We welcome applications from the United States of America
We've put together information and resources to guide your application journey as a student from the United States of America.
Overview
Top reasons to study with us
Discover more about global media and it's impact on culture
UK Top 15 for Communications and Media Studies
The Complete University Guide (2026)
Access to Digital Media Studio and specialist equipment
Media shapes who we are, what we think and what we value. At Lancaster, we are passionate about understanding media in all its complexity, exploring how media and culture shape our social realities. New forms of media are developing so quickly, you may be preparing for a career in the creative industries that does not yet exist! We will empower you with media literacy skills, theory and understanding that will equip you for a rewarding role in a wide range of industries.
Why Lancaster?
Learn from world-leading experts in the field, who shape conversation on everything from reality TV show regulations to the Royal Family
Take advantage of our digital media studio with the latest specialist equipment during your degree
Add to your creative portfolio out of class by getting involved in our student media societies such as Lancaster’s television station, newspaper, radio station and cinema
Tailor your programme to suit you, with assessments that range from written research to creative practice
Develop vital skills in both media practice and critical analysis, skills that future employers need
Bring your ideas to life
Media and Cultural Studies will provide you with a critical understanding of media industries, practices and productions. You will learn how digital media is both reinventing older media forms, like newspapers and television, and producing new digital cultures. You will develop awareness of the transnational differences that structure all our experiences of media in local, national and global contexts, as well as looking at how media is created and consumed to help you become a better creator.
As well as studying media’s social, economic and political power in everyday life, we will help you develop your critical thinking skills in relation to the issues that matter to you, reflecting on your own identity, life and media use. You will be encouraged to develop effective communication skills, think ethically about media power, politics and technologies, and enact positive social change in the world around you.
Your platform, your voice
Our research is world leading. You will be taught by experts on topics as diverse as fandom, media activism, gender and sexualities, artificial intelligence and algorithmic cultures. Our team influences real world conversations, for example, providing evidence to parliamentary enquiries, running podcast series, undertaking news media interviews and raising awareness on a range of issues, such as class, race and gender inequality.
As well as our own academics, you will have the opportunity to learn from influential guest speakers. In previous years we have welcomed guests such as, journalists from the BBC, and The Evolution of Horror podcast presenter, Mike Muncer.
When it comes to doing your final project, you will follow in their footsteps. You may write about research you have carried out during the course or produce a media piece (for example a podcast, journalistic interviews, or a social media campaign). We’ll encourage you to let your imagination run wild! Past students have created music albums, zines and even board games. You’ll be able to showcase your hard work at our Final Degree Show to celebrate the achievements of you and your peers.
Envisioning your future
Studying Media and Cultural Studies at Lancaster will give you a head start in preparing for your future career. We organise bespoke careers’ sessions on employment opportunities in the media and creative sectors, giving you the opportunity to explore potential career options that fit with your personal interests. In the past, this has included workshops with journalists, podcasting masterclasses, creative sessions with media activists, and visits to museums, all of which will help you build on your critical analysis, research, presentation and writing skills, which are valuable to employers across a range of sectors.
Media and Cultural Studies at Lancaster University
Discover what our students like best about Media and Cultural Studies at Lancaster University – from the wide choice of modules, to the expertise of teaching staff and opportunities to gain practical skills and experience.
Careers
Career paths in the media and creative industries are shifting all the time. Roles like digital content creator didn’t exist a couple of decades ago, and platforms like Patreon and ChatGPT have changed the way we produce and consume media. What comes next is unknown, but you’ll have the skills you need to adapt to whatever challenges you face.
Our recent graduates have found rewarding careers in roles such as:
Journalists
Editorial assistant/Editors
Media coordinators/managers
Communication advisers/consultants
Digital Communication Associates
Strategic Communication Leads
Media researchers
Media buyers
TV/Film/video/Social Media producers
Script supervisors
Documentalists
Social media managers
Digital marketers and advertisers
Publishers
Content producers
Arts managers
Teachers
This course also provides a strong basis for diverse types of postgraduate study, including areas like television production or teaching, or our MA in Global Media & Society.
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.
Careers
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.
Qualifications and typical requirements accordion
ABB
30 Level 3 credits at Distinction plus 15 Level 3 credits at Merit
We accept the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales in place of one A level, or equivalent qualification, as long as any subject requirements are met.
DDM
A level at grade B plus BTEC(s) at DD, or A levels at grade BB plus BTEC at D
32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 HL subjects
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.
Distinction overall
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.
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, 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 INTO Lancaster University website 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. Not all optional modules are available every year.
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.
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.
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
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
optional modules accordion
How are your personal experiences connected to broader social forces? This module introduces you to the ‘sociological imagination’—a way of thinking that helps you make sense of the relationship between individual lives and society.
Drawing on classic and contemporary sociological debates, you’ll explore key questions about individualism, institutions and social change. You'll learn to critically analyse how biography and history intersect, engaging with foundational ideas in the discipline.
By developing your own sociological take on these themes, you’ll gain essential skills in critical thinking, argumentation and analysis—preparing you for further study and enabling you to see the world in new and insightful ways.
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.
Britain is one of the most successful and influential film industries in world cinema. In this module you will explore the key films, filmmakers and traditions that have shaped British cinema over the past century. Through a study of major genres, styles, filmmakers and themes, you will consider how British cinema has evolved and reflect on historical cinema-going habits.
Alongside this historical overview, you will engage with critical debates. You’ll examine the relationship between national identity and cinema, the role of realism and recurring preoccupations with emotional repression, race, gender and social class. You will also explore how British cinema captures and shapes ideas of ‘’Britishness’’.
Each week, screenings of case-study films by influential British directors will be paired with key readings, providing a foundation for discussion. By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical understanding of British cinema’s distinctive characteristics and its role within film history and culture.
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.
Designed specifically for Marketing and Design students, 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.
Language is intimately connected with both mind and society. Learn about the relationship between language and the mind as you explore questions central to linguistics such as: how does a child acquire their first language? To what extent does the language we speak influence the way we think? And what effect can brain damage have on language?
You will also examine the different ways in which language intersects with society, with an introduction to the foundations of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. You’ll also explore how communication works across different cultures and how language planning and policies can shape the world.
As the module progresses, you will investigate the way mind and society are bridged by language. Discover the link between them by studying how language has evolved in the human species and how multiple languages can coexist in both individual minds and among communities.
Core
core modules accordion
Much of what constitutes contemporary media culture is so familiar to us that it makes it hard for us to take a distanced, critical view of our mediatised societies.
In this module, you will develop an understanding of the relationship between the culture that is always all around you, and the overarching structures of power and social contexts that help to explain that culture. We will pay particular attention to the role of media in global systems of power and meaning through various sociological and interdisciplinary lenses, such as:
media studies
cultural studies
critical race theory
postcolonial studies
We will explore essential theoretical perspectives and longstanding global debates in media and cultural studies, and you will learn how to form your own opinions and arguments concerning the mediated world.
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.
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
Optional
optional modules accordion
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.
Exploring the adaption of literature to film and other media, this module focuses on the adaptation of literary texts to such forms as theatre, graphic novel, film, television, song, and game.
You will be invited to reflect on adaptation as a powerful and complex cultural process, one that interprets literature as well as adapts it.
Throughout the module you will normally complete either a critical essay on adaptation OR a creative project (plus short essay) that enables you to produce your own work of adaptation. This may take many forms -- written, (audio) visual, musical, digital, or three-dimensional and/or take the form of a game, production or performance, etc.
Despite widespread beliefs in social progress, racial inequalities and racism persist across the globe. This module equips you with the tools to critically examine race and racism from a sociological perspective, exploring their historical foundations and contemporary manifestations.
You will engage with key theoretical approaches and empirical case studies to understand how racism operates at individual, institutional and structural levels. Topics may include colonialism and imperialism, everyday racism, whiteness and racial capitalism, as well as the politics of resistance and anti-racist movements. The module may also address forms of racism such as Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, misogynoir, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, considering how they intersect with other social inequalities.
By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical understanding of race and racism as central to the organisation of social life and will be equipped to analyse and challenge racial inequalities in various contexts.
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.
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.
In this module, you will collaboratively develop, produce, and complete a short dramatic film while engaging with sustainable industry-standard production practices. The emphasis is on technical competence, creative problem-solving, and reflective collaboration.
At the start of the module, you'll form your own production groups and assign yourself one of the key creative roles within the team—Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, Sound Recordist/Designer, or Editor. Where needed, roles may be shared or doubled up to ensure all production responsibilities are met.
The module is supported by advanced technical workshops in camera, lighting, grip, sound, editing, and post-production workflows, preparing you to meet contemporary professional standards while reflecting on sustainability and resource-conscious filmmaking.
Explore gender through a transnational and decolonial approach, as this module examines its intersections with race, class, nationality, sexuality, disability, religion and the environment.
You will analyse historical and contemporary examples from around the world, engaging with key debates that shape feminist research and activism. Drawing on diverse feminist perspectives, including Black, Indigenous and queer critiques, the module will challenge you to think critically about complex topics such as:
Sex work
Sexual violence
Islamophobia
Transgender rights
Reproductive justice
Ecofeminism
Migration
The course also brings these perspectives and positions to bear on what it means design, conduct and reflect the researcher’s positionality in the processes and practices of qualitative research. Through these activities, you will explore how feminist theories connect with lived experiences and shape struggles for social justice.
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.
How many advertisements have you already seen today? From moving billboards to advertisements between games on your phone - advertising is everywhere.
How many advertisements have you already seen today? From moving billboards to advertisements between games on your phone, advertising is everywhere.
In this module, you will learn how advertisers use language, visuals, sound and music to influence behaviour. You will discover how to differentiate advertising from marketing by examining hard and soft selling, influencer advertising and the role of “prosumers” on social media. You will explore consumer research to ask what makes a good advertisement. Rich examples show how advertising has borrowed from prose, poems and plays.
You will explore aspects of language including:
Phonetics (sounds in a language)
Stylistics (linguistic analysis of literary texts)
Pragmatics (meaning in context)
By the end of this module, you will be able to analyse the creative use of language in advertisements, understanding the role that advertising plays in wider marketing efforts and reflecting on its uses in your future professional and personal lives.
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.
Core
core modules accordion
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.
Optional
optional modules accordion
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.
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.
‘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.
This advanced, practice-based module provides an industry-informed approach to documentary filmmaking.
Working in small groups, you will research, develop and produce a short documentary, choosing either to pursue an independent concept or respond to a stakeholder brief. The module supports a broad range of documentary genres and styles, encouraging experimentation with form while maintaining professional standards.
Through workshops and practical training, you will refine your skills in cinematography, sound recording and editing, while gaining awareness of ethical considerations, industry expectations, funding opportunities and distribution strategies across traditional and digital platforms.
Collaboration is central to this module, requiring you to navigate real-world production challenges, from research and planning to post-production. By the end of the module, you will have created a completed short documentary and developed the technical, conceptual and professional skills essential for careers in documentary filmmaking and beyond.
How are health and illness shaped by society? This module explores sociological perspectives on health, illness and healthcare, focusing on how social structures and inequalities influence health outcomes.
You will engage with key debates on medicalisation, health inequalities, mental health and the politics of healthcare provision, considering how forms of social organisation shape access to care and the experience of illness. The module also examines how health is central to social reproduction—the processes that sustain daily life and future generations—including the role of care work, reproductive labour and biopolitics.
Drawing on contemporary and historical examples, you will critically analyse how power operates in medicine, how bodies are regulated and categorised and how definitions of ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ are socially constructed. By the end of the module, you will be equipped to analyse health and medicine as deeply embedded in wider social and political contexts.
What happens when radically different forms of art meet? How do these fused forms change our understanding of the world? We will draw on material from different periods and continents, to explore works of art where, for example, film meets history, poetry meets philosophy, fine art meets sociology, religion meets fiction, and theatre meets politics.
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.
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.
What do we understand by queerness? Looking back at earlier interpretations, we imagine how queerness might evolve—how it might be lived, felt and understood in the future.
You will explore queer futures from a range of perspectives and viewpoints, while examining both feminist and queer theory, as well as queer media and cultural texts and material relating to areas such as activism, politics and healthcare.
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.
This module explores some of the most pressing issues that marketers face today. Topics might include digital transformation, sustainability, inclusivity or changing consumer values. You will be encouraged to reflect critically on the role of marketing in society and consider how your own practice can contribute to a more responsible future.
In this practical module you will conceptualise, design, and prototype innovative festival experiences that respond to emerging cultural, societal, technological, and environmental trends. Working in a team, you will develop festival concepts that explore innovations in audience engagement, sustainability, accessibility and digital innovation. In collaboration, you will undertake phases of concept development that may include:
Researching and ideating a future-facing festival concept
Design and branding
Creation of visual identities and marketing materials
Audience development strategies
Understanding market audiences through use of data
Technological integration
Experimenting with innovative digital technologies
Interactive installations
Sustainability and accessibility
Developing sustainable festive models with a focus on inclusivity
You will produce a festival proposal that will be pitched to industry professionals, who will provide feedback. The final project will be presented at the School of Arts Festival/Degree show, and your work will also make a contribution to the design and delivery of the event.
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.
Migration is a mainstay of public and political debate. This module offers students an opportunity to apply key sociological theories and concepts to the study of migration and to develop the critical and analytical skills needed to understand and evaluate it as a distinctly social phenomenon.
Focusing on the relationships between migration, inequalities and societies today, the module explores sociological understandings of why people migrate, migrant experiences and the impacts of migration on both sending and receiving communities. It explores the strengths and limits of the key theoretical approaches and conceptual frameworks within the sociology of migration including:
Transnationalism and diaspora
Coloniality
Criminalisation and securitisation
Politicisation
Bordering and migratisation
Through a range of empirical case studies, it demonstrates what these approaches reveal about inequalities, identity and belonging, migrant networks, rights, racism and harms.
Fees and funding
Our annual tuition fee is set for a 12-month session, starting at the beginning of each academic year.
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, the one-time fee for undergraduates and postgraduate research students is £40. For postgraduate taught students, the one-time fee is £15.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.
Scheme
Based on
Amount
Based on {{item.eligibility_basis}}
Amount {{item.amount}}
We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.
The pace of change in media industries and jobs means that preparing for your career is about being able to provide insights and unique combinations of experience that set you apart.
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.
Our Students’ Charter
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.
Open days and campus tours
Visit campus and put yourself in the picture at an open day or campus tour.
Take five minutes and we'll show you what our Top 10 UK university has to offer, from beautiful green campus to colleges, teaching and sports facilities.
Most first-year undergraduate students choose to live on campus, where you’ll find award-winning accommodation to suit different preferences and budgets.
Our historic city is student-friendly and home to a diverse and welcoming community. Beyond the city you'll find a stunning coastline and the world-famous English Lake District.
