Integrated Foundation - Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Fine Art

The BA (Hons) Fine Art with Foundation Year provides students with the opportunity to work alongside leading artists and educators to develop creativity through experimentation with media, materials, and ideas, supporting the progression toward becoming confident practising artists. Students develop individual artistic practice within outstanding modern studio environments, working across a wide range of artistic disciplines. Teaching is delivered by highly respected and internationally recognised artists, researchers, and educators who guide and inspire creative development. The programme equips students with the professional skills needed to pursue careers as practising artists or progress into related fields such as community arts, curation, and other creative industries.

All students engage in the production of conceptually challenging artwork that encourages personal expression and innovation. A defining feature of the programme is its strong emphasis on ‘making’ skills, ensuring that the development of studio practice is central across all artistic disciplines. Cohorts are limited to approximately 30 students per year, fostering a close-knit creative community and enabling high levels of academic and pastoral support. This approach contributes to strong student engagement, excellent retention rates, consistently positive graduate outcomes, and favourable student feedback.

A substantial portion of the course takes place within the modern studio facilities, where students explore individual creative ideas and experiment with a variety of working methods, materials, and processes. Each student is provided with a dedicated, permanent studio space for use throughout the duration of the programme.

The extensive range of facilities supports exploration across numerous artistic pathways, including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, installation, sound, film and video, digital media, and performance. Students have access to industry-standard resources such as an Apple Mac suite, a large printmaking studio, darkrooms, music studios, and specialist workshops equipped for large-scale projects involving plaster, ceramics, wood, and metal.

Additional facilities include a specialist Art and Design Library, a professional print bureau for fine art printing, and a digital media equipment centre offering access to industry-grade video, film, and photography equipment.