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BSc (Hons)

Creative Industries (Popular Music Technology) (Top-Up)

The BSc (Hons) Creative Industries (Popular Music Technology) will ensure that your skills and intellectual abilities are raised to the level expected of a full Honours Degree student, and provide the professional skills needed for a career in today’s music and entertainment industry.

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Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    PH10

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,535*

  • International students

    £15,850*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

Throughout the Popular Music Technology course, you will be involved in extensive project work, which will focus on the development of industry related products. For a broader understanding of industry and the workplace, you will collaborate with your fellow students in performance, composition, recording and research.

DESIGNED FOR

Career Paths

  • Music Producer
  • Sound Designer
  • Composer
  • Sound Engineer
  • Multimedia Producer

Skills taught

  • Audio Engineering
  • Composition
  • Music Production
  • Post-production
  • Entrepreneurship

Module Overview

Throughout the Popular Music Technology course you will be involved in extensive project work, which will focus on the development of industry related products. For a broader understanding of industry and the workplace, you will collaborate with your fellow students in performance, composition, recording and research. This approach could bring together expertise from theatre, studio recording, live sound, radio, television, film, journalism, interactive media, design and more. 

The course content has been specifically developed in conjunction with leading creative and technical practitioners in the creative industries. The nature of the course blends the practical and theory elements with a strong emphasis on vocational studies and the production of digital.  You will be taught how to market yourself in preparation for a career in industry, with regular exposure to creative and cultural networking events and talks from industry forming an inherent part of your studies. 

Major Production Project 

Students will produce a finished production in your chosen field to a professional standard.  

Commercial Audio Production 

You will develop relevant technological skills for audio production utilising contemporary audio technologies. 

Independent Study

You will undertake reading, research or practical work on a topic of your choice by independent study. 

Group Entrepreneurial Project 

You will undertake major piece of group work which will typically consist of background research, planning, preproduction, production and post-production of an industry standard product along with developing your entrepreneurial skills.

Why USW?

A guitarist looks at their hands with their hair covering their face as they play guitar on stage next to a microphone with a drummer in the background and moody purple lighting

Why USW?

Top in Wales

Music at USW is top in Wales for Teaching Quality (The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025).

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Applicants for this award must have successfully completed a Foundation Degree in Music. Equivalent level qualifications may also be considered for entry onto this award.

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 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing 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

UK Full-time Fee

£9,535

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£15,850

per year*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Bursaries Cost of Living Support

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.

Media Loans

You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.

Media Loans

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.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

There are varied approaches to teaching, including practical studio-based workshops, tutorials, seminars and lectures. Because we have such a strong hands-on approach, there is an emphasis on practical assessments and group work. 

This top-up award features a significant workshop and teamwork element that is assignment-based and regularly assessed, thus ensuring your skills are continually being developed. 

All assessment is project based and has practical, written and verbal assessment methods.

Teaching staff

A practitioner with over thirty years experience. He has worked in all areas of the industry, such as studio and live sound engineering, Post-production and as a musician.

Has vast experience as a producer musician.

Placements

We encourage students to work with external and internal clients throughout the course and to develop links with industry. The nature of the course allows this to occur within the curriculum.

Facilities

Our campus boasts nine industry-standard recording studios featuring SSL and Audient mixing consoles with live and control rooms, all of which are sound isolated and acoustically treated. Several of the studios are equipped for immersive audio production, including a dedicated Dolby Atmos suite. We also house the Gus Dudgeon Suite, a vintage analogue mixing and editing desk, once owned by Elton John’s and critically acclaimed producer.  

Our music labs feature several music workstations and are installed with the latest professional music production software, such as Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Reason.  We have an extensive range of microphones, musical instruments and MacBook Pro laptops that are loanable from Media Stores.

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.

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Previous graduates have gone on to work in music production, composers and performers. They have also gone into TV and film production. Some have gone into education and some have gone on to form their own successful businesses encompassing all areas of the industry.

Possible career paths

There are many roles that are available within the industry including performance, composition, administration, promotion, multi-media production, and studio work 

Careers support

As a USW student, you will have access to advice from the Careers and Employability Service throughout your studies and after you graduate.

This includes: one-to-one appointments from faculty based Career Advisers, in person, over the phone or even on Skype and through email via the "Ask a Question" service. We also have extensive online resources for help with considering your career options and presenting yourself well to employers. Resources include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, interview simulator and application help. Our employer database has over 2,000 registered employers targeting USW students, you can receive weekly email alerts for jobs.

Our Careers service has dedicated teams: A central work experience team to help you find relevant placements; an employability development team which includes an employability programme called Grad Edge; and an Enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

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.

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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Student Life
Exterior view of the University's Cardiff Campus.
Cardiff Campus
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Accommodation