Bachelor of Creative Writing

Total tuition fees for 2025:

R107 700

Overview

The South African and global creative industries are undergoing massive growth and diversification. There is a clear need for creative writing programmes to address the vast expansion of new platforms and media technologies. The 3-year AFDA Bachelor of Creative Writing programme is structured to respond to this rapidly changing landscape, while offering integrated, rather than isolated creative writing projects. It will deliver multi-skilled writers that can create content for a variety of existing and emerging media platforms. AFDA’s Bachelor of Creative Writing will supply students with a broad-based skill set and provide a multitude of career possibilities, for example:

• • • Screenwriters
    • Television Series Writers
    • Short Story Writers
    • Playwrights
    • Documentary Writers
    • News & Actuality Writers
    • Television Show Format Writers
    • Copy Writers
    • Commercial Writers
    • New Media Writer

Course Structure

There are 5 areas of study that are grouped into three key modules namely: Research, Discipline and Project. All three modules are compulsory for all students.

1. Research

• • Research Studies equips students to develop conceptually relevant ideas through the critical analysis of reference texts. Students are taught to align these ideas with the practical competencies taught in Discipline Studies, in order to realise their project outcomes.  Research Studies are a combination of philosophical notions, which address the human condition, and discipline theories, which inform professional practice in the Creative Industries. Research Studies are comprised of five focus areas, namely Concept, Character, Structure, Format & Style, and Business.

2. Discipline

• • In Discipline Studies, students are equipped to realise the concepts, as developed in Research Studies, through the technical and craft skills offered in Discipline Studies. Students learn a variety of formats and associated technical competencies through the means of discovery and peer-led learning under the guidance of a tutor. The Discipline Centre (DSC) hosts the software required to achieve the required discipline competencies.

• • In Reflection Studies, students are taught to critically reflect on their term’s learning. As such, Reflection Studies is designed to assist students in cultivating life-long learning skills that enables them to monitor, develop and understand their performance in relation to the requirements of the world of work.

3. Project

• •  Contextual Studies teaches students the required 21st Century skills, such as critical and creative thinking, good ethical practices, the ability to collaborate, and to use a variety of general software applications. These skills enable students to navigate opportunities that could emerge from a rapidly expanding, and evolving media economy.

• • In Project Studies, students learn to systematically apply the concepts and theories explored in Research Studies and Contextual Studies; together with the skills learned in Discipline Studies, to produce their term projects.  Project Studies is delivered through a series of small learning group activities and peer-led workshops, where project teams work towards achieving a set of goals and performance objectives during the preparation, production and presentation of their projects.