Kingston University

MA in Publishing

What you will study

You will learn everything you need to know about the publishing industry: its structure, acquisition and development of content, print and digital production processes, sales, marketing and distribution.

You will also develop and demonstrate your analytical skills and competence through discussions, assignments and the culminating dissertation or practical project.

Your experienced teaching team is supported by expert guest speakers and a widely envied masterclass series featuring leading publishers and publishing professionals to keep you up to date with industry developments.

You'll need to take two compulsory modules, totalling 60 credits. You can then choose two optional taught modules, totalling 60 credits, as well as either a dissertation or practical project (worth another 60 credits).

Year 1

This course meets the needs of commercial publishers, allowing you to gain key skills and learn how processes work in a practical context. Its relevance is ensured by input about employers' needs from our advisory board of publishing professionals, resulting in a course that evolves alongside the industry.

Throughout your studies, you'll develop key skills and get prepared for a career in all sectors of the book and journal industries, and across all specialisms.

Core modules

• Create: The Business of Publishing
• Do: Work Placements, Networking and Career Planning

Choose two of the following

• Make: Content Development and Production
• Share: Strategic Marketing and Sales
• Writers' Workshop

Choose one of the following

• Practical Publishing Project
• Publishing Dissertation

Optional placement year

Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route 4 visa.

This has proven popular with Publishing students, with the majority securing a placement within publishing or a related industry.

Please note

Optional modules only run if there is enough demand. If we have an insufficient number of students interested in an optional module, that module will not be offered for this course.

After you graduate

Once you graduate from Kingston, you'll be part of a professional community of publishers, who keep in touch by meeting in person, or through our active social networks.

Read what some of our graduates have gone on to do and how studying at Kingston helped them kick-start their professional careers. You can also find out more about where our other graduates are working:

Graduate destinations

Our graduates have gone on to work in a range of roles in publishing and other industries. Here are just some examples:

• Blake Friedmann Literary, TV and Film Agency
• BMJ Publishing Group (journals)
• Brandwidth (digital production)
• City & Guilds Publishing (editorial)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (marketing)
• Hachette Children's Books (digital rights)
• Little Tiger Press (editorial and marketing)
• Montash Associates (recruitment)
• Nosy Crow (sales, production and marketing)
• Penguin (production, art department, marketing)
• Random House (marketing, production, digital publishing)
• Usborne Publishing (publicity)
• Wiley (production)