BA (Hons) Fine Art
Institution code: N39Course 3 Year UCAS code: W101Course 4 Year UCAS code: W102Course length: 3 or 4 year optionsWork-based learning opportunities: Creative Professional Development Year (Level 5 diploma) available between years 2 & 3
Our BA (Hons) Fine Art degree course encourages ‘thinking through making’ and you will explore the breadth of fine art with workshops in painting, print, sculpture, mixed media and video. You will use project spaces and external venues for performance, display and curation.
You will shape your own distinctive career path as an artist on our BA (Hons) course and join generations of graduates who have achieved national and international success.
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.
Explore Fine Art
Whatever your choice of medium, we will encourage and support you to develop your own practice and develop a substantial portfolio.
Purpose-built studio spaces will provide the perfect environment to realise your creative direction.
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
- Augmented and Virtual Reality.
Professional preparation
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.
Graduates work in a broad range of careers including
- Practising Artist
- Community Artist
- Exhibition Organiser
- Arts Administrator
- Lecturer Art Consultant
- Gallery Manager
- Researcher
- Curator
- Teacher
- Image Retoucher
- Art Handler
You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our team in the Ideas FactoryNUA to help support you as you plan your career.
All courses run as a blend of on-campus and digital teaching and learning, and follow current UK government safety advice. Applicants and students will be notified directly if any changes need to be made.
- Course specifications
Three year degree
Four year degree - Course costs
Ask a Student
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 such as psychoanalysis and aesthetics
- Visit galleries and events nationally and internationally
- Contextualise your work and think more practically about audience
- Exhibit in the NUA Project Spaces
- Explore collaborative, collective and socially engaged approaches
- Introduction to the 12 essential skills of the Fine Art innovative programme.
- 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
Entry requirements
Portfolio guidance
Fees & funding
Work-based Learning Opportunities
Four year degree
Typical UK offers
A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BBB. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, NUA 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
UAL Extended Diploma
Merit
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit
UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 27 points
NUA welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, 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@nua.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.
BA (Hons) Fine Art degree portfolio guidance
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.
2022/23 University fees for new entrants
NUA 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 NUA’s tuition fees up front.
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 | Fee |
---|---|---|
Home | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £9,250 |
Overseas | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £17,500 |
In subsequent years inflation may be applied to the fees of those who started in 2022/23, at no more than the Office for Students’ recommended measure based on forecast RPI-X.
Financial support for UK students in 2022
Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable NUA bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.
Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 Diploma)
The Diploma in Creative Professional Development has been developed to offer undergraduate students the chance to spend a year, between the second and third year of their course, exploring their employability options through a structured programme of input sessions and work-based learning.
Not just an ‘industry sandwich year’ —
The Level 5 Diploma in Creative Professional Development is:
- Designed around your needs as a creative student, particularly if your personal network does not currently reach creative industry.
- Based on our award-winning Profile skills framework.
- Co-delivered with industry partners who share our approach.
- Supporting you with carefully planned interventions and activities before and after their placements, so that you are ready to undertake placement learning and then equipped to derive the maximum insight from the experience afterwards.
- Opening a wide range of creative roles that you may not imagine you would be able to apply for after your study at NUA.
It has been designed for:
- Students who want to work in creative industry but have not yet decided the sort of role they would like.
- Students who do have a clear sense of career direction but need to develop a structured plan to achieve it.
- Students who do not have relevant work experience, and want to graduate with a fuller CV.
- Students who think that business start-up or freelancing may be their preferred option and want to explore it further.
Find out more about the Level 5 Diploma in Creative Professional Development
Four year degree
Our innovative four year degrees are exactly the same as our three year degrees but include an extra year of study at the beginning – Year 0.
Year 0 is about developing the skills, foundation, knowledge and the confidence you need to successfully complete your degree course. Building on your experience from A Level or equivalent courses, the Year 0 curriculum allows time to develop the practical, creative and conceptual skills that are critical to successfully completing an undergraduate degree at NUA.
While studying Year 0 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 Year 0 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
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
NUA welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, 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.
Lecturers
-
Fay Nicolson
-
Gilly Fox
-
Marina Velez Vago
-
Nicholas Hatfull
-
Sarah Cameron
-
Sophie Michael
Need help? Chat to our friendly recruitment team
Call: +44 (0) 1603 610561
Email: studentrecruitment@nua.ac.uk
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