Bachelor of Media (Honours)

The Bachelor of Media (Honours) is a one-year degree for students who have already finished a bachelor degree in media, communication or a closely related field and want to take their research and writing further. At Adelaide University it sits at AQF level 8, above the three-year bachelor pass degree and below a master's. You study full time for the year, usually across two semesters, and come out with an honours qualification that carries real weight with employers and research supervisors.

What you actually do

The year is built around a research project of your own. You work with an academic supervisor to shape a question about media — how newsrooms cover a story, how audiences use a platform, how policy shapes what gets published — then design and carry out the study. Alongside that you take coursework units in research methods and media theory, which give you the tools to collect and analyse material properly. The project is the spine of the degree, and it finishes as a thesis or a substantial piece of research writing that you defend. Units are measured in credit points, and you need to pass the full load to graduate with honours.

You will spend most of your contact hours in seminars, supervisor meetings and independent work. Honours is less structured than undergraduate study. Nobody chases you. That suits some people and not others, so think about whether you work well with a long deadline and a lot of reading. The skills you build are the ones that travel: designing a research question, gathering evidence, interviewing people, analysing data, and writing clearly for an academic audience. You also learn to give and take criticism in a research culture, which is what a seminar room is for.

Who it suits

This degree suits two groups. The first is students who want to go on to a PhD or a research career and need the honours year as the entry ticket. The second is people heading into professional work where research and writing ability matters — media policy, communications strategy, journalism, public relations, cultural organisations. If you are an international student, you can apply for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) after you finish, and while you study your visa lets you work up to 48 hours a fortnight. English proficiency is required for admission; check the official page for the exact score your application needs, because it varies by course. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 117942D, and the same register lists the campus and duration. Confirm entry requirements, semester dates and fees on the official Adelaide University page before you apply.

• Media researcher or research assistant in universities, think tanks and policy bodies
• Journalist or editorial researcher in news organisations
• Communications officer or strategist in government, nonprofits and private companies
• Public relations and content roles in agencies and in-house teams
• Policy analyst working on media, communications or cultural policy
• Further study: a PhD in media, communication or a related discipline

Australian employers in media, government and the cultural sector hire honours graduates for research-heavy roles. The degree also meets the academic entry requirement for most Australian PhD programmes.