Nottingham Trent University is offering a three-year BA (Hons) degree in content creation, widely dubbed the “influencer degree,” with a tuition fee of almost £10,000 a year. The course teaches “hands-on technical production,” “analytics, branding and commercial strategy,” and collaboration with brands and “industry partners.” Course leaders stress it won’t turn students into overnight social media stars, but the news has nonetheless stirred familiar accusations of dumbing down.
A familiar backlash against vocational study
This is not the first time a newer subject has faced such criticism—media studies and women’s studies have historically drawn similar fire. The course launched in 2022, and its first graduates are now job-hunting, with one telling the BBC that the £30,000 total cost was worth it for networking opportunities alone. That point, the article notes, is half the reason many strive for Oxbridge.
Yet the price tag seems steep for a course currently in clearing, and the words “social media” and “influencer” may trigger parents worried about online harms. The piece humorously imagines future degrees in dropshipping or an MPhil in manosphere studies, comparing such reactions to traditional disdain for drama school.
Snobbery and the shifting media job market
The article argues that British attitudes to vocational degrees are often snobbish, citing how US journalism schools are respected while UK journalists mock them. It suggests influencing might be a clever response by Nottingham Trent and Brighton University—which also offers the course—to the decline of traditional media careers, where independent contracting may be smarter than salaried roles.
The author admits her own bias, imagining how she’d react if her children applied: she’d suggest reading The Wife of Bath’s Tale or studying proteins, lecture on the hollow pursuit of fame, and question if the Kardashians are happy. But looking at job listings for social media managers, podcast producers, and video editors, she concedes such a degree could be a practical choice—though she adds, “I’m kidding, I’d be devastated.”
