Information Studies

Information Studies

• Home
• Taught Programmes
  • Postgraduate
    • MA in Archives and Records Management
    • MA/MSc in Digital Humanities
    • MSc, Diploma or Certificate in Information Science
    • MA in Library & Information Studies
    • MRes in Library, Archive and Information Studies
    • MA in Publishing
  • Undergraduate Teaching
  • Short courses
• PhD Study
• Research
• Conferences and Summer Schools
• People
• Contact Us
• Current vacancies
• Intranets

Work Placements

All full time students taking the MA in ECP undertake a work placement, to give them experience of how the techniques they have learned may be applied in practice. Placements typically last for four to six weeks, and are undertaken in term three after Easter, or during the summer vacation. We arrange placements individually for each student and do our best to match the placement with their interests and experience. The list below shows some of the destinations for recent student placements. Some students choose to undertake dissertation work on a topic relevant to their placement, and some have even been offered further permanent work as a result.

Recent Placements

• The British Museum
• The British Library
• British Medical Journal publishing
• Languagelab
• Online Creative Communications
• The Foundation for Internet Policy Research
• Dag Hammarskjöld Library, The United Nations.
• Library and Information Services, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• University of London Library
• Centre for Computing in the Humanities, Kings College, London
• Tate Britain
• Macmillan Group
• Wire Design
• UCL Hospitals
• Humbul- Oxford University Research Technologies Group
• The Independent
• News International
• Channel Four
• KnowledgeView
• UCL Web Team
• Xrefer.com
• The Royal Academy of Engineering
• The Petrie Museum, Digital Egypt project
• The Oxford Digital Library
• The Wire Magazine

Work Placements

One of the most exciting aspects of the MA in Electronic Communication and Publishing is the student's workplacement with a publishing house, new media company, library, school, archive, newspaper, magazine, or other similar organisation.

If you are considering hosting a student, please email s.mahony@ucl.ac.uk. Further information for hosts can be found here.

Object
The object of the Practical Placement is to introduce and expose students to the current working situation in industries related to electronic communication and publishing. The placement is the culmination of six months theoretical study and practical instruction.

Duration
The length of the placement is generally four weeks (minimum) to three months (maximum) and is usually determined by the host. Placements are undertaken at any time between early April and the end of August. Hosts need to be aware that in addition to completing their placement, students have to sit at least one examination (usually in early June and will need a day or two off) and research and write their dissertations. The placement can be full or part-time.

Payment
It is not expected that hosts will provide financial remuneration to students on placements, although some hosts do like to make some form of payment. Most hosts like to pay travelling expenses, but this is all a matter for the host to agree with the student.

Duties
As the object of the placement is to consolidate and apply student's learning, it is the desire of the College that the hosts will encourage students to join and participate in existing projects or procedures, to provide an end-user's point of view on products, or even to develop proposals for discussion by the host for future products or services. Some hosts ask students to critique their existing products or services, to improve their value and usefulness. The hours of work for the student are usually the same as for employees, but this is dependant on the host and the nature of the project or procedure being completed by the student.

Benefits
The benefits for a host in taking a student on a placement are many. The most immediate are: the host can access the latest information about IT and electronic communication via the student; the host can have an urgent or necessary project completed by the student, thereby saving staff time and costs; and the host can obtain fresh input from an outsider.

Students
Following their placements, all students are required to write a short reflective piece focusing on the time that they spent with the host organisation, what they learned from being there and what they were able to bring to the placement.

Previous Hosts
In the past few years students have been hosted by various companies and institutions, including; ASLIB, BBC educational Publishing, BBC Radio 1, British Medical Journal, Guardian New Media Lab, HarperCollins, Hodder Children’s Books, The Idler Magazine, Institute of Chartered Accountants, International Air Transport Association, NCR Knowledge Lab, Oxford Digital Library, The Petrie Museum, Reuters, Rough Guides, Royal Academy of Engineering, School of Oriental and African Studies, The Times, Tibet Images Photo Library, University College London Web Development Office, Virgin.net, The Wellcome Trust, The Wire, The British Museum, The British Library.

Employment destinations after the MA in ECP

Graduates from the ECP programme have gone on to work in a wide variety of organisations, including commercial publishing and broadcasting firms, libraries, and academic research projects. Students have worked in a variety of roles, including including technical writer, web manager or editor, editorial assistant, project officer, communications or information officer. The list below shows a selection of recent destinations.

Commercial organisations

• Cimex
• The UK Web Design Company
• Wire Design
• The Learning Company
• XRefer.com
• Bank of New York
• MPS Technologies
• Mastercard
• One Stop English - Macmillan Publishing group
• Wilmington Media
• Banner advertising agency
• Travel Mail
• Fiat
• Apple Web Team
• Sony Games
• Dongailbo Newspaper group (Korea)

Library and information work

• Birmingham Central Library, Digitisation Project
• Eastman Dental Hospital
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Library and Information services
• Queen Mary, University of London, Information Services
• United Nations Information Centre for the Caribbean area
• Macmillan Cancer Support

Academic and Cultural Heritage

• The National Gallery
• Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
• AHDS Visual Arts
• Trace Electronic writing project, Nottingham Trent University
• LEADERS research project, UCL
• Royal Institute of International Affairs
• Stanford University, Facilities Operations (USA)