Art and Design, BA (Hons)

AT A GLANCE

This new course builds upon our extensive experience in delivering high quality, studio-based art and design education.

This fully-updated course promotes hands-on experience within the creative arts in disciplines including printmaking, lens-based media, animation, sculpture, painting, surface pattern, jewellery and ceramics.

You will learn how traditional making skills and the latest technology are combined to discover new and original ways of creating art and design products appropriate for our current creative market.

The course is also focused on encouraging the development of your own innovative practice while addressing the environmental and ethical implications of creating a sustainable career in the creative industries.

You will learn from professional practising artists, designers, makers and other industry specialists in order to acquire insights and share in their passion and expertise.

You will also engage with ‘enterprise projects’ including public exhibitions, work placements, live commissions, and competitions – all of which will help you to build a professional work-based portfolio to impress employers or be the basis of starting your freelance career.

The aim of the course is that you will become able to initiate and develop your ideas through to fruition – whether that is functioning products, decorative objects, installations or other outcomes.

Subject to coronavirus restrictions, this course offers optional day trips to galleries and longer residential visits, which in recent years have included London and Rome, at an additional expense.

In recent years, UCW art students have also collaborated to stage exhibitions at regional galleries such as 4AD in Bath and Centre Space in Bristol. And we also hold a Festival of Creativity every year so art-lovers in the general public can see the wonderful work produced by our students.

The course is delivered in our Loxton Campus, which is dedicated to the creative and performance arts, and we have invested millions of pounds in our new University Centre in the Winter Gardens on Weston seafront. The new facility includes a higher education library, technology pods for individual and group projects, classrooms, IT suites and social spaces.

Please contact the course leader Ian Shipton UCW’s HEART student services team for more information about this course. And come along to our next Open Day so you can see for yourself how UCW can help you achieve your ambitions.

Our partnership with Bath Spa University

Course costs

Full-time tuition fees: £8,500 per year.
Part-time tuition fees: £6,375 per year.

This covers all of the teaching and assessment elements that are required for students to complete the course.

Please note that while we endeavour to cover the costs of all artistic materials, there may be extra expenses associated with this course, for specialist materials, for example.

It also includes:

The use of UCW equipment and specialist software.
Attendance at guest lectures and conferences at UCW.
Annual £10 printing and photocopying allowance for full-time students and £5 for part-time students.
The use of UCW computer equipment at any of our campuses and access to Microsoft Office 365 while you are enrolled with UCW.
The loans of books from our libraries.
Access to all of the UCW student support and careers services.

It does not include:

Optional daytrips and residential visits at an approximate cost of £50 (UK) and £100 (overseas) per day/night.
Extra printing and photocopying above the £10 limit.
The cost of books that you may wish to purchase.
Transport between our campuses, and to/from your partner university and any work placements. We encourage students to take advantage of termly bus passes to reduce transport costs.
Accommodation and other living expenses.

UCW publishes its Tuition Fees Policy on the Wider Information Set page of this website.

You may also be eligible for additional financial support, depending on your circumstances.

All of the modules on this course are compulsory and successful completion of them will lead to the award of the Level 6 Bachelor’s degree.

Full-time year 1:

Creative Industries (20 credits)
Culture and Meaning: Past, Present and Future (20 credits)
Design, Creation and Production (20 credits)
Design: Digital, Materials, Making (40 credits)
Portfolio (20 credits)

Full-time year 2:

Collaboration (20 credits)
Developing Studio Production (40 credits)
Research for Development (40 credits)
Sustainable Design (20 credits)

Full-time year 3:

Future Planning (40 credits)
Practice Research (20 credits)
Studio Production(60 credits)

Teaching and assessment

This course is taught via a combination of lectures, seminars, studio practice, presentations, case studies and workshops. UCW’s Higher Education Library Plus (HE.LP) team also deliver a series of sessions on degree-level research and academic writing to all first-year students. When not in scheduled lecturers and seminars, students are expected to continue learning through independent self-study. This involves reading relevant literature, working on individual and group projects, and undertaking research in preparation for coursework and exams.

This course has an average of 12 hours of scheduled teaching per week.

Please click on the Course Handbook button to find out more, including how it is delivered on a part-time basis.

Graduates are eligible to apply for postgraduate courses such as the Master’s Degrees in Design, Fine Art or Visual Communication at Bath Spa University.
As well as freelance art and design, graduates of this course are also able to seek roles in animation or illustration, in interior or product design, in printmaking, or in related roles for museums and galleries.

Industry insight

The UK is the second largest art market in the world, with a 21% market share (British Art Market Federation data).

Course length
Full-time: 3 years (3 days a week); Part-time: 4 years (2 days a week)
Start date
13th September 2021
Course codes
Institution: W47
Course: ARTD
Campus: C
Tuition fees
Full-time: £8,500 per year
Part-time: £6,375 per year