Fine Art BA (Hons)
Length:
3 or 4 year options
UCAS Code:
W101 (3 Year)
W102 (4 Year)
Institution Code:
N39
Sandwich courses:
Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 diploma), or Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 diploma), available between years 2 & 3
Want to explore your creativity, ideas, and instincts in a vibrant community of artists, thinkers and makers? And shape the future of contemporary art?
BA (Hons) Fine Art emphasises the importance of ‘thinking through making’ to support life-long professional development. You’ll enhance your critical thinking, collaboration, independence and creativity skills in an ethical, diverse and sustainable context. Through this approach, you’ll develop skills and knowledge relevant to a broad range of contemporary applications.
You will shape your distinctive career path as an artist and join generations of graduates who have achieved national and international success. Whatever your choice of medium, we will encourage and support you in developing your practice and a substantial portfolio. You’ll have access to the tools you need to make and create, including Printmaking facilities, 3D studios and a foundry, our historic Munnings Life Drawing Studio, Painting studios and Augmented and Virtual Reality.
Your creative development will include gaining valuable professional skills related to promoting and selling your work, curation, contracts, costing and networking. Opportunities will emerge through the course team’s close links with regional and national galleries like Tate Modern, Wysing Arts Centre, Firstsite, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and OUTPOST.
Why study with us
- Learn a variety of fine art approaches paired with a historical and theoretical foundation to encourage debate and reimagine the future of fine art practice.
- Gain key advanced techniques from drawing to digital media and technical knowledge through comprehensive workshops, developing your creative practice through experimentation, risk taking and playfulness.
- Work in our incredible studio space and workshops and explore different media techniques and materials.
- Learn how to contextualise your work and think practically about the audience while exploring collaborative, collective and socially engaged approaches.
- Develop business skills such as sales and promotion, growing your audience, curation, contracts, costing jobs and presenting your outcomes.
- Through our links with regional, national and international organisations, gain opportunities to engage in collaborative projects, including with other courses.
Course Content
Year 1
- An emphasis on ‘thinking through making’ using traditional and new media techniques will help you identify your artistic interests
- Comprehensive workshop inductions
- Grow your understanding of critical theories, contemporary art and the history of art
- Visit galleries and events nationally
- Contextualise your work and think more practically about audience
- Exhibit in our Project Spaces
- Explore collaborative, collective and socially engaged approaches
- Introduction to skills in a diverse range of fine art practices including printmaking, photography, sound and moving image, sculpture, painting, textiles and creative technologies.
Year 2
- Workshops in either painting, print, sculpture, mixed media or video
- External exhibitions, publication or placement
- Learn advanced drawing techniques
- Opportunities to use project spaces and external venues for experimentation, collaboration, display, critique, curation, performance and discussion.
Year 3
- Prepare a comprehensive Research Report related to your practice
- Regular student-led presentations for sharing individual practice
- Professional practice conference
- Graduate Showcase, viewed by curators, collectors, buyers and gallery owners
Careers Information
Throughout your Fine Art degree, you’ll have the chance to develop links with regional and national organisations and through the visiting lecture series you’ll get to network with contemporary artists, curators, academics and writers.
Our graduates are renowned for their unique voice and vision, leading them to Turner Prize nomination and inclusion in the UK’s annual New Contemporaries exhibition and Saatchi Art’s Rising Stars.
Typical career paths include
- Practising Artist
- Community Artist
- Exhibition Organiser
- Arts Administrator
- Art Consultant
- Gallery Manager
- Researcher
- Curator
- Teacher/lecturer
- Digital media artist
- Art Handler
You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.
Clare Gregory
Tabbed Section
Typical UK offers
A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BCC (104 UCAS Tariff points) or above. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich University of the Arts will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.
BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject
BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject
T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above
UAL Extended Diploma
Merit
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 26 points
Norwich University of the Arts welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio (if required), responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.
If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.
If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.
International applications
We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.
Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).
We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.
You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.
BA (Hons) Fine Art degree portfolio guidance
Portfolios should show examples of your work — both finished and work in progress — that demonstrate your interests and skills. Your portfolio should be made up of work that reflects your creativity, personal interests and influences, as well as demonstrating your technical skills and ability. It doesn’t have to be perfect as we can assess your potential from your work in progress.
Your portfolio should be relevant to this course, but you can include a wide range of work that shows your creativity, technical competence and understanding of space.
You may wish to include some of the following:
- Evidence of working independently, developing your own ideas or inquiries
- Drawing, which could include images from observation, experimental or imaginative work
- Sculpture, or installation in any medium
- Painting
- Printmaking
- Collage and mixed media
- Textile work
- Photography
- Sound design
- Film or moving image
- Performance, installation, socially-engaged or interactive work
- Collaborative group work
- Digital work (using Adobe Creative Suite or free open source software)
Further portfolio advice and tips
Get more advice on presentation formats, layouts and when to submit your portfolio in the application process.
2024/25 University fees for new entrants
Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs
Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements. They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich University of the Arts’ tuition fees upfront.
Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.
Fee status | Course | Annual fee |
---|---|---|
Home | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £9,250 |
Overseas | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £18,000 |
Inflation in subsequent years
The rules for inflation on fees in subsequent years depend on the type of fee status and level.
- For Home undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.
- For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.
For Home and overseas postgraduate degree students starting in 2024, fees will remain the same for each year of your course.
Financial support for UK students in 2024
Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.
International students
We offer a range of scholarships for international students to support your studies with us.
- Group briefings
- Academic tutorials
- Group tutorials
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Critiques (crits)
- Seminars
- Finished pieces of work
- Presentations
- Written work
- Your research
- A reflective journal
Between Years 2 and 3 of this course, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake one of the following additional qualifications:
Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 Diploma)
Our Creative Professional Development Diploma gives you the chance to spend a year exploring your post-uni job options through a structured programme of input sessions and work-based learning. This year offers two much-sought-after industry placements – the first lasting six weeks, the second 12 weeks, and a group project or ‘hackathon’ exploring freelancing and business start-up.
Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 Diploma)
Our Creative Computing Diploma introduces you to coding and computational skills that will advance and complement your creative practice. No prior experience of coding is needed, just a curiosity about creative computing and a desire to push your own practice into new realms. You’ll also develop a wider knowledge of the creative tech industries, available roles and opportunities.
Integrated Foundation Year
Four year degrees are exactly the same as our three year degrees but include an extra year of study at the beginning – an Integrated Foundation Year.
An Integrated Foundation Year is about developing the skills, knowledge and the confidence you need to successfully complete your degree course. Building on your experience from A Level or equivalent courses, the Integrated Foundation Year curriculum allows time to develop the practical, creative and conceptual skills that are critical to successfully completing an undergraduate degree at Norwich. You will achieve this, making full use of the University workshops and studio facilities.
While studying an Integrated Foundation Year on BA (Hons) Fine Art you will begin to establish your individual creative voice and follow your own direction through projects designed to challenge and stretch you. You’ll undertake both studio and research led projects that will inform the development of your work and enhance your contextual awareness.
You’ll benefit from inductions in the workshop areas used throughout your degree, and you will also have mixed year critiques with Year 1 Fine Art students. You will also be able to engage with the Fine Art lecture programme, which is open to all years, as well as having the opportunity to curate and realise an exhibition outside the confines of the University.
Typical UK offers and entry requirements for Integrated Foundation Year entry
GCE A/AS Levels
2 A-level qualifications at grades CC or higher.
BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Merit, Merit, Pass in an art, design or media related subject
BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit in an art, design or media related subject
T Levels
Pass (D or E on the core)
UAL Extended Diploma
An overall Pass
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
An overall Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 24 points
Norwich University of the Arts welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through interview and portfolio review so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.
Find out more about four year degrees at NorwichTeaching Staff
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