Best universities for Media & Communications
Built only from official government data.
You may not agree with this order. We present the data as we find it, and we say plainly how much we think each measure is worth. Every weight is published, every figure is sourced and dated, and where we cannot prove something we leave it blank rather than fill it in. Complete transparency is the whole claim — disagree with the weighting, and you can see exactly what you are disagreeing with.
Tier 1 — strongest for this subject
On our measures these are the strongest places in our catalogue to study this. They are listed alphabetically: the differences between them are smaller than the uncertainty in the data.
Tier 2
Strong, and separated from Tier 1 by more than the margin of error.
Tier 3
Solid, with a measurable gap to the tiers above.
Universities inside a tier are listed alphabetically, and there is no order within a tier — the differences are smaller than the data can carry, so publishing one would be inventing it. Open any university, or several at once, for the published figures behind it: earnings, satisfaction, research and the rest, on the same rows every time so they can be read side by side.
Held back by missing data — listed, not ranked
These have too little published data to score fairly, usually because the official statistics withhold figures for a cohort too small to publish safely. That is not a verdict on the course, so here is what we do hold rather than nothing at all.
Digital Media — graduates earn −£1,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 38% of the measures we score are published for it.
Sports Journalism — graduates earn −£2,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 32% of the measures we score are published for it.
Sports Media and Communications — graduates earn −£1,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 33% of the measures we score are published for it.
Sports Journalism (Accelerated) — graduates earn −£2,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 32% of the measures we score are published for it.
Sports Media and Communications (Accelerated) — graduates earn −£1,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 47% of the measures we score are published for it.
Football Broadcast and Journalism (Accelerated) — graduates earn −£2,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 18% of the measures we score are published for it.
Football Broadcast and Journalism — graduates earn −£2,750 against the national average for Media & Communications, five years on. Only 18% of the measures we score are published for it.
Digital Media and Communications — no earnings figure published. Only 43% of the measures we score are published for it.
Digital Media and Creative Industries — no earnings figure published. Only 43% of the measures we score are published for it.
Media and Communications — no earnings figure published. Only 43% of the measures we score are published for it.
Courses we hold that are not in this table
None of these is a judgement on the course. A university marked not in this table at all is missing for one of the reasons below and for no other reason — never because it scored badly.
Journalism, Communications and Politics — we have not yet matched this course to its official record.
Welsh and Journalism — HESA classifies this as language and area studies, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Journalism, Politics and International Relations — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Global Media and Languages — HESA classifies this as language and area studies, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Content Production — we have not yet matched this course to its official record.
Media and Cultural Studies — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Media and Communications and Modern Languages — HESA classifies this as language and area studies, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Communication, Culture & Technology MA (Hons) — we have not yet matched this course to its official record.
Creative Arts & Industries MA (Hons) — we have not yet matched this course to its official record.
Digital Media & Information Studies MA — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Central & East European Studies/Digital Media & Information Studies — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Archaeology — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Business & Management — HESA classifies this as business and management, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Celtic Civilisation — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/English Language — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/English Literature — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Film & Television Studies — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/French — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Geography — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/History of Art — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Latin — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Music — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Mathematics — HESA classifies this as mathematical sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Philosophy — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Politics — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Psychology — HESA classifies this as psychology, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Social & Public Policy — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Sociology — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Theology & Religious Studies — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Theatre Studies — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media & Information Studies/Spanish — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Fashion Marketing BA — HESA classifies this as business and management, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Global Creative Industries BA — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Cultural and Media Studies — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Communication and Media and Game Design Studies — HESA classifies this as computing, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Communication, Media and Politics — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Cultural, Creative and Media Industries — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media, Culture and Society — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media and Society — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
Digital Media, Culture and Communication — HESA classifies this as social sciences, so it is measured against that subject rather than this one.
A university missing from every list above is not ranked last — it is not ranked. Either we do not list it, or it has no Media & Communications course in the official data at all. An absence means "we do not know", never "it is weak".
Not published: Other — not a discipline — a browsing bucket with no subject classification behind it, so there is nothing coherent to rank its courses against. We would rather leave a subject out than band it on too little.
Who decided this order?
We did, out of eight published government measures with every weight shown — and none of them is a survey of opinion. The next tab has all of it: what each measure contributes, what we deliberately left out, where the order stops being something the data can support, and the source and year of every figure.
Sources: Discover Uni (on_2026_09_29_12_31_32), the Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset, Graduate Outcomes, the National Student Survey, and REF 2021. Snapshot on_2026_09_29_12_31_32-c6abef4e77df, computed 2026-10-05. Each source publishes annually or less often, so these tables change when a release lands and not otherwise.