Creative Industries

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Ranked 7th for Media (& Film Studies)

Guardian University Guide 2025

Specialist facilities

Live news studio, music studios, virtual production studio, mocap studio, TV studio and more

Ranked highly in Guardian University Guide 2024

6th for Media, 12th for Music

Start your story at University of Staffordshire and develop the connections that open doors to careers in the media, entertainment and wider creative industries.

Our graduates have worked on top productions like Mission Impossible and Peaky Blinders, as well as music videos for Ed Sheeran and Stormzy. Now you could be following in their footsteps. Whether you see yourself as a filmmaker, musician, content creator, music producer or animator, we have the perfect course to help you become an expert in storytelling.

As a student here, you could be making your own movie and screening it at film festivals. Composing, recording and mixing music for commercial release. Or packaging reports in our broadcast studios.

We’ll also help you to gain invaluable experience. Our students have opportunities to work with the likes of Aardman Animations, Pixar, Sony and Polydor, as well as enter high-profile competitions.

You’ll find the perfect platform for your creative ambitions.

Courses

Why study with us?

You can personalise your degree by focusing on the specialist areas that most interest you. You could be going on a residential film shoot, creating sound effects with our Foley pit, or using your animation skills to develop characters from clay through to CGI.

Much of your time will be spent on in-depth projects. You could also be tackling live industry briefs and learning about the business side of creative careers, such as freelancing and marketing. There are opportunities to hear from guest speakers as well.

Whether experimenting with techniques in our virtual production and motion capture studios or borrowing some of our 2,500+ production resources, you’ll have access to professional-standard kit. Our recording studio space is open seven days a week too.

What’s more, you’ll benefit from our team’s real-world experience and internationally recognised success. Our staff include experienced filmmakers, songwriters, musicians, animation directors and concept artists.

Careers and connections

We have a proven track record of producing highly skilled graduates who’ve gone on to successful roles across the creative industries. To help you become career-ready, you’ll build a professional portfolio.

We combine practical-based work experience, industry-standard equipment and innovative teaching techniques. Whether you’re producing short films, designing sound bites for advertising agencies, working towards the next stop-motion hit, or mixing and mastering music, you’ll have the skills to break into your chosen career.

Work placements

We place a strong emphasis on real-world learning and offer work placements on all our creative industries courses. This will enhance your employability prospects.

Thanks to our enviable industry links, our students are often able to secure incredible work placements with leading companies, such as the BBC, ITV, The Telegraph, Ambassador Theatre Group and Live Nation. 

Industry connections

Our courses are packed with opportunities to meet and network with leading industry organisations. This will help you to gain valuable experience for your future career. Thanks to our strong links, you’ll engage with professionals throughout your course.

We have outstanding professional connections with both nationwide and regional industry employers, including:

  • BBC
  • ITV
  • Eurosport
  • Sky / Sky Sports
  • Disney Channel
  • Double Negative
  • Aardman Animations
  • Envy Post
  • Warner Bros.
  • Channel 4
  • Granada TV
  • Lime Pictures
  • Talkback
  • Creative England
  • New Vic Theatre
  • Regent Theatre / Ambassador Group
  • B-Arts

Our students

The staff are literally amazing; they are the ones who make the course so great. The lecturers all have industry experience, which gives us an insight into how it would be once we graduate. The most important thing is that the University actually cares about their students which is very rare. If you are ever stuck or having any type of issue there will always be someone their give you the assistance needed. 

Alyisha Vaughan

Film and Media

Staffs was an experience unlike any other. As animation software is expensive, they’ve made sure there are a good number of computers for students. The staff are incredible too. They’ve been there when I’ve asked for help and offered alternative solutions. I don’t think I would have advanced as an animator or artist if they weren’t supporting me and pushing me to try new things. I owe a lot to them for that and will forever be grateful. 

Kalina Kolchevska

Animation

My course was fantastic course and really helped me grow, develop and magnify as not just a person, but an industry professional. I had superb lecturers who were all very supportive. There are some quality facilities which gave me a great head start into industry standard equipment and software, something I found very useful when first starting out on real productions.

Jade McKenna

Film and Media

There have been really good opportunities to record with bands and produce different types of music records, which was great for my personal and career development.

Sam Gibbs

Music Production

The most things for me was been meeting some amazing industry professionals - including Simon Tofield (creator of Simon's Cat), Oscar-nominated/award winning directors Sam Fell (ParaNorman), Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph), Dan Scanlon (Monsters University) and Mark Andrews (Brave). I've also worked with local animation companies - starting as an intern and now on a part-time basis, employed as a Rigging TD.

Jamie Bowen

Animation

Thanks to Staffordshire University, I felt I could connect, converse and engage with professionals on a level where I understood the film industry terminology, production process and showcase my knowledge of the industry-standard software and equipment.

Lauren Hatchard

Film and Media

I’ve worked on everything; from TV dramas like Call the Midwife, all the way up to large feature films, the most well-known probably being Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I then went on to work as an aerial camera assistant for Steven Spielberg on Ready Player One.

Nick Thursby

Film and Media graduate

Features

Woman wearing headphones checking sound levels

Film Production highlights - Semester 1

Highlights from the last semester across Film Production

Music and Sound highlights - Semester 1

Highlights from our dynamic music production and sound design courses

Film Production Highlights

Some of the exciting highlights from across BA (Hons) Film Production at University of Staffordshire this semester.
Alumni Leo Wright, fresh from Aardman, with new film ‘The Big Bad Wolf’

Animation Highlights

Some highlights from our innovative and creative BA (Hons) Animation degree this semester.

Music and Sound Highlights

Exciting highlights from across our dynamic Music Production and Sound Design degrees this semester.

Film and Media Lecturer Dr Andy Stubbs-Lacy publishes indie film monograph

The Talent Management of Indie Authorship: From American independent cinema and short "films" to pay-TV and streaming

Dan Crook

Dan Crook is a music engineer and musician at 140dB Management, home to some of the world's best producers, engineers, mixers, arrangers and writers.

Read full story

Facilities

Our Creative Industries degrees are practically led, so you’ll connect with professional standard equipment and get hands-on from day one of your studies.

We continually invest in the latest equipment and specialist technology to enable you to gain the technical skills you need to create the next showstopper, bestseller, blockbuster and storytelling masterpiece.  This includes our amazing Cadman Studios, which features live studios and control rooms, motion capture studios, Mac labs and Television Studio. There’s also our broadcast newsroom and fully-equipped radio studio.

 

Facility Spotlight - Virtual Production Suite

Our Virtual Production Suite combines the latest digital innovations in VFX, CGI and gaming technology with traditional film and video production techniques. Large LED panels 'project' realistic, accurately tracked, digitally animated landscapes into a live production environment where they interact with the live-action and camera movements in real-time to blend physical and digital worlds seamlessly together.

 

TV Studio

Our three-camera TV Studio is equipped with broadcast standard technology, green room, lighting rig, AV gallery and a comprehensive racks room for both live and pre-recorded productions. Read more

Our TV Studio is used by students across our Film and Media and Journalism and Content Creation courses. The studio floor also includes tiered audience seating.

Find out more about our Cadman TV Studios. 
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Virtual Production Studio

The Virtual Production Studio allows the combination of real-time games graphics with traditional film and video production techniques. Read more

Students are able to utilise the Virtual Production studio which comes complete with a 10m x 2.75m curved LED volume made of DigiLED DigiThin XS 2600 panels, Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k camera with 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses, Vanishing Point Vector and Viper camera tracking systems, full RGB lighting system including LED Cloud, 1x Celeb 850, 1x Diva-Lite 41, 5x Diva-Lite 31 and 5x Q5 Color all controllable through a ChamSys MagicQ lighting desk, VR Scouting system using a HTC Vive Pro and audio system with speakers around the screen. HP workstations allow the process to be facilitated end-to-end by Unreal Engine to use photorealistic environments.
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Music Studios

The recording studio complex features six control rooms containing a variety of analogue, digital and hybrid mixing consoles as well as a Foley pit, and four live rooms hosting a selection of industry-standard amplifiers, microphones and instruments. Read more

Find out more about our Cadman Music Studios.
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Radio Studios

The Flaxman Radio Studios, located within The Broadcast Newsroom, consist of three individual studios and a studio monitoring area, housing a range of specialist news production and music scheduling software and professional hardware. Read more

All studios are equipped with studio quality microphones and headphones, broadcast news production software (Burli), music play-out and scheduling software (Myriad Play-out and Myriad AutoTrack), as well as phone lines, ISDN units and web audio (for external contributors). Our Radio Studios can be used for anything from voiceovers and news broadcasts to podcasts and radio shows. Find out more about our Flaxman Radio Studios. 
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Henrion Post Production Labs

These facilities consist of three open-plan multi-seat Mac labs housing 51 professional edit suites, each with a primary and secondary monitor and specialist production software. 37 suites incorporate Apple Mac Pros and 14 include 27" 5K iMacs. Read more

Find out more about our Henrion Post Production Labs. 
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Motion Capture Studio

Realistically capture multiple human movements simultaneously for the creation of high-quality games, animation and VFX sequences. Our industry standard facility features a 24-camera rig, Vicon hardware and Cara facial performance capture headset. This facility hosts sessions that show students how to set up and prepare shoots at a high industry level.

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Henrion Shoot Studio

A multi-purpose configurable production space for learning about film and cinematography production equipment. Read more

 It features a range of rig-mounted creative LED studio lights, controlled via a mixing desk. The studio is also available for to students to book for their own practical project requirements. It can also accommodate medium sets, either pre-constructed or built on-site. Find out more about our Henrion Shoot Studio. 
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Cadman Post Production Labs

Two open-plan multi-seat labs (one Mac-based, one PC-based), featuring 45 professional editing suites with a range of specialist AV production software to perfect the edit, colour and sound mixes on media productions. Read more

Each suite supports the following specialist production software: Avid Media Composer, Pro Tools, Adobe Premiere Pro, Audition, After Effects, Prelude, Photoshop and Media Encoder. Find out more about our Post Production Labs. 

TV News Set

Compact three-camera studio broadcasting facility, located within the Broadcast Newsroom, suitable for a variety of news, sports and current affairs requirements. It also includes a green screen and an open plan audio visual production gallery. Read more

Our TV News Set is primarily used for news, sports and current affairs broadcasts and can accommodate a variety of set-ups, requiring single or multiple presenters and/ or guests. The facility was officially opened by then BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, in 2004. This facility is used by students on our Sports Journalism and Film and TV degrees. 

Find out more about our TV News Set. 
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MoJo Kits

Our MoJo kits work with smartphones to allow our students to report 'on the go'. This encourages students to consider how they can compile and tell a story in a fast paced, continually moving environment.  

Green Screen

You'll have access to a large dedicated green screen compositing studio, a 3D motion-capture studio and a large post-production edit facility. Read more

Find out more about our Henrion Post Production Labs.

VR, AR and Mixed Reality Lab

The VR, AR and Mixed Reality Lab is equipped with a number of HTC Vive Virtual Reality headsets and a dedicated development area to create, develop and test VR solutions. 

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Expertise

Stephen Griffiths

Course Director

Stephen's teaching centres on broadcast programme histories and media performance, especially acting on television. His research interests include broadcast light entertainment and comedy, television drama, and children's programming.

Stephen's profile

Dr Mark Brown

Course Director for Media and Digital Communication

As well as being Course Leader for English and Creative Writing, Mark teaches on First Year core modules and American literature modules on Crime Fiction, the Contemporary, Modernism and Beat Writing. He also supervises MA and PhD students.

Mark's profile

Dr Monireh Astani

Senior Lecturer

Dr Monireh Astani is a researcher and practitioner invested in the interdisciplinary, audience-oriented, creative practices of animation, visual design, and VR/AR.

Monireh's profile

Dr Marc Estibeiro

Associate Professor

Marc is the Course Leader for MA Music Production and teaches computer sound, advanced Pro Tools techniques, modern composition and music software design.

Marc's profile

Colin Mottram

Senior Lecturer

Combining extensive filmmaking experience and passion for learning and teaching, Colin challenges, supports and motivates students to turn their passion into a career.

Colin's profile

Dr Agata Lulkowska

Associate Professor

Dr Agata Lulkowska is a Senior Lecturer in Film Production in the Department of Film, Media and Journalism. Agata’s background is in film practice, installations and photography.

Agata's profile

Dr Dave Payling

Associate Professor

Dave is an audio-visual artist who holds a PhD in composition. His primary research focus is Electronic Visual Music and he teaches composition, audio-visuals and mastering at undergraduate and post-graduate levels

Dave's profile

Doug Rouxel

Senior Lecturer

Senior Lecturer in Music and Sound, Course Leader for Undergraduate Courses in Music and Sound at Staffordshire University.

Doug's profile

Alexander Hough

Lecturer

Alex is a lecturer for Music & Sound degrees. He teaches various aspects of music production including recording studio fundamentals, advanced recording techniques, mixing, mastering, sampling & synthesis and audio for multimedia post-production

Alexander's profile

Robin Heap

Lecturer

Robin is an animation filmmaker who specialises in stop motion animation development and production.

Robin's profile
for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2025

for Social Inclusion

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026

for First Generation Students

The Mail University Guide 2026

in the UK for Games Education

Rookies Games Design and Development 2023, 2025

TIGA Best Games Institution 2024, 2025

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021