Alumni - Gareth Ridley-DeMonick, BA Publishing Media

I completed my BA in Publishing Media in 2018 and now work for Oxford University Press, the large academic and educational publisher. I specialize in regional marketing (the Middle East) for both the International Education and English Language Teaching division, but my background includes academic editing, graphic design, copy-editing, production and bookselling.

I attended Oxford Brookes as a mature student (26), having lived all over Europe, working as a freelancer and picking up languages on the way. I chose Brookes simply because it offered the best Publishing programme out of all the universities I considered. The Oxford International Centre for Publishing is long established and well respected in the industry, and the academics who lead the course are seasoned publishing professionals in their own right, who maintain strong links with business and international colleagues around the world. ...

The city of Oxford is vibrant and cosmopolitan, its history is steeped in academia and education. It was a wonderful place to learn, and Oxford Brookes is at the cutting edge of publishing research and technology. London and Birmingham are within easy reach, making it ideally situated for travel overseas.

The course gave me the practical skills I needed to progress my publishing career, but it also gave me the flexibility to explore modules in English Literature, Philosophy and Book History. For me, it was the perfect balance between academic rigour and creativity.

My highlights include the Erasmus semester at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and researching my dissertation at the 400-year-old Bodleian Library. Today my network of friends, colleagues and alumni reaches far beyond Oxford, as a direct result of this truly international programme. 

If you are looking for a course that will set you up for a career in marketing, journalism, publishing, PR, design, translation or education, this is the course for you.

Posted on 15 Jul 2020 around 6am