Content and editorial
Content, editorial work, social media, science and knowledge communication. Close to the text, tied to a publishing rhythm, with constant topic research. The most common entry straight after the bachelor.
Study media alongside your job
You already work in media. You produce, edit, write or run channels, only the degree is missing. A media degree adds theory, structure and formal proof, and your vocational training often shortens the way considerably.
Where it fits
What a media degree is, and what it is not
Media is an umbrella term, and that is exactly where the wrong choices come from.
Media programmes sit between three poles: production and technology, design, content and communication. Almost every programme weights them differently, and the programme title rarely reveals the weighting. So read the module handbook first and the title second. A programme that touches media informatics demands something entirely different from you than one aimed at editorial work and content.
Four distinctions that come up in almost every initial consultation:
- Media versus communications: communications and PR asks how an organisation speaks to the outside world. Media asks how content is created and which channel carries it.
- Media versus design: design is a craft with its own admission hurdle, often a portfolio. Media is broader and usually open without a work sample.
- Media versus media informatics: if you want to build and code, computer science is the better home. Media programmes touch technology, they do not train developers.
- Media versus journalism: journalism is its own craft with its own role model, from research to press law. A media degree touches on it but replaces neither a traineeship nor newsroom practice.
And here is the point few programme pages state that plainly: in creative fields your portfolio usually counts for more than your degree. Whoever hires looks at your work first. The degree gives you theory, method, structure and formal proof that opens doors where formal proof counts: in the public sector, in large organisations, for master's admission and abroad. It does not replace work you can show. Whoever brings both has the strongest position.
Admission
Without an Abitur too, and more often than people think
The media industry is full of people who came in through vocational training.
Completed vocational training plus a few years of work experience opens university access for a subject-related degree, and in media that relation is usually obvious. These are the common feeder occupations:
- Media design for digital and print as well as audio and visual media: the most direct route, undisputed in subject terms and strong on credit transfer.
- Event technology and photography: close to production, a good match for technically weighted programmes.
- Marketing communication clerks, publishing and media clerks: the commercial side, a solid bridge into media management.
If you also hold a Medienfachwirt or a comparable advanced qualification, you often have general university entrance and a free choice of subject. The three usual routes are set out under studying without Abitur, and what belongs in the application under applying for a distance degree.
One detail that is often missed: the more a media programme leans towards design, the more likely it asks for a work sample. That is rarely stated prominently on the programme page. Ask before you apply, then you are not planning around a deadline you do not know about.
Credit transfer
What your practice is worth
The lever that turns six years into four and a half.
Regulated media training is a formal qualification with documented learning outcomes, and that is exactly what credit transfer is built on. Many universities credit a fixed block for it, further points come from continuing education, certificates and relevant years on the job. For learning acquired outside higher education, a ceiling of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS usually applies.
The arithmetic makes it concrete. A bachelor's degree comes to 180 ECTS. If 45 of them are credited, 135 remain. At 15 ECTS per semester that is four and a half years instead of six. You changed nothing about your working day and saved a year and a half.
The order matters: settle the credit question first, choose the university second. With identical prior learning the differences between providers are substantial. How the procedure works, and how blanket and individual credit transfer differ, is explained under credit transfer and credit for work experience.
Workload
Time and cost, realistically
Media work comes in waves, and your semester load has to respect that.
| ECTS per semester | Hours per week | In everyday life | Bachelor takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | around 7 to 8 | one free evening plus half a day | 18 years, only sensible for single modules |
| 10 | around 15 | two evenings plus one free day, survives a production week | 9 years, around 7 with credit transfer |
| 15 | around 22 | workable as long as no job deadline collides | 6 years, 4.5 with credit transfer |
| 20 | around 30 | effectively a second part-time job, hard to hold through project peaks | 4.5 years |
Calculated with 30 hours per ECTS and around 20 active weeks per semester. How to work out your own number is explained under ECTS per semester.
On cost, part-time bachelor programmes usually sit in the range of a few hundred euros per month. What decides is not the monthly rate but the total at a realistic pace, and that total falls above all through credit transfer. The detail is under what a distance degree costs. For media, budget software, licences and hardware on top, depending on the programme that is a real item.
Which university offers which media programme is best compared with sourced data in the Hochschulnavigator. And because many agencies and media houses co-finance further education, the conversation with your employer is worth having, see getting your employer to pay. Watch out for repayment clauses, they typically tie you in for several years.
Afterwards
Where the degree leads
Three directions that differ clearly in daily work and in what they demand.
Production and moving image
Video, audio, live streaming, post-production. Work in project phases with hard delivery dates and pronounced peaks, and with visible results.
Steering and media management
Project lead, budget, client contact, channel strategy. Less producing yourself, more coordinating. The route the degree qualifies you for most clearly.
An honest word on salary: the degree alone usually does not move it, the changed role does. If you do the same work after the degree, you typically earn the same. The step comes with responsibility, that is, with the move from producing to steering, and for that move the degree is the formal requirement in many organisations. More on that under salary after your degree. If you are coming from a different field entirely, the frame is set out under career change through a degree.
Common questions
Media by distance learning
The questions that come up in almost every initial consultation.
Can I study media without an Abitur?
As a rule yes. Completed vocational training in a media occupation plus several years of work experience opens access to a subject-related degree. An advanced qualification such as the Medienfachwirt often adds general university entrance on top of that.
Do I need a portfolio submission to be admitted?
For most media programmes, no. A portfolio or aptitude test is typical for design-heavy programmes such as communication design. The more a media programme leans towards design, the more likely a work sample is required. Ask before you apply, this is rarely stated prominently on the programme page.
How much of my training will be credited?
That depends on the university and the differences are substantial. Regulated media training comes with documented learning outcomes and is therefore creditable, further credit comes from continuing education and relevant years on the job. For learning acquired outside higher education, a ceiling of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS usually applies.
Does the degree replace a portfolio?
No. In creative fields the work you can show usually decides first, the degree second. The degree gives you theory, method and the formal proof that counts where formal proof counts: in the public sector, in large organisations, for master's admission and abroad. Both together is the strongest position.
How is this different from communications and PR?
Communications and PR asks how an organisation speaks to the outside world, with which message and to which public. Media asks how content is created, produced and distributed across channels. If you want strategy and the spokesperson role, choose communications. If you want content and production, choose media.
Next step
What is actually possible in your case
Admission, credit transfer and the right programme settled in one conversation.
Levels in this subject
Which level fits your goal?
The same subject, two different answers. Each level has its own admission routes and leads somewhere else.
Bachelor part-time
Why the portfolio often counts more than the degree
Master part-time
Admission with and without a media bachelor
Information Notice
The information on this page is general in nature and based on my advisory practice (last updated 31.07.2026). It does not replace an official credit transfer or recognition decision by the respective university and is not legal advice. Specific decisions are made by universities, the ZAB (Germany), the BMBWF (Austria), or the SBFI (Switzerland). I clarify binding next steps with you in the initial consultation.