Digital Media and Creative Computing with a Placement Year

Digital media and creative computing together address the meeting point between artistic practice and technical capability in the digital age. Digital media encompasses the creation, analysis and distribution of content across digital platforms, from video and interactive design to social media, games and immersive experiences. Creative computing brings the tools and methods of software development to bear on creative problems, asking how code can be a medium for expression, how algorithms can generate or transform content, and how technical systems can be designed to serve human and aesthetic ends.

The combination gives you both the making skills and the critical perspective to work thoughtfully in this space.

At the University of East Anglia this four-year programme includes a placement year, giving you a full year of professional experience in a digital media, technology or creative organisation before you return to complete your studies. Across the degree you will develop skills in programming, web development and interactive systems alongside practice in digital production, including design, video, audio and interactive media. You will engage with the theoretical and cultural dimensions of digital media, thinking critically about how technology shapes communication, creativity and society.

The placement year means you graduate with both a substantial portfolio of creative work and documented professional experience, a powerful combination in a competitive sector.

Graduates from digital media and creative computing programmes go on to work across the technology and creative industries, including roles in game development, interactive design, web development, digital marketing, content production, UX design and software development. Some build careers as independent creative practitioners; others move into technology companies, media organisations, cultural institutions or education. Postgraduate study in digital media, human-computer interaction, creative computing or design is also a common pathway.

The degree suits people who are equally at home with a line of code and a design brief.