Sports Journalism
The BA Sports Journalism course at the University of South Wales helps you turn your passion for sport into a career, with hands-on newsroom experience, real industry opportunities, and the skills to tell powerful, ethical stories that matter in today’s fast-moving media world.
How to apply Apply through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us/prod01/channel_2/media/university-of-south-wales/site-assets/images/08-subjects/journalism-and-media/sports-journalism-freddie-owers-57241.png)
Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
6B28
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Start Date
September
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Location
Cardiff
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Campus Code
B
Fees
Home students
£9,790*
International students
£16,800*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
If you love sport and storytelling, this course helps you build the skills to become a sports journalist.
Designed for
Looking for a life in sports media and to build your portfolio and profile? We’ve got you. We’ll prepare you for a wide variety of job roles in the industry, including online and broadcast sports journalism, videography, social media management, and internal communications for sports organisations.
Career paths
- Sports Correspondent / Reporter
- Communications Officer
- Media / Press Officer
- Social Media Officer
- Videographer / Podcaster
Skills taught
- Media law and ethics
- Critical thinking and research skills
- Interviewing / presenting
- Editing
- Writing
- Professional / Industry awareness
Course Highlights
Module Overview
In Year One, you’ll explore sport’s role in society, learn media law and ethics, and gain hands-on experience reporting live sport while developing core digital, video, audio, and storytelling skills across platforms.
The Social Spotlight in Sport
You’ll explore how sport shapes identity, culture, and society, learning how to turn complex social issues into clear, engaging journalism while understanding how the UK sports media landscape works.
Fair Play: Law, Ethics and Communication in Sport Media
You’ll learn the basics of media law, ethics, and PR in sport, developing the confidence to report accurately and fairly while navigating legal risks, ethical challenges, and real-world pressure from clubs, agents, and organisations.
From Whistle to Screen: Match Day Storytelling
You’ll gain hands-on newsroom experience covering live sport, learning to report, interview, and publish under real deadlines while telling meaningful stories that highlight wellbeing, participation, and the community impact of sport.
Making Media: Click, Record, Publish
You’ll learn how to tell the story of live sport using photography, video, and audio, developing core multimedia skills to create engaging, short-form digital journalism for modern sports media platforms.
In Year Two, you’ll deepen your skills through video-first storytelling, live newsroom reporting, and professional work placements, while exploring investigative journalism and campaign-led sports media, building confidence, creativity, and ethical judgement under real industry pressures.
Lights, Camera, Action: Content Production in Sport
You’ll develop advanced video journalism skills, planning, filming, and editing professional-standard sports packages that capture the emotion and drama of sport while making confident editorial and ethical decisions for different audiences and platforms.
Deadline Days: Live Sports Reporting
You’ll work in fast-paced newsroom and studio environments, producing live sports coverage across digital and broadcast platforms while gaining industry experience, meeting real deadlines, and developing the editorial, ethical, and teamwork skills needed in professional sports journalism.
Campaign Connect: Making a Difference
You’ll explore how sports media and journalism can shape conversations around health and wellbeing, creating responsible, engaging campaign content while learning how to balance ethical reporting with advocacy, branding, and real-world PR influences.
Red Card! Investigating Issues in Sport
You’ll develop investigative journalism skills, learning how to research, verify, and report on complex issues in sport while applying strong ethical judgement and communicating your findings clearly to professional and academic audiences.
In your final year, you’ll work as an emerging professional, completing industry placements, producing live sports broadcasts, leading independent research, and creating a final multi-platform portfolio that showcases your skills, confidence, and readiness for a career in sports journalism.
The Big Pitch
You’ll complete an independent, research-led project on a major issue in sport and media, presenting and defending your findings at a live symposium that builds confidence, critical thinking, and professional communication skills.
Going Live: Sports Broadcasting
You’ll work as part of a professional broadcast team, producing a live sports news show while developing on-air, technical, and editorial skills, and gaining the confidence to perform ethically and effectively in a real newsroom environment.
Transfer Window: Industry Ready
You’ll complete an extended industry placement and build a professional portfolio, developing real-world experience, confidence, and career awareness while preparing for graduate roles in sports journalism and media.
Out in the Field: Build Your Portfolio
You’ll complete your final major project, producing original multi-platform sports journalism focused on health and wellbeing, while showcasing your strongest work in a professional portfolio that demonstrates your readiness for industry.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
You’ll learn through hands-on, real-world experiences that reflect how sports journalism works in practice. Teaching is built around career-relevant learning blocks, designed to build your confidence and develop the reporting, storytelling, and production skills employers want. You’ll take part in workshops, live reporting, group work, guest lectures, and placements, becoming more independent as you progress. Learning is inclusive and student centred, with flexible approaches that support different learning styles, wellbeing, collaboration, and the development of confidence, creativity, and professional judgement.
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How you'll be assessed
Assessment is practical and closely linked to professional sports journalism. Instead of traditional exams, you’ll be assessed through portfolios, videos, podcasts, live reports, presentations, and reflective work. These assessments align with the skills and knowledge you’ll learn, as well as and industry expectations, helping you develop both academic understanding and employable skills. You’ll receive regular feedback, with assessments becoming more independent and industry focused as you progress through the course, ensuring you graduate with the skills and standards expected by employers.
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Placements
You’ll benefit from a wide range of placement and work-experience opportunities through strong links with organisations including BBC Wales, Sky Sports News, ITV Wales, Media Wales, the Football Association of Wales, and the Welsh Rugby Union. Our students gain real newsroom experience through short and extended placements, live briefs, and shadowing opportunities, with regular access to professional press boxes at football and rugby matches.
You may also work directly with club media teams at Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County, Sport Wales, Beicio Cymru or Chepstow Racecourse, helping you build bylines, confidence, and industry contacts that support your future career.
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Facilities
You’ll study Sports Journalism in at our campus in Cardiff, right at the centre of Wales’ sporting and media landscape. You’ll have access to major venues including the Principality Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, Sophia Gardens, and Treforest Sport Park, where you’ll gain live reporting experience. Our Cardiff campus offers industry-standard facilities such as a multi-camera HDTV studio and radio studios, alongside a Media Loans service that lets you borrow professional cameras, lighting, and audio equipment for free. With support from expert technicians and major media organisations nearby, you’ll learn in a truly professional environment.
Equipment
At our Cardiff Campus we have a vast range of equipment that you will be trained to use as part of your course. To help support your studies we have a Media Loans facility that allows you to hire the equipment, at no cost, for you to then use for your assignments and practical work. We have both basic and high-end film and photography cameras, portable lighting and sound equipment as well as a range of professional studio recording microphones, instruments and associated equipment to use in our music studios or on location. The team of technical officers and instructors are also available to help you with any queries and technical issues.
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Seren Nelson
Sports Journalism student
Ben Willers
Sports Journalism student
Students kick off careers in sports media with popular Welsh football podcast
Leah Bower
Sports Journalism student
Freddie Owers
Sports Journalism student
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
UCAS Points: 104 (or above)
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: BCC
- Welsh BACC: Pass the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Diploma with Grade C/B in the Skills Challenge Certificate and BC - CC at A Level
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit
- Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma and obtain a minimum of 104 UCAS tariff points
- T Level: Pass (C and above)
Additional Requirements:
The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 7.5 with a minimum of 7.5 in each component/TOEFL 5.5 overall and a minimum of 5.5 in each component or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,790
per year*£16,800
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
* Obligatory
Cost: £250
Cost: £200
Cost: £50
Cost: £80
USW has computers available on campus and laptops for loan. However, it is highly recommended that you have your own laptop, capable of running Microsoft Office 365. Students can download a free copy of Adobe software relevant to the course.
Cost: £500
Students travelling to matches, press conferences etc and undertaking work placements may incur additional costs.
Cost: Variable
Media Loans
Access industry-standard cameras, lighting, sound and recording gear, supported by free Media Loans and experienced technicians. Everything is there to help you experiment, refine and bring your work to life with confidence.
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time).
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
Applicants accepted through advanced entry may study a different combination of modules to those advertised, as they will be joining a course already in progress. You will be contacted and advised about these modules once your application has been processed and an offer made.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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