Film and Tv Production at Hertfordshire Uni

Hi Raleks,

Glad to hear you enjoyed our open day!

Regarding the league tables ranking, this is based on different factors devised by the publication that made them, so in this case, the Guardian. The Guardian rates us based on factors such as NSS score, teaching standards, career after six months or student to staff ratio amongst other things, all of which increase or decrease your score.

If you check each section we're scored on individually, you'll see that our career after six months score is actually higher than York's despite them sitting in third place on the league table, as 95.5% of our graduates were actually in employment or further study within six months of graduating and continued careers past that six month mark.

We have a higher student to staff ratio as the course is so popular, but no student is left unsupported as our teaching staff are always happy to help and reply to any emails very quickly. On top of this, we have a team of highly skilled, trained technicians who are on hand outside of teaching hours so students can ask any questions about equipment and receive any other support with the course. One of the School of Creative Arts' Technical Officers actually won a VC Award this year for Excellence in Student Support, and Film and TV's Programme Leader Lyndsay Duthie won an award for Excellence in Education, whilst Film Lecturer Howard Berry has previously won Tutor of the Year.

Due to the different factors each league table assigns, we're actually higher on other league tables than we are on the Guardian's as different factors are considered, and certain factors are weighted more heavily than others. Film and TV is also ranked as a group alongside other subjects in a similar area, so the rating takes into account other courses which may have lower scores too. However, you can rest assured our teaching staff are an award-winning team with years of industry experience and connections, and our students benefit from this expertise on top of state-of-the-art, industry standard facilities, work experience with big names in the field, and trips to places like Cannes Film Festival, all of which contribute to getting our graduates into movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman and James Bond, and companies like BBC, ITV, Endemol, NBC Universal and Sky, to name a few!

Hope this helps! Feel free to get in touch with any other questions.

Kind regards,

Rhianna

Reply 2

raleks

OP

5

[QUOTE=University of Hertfordshire;68364004]Hi Raleks,

Glad to hear you enjoyed our open day!

Regarding the league tables ranking, this is based on different factors devised by the publication that made them, so in this case, the Guardian. The Guardian rates us based on factors such as NSS score, teaching standards, career after six months or student to staff ratio amongst other things, all of which increase or decrease your score.

If you check each section we're scored on individually, you'll see that our career after six months score is actually higher than York's despite them sitting in third place on the league table, as 95.5% of our graduates were actually in employment or further study within six months of graduating and continued careers past that six month mark.

We have a higher student to staff ratio as the course is so popular, but no student is left unsupported as our teaching staff are always happy to help and reply to any emails very quickly. On top of this, we have a team of highly skilled, trained technicians who are on hand outside of teaching hours so students can ask any questions about equipment and receive any other support with the course. One of the School of Creative Arts' Technical Officers actually won a VC Award this year for Excellence in Student Support, and Film and TV's Programme Leader Lyndsay Duthie won an award for Excellence in Education, whilst Film Lecturer Howard Berry has previously won Tutor of the Year.

Due to the different factors each league table assigns, we're actually higher on other league tables than we are on the Guardian's as different factors are considered, and certain factors are weighted more heavily than others. Film and TV is also ranked as a group alongside other subjects in a similar area, so the rating takes into account other courses which may have lower scores too. However, you can rest assured our teaching staff are an award-winning team with years of industry experience and connections, and our students benefit from this expertise on top of state-of-the-art, industry standard facilities, work experience with big names in the field, and trips to places like Cannes Film Festival, all of which contribute to getting our graduates into movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman and James Bond, and companies like BBC, ITV, Endemol, NBC Universal and Sky, to name a few!

Hope this helps! Feel free to get in touch with any other questions.

Kind regards,

Rhianna

Thank you so much Rhianna! You helped me so much. I am planning to visit on an open day again to see the whole university and not just the course talk like I did on my previous visit.

Regarding the course, does the department have any previous student's works that applicants could watch anywhere online? There are only like three on YouTube.

Thank you!

Aleks

Reply 3

Glad to help Aleks!

Yeah, sure! Here's a link to one of our award-winning student films:
https://vimeo.com/189964875
You can also go to www.vimeo.com/uhcreatives to view guest speakers for Film and TV and find out more about the School. We've just uploaded some videos of Val Kuklowsky, who's a BAFTA nominated sound editor who came in to talk to our students recently!

Hope this helps :smile:

Rhianna

Reply 4

Tabularasa7

Hey!

As someone who has spent years on the course and spoken to others who have since graduated, the best thing about the Film and Television Department at Herts is their marketing department. Lies lies lies. There are no connections, believe me. Any people who wanted to look into work experience placements had to do so themselves with very little to no help from any lecturers.

When it comes to the lecturers, it's dismal. One of the course leaders is an actor with no practical film experience. The head of the course also has very little film experience and some of the "guest lecturers" have been appalling. The time and creative limitations of the films (3min first year, 5min second year, 10min last year), lack of any provided film budget despite the cost of the uni fees, continually changing structure of the course (cancelled classes, altered course titles, lecturers quitting) and lack of training makes for a very frustrating year.

To quote a friend who summed it up beautifully:
"Including understaffed, underpaid, un-qualified tutors, an ungodly amount of poor decision making that did more harm than good, a waste of lecture time, terrible course communication for assignments.. Not to mention not even really asking the students, before they make any major changes ... And my god where do I even start about not having actual lectures in the film building? I'd rather see the course shut down and taken away from the Uni than disgrace the film industry with hundreds of poorly trained ill informed students going out into the industry"

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

teecake_

1

Original post by Tabularasa7

Hey!

As someone who has spent years on the course and spoken to others who have since graduated, the best thing about the Film and Television Department at Herts is their marketing department. Lies lies lies. There are no connections, believe me. Any people who wanted to look into work experience placements had to do so themselves with very little to no help from any lecturers.

When it comes to the lecturers, it's dismal. One of the course leaders is an actor with no practical film experience. The head of the course also has very little film experience and some of the "guest lecturers" have been appalling. The time and creative limitations of the films (3min first year, 5min second year, 10min last year), lack of any provided film budget despite the cost of the uni fees, continually changing structure of the course (cancelled classes, altered course titles, lecturers quitting) and lack of training makes for a very frustrating year.

To quote a friend who summed it up beautifully:
"Including understaffed, underpaid, un-qualified tutors, an ungodly amount of poor decision making that did more harm than good, a waste of lecture time, terrible course communication for assignments.. Not to mention not even really asking the students, before they make any major changes ... And my god where do I even start about not having actual lectures in the film building? I'd rather see the course shut down and taken away from the Uni than disgrace the film industry with hundreds of poorly trained ill informed students going out into the industry"

This is so disappointing to read. I had my heart set on Herts! Is it really this bad or have you a least had a mediocre experience? Were there any good parts about Herts and this course? Also do you have any info on the study abroad portion of the course? Thank you for your honest words! :smile:

Reply 6

Original post by Tabularasa7

Hey!

As someone who has spent years on the course and spoken to others who have since graduated, the best thing about the Film and Television Department at Herts is their marketing department. Lies lies lies. There are no connections, believe me. Any people who wanted to look into work experience placements had to do so themselves with very little to no help from any lecturers.

When it comes to the lecturers, it's dismal. One of the course leaders is an actor with no practical film experience. The head of the course also has very little film experience and some of the "guest lecturers" have been appalling. The time and creative limitations of the films (3min first year, 5min second year, 10min last year), lack of any provided film budget despite the cost of the uni fees, continually changing structure of the course (cancelled classes, altered course titles, lecturers quitting) and lack of training makes for a very frustrating year.

To quote a friend who summed it up beautifully:
"Including understaffed, underpaid, un-qualified tutors, an ungodly amount of poor decision making that did more harm than good, a waste of lecture time, terrible course communication for assignments.. Not to mention not even really asking the students, before they make any major changes ... And my god where do I even start about not having actual lectures in the film building? I'd rather see the course shut down and taken away from the Uni than disgrace the film industry with hundreds of poorly trained ill informed students going out into the industry"

Hi Tabularasa,

We’re really sorry to hear that you did not feel supported during your degree with us. We would recommend that you speak to your personal tutor about your experience so that we can help to resolve this issue and improve going forward. Alternatively, you are more than welcome to send us a private message with more details of your experience which I can pass onto the Film and Television team.

Student experience is incredibly important to us, and we take pride in the support that we offer to our students. We want every student to have the best University experience they can, so we do value your feedback and we're sorry you've felt this way. We will make sure it's heard, and use this to improve going forward. I hope we can help you to sort this out and have good memories of Herts.

To address a few of the issues you raised, our Programme Leader for Film and Television has an extensive background in television, crafted through years in the industry, and is still a sought after author and speaker. She is supported by staff with in depth knowledge of the Film industry, who have worked on everything from Kick Ass to Sherlock Holmes. Together, the team has a range of specialisms to ensure students receive expert guidance on whichever area they're interested in. As well as this, we have a team of technical staff who are on hand for students if they ever struggle with using equipment or want advice around the best equipment for the film. These technicians are there for students out of lecture time, and have even won Excellence in Student Support awards for their dedication.

We're really sorry to hear you struggled with budget for your film project - we encourage our students to use our Equipment Loan Store, so they can access top of the range, professional standard equipment and expert advice from the team in the Store free of charge.

Last year alone, 95.5% of our Film and TV graduates were in employment or further education within six months, going on to places like the BBC, NBC Universal, and Sky to name a few, as well as becoming freelance camera assistants, film producers, production assistants, editors, and writers. The course has great connections for our students and we're really sorry if you felt you missed out on these.

We will pass on your feedback and use it to improve. We also use module feedback questionnaires to gather student feedback and make changes to the courses going forward, to ensure the students who have studied on the course are the ones suggesting the changes, as they've had first-hand experience of what works and what might need tweaking or changing. Thank you for raising these concerns - we will use them to improve our course going forward.

Kind regards,

Rhianna
The School of Creative Arts

Reply 7

Tabularasa7

Original post by teecake_

This is so disappointing to read. I had my heart set on Herts! Is it really this bad or have you a least had a mediocre experience? Were there any good parts about Herts and this course? Also do you have any info on the study abroad portion of the course? Thank you for your honest words! :smile:

Hey again! I did have a longer message in my original post which seems to have been cut in half.

I see Herts has replied suggesting I pass these comments on to the Film and Television board. The fact these issues have been relayed before my myself and many others and not listened to is part of the issue.

To give them credit, the script lecturer, one of the visiting sound lecturers, a visiting production design lecturer and business/professional development lecturer were fantastic.They really know their stuff, are entertaining and insightful, frequently share stories from their career and care. We also had Walter Murch and Mike Newell visit, but not as part of the curriculum. It was a ceremony in the evening that required permission that little of the course were made aware of. Being close to London is very handy when it comes to holding auditions too.

Others? Less so. Some of our guest lecturers involve: One woman was a Canadian independent filmmaker (whose films were written/directed/starring herself) and spent a day speaking about her career as an actor "too old for Hollywood". Another, given the task of aiding us with documentaries and mockumentaries and insisted that The Office, a well known mockumentary, was not of said genre becuase "she didn't like it."

The way the separation of post production and production students was dealt with was also very poor: class hours reduced, degree titles changed, the structure of the course changing year on year. Any complaints and issues raised were simply not addressed in the manner they should have been. A friend who attended the same course 4 years ago told me they had similar issues then, and things have not changed.

In conclusion, there ARE people who have really enjoyed the course and feel they got what they expected. There are some fantastic lecturers, the guys at the loan store are lovely and very willing to help you. However, I, along with a selection of others feel that we were severely let down, particularly as we seem to have been the guinea pigs as year after year changes are made to the structure, lecturers and equipment. The equipment given to first years I hear is better now, which is awesome because we were using 2002 JVCs that shot in 720p. It's just still figuring out what it wants to do which can prove highly disruptive to a learning experience.

(The other thing I warn you about is Hatfield as a place. There is nothing to do here, and it's the kind of place you don't walk around alone at night. The campus is fine, but the surrounding town is pretty dismal. It's full of litter, thugs and that's about it. Being close to London is great because you can escape.)

Study abroad - sorry I only just saw this!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

raleks

OP

5

Original post by Tabularasa7

Hey again! I did have a longer message in my original post which seems to have been cut in half.

I see Herts has replied suggesting I pass these comments on to the Film and Television board. The fact these issues have been relayed before my myself and many others and not listened to is part of the issue.

To give them credit, the script lecturer, one of the visiting sound lecturers, a visiting production design lecturer and business/professional development lecturer were fantastic.They really know their stuff, are entertaining and insightful, frequently share stories from their career and care. We also had Walter Murch and Mike Newell visit, but not as part of the curriculum. It was a ceremony in the evening that required permission that little of the course were made aware of. Being close to London is very handy when it comes to holding auditions too.

Others? Less so. Some of our guest lecturers involve: One woman was a Canadian independent filmmaker (whose films were written/directed/starring herself) and spent a day speaking about her career as an actor "too old for Hollywood". Another, given the task of aiding us with documentaries and mockumentaries and insisted that The Office, a well known mockumentary, was not of said genre becuase "she didn't like it."

The way the separation of post production and production students was dealt with was also very poor: class hours reduced, degree titles changed, the structure of the course changing year on year. Any complaints and issues raised were simply not addressed in the manner they should have been. A friend who attended the same course 4 years ago told me they had similar issues then, and things have not changed.

In conclusion, there ARE people who have really enjoyed the course and feel they got what they expected. There are some fantastic lecturers, the guys at the loan store are lovely and very willing to help you. However, I, along with a selection of others feel that we were severely let down, particularly as we seem to have been the guinea pigs as year after year changes are made to the structure, lecturers and equipment. The equipment given to first years I hear is better now, which is awesome because we were using 2002 JVCs that shot in 720p. It's just still figuring out what it wants to do which can prove highly disruptive to a learning experience.

(The other thing I warn you about is Hatfield as a place. There is nothing to do here, and it's the kind of place you don't walk around alone at night. The campus is fine, but the surrounding town is pretty dismal. It's full of litter, thugs and that's about it. Being close to London is great because you can escape.)

Study abroad - sorry I only just saw this! Perhaps it would be easier if we emailed?

Thank you so much for your honest reply!

Reply 9

Tabularasa7

Original post by raleks

Thank you so much for your honest reply!

No problem at all! :smile:

oh and in regards to study abroad, only a handful of students tend to go, it's not a necessary part of the course. Your experience really depends on where you go. You can either go in between your first and second year or second and third year, hence the term sandwich.

It's meant to be a fantastic experience! But it will cost you. if you go outside Europe e.g. US, expect to pay more as you won't get the benefit of the fund. In addition, you won't be able to work in America due to your visa, so any experience you hope to gain will have to be through the university or unpaid volunteer work. Long Beach California is the popular choice for film students, but it's difficult to get in to. Grades will count (those from your first or second year depending on when you go) in narrowing down the selection, but it's 45min drive outside of LA, so perfect for film production! Like I said though, it's going to cost you. Uni fees are covered, after that, you're more or less on your own. But it's a year abroad, which is awesome, so definitely do your research and weigh out the pros and cons!

Hope this helps! Good luck with everything!

Reply 10

Ali_10

Heyyy I know this post is 2 years old so I just wanna know if u ended up going to Hertfordshire? As I have accepted an offer from it as my firm choice, I was hoping your reply would give me a peace of mind that I made the right choice ... thank you!!

Original post by raleks

Hello everyone, I went to the open day at Herts to look at the course in Film and TV Production and I loved the structure of it. I love how unique it is in the sense that it actually looks at the important aspects of the Film and TV industry such as business and management as well as teaching you how to actually make Films and TV shows. On top of that the lecturer who gave the speech about the course on the open day said how many links the Uni has to film and TV industries, far more than any other which is great.

However, I am worried because the Guardian 2017 ranked the course in the 50s, which is quite low and this makes me kind of worried because at the back of my head I keep thinking that there must be something wrong with the course because it's not any higher. Also, I tried to watch some previous student works from the course on YouTube but there is nothing apart from like 3 old examples which in my opinion were not the greatest, so again I freaked out thinking is my work going to look like that as well.

The course has all the aspects of Film and TV production which I am looking for and the lecturer spoke about it with so much passion, but I am just scared and not sure what to think about it. I don't want to make the wrong choice.

Could anyone advise me and share their opinion on the topic? Any students currently on the course? I would really appreciate it.

Heyyy

Reply 11

Original post by Ali_10

Heyyy I know this post is 2 years old so I just wanna know if u ended up going to Hertfordshire? As I have accepted an offer from it as my firm choice, I was hoping your reply would give me a peace of mind that I made the right choice ... thank you!!

Heyyy

Hi @Ali_10

It's great to hear you've made Herts your firm choice! Hope you're excited for the start of term :u:

If you have any questions about the course of Herts in general, we'll be more than happy to answer them!

Thanks,
Heather

Reply 12

Nonyabis

1

It's an appalling course. I see this is two years old and yet nothing has changed. I warn others, do not go here. It's a complete waste of my time. Can't wait to finish.

Reply 13

Anonymous #1

Original post by Tabularasa7

Hey!

As someone who has spent years on the course and spoken to others who have since graduated, the best thing about the Film and Television Department at Herts is their marketing department. Lies lies lies. There are no connections, believe me. Any people who wanted to look into work experience placements had to do so themselves with very little to no help from any lecturers.

When it comes to the lecturers, it's dismal. One of the course leaders is an actor with no practical film experience. The head of the course also has very little film experience and some of the "guest lecturers" have been appalling. The time and creative limitations of the films (3min first year, 5min second year, 10min last year), lack of any provided film budget despite the cost of the uni fees, continually changing structure of the course (cancelled classes, altered course titles, lecturers quitting) and lack of training makes for a very frustrating year.

To quote a friend who summed it up beautifully:
"Including understaffed, underpaid, un-qualified tutors, an ungodly amount of poor decision making that did more harm than good, a waste of lecture time, terrible course communication for assignments.. Not to mention not even really asking the students, before they make any major changes ... And my god where do I even start about not having actual lectures in the film building? I'd rather see the course shut down and taken away from the Uni than disgrace the film industry with hundreds of poorly trained ill informed students going out into the industry"

Couldn't agree more! I am so disappointed with this course. Students just aren't listened to. Which is evident seeing as this post was 2 years ago and nothing has changed! Now in my second year, the teaching seems to have regressed. Some of the Lecturers are grea.. But some of the tutors, ones who have been hired because they have directed tv series.. need to be monitored, have someone sit in on a lecture and see what is really being said and taught.. there is not enough monitoring on the actual lesson plans. The timetable is a mess. The assignments are ridiculous. The things being taught are contradictory to the real world. I would advise students to look at other universities before applying here.

The plus points of the university are the loan store and the TV studio.
But I do agree with the poster, this university does lie, there is a lot that was said on open days that isn't actually true, so before applying just double check everything.

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Original post by University of Hertfordshire

Hi Tabularasa,

We’re really sorry to hear that you did not feel supported during your degree with us. We would recommend that you speak to your personal tutor about your experience so that we can help to resolve this issue and improve going forward. Alternatively, you are more than welcome to send us a private message with more details of your experience which I can pass onto the Film and Television team.

Student experience is incredibly important to us, and we take pride in the support that we offer to our students. We want every student to have the best University experience they can, so we do value your feedback and we're sorry you've felt this way. We will make sure it's heard, and use this to improve going forward. I hope we can help you to sort this out and have good memories of Herts.

To address a few of the issues you raised, our Programme Leader for Film and Television has an extensive background in television, crafted through years in the industry, and is still a sought after author and speaker. She is supported by staff with in depth knowledge of the Film industry, who have worked on everything from Kick Ass to Sherlock Holmes. Together, the team has a range of specialisms to ensure students receive expert guidance on whichever area they're interested in. As well as this, we have a team of technical staff who are on hand for students if they ever struggle with using equipment or want advice around the best equipment for the film. These technicians are there for students out of lecture time, and have even won Excellence in Student Support awards for their dedication.

We're really sorry to hear you struggled with budget for your film project - we encourage our students to use our Equipment Loan Store, so they can access top of the range, professional standard equipment and expert advice from the team in the Store free of charge.

Last year alone, 95.5% of our Film and TV graduates were in employment or further education within six months, going on to places like the BBC, NBC Universal, and Sky to name a few, as well as becoming freelance camera assistants, film producers, production assistants, editors, and writers. The course has great connections for our students and we're really sorry if you felt you missed out on these.

We will pass on your feedback and use it to improve. We also use module feedback questionnaires to gather student feedback and make changes to the courses going forward, to ensure the students who have studied on the course are the ones suggesting the changes, as they've had first-hand experience of what works and what might need tweaking or changing. Thank you for raising these concerns - we will use them to improve our course going forward.

Kind regards,

Rhianna
The School of Creative Arts

The course hasn't changed. Can anything be done? Things in second year are awful. Current production module leader is a joke, have someone monitor his lectures. Possibly run feedback sessions?

Reply 15

Anonymous #1

Original post by Ali_10

Heyyy I know this post is 2 years old so I just wanna know if u ended up going to Hertfordshire? As I have accepted an offer from it as my firm choice, I was hoping your reply would give me a peace of mind that I made the right choice ... thank you!!

Heyyy

Heyy, hope you didn't go with Herts, if you did I would advise just putting your head down, don't even bother to question their very questionable teaching.. it's not worth the hassle. Unless maybe you get a group of people who all feel the same and speak to head of module about it. There is a tutor in second year (a director) who I would say just ignore, his teachings are wrong, and if you use them in the real world you will be laughed off of set. Good luck.

Reply 16