will be explored through a range of themes that relate to creative practices such as time, space, light, text and juxtaposition, helping you develop your ability to write for a range of art contexts.

Consumers and Communications

This module brings together two essential areas: understanding consumers and crafting effective communications. You will explore the different factors that influence the consumer decision-making process, understanding how and why people engage with specific products, services and brands. Additionally, you will learn how marketers use communication strategies, branding and media channels to build meaningful connections between brands and their target customers.

Design Contexts

This enlightening module explores how design both shapes and is shaped by the world. You will examine key moments in modern design history, considering the historical, social, political, cultural and technological forces that influence design as a discipline and practice.

Through interactive lectures, practical activities and critical discussions, you will investigate how design responds to global challenges, drives innovation and reflects societal change. From the Industrial Revolution to the Digital Age, this module deepens your understanding of design’s evolving role in society, the economy and the environment.

This essential knowledge forms a foundation for thoughtful, critical, informed and innovative design practice, preparing you to navigate and contribute to the ever-changing contexts in which design operates. By developing a critical awareness of design’s impact, you will be equipped with the analytical and conceptual skills that are sought after in creative industries.

Media, Power and Identity

In this module you'll explore the dynamic relationship between media, society, and culture, examining how media influences and reflects cultural norms, identities, and power structures.

You’ll consider the material, social and institutional contexts in which media forms have been produced, and think about the role of the media in creating communities, and both reproducing and tackling social inequalities.

This module provides you with the skills to navigate complex debates about media and culture as you progress with your studies

Principles of Marketing

This module provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to marketing, giving you a solid overview of how marketing works in a business context. You will be introduced to key marketing concepts, including:

Customer value

Segmentation

Targeting

Marketing communications

This will give you a great foundation for understanding how organisations use marketing to connect with audiences and grow their business. The insights gained from this module will help you think more strategically in any business role.

Public Sociology: Understanding and Creating Social Change

Exploring how sociology can contribute to real-world change, this module focusses on the role of public sociology in addressing social inequalities, informing policy and engaging with communities.

You will examine how sociological research can shape public debates, influence decision-making and be used as a tool for activism. Through case studies and practical activities, you will learn how sociologists communicate their work beyond academia—whether through media, policy engagement, or grassroots initiatives.

The module will also encourage you to critically reflect on the ethical and political dimensions of public sociology. On completion, you will have a deeper understanding of how sociological knowledge can be applied to contemporary challenges and how you can use sociological insights to contribute to wider issues.

Researching Society: Principles and Practices

How do sociologists decide what to study and how to study it? This module introduces you to key debates in sociological research, exploring how different perspectives shape the questions we ask and the methods we use.

You'll examine objective vs subjective positions, as well as feminist and decolonial critiques that have challenged traditional research approaches to sociological research. Through discussions and exercises, you'll begin to develop your own research interests and approach, reflecting on what it means to conduct sociological enquiry.

By the end of the module, you’ll have a solid foundation in the principles of sociological research and a clearer sense of how to turn your questions about society into meaningful research practice.

The Reflective Design Process

Design is a dynamic and creative problem-solving process with distinct stages. In this module you’ll immerse yourself in this process and engage with it in a hands-on way.

You will develop essential creative and analytical skills and build your confidence in:

Conducting research

Generating insights

Exploring possibilities

Prototyping

Refining ideas into innovative solutions

Observation and documentation are key to good design, so you will learn methods such as:

User shadowing

Fly-on-the-wall observation

Journey mapping to uncover behaviours, needs and opportunities

This module encourages experimentation, iteration and critical thinking, fostering adaptability and resilience—key attributes for designers in today’s fast-evolving creative industries.

Through a design project that encourages reflective practice, you will gain the ability to navigate complex design challenges and communicate your ideas effectively. By understanding design as a dynamic and creative problem-solving process, you will build a strong foundation to guide your creative practice throughout your undergraduate studies.

The Arts and Identity (Discovery module)

This module explores the role of the arts in building community, identity and confidence. You will engage with a variety of different art forms (such as painting, theatre, fiction, designed artefacts and film) and develop your own voice via collaborative projects such as a podcasts, video essay or presentation. You will also engage in individual critical reflection for example via a blog, journal or research project.

This module fosters co-operation, intellectual experimentation and self-assurance.

Thinking Digital Worlds

This module provides you with the conceptual tools to think critically about how digital worlds operate. It opens up fundamental questions about how digital technologies produce worlds:

How do digital technologies and infrastructures organize and govern nearly all domains of life, from education, finance, and health care to security and war?

How do digital technologies provide particular ways of seeing such domains through datafied and algorithmic framings, configuring certain problems, risks, and opportunities?

Who or what is in control in a digital world?

What kinds of lives are normalized and what kinds of lives are becoming marginalized or impossible?

On this module you will explore a range of approaches such as the social study of science and technology (STS) as well as media theory, digital media studies, and the cultural studies of design. You'll learn that technologies shape social relations and practices in specific ways, both enabling and constraining.

The module also aims to spark your creativity to think about alternatives: What other socio-technical worlds are possible?

Designing Media Research

This module aims to prepare you for the final year of study, when you conduct your own personal research project. You will be guided through the skills and techniques needed to design, execute, present, and reflect upon academic research.

This includes how to:

formulate research questions

how to write literature reviews

how to choose appropriate methodologies and datasets

how to interpret data

how to conduct ethical academic research

Digital Cultures

This module explores how digital technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives and the global societies we live in. This includes social media platforms, search engines, publicly available artificial intelligence chatbots as well as the multitude of apps that mediate every aspect of our lives, from access to news and information to dating, food and consumption, education, and professional life.

We will analyse the affordances of digital technologies in connection to questions of power, context, and embodiment. This module will stimulate you to start seeing how media and technology do more than transmitting messages and information. Instead, they have an ontological role in shaping social relations, subjectivities, practices and cultures.

Attuning you to this role, this module allows you to understand media as much more than simply channels of representation or communication. The assessments in this module give you plenty of space to articulate your own experiences in everyday life to the theoretical literature and conceptual frameworks that you are introduced to in this module.

Art Theories and Contexts

Building on the relationship between theoretical understanding and artistic practice, this module will introduce you to a broad range of theories and ideas relevant to contemporary art practice and thinking. You will explore ideas such as:

New materialism

Fourth and fifth-wave feminisms

Object-oriented philosophy

Posthumanism

The Anthropocene

Hauntology

The relations that exist between art and science

Join us as we combine intellectual rigour and curiosity with the freedom to confidently explore your creativity from an increasingly informed position. You will be encouraged to explore different forms of writing that enable you to develop ideas and express yourself in a range of appropriate formats.

Digital Marketing and Analytics

This module will support your learning of how marketers and advertising agencies develop strategies to engage with their target customers. You will explore how brands use digital tools and platforms to transform the way they connect with us, and how data is used to shape campaigns, target consumers, create personalised experiences and evaluate marketing performance. You will also reflect on emerging ethical issues such as privacy, data responsibility and the social impact of digital communications.

Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture

Explore how gender identities and sexualities are constructed, normalised, and navigated in relation to media and popular culture. Drawing on feminist and queer media research, we examine how representations in the media play a role in reinforcing gender binaries and heteronormative social roles and identities, focussing on how media and popular culture have been co-opted as a space of creative resistance.

The module takes an intersectional approach, examining gender and sexuality within complex relations of class, race, ethnicity, dis/ability and age. We examine these questions by engaging with a wide range of spaces and platforms including film, television, fashion, music, public space, and digital and social media.

Global Social Theory: Connecting Sociologies

Introducing you to a diverse range of theoretical perspectives from around the world, this module will analyse how different social theories help us understand the emergence and transformation of our societies.

Through exploring these theories’ historical contexts and contemporary relevance, you will engage with key debates on topics such as capitalism, class, colonialism, globalisation and social reproduction and examine how these issues are theorised across different intellectual traditions.

Encouraging you to think critically about the connections between theories and the contexts in which they develop, you will foster a global and comparative approach to sociological thought.

Through close reading and discussion, you will develop skills in analysing, comparing and applying social theories to contemporary social issues. You will also gain a strong foundation in social theory and the ability to critically engage with the ideas that shape our understanding of the modern world.

Innovation and New Product Development

Peter Drucker, one of the core founders of marketing thinking, once said business is about two things: marketing and innovation. This module introduces you to the core principles of innovation as well as the development processes and theories behind bringing new offerings to market. You will consider how businesses can both respond to and shape changing consumer needs and decision-making.

Interaction and Experience Design

A fascinating introduction to the principles and practices of design, you will create meaningful interactions between people and digital or physical products, services, and systems.

Developing both theoretical and practical skills, you will learn to design intuitive, engaging, and effective interactive experiences. Through creative exercises, you will explore design methods including wireframing, prototyping (both paper-based and digital), and iterative testing. You will learn to identify interaction strengths and weaknesses to continuously improve your designs.

Emphasising responsible design practices, we will teach you to craft interactions that not only meet functional requirements but also consider emotional impact, accessibility, and ethical implications. Alongside this, you will analyse how well-designed interactions can benefit people and the planet as well as the economy.

By completing this module, you will develop the critical and creative thinking skills needed to design seamless, meaningful interactions for a variety of contexts, from websites and apps to physical products and service systems.

Media in Question

Find your critical voice on this module and think and learn to communicate like a media and cultural critic. You will look at how to take key theoretical frameworks and set these to work through the analysis of contemporary media and cultural phenomena.

You will deploy a range of critical approaches, taking into account historical and critical contexts, and the varied texts, audiences and producers we are working with.

Organising in the Digital Age

This module investigates how information systems are transforming modern organisations, work, and society. You will explore the significant impacts of digital technologies, focusing on key areas:

shaping organisational culture

analysing system successes and failures

navigating the ethical dimensions of information technology

addressing digital inclusion and exclusion

Using interactive case studies and key readings, you will dissect complex technological challenges facing contemporary organisations. You will learn to identify crucial technological developments, evaluate the consequences of implementing new systems, and develop appropriate management responses. This module will sharpen your critical and analytical skills, enhancing your understanding of key theories and practices for navigating the digital age.

Visual Cultures

Our everyday lives are saturated by images of all kinds. This module will introduce you to some key ‘ways of seeing’ our world of images. We will explore questions such as:

How are images made, who gets to produce them and, importantly, from whose point of view?

How do pictures circulate?

How do viewers read and interpret images?

Who gets to look and through whose eyes?

How do these processes and practices relate to power?

We’ll consider these questions in relation to a range of media texts, from photographs and advertisements to television and film.

Welfare States: Poverty, Policy and Politics

The future of state-funded welfare is one of the most pressing social questions of our time. This module explores the history, purpose and politics of welfare states, examining what social welfare is, who it is for and how it should be funded and delivered.

You will consider the social and political debates that have shaped social welfare and trace their development over time. Topics covered may include education, health, housing, social security and unemployment. You will explore how welfare systems are funded, managed and organised and analyse the impact of social welfare cuts on poverty and social inequality.

The module also examines the moral and political tensions within welfare debates, such as distinctions between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ recipients. Engaging with diverse sources—including academic texts, policy reports, and media—you will develop critical insights into the past, present and future of welfare provision.

Employability, Purpose and Social Impact (Discovery module)

Hone a strong sense of purpose and gain the satisfaction of applying your skills and knowledge to a community, charity or student-led initiative.

Your challenge will be to take responsibility for arranging and completing a voluntary or fundraising activity—locally, virtually or during vacation periods at home. You will need to show that you have made a positive difference through this activity.

In class, you will be asked to reflect on this experience and explore the wider social impact of the work. In doing so you will build your confidence in your ability to contribute meaningfully to society through your future personal and professional path.

Taking an Idea and Making it Happen (Discovery module)

Explore how ideas can be developed into real-world projects with lasting value. Through hands-on collaboration and problem-solving, you will develop innovative projects, learn how to bring ideas to life and explore ways to sustain them.

Whether you are working in a team or individually, you will be encouraged to experiment with different approaches to making a difference in artistic, cultural, social and community spaces.

Work Based Learning Year

This module will allow you to spend the year working in a graduate-level placement role in the industry or sector that interests you most. Throughout the year, you will build an awareness of what is required in the professional workplace whilst developing a range of transferable skills.

During the module you will reflect on and critically analyse: your own career readiness, the ongoing development of your self-awareness in terms of skills and professional knowledge, and your understanding of current workplace practices and professional etiquette.

Our Careers and Placements Team will support you during your placement with online contact and learning resources.

The Making of Media and AI Futures

What will our digital future look like?

How could AI transform global societies?

What media will we watch, listen to, wear, be tracked by, or collaborate with – whether in smart cities, virtual workplaces, or even in outer space?

These are the big questions that this module will explore, addressing how past visions of technological futures inform the speculative digital landscapes we imagine today. This module examines the social, cultural, and political implications of these technologies, addressing issues such as personalisation, surveillance, platform governance, and digital inequalities. You will explore critical debates on issues such as automation, data governance, digital labour, and ethics while reflecting on the future of digital media in everyday life.

Media Independent Project

In this module, you will undertake an in-depth study on a topic of your own choice. The module is designed as a culmination of your learning journey on the programme, and to undertake the research, you will draw on the knowledge you have gained throughout your studies. You are expected to conduct your final project independently, with the support of an allocated academic supervisor, and will demonstrate skills in designing, planning, managing, and producing a substantial piece of work. The final project may focus on academic literature, empirical research, or incorporate elements of media practice.

Audiences, Fans and Participatory Cultures

How has the experience of being part of a media audience transformed in recent years? How do we make sense of being a fan nowadays? In what ways do fan culture and audience community manifest social transformations on both local and global scales? This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of fandom and audiences in a global and transnational context. The module will focus on issues such as participation, pleasure, performance, and power by investigating fan culture and audience communities of a wide range of transmedia texts in a global perspective. You are encouraged to analyse the multi-layered dynamics between individual fan, fan community, audience participation, media texts, and industries through interdisciplinary lenses, for example, feminist studies, queer studies, and postcolonial studies.

Design Leadership

Creatively blending design, leadership and innovation, this module will explore design and systems thinking to help you become an agent of change.

As you prepare to graduate, this module will enable you to develop your unique design leadership approach and communicate your design vision and values. You will learn key principles of design management, design and product development processes and tools for designing sustainable business models, to help you transform creative ideas into impactful solutions.

With a forward-thinking approach, you will explore the diverse future roles of designers as well as learn to create and communicate a strong value proposition, positioning design as a key driver of change and innovation.

By the end of the module, you will be equipped to lead design initiatives, make strategic decisions, drive meaningful change and impact businesses and society in the rapidly evolving field of design.

Environment and Society: Crisis, Justice and Change

Current environmental crises demand urgent sociological attention. This module explores key sociological theories and methods for understanding environmental change, justice and sustainability. You will examine how social structures, cultural practices and economic systems shape environmental problems—and how they might be transformed to create more just and sustainable futures.

Topics may include:

The changing relationships between humans and animals

The sociological study of consumption and waste

The social lives of objects

How climate change exacerbates inequalities

How communities respond to environmental disasters like storms and floods

Throughout the module, you will critically engage with real-world cases and develop your own sociological manifesto for environmental change. By the end, you will have the tools to analyse environmental challenges from a sociological perspective and to contribute to debates on sustainability and social transformation.

Media Industries

In this module, you’ll delve into the structure, function, and evolution of ‘traditional’ and digital media industries, ranging from journalism and consumer industries to streaming services and online content creation. You will consider the economic, cultural, and technological forces driving these industries, and their societal impact. You’ll debate the role of media regulation and policy in shaping the ever-changing media industries today.

Mediating the Body

‘The body’ is a key site of both control and resistance in media culture. This module explores how media representations, cultural norms, and societal structures shape perceptions of the body, identity, and agency. Thinking about body politics through an intersectional lens, you’ll critically examine issues like gender, sexuality, race, disability, class, and body type, unravelling the intricate connections between media and the lived experience of the body. We’ll think about what kinds of bodies fit social and cultural norms, how these norms are circulated and embedded in the public imaginary, and whether bodies can be re-imagined as sites of resistance.

Power, Technology and Society

This module critically examines the relationship between technology, power, and society. You will challenge the conventional view of technology as a neutral force, exploring its profound impact on work, organising, and social inequalities, including those related to gender, race, disability, and coloniality. You will investigate the complex interaction between technological development and societal structures.

You will learn to analyse dominant narratives surrounding technology, examining diverse perspectives. A key focus will be on developing your ability to critically examine the discourses and applications of technology. This will encourage you to question your own assumptions and those of others.

By the end of the module, you will gain tools to contextualise how technology is discussed, deployed, and experienced within contemporary organisations and society.

Writing for the Arts

Explore the role of writing in contemporary art, from journals and magazines to online platforms, exhibition catalogues and independent publishing.

You will examine the types of writing that thrive in these contexts and learn how to move beyond the traditional academic essay. Approached as both a research tool and a creative practice, this module will enable you to shape your ideas in ways that connect with contemporary art discourse.

Engaging with methods such as auto-fiction, figural writing, fiction as method, and allegory, you will gain a deeper understanding of these formats through workshops and tutorials before selecting one to further develop your skills in.

The final submission will be chosen from a range of writing forms for contemporary art contexts. It may take the form of a written journal article, a combination of text and visual elements, a website, zine, or other formats, allowing you to integrate writing into your broader artistic practice.

You can also choose to take additional credits in either Advanced Art Practice or Writing for Artists, enabling you to build on your strengths, interests, and career aspirations.

Writing for the Arts (extended)

This module provides extended time and support for you to explore the role of writing in contemporary art, from journals and magazines to online platforms, exhibition catalogues and independent publishing.

People Power and Collective Action (Discovery module)

What are the possibilities and pitfalls of community and citizen action, voice and agency? This module uses interdisciplinary case-studies to critically examine collaboration with communities.

You will participate in activities such as a mock citizens' assembly, visit local community groups and hear different points of view from a range of guest speakers on concepts like power, race, gender, class, affect and justice.

Confronting the Climate Crisis (Discovery module)

How might we engage with the implications of environmental transformation locally, nationally and globally? Where do we have agency and capacity to intervene?

This module brings together a range of perspectives—historical, political, philosophical and cultural—to explore the nature and severity of the effects of the climate crisis on our world.

Fees and funding

Our annual tuition fee is set for a 12-month session, starting at the beginning of each academic year.

Our Undergraduate Tuition Fees for 2027/28 are:

International

Fees and funding information

Additional fees and funding information accordion

Additional costs

There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.

Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.

College fees

Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small college membership fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.

For students starting in 2026 or 2027, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.

Computer equipment and internet access

To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.

The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.

Study abroad courses

In addition to travel and accommodation costs, while you are studying abroad, you will need to have a passport and, depending on the country, there may be other costs such as travel documents (e.g. visa or work permit) and any tests and vaccines that are required at the time of travel. Some countries may require proof of funds.

Placement and industry year courses

In addition to possible commuting costs during your placement, you may need to buy clothing that is suitable for your workplace and you may have accommodation costs. Depending on the employer and your job, you may have other costs such as copies of personal documents required by your employer for example.

What is my fee status?

The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.

Fees in subsequent years

Home fees are subject to annual review, and are liable to rise each year in line with UK government policy. International fees (including EU) are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.

Fees for study abroad and work placements

We will charge tuition fees to Home undergraduate students on full-year study abroad/work placements in line with the maximum amounts permitted by the Department for Education. The current maximum levels are:

Students studying abroad for a year: 15% of the standard tuition fee

Students taking a work placement for a year: 20% of the standard tuition fee

International students on full-year study abroad/work placements will also be charged in line with the maximum amounts permitted by the Department for Education. The current maximum levels are:

Students studying abroad for a year: 15% of the standard international tuition fee during the Study Abroad year

Students taking a work placement for a year: 20% of the standard international tuition fee during the Placement year

Please note that the maximum levels chargeable in future years may be subject to changes in Government policy.

Scholarships and bursaries

You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.

You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status:

Fee status:

Any fee status

Home students

International students

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We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.

Browse Lancaster University's scholarships and bursaries.

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Important information

The information on this site relates primarily to the stated entry year and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.

The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.

More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.

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We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.

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