UCF to offer new part-time online version of respected MA in Professional Writing

This new part-time course runs over two years and is aimed at people who'd like to develop commercially-focused writing skills.  It will be taught using a varied mix of activities and resources, including online seminars, Skype tutorials and video-streamed talks by leading authors, literary agents and other media-industry experts.

The range of specialist options on offer within the course includes modules in fiction, creative non-fiction, TV scriptwriting, features journalism and copywriting for business.  In their second year, students write a longer MA project in their chosen specialism, which might be part of a novel or non-fiction book, the script for a TV or radio drama, a proposal for a new magazine or a website package for a business client.

As with the full-time MA, students are encouraged to engage with the real-world media industry via collaborative projects and work placements, and for some there will be the possibility of developing writing-related projects in connection with their current jobs.

Collaborative projects developed by Professional Writing students while still on the course have included We Wish, a high-profile children's book project with the NSPCC and Hollywood star, Thandie Newton; publicity campaigns for literary festivals and major art exhibitions; and http://www.creativefalmouth.org/, a website celebrating the extraordinary wealth of creative talent working in and around Falmouth.  Guest speakers have included novelists John le Carré, Helen Dunmore, and Patrick Gale; award-winning travel writer, Philip Marsden; acclaimed journalist and non-fiction author, Richard Benson; and the BBC's Controller of Continuing Drama Series, John Yorke.

"We think the combination of flexibility, commercial focus and input from leading industry practitioners makes this unique among writing courses in the UK, and we're delighted to be able to open it up to talented writers who'd find it impossible to undertake a full-time MA," says Course Leader, Christina Bunce. "The online course will be just as challenging, and will use the same successful model for developing writing skills and professional knowledge.  But being able to spread the work over two years, and to do it in their own time at home, will make it much more feasible for many people."

The team developing the course has worked hard to make sure that home-learning students feel part of a lively, supportive community and can engage fully with ongoing student publishing projects such as the award-winning webzine, http://www.bloc-online.com/.  An attractively designed course website features a café area where students can socialise, as well as forums for critiquing each other's work and links to an array of online tools and resources.

Alumni of the MA Professional Writing course are now working in a wide range of roles as writers, editors and publishers.  Several have published books and two have won screenwriting awards; others are working as copywriters at leading agencies and in senior editorial positions on national magazines, while one former student has launched her own successful magazine publishing company.

Mark Spence, a former student who now works as deputy features editor on Nuts magazine says: "I've covered stories in Vegas, LA, Moscow, Athens, New York and everywhere else in between. But I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now without the extra push I got from the course tutors. Confidence is such an important thing in this business, and this is something the course gave me."

Applications for the part-time online course, for entry in January 2009, are welcomed and application forms can be downloaded from University College Falmouth's website at http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/.

For further information about MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/professionalwriting, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214374.

In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts to create a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.

The merger will pave the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall in 2012, creating a Higher Education institution unique to the South West.

University College Falmouth is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact:Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone:  01326 213792; or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

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