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Music and Sound for Screen BA(Hons)

2025-26

Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

3 years full-time
4 years inc. placement year

Entry requirements

A Level - BBB-BCC

BTEC - DDM-DMM

See full entry requirements

About the course

Reasons to study

1.This course is accredited by Joint Audio Media Education Support (JAMES), which means it is approved by leading industry professionals. 
2.You’ll train with staff who are active film composers who work in the UK, Europe, and Los Angeles, and you’ll submit your work to professional music production libraries.
3.An impressive 100% of graduates from this course are in work and/or further study 15 months after graduating (Unistats 20/21 data, UK domiciled graduates). 

On our Music and Sound for Screen BA(Hons) course, you’ll learn to write music and create sound effects for film, TV, and games. You’ll also study composition, orchestration, sound design, recording, as well as performance on this professionally accredited course.

As you move through the course, you’ll select from options that all develop your skills, to a professional level, in composition and sound design.

Why study Music and Sound for Screen BA(Hons)

This course is for you if you’re keen to potentially secure a role within creative industries, including:

  • music
  • games
  • film
  • sound design
  • content production
  • media industry.

You’ll study in state-of-the-art professional standard facilities, and you’ll have access to a range of recording and studio spaces, including dedicated audiovisual composition and editing software. You’ll also have the chance to explore the latest new music in the annual Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and experience cutting-edge experimental artists at our Electric Spring Festival.

You can collaborate on projects with students from screenwriting and acting, film making, and production courses, across our Yorkshire Film and Television School, and you’ll get the unique chance to train with staff who are active film composers working in the UK, Europe, and Los Angeles. Choose this course and you can submit your work to professional music production libraries and, like some of our past students, hear your work on national TV networks.

Visiting artists will attend the University to offer insight into post-university opportunities; regular visitors include John Warhurst, Oscar and Bafta winning Sound Editor and Huddersfield graduate, and Nitin Sawhney, producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and orchestral composer. We’ll help you develop your industry contacts and professional portfolio; several of our students have had their tracks selected for use in Channel 4 and BBC programmes.

You’ll also gain real-world experience on a relevant work placement, to prepare you for a potentially life-altering career ahead including setting up your own business. Plus, an impressive 100% of graduates from this course are in work and/or further study 15 months after graduating (Unistats 20/21 data, UK domiciled graduates).

This course will set you up for a career within audiovisual media, helping you develop your composition and sound design skills to a professional level. The course offers training in:

  • film and game music composition
  • sound design
  • Foley sound effects
  • orchestration for live and virtual instruments
  • sample library creation
  • sound editing.

Course detail

Core modules:

Desktop Music Production 1

This module will introduce you to relevant techniques and technologies for computer-based music production, including sequencing, sampling, arrangement, and a variety of other sound processing techniques. A range of practical work - both technical and creative - will develop your critical listening and production skills, and seminars will support you in applying these techniques to your own creative work.

Music, Culture and Society

This module will introduce you to a range of approaches to studying music and music technology. You will develop research, source-handling, evaluation, and critical-thinking skills and apply these to repertoires, cultures, and issues appropriate to your degree course. Linked lectures and seminars will increase your knowledge of key themes and concerns in music studies, give you opportunities to debate your ideas with others, and develop your confidence as an increasingly independent researcher.

Performance Skills 1

You will gain hands-on experience of a variety of key musical skills: improvisation; aural awareness; ensemble performance; and evaluating your own and others' performances. A wide range of styles and genres will be explored, and you will work with musicians relevant to your specialism as a pop, classical, or jazz performer.

Studio Engineering and Mixing Essential

You will be introduced to the core concepts, theory and practical principles involved in producing, engineering and mixing popular music. You will gain practical experience in an analogue/digital recording studio, developing your ability to record and overdub a variety of sources. For the mix stage of the production process, you will then review the fundamental approaches and techniques involved in effectively processing these signals.

Music for the Moving Image A

This practical module will develop your key skills in screen composition, arrangement, and orchestration, including the art of creating quality mock-ups using sampled instruments. Classes will examine a range of approaches to composition for film, videogame, television, animation, and music video, and will work towards a portfolio of your own original compositions.

Composition 1

The module is intended to enable you to develop your compositional abilities, through the exploration of a range of compositional techniques, with particular reference to acquiring a better understanding of rhythm, timbre, melody/contour, harmony, texture, form and notation. You will also explore the basics of instrumentation. Your creative aural imagination will be stimulated by studying and employing a variety of expressive musical languages.

Entry requirements

BBB-BCCat A Level .

120-104 UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications alongside evidence of prior Music or Music Technology experience (which could be offered either through formal qualifications or a portfolio of creative work).

Merit at T Level.

DDM-DMM in BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma.

  • Practical and theory music grades 6-8 will be accepted in the total points.
  • Access to Higher Education Diploma with 45 Level 3 credits at Merit or above.
  • 120-104 UCAS tariff points from International Baccalaureate qualifications.

Entry is also possible for applicants who don't hold standard UK qualifications.

International and mature applicants who don't hold standard UK qualifications can provide a portfolio to demonstrate skills relevant to the course. You can do this by sending us links to any production and/or recording work you have created or collaborated in.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

Other suitable experience or qualifications will be considered. For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.

Placements


This course offers you the opportunity to take an optional one-year (48 week) work placement after your second year, in the UK or abroad. This provides an opportunity for you to relate theory to practice and to develop skills in a real work environment. Our teaching staff have developed excellent links with local employers and will help you to find a suitable placement if necessary.

Previous placement providers have included Warner Music, Pinewood Studios (Avid), WigWam, Angel Studios, Shoot Productions, the Institute for Music/Acoustic Research and Co-ordination (IRCAM) in Paris, as well as schools, audio electronics companies, radio stations and various media and production houses.

My placement has given me a huge insight into the process of working as a musician in so many different spaces in the industry; such as, composing music for film and TV, recording and presenting concerts of original music as an artist, and producing music for other artists.

None

Jay Witsey, Creative Music Technology BMus(Hons)

Our Department

Take a look at what studying in the Music Technology department at the University of Huddersfield has to offer, from student experiences to facilities. Click images to find out more.

Your Career


Previous graduates have prepared themselves for what is known as a portfolio career, setting up their own sound/music for image company; providing orchestral scores and arrangements for recording sessions, original soundtracks, library music and sound effects. They may also undertake bespoke sound design for clients. Some students have developed sample packs and set up a production company in their placement year making a smooth transition from being student entrepreneurs to professionals. There is support available after you graduate from our 3M Buckley Innovation Centre where you can get advice on starting your own business. The university also supports students to progress to postgraduate and research study.

A selection of companies that have employed Huddersfield graduates in recent years include Abbey Road Studios, Calrec Audio, ITV, BBC, Kiss FM, British Grove Studios and Metrophonic.**

*Percentage of our undergraduate students from this course go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2019/20, UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

**Source: LinkedIn

100% Graduates employed*

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Research excellence

Research plays an important role in informing all our teaching and learning activities. Through research our staff remain up-to-date with the latest developments in their field, which means you develop knowledge and skills that are current and highly relevant to industry. Our staff are recognised as leading figures in their fields, as evidenced by major commissions, performances, recordings, and publications.

In the 2021 REF, 89% of music research at Huddersfield was judged to be Internationally Excellent, with 47% of the overall submission ranked as ‘World-Leading’. In addition to a very strong profile of individual research outputs, Huddersfield’s research environment for music received the maximum 4* rating (one of only four institutions to do so), and was ranked above Royal Holloway, Cambridge, Manchester and Oxford. The impact of Huddersfield’s music research received a top-ten ranking. This acknowledged the breadth and reach of research at Huddersfield, with case studies encompassing the new discipline of sound archaeology, New York Experimentalism, and strategies for supporting women and girls working in music technology.

For more information, please refer to our research pages.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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