Digital Marketing - BA (Hons)
Currently viewing course to start in 2025/26 Entry.
This BA (Hons) Digital Marketing degree is a two-year fast-track course that immerses you in creative, real-world, professional advertising and marketing strategy. It’s a powerful mix where you’ll be working with creative professionals to learn key skills in the fast-paced design industries....
- Level Undergraduate
- Study mode Full Time
- Award BA (Hons)
- Start date September 2025
- Fees View course fees
- Subjects
- Location City Centre
This course is:
Open to International Students
Overview
This BA (Hons) Digital Marketing degree is a two-year fast-track course that immerses you in creative, real-world, professional advertising and marketing strategy.
It’s a powerful mix where you’ll be working with creative professionals to learn key skills in the fast-paced design industries. You’ll find yourself making simulated advertising campaigns with creative agencies like MØRNING, delivering creative solutions to content-led brands like BBC Creative, or using the Adobe Creative Cloud to produce captivating campaigns, as well as engaging experiences for clients both regionally and nationally.
BA (Hons) Digital Marketing is employment-led and teaches in a practice-based, knowledge applied approach where tutors and industry professionals work with you in lectures and assignments to help you develop both personally and professionally.
What's covered in this course?
You'll be based at the City Centre Campus where you will engage in practical creative workshops, digital media production, lectures and assignments with your peers, tutors and industry mentors.
Teaching takes place in modern production studios based in Birmingham City Centre where you'll be provided with studio space to complete projects and access to the software you'll need for the duration of the course.
As you progress through the course you will build a knowledgeable skillset that gives you proficiency and creative know-how across disciplines and specialist expertise. Along the way, you'll build a creative portfolio that showcases your work and proves your professionalism; you'll be making and delivering tangible creative media assets for real clients in the real world.
On this course we will seek to help you develop a cultural awareness of the creative industries, cultivate a unique perspective by asking how you can contribute to a new way of looking at the world, establish a disruptive interest in carving out new paths, and gain research skills for exceptional references that illustrate your thinking.
To do this you'll need to understand how the creative industries work, and our BA (Hons) Digital Marketing course has the answers in a rich combination of options and projects.
Accredited By
This course is accredited by:
The course which is taught by industry professionals has provided me with the most up to date digital marketing skills. We have lots of opportunity to apply our knowledge practically through our projects. Over the last two years, I have a built a professional portfolio that has helped land me my first job at a top marketing agency within two months of finishing the course.
Havana Salmon (graduated 2021)
Why Choose Us?
- No exams! Coursework assignments building to final project and portfolio of practice.
- Workplace simulation experiences - Project-based, experiential learning with professional mentors, encouraging intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial practices.
- The course is taught by DMI certified and award winning tutors (BAFTA, D&AD, RTS) as well as active practitioners, with a wealth of academic and industry experience.
Similar Courses
Open Days
Join us for an Open Day where you'll be able to learn about this course in detail, chat to students, explore our campus and tour accommodation. Booking isn't open yet for this event, register your interest and we’ll email you as soon as booking goes live.
Next Open Day: 22 March 2025
Entry Requirements
These entry requirements apply for entry in 2025/26.
All required qualifications/grades must have been achieved and evidenced at the earliest opportunity after accepting an offer to help confirm admission and allow for on-time enrolment. This can also include other requirements, like a fee status form and relevant documents. Applicants can track their application and outstanding information requests through their BCU mySRS account.
Essential requirements
120 UCAS Tariff points. Learn more about UCAS Tariff points.
If you have a qualification that is not listed, please contact us.
Fees & How to Apply
UK students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: BA (Hons)
Starting: Sep 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 2 years
- £11,440 in 2025/26 ✱ Important note for this price
- Apply via UCAS
(↩Back to price) *
The Government is proposing to increase the cap on tuition fees for accelerated courses to £11,440 for 2025/26 and the University is planning on increasing fees to that maximum level once legislation is enacted.
International students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: BA (Hons)
Starting: Sep 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 2 years
- £18,600 in 2025/26
Guidance for UK students
UK students applying for most undergraduate degree courses in the UK will need to apply through UCAS.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is a UK organisation responsible for managing applications to university and college.
Applying through UCAS
- Register with UCAS
- Login to UCAS and complete your details
- Select your course and write a personal statement
- Get a reference
- Pay your application fee and submit your application
Guidance for International students
There are three ways to apply:
1) Direct to the University
You will need to complete our International Application Form and Equal Opportunities Form, and submit them together with scan copies of your original academic transcripts and certificates.
2) Through a country representative
Our in-country representatives can help you make your application and apply for a visa. They can also offer advice on travel, living in the UK and studying abroad.
3) Through UCAS
If you are applying for an undergraduate degree or a Higher National Diploma (HND), you can apply through the UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
You can request a printed form from your school or nearest British Council office. You will be charged for applying through UCAS. Birmingham City University’s UCAS code is B25 BCITY.
Personal statement
UK / EU students are required to submit a personal statement as part of their application for this course.*
The personal statement gives you a crucial opportunity to say why you’re applying and why the institution should accept you.
Here are the key areas you’ll need to address:
- Course choice - Why does this course appeal? What areas are of particular interest?
- Career plans - If you have a specific career in mind, say how your chosen course will help you pursue this goal.
- Work experience - Mention any work that is relevant to your subject, highlighting the skills and experience gained.
- School or college experience - Highlight skills gained at school/college, eg summer schools or mentoring activities.
- Non-accredited skills or achievement - eg Duke of Edinburgh Award, Young Enterprise scheme.
You should also mention your future plans – if you’re planning to take a year out, don't forget to give your reasons. Talk about any subjects you’re studying that don’t have a formal assessment and any sponsorships or placements you’ve applied for. And don't be scared to add in details about your social, sports or leisure interests.
Worried about Personal Statements?
If you've got no idea where to start or just want to check you're on the right track, we’ve got expert advice and real examples from our students to help you nail your personal statement. You can even download our ultimate personal statement guide for free.
*Non-EU students are not required to submit a personal statement when applying for this course.
Course in Depth
Year one
Teaching methods may include practical sessions, lectures and group debates, featuring input from both University staff and guest lecturers from industry, providing you with a wide range of practical knowledge and insight.
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 160 credits):
It’s all about you! This Digital Marketing Primer places your own personal and professional development at the centre of the competitive job market. The objective is to give you the understanding and confidence to sell yourself and your ideas to your peers and potential employers.
Meet the agency! You will take a ‘live’ brief from an advertising agency account manager. The objective is to identify a new audience for an existing client by raising brand awareness through a digital marketing campaign.
Get to know your audience! Your client and your agency need to reach a challenging target market; this module gives you an introduction to audience segmentation through industry theory and professional practice.
You are the media planner! You’ll work with a global brand to build on your market research skills, using your insights to make a difference in the real world.
The module will place you in a group and ask each group to answer a brief with your solutions in a shared presentation. You will be shown how to unpack a creative brief to find the insights and instructions that help determine strategic and creative decision-making. Then, the teaching team will show you how to transform that brief into innovative solutions that stakeholders and target audiences can buy into. This includes instruction in project management, so you can work effectively as a team player in a proven system of shared responsibilities and deadlines. You will also get training in how you and your team can ‘pitch’ your ideas persuasively, ‘selling’ your recommendations in a narrative structure.
The module is a mix of group and individual effort. You’ll be working in a group to deliver a team presentation in answer to a brand challenge: showcasing a portfolio of branded media assets as part of a marketing communications campaign. You’ll also be working individually to reflect on your own learning experience in this module through a reflective report. Your workflow will follow the process of ‘preproduction’, ‘production’ and ‘postproduction’. At each phase, you will use your project management skills to assign roles and responsibilities amongst your teammates; all roles will be explained, and you will be shown how to perform them professionally.
Year two
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 180 credits):
Get to know your market! You will receive a brief with the objective of delivering a market research report that helps to better understand the sector, its existing and potential consumers.
You are the digital media executive at an agency! You’ll work on a global entertainment brand, tasked with developing a digital marketing plan. You’ll need to develop an understanding of a new agency planning methodology and employ its techniques in providing digital only recommendations to support all their digital communications.
You are the creative team! You’ll be delivering a digital content marketing plan and some prototype assets to pitch to your client. This is your chance to showcase your digital marketing expertise and you’ll be using the framework recommended by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).
The module is an opportunity to learn and critically reflect on the skills of collaboration &/or your own professional practice. The module enables you to create either an interdisciplinary project with students from complementary disciplines or your own self-defined project.
The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. It is important that we can support you appropriately, so you will be guided towards choosing a research topic which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise. The outcome may take the form of a written dissertation or a practice-based portfolio.
Download course specification
Download nowIn your first year, you will work closely with your marketing colleagues, tutors and industry practitioners to learn new insights and develop your professional approach to digital marketing and advertising projects.
You’ll learn how brands are built, how they reach their audiences and how you can add value and shared experiences to these through strategic and creative user journeys that optimise digital media channels and returns on investment.
In the summer semester, you will collaborate to put your learning into practice. You’ll be working on a brief with an industry partner or client to deliver projects that prove your proficiency in the digital marketing sector. Past collaborations have been with BBC Creative and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In your second year, you will be challenged to self-direct your digital marketing research and to work autonomously to develop practical skills. This includes immersion in data interpretation, campaign development and creative content marketing.
Your course concludes with you consolidating your own digital marketing expertise through professional practice on a self-defined Final Major Project, which aligns with your individual aspirations. In this, you will choose to write a dissertation or produce a practiced-based portfolio of work that is employment-led.
Learning from industry professionals
Find out more about our inaugural Forward 2020 conference and subsequent events which give students the chance to hear from and network with leaders in the digital marketing industry.
Assessment methods
You'll be assessed in a variety of different ways, including practical project work – both group and individual – in-person presentations, written reports and practical portfolios.
Assessment is embedded into the course, which means your learning experience isn't interrupted by exams; allowing you to concentrate on becoming an effective team member.
Examples of classroom projects
1. Agency: Cake
Cake is a branding and e-commerce agency “founded by retailers for retailers”; they asked BA Digital Marketing students to work on a ‘live’ brief: design a memorable and unique website shopping experience for a top vintage clothing brand.
2. Agency: Givenchy and ghd
These beauty and personal care (BPC) giants worked closely with BA Digital Marketing students to create carefully targeted Social Media campaigns aimed at new Gen Z audiences.
This course is accredited by the following organisation:
Digital Marketing Institute
This BA Digital Marketing course is accredited by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI). Students who successfully progress to the second year of the course are eligible to complete modules that lead to the industry-recognised award of Certified Digital Marketing Associate.
Employability
Enhancing your employability skills
Workplace simulations and industry standard projects are key pillars in the course content. In addition you’ll be working closely with professional practitioners, top agencies and prestigious clients to develop and deliver your assignments.
You’ll meet and be encouraged to network with visiting specialist lecturers and industry experts and keynote speakers on and off the campus, these professionals frequently work with you and your fellow students as mentors.
Towards the end of your studies, you’ll complete a final major project and this may lead you to working directly with a client. This self-directed professional contact will give you the experience, confidence and freedom to put into action all you’ve learned during your studies. It will also give you a proven track record of professional activity and a portfolio of work to showcase your abilities.
On top of this course specific experience you’ll gain, the University has introduced the BCU Graduate+ programme, which is an extra-curricular awards framework that is designed to augment the subject-based skills that you develop through your programme with broader employability skills and techniques that will enhance your employment options when you leave university. The key components of the award are:
- A personalised approach for each and every student.
- A range of activities that helps you to build Continuing Professional Development points towards completion of your award.
Allied with this course-specific experience you will also have access to a range of support staff and services from the University’s careers service, who can help with:
- Reviewing CVs, covering letters and application forms
- Career planning and decision making
- Preparing for interviews and assessment centres
- Developing portfolios
- Networking with employers
- Advice about self-employment and entrepreneurship
Workplace Simulation
In the summer semester of your first year, you will collaborate with your student peers to put your learning into practice. You’ll be working on a brief with an industry partner to deliver projects that prove your proficiency in the digital marketing sector. This provides an industry-engagement experience, which simulates the workplace; what it is like to work professionally and deal with clients. You will attend regular milestone reviews to keep clients fully informed of your progress.
Past clients have included the BBC and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
International
Birmingham City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.
The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.
Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:
- Details of the entry requirements for our courses
- Some of the good reasons why you should study here
- How to improve your language skills before starting your studies
- Information relevant to applicants from your country
- Where to find financial support for your studies.
Facilities & Staff
Our creative degrees are housed in the state of the art £62 million Parkside Building, part of our City Centre Campus.
We offer extensive studio and workshop space and cutting-edge equipment such as Vicon 3D (an external tracking motion capture facility) and Gypsy (an exoskeleton-based motion capture system). Both of these systems extend the possibility for production of 3D animation and films.
We offer cutting-edge provision such as digital print centres and Sonny Ross became the first Arts, Design and Media student to master the art of the RISO machine. He has since used this to produce many successful RISO publications including “Rojo & Baxter” which has been a success at various zine and book fairs across the country.
The Parkside Building also offers:
- exhibition space
- digital and analogue photographic facilities and studios
- dark rooms
Our staff
Christopher Morris
Senior Lecturer in Creative Advertising
After graduating from Northumbria University, Newcastle in BA (Hons) Advertising & Graphic Design, Christopher Morris was employed as an Art Director for several London agencies; Lowe Howard-Spink/Horseman Cooke, The Unknown Partnership & D4.
More about ChristopherMike Villiers-Stuart
Senior Lecturer and Course Leader MA Future Media
Mike has spent 30 years making creative marketing and advertising content for big brands like Centrica, global media giants like the BBC and international advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi. Along the way, Mike’s work has won prestigious awards like BAFTA, D&AD Gold and RTS while launching digital channels for international...
More about MikeNatalie Hart
Lecturer in BA (Hons) Digital Marketing
Natalie graduated from Birmingham City University with a degree in BA (Hons) Digital Marketing and a degree in MA Future Media. Whilst at university, Natalie set up Hart Digital Agency, a social media management business that catered to the set-up and day-to-day running of small businesses' social media platforms as well as consultations...
More about Natalie