Location

Farnham

Start date

Sept 2026, Sept 2027

Duration

3 years full-time

UCAS logo

UCAS codes

Course: W690
Institution: C93

+1

Foundation year

Optional extra year of study

+1

Placement year

Optional extra year of study

Entry requirements

Check qualifications

Digital Art at UCA

Push the boundaries of art, tech, and creation.

Art first. Technology always.

Is a VR headset a canvas or a sculpture? Can a dataset be a portrait? You’re the one who decides the answers. You'll learn to code, build interactive systems, and work with immersive media – but the driving question is always: what do you want to say? Creative freedom and expression are built into this course from the very beginning.

Built to cross over

The first year of your Digital Art degree starts with hybrid practices – Digital Art, Computer Science, Craft, Animation, and Fine Art students thrown together to make work none could make alone. Those collisions become collaborations so that, by your final year, you'll have a network of art-minded people who think completely differently to the way you do.

Learn how to keep learning

If you work in tech, the reality is that tools you use in year one may be obsolete by the time you graduate. UCA's Digital Art course is built around that reality – teaching you how to pick up new platforms, adapt your practice, and stay curious. UCA graduates leave with a creative identity and artistic vision that flexes with the technology but doesn’t depend on it. UCA Digital Artists are futureproof.

ISEA at the centre

ISEA International – the global network for art, science, and technology – is headquartered within this programme at UCA Farnham. That means live project briefs, competition entries, paid opportunities, and graduate awards connecting you to international practice while you're still studying

What you'll study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

UCA’s Integrated Foundation Year is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and more.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated Foundation Year

Reality; 30 credits
You are introduced to how reality is observed, shaped, and questioned through contemporary digital art. You will explore how images, data, systems, and technologies influence how we understand the world, working across digital media, moving image, sound, and interactive forms. Through workshops, lectures, and experimental making, you will investigate how artists respond to social, cultural, political, and environmental issues using digital tools. You will question ideas of truth, perception, and authorship while developing confidence in experimentation and critical thinking. The module establishes a shared foundation in digital literacy, conceptual enquiry, and reflective practice that supports your development across the course.

Career Catalyst: Skills & Capability; 30 credits
This module develops creative, technical, and digital capability through hands-on practice aligned to professional standards. You will build transferable skills across key tools, software, and production processes used in contemporary digital art and creative technology. Through workshops and studio activity, you will learn how practitioners experiment, solve problems, and communicate ideas visually, spatially, and digitally. Emphasis is placed on iteration, feedback, and reflection, supporting you to refine your work and articulate creative and technical decisions. You will work independently and collaboratively, developing professional habits such as time management, constructive use of feedback, and documentation of practice. The module builds confidence and professional literacy, preparing you to apply your skills across disciplines and laying the foundations for collaboration, industry engagement, and more complex creative challenges.

Embodiment; 30 credits
In this module you explore the relationship between the body, technology, and digital experience. Through hands-on experimentation, you will investigate how movement, sensation, presence, and interaction can be expressed through video, sound, performance, interactive systems, and immersive media. You will explore how meaning emerges through physical engagement with technology, developing confidence in playful experimentation and creative risk-taking. Alongside making, you will consider accessibility, inclusion, and ethics, building awareness of how digital work is experienced by diverse audiences. This module supports embodied thinking and prepares you for more immersive and interactive practices later in the course.

Hybrid Practices; 30 credits
You are introduced to hybrid ways of working that combine digital and physical processes. You will experiment across media, tools, and techniques, moving between analogue and digital making, material and immaterial processes, and individual and collaborative approaches. Through structured workshops and guided experimentation, you will explore how ideas change as they move between formats, platforms, and technologies. The module emphasises safe failure, iteration, and reflection, supporting you to take creative risks in a supportive environment. Hybrid Practice establishes core habits of experimentation and adaptability that underpin your future development.

Temporality; 30 credits
This module challenges you to explore time, change, memory, and transformation in digital art. Through research-driven experimentation, you will investigate how duration, repetition, systems, archives, and processes shape meaning. Working more independently, you will refine your technical and conceptual approaches while engaging critically with contemporary cultural and ethical questions. The module supports deeper self-direction, helping you evaluate your working methods and develop a coherent body of work that reflects your evolving artistic voice.

Career Catalyst: Communities & Influence; 30 credits
This module focuses on applying your practice within real-world social, cultural, and professional contexts through collaborative, community-facing projects. Working with live briefs, you will engage with audiences, communities, or partner organisations such as cultural institutions, creative collectives, educational settings, or industry initiatives. You will collaborate to deliver shared outcomes, including workshops, events, participatory works, or digital platforms, developing experience of teamwork, communication, and professional engagement. Alongside practical delivery, you will reflect on ethics, collaboration, and responsibility, building confidence in working beyond the university. By developing professional agency, networks, and real-world impact, the module helps you understand how creative practice creates value, influence, and opportunity across industry, civic, and global contexts.

Worldbuilding; 30 credits
In this module you explore the creation of digital worlds, environments, and systems. You will investigate how artists use narrative, space, interaction, and technology to construct speculative, fictional, or data-driven worlds that engage audiences. Working with processes such as moving image, sound, performance, sculpture and immersive media, you will experiment across disciplines while considering the cultural, environmental, and ethical implications of worldbuilding. The module supports ambitious thinking, collaboration, and the integration of theory and practice.

Digital Futures; 30 credits
You will explore how emerging technologies are reshaping storytelling, authorship, and cross-platform creative practice. Using speculative approaches, you will investigate how narratives unfold across interconnected media, platforms, and systems, including immersive environments, data-driven methods, generative processes, and AI. You will critically examine the ethical, social, and environmental implications of digital storytelling, with a strong emphasis on iteration, reflection, and adaptive working. By testing narrative work across platforms and contexts, you will develop future-facing approaches to digital art practice.

 

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a placement within the creative industries to further develop your skills and CV.

While on your Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

Please note: If you are an international applicant, you will need to enrol onto the course ‘with Professional Practice Year’. It will not be possible to transfer onto the Professional Practice Year after enrolment

Creative Research; 30 credits
Centered on independent, research-led enquiry, you will design and realise a self-directed project that connects theory, context, and practice through appropriate creative research methods. Your work may take many forms, from immersive experiences to interactive systems or hybrid practices. Alongside your creative project, you will produce a research essay that situates your work within contemporary discourse, developing confidence in critical thinking, ethics, and sustainability.

Career Catalyst: Futures & Direction; 30 credits
This module supports you in defining your professional and creative identity and planning your next steps beyond university. You will consolidate your learning by reflecting on your practice, skills, and ambitions while exploring future pathways across employment, freelance practice, and further study. Through portfolio development, research, and industry engagement, you will produce materials that clearly articulate your work, positioning, and direction, preparing you for your final major project and future opportunities. The module develops autonomy, confidence, and resilience, equipping you to navigate and shape your future professional pathways.

Major Project; 60 credits
This is the culminating module of the course, bringing together research, practice, and professional development into an ambitious, self-directed body of work. You will conceive, develop, and present a substantial digital art project that reflects your creative identity and professional aspirations. Managing the full creative process from concept to public presentation, you will demonstrate autonomy, rigour, and ethical awareness—graduating with a strong portfolio and the confidence to take your next creative step.

This course is designed to offer you (if eligible) the opportunity to study part of your degree aboard at a UCA partner university, while still earning credits towards your UCA degree.

For more information please visit the Study Abroad section

Integrated foundation year

  • Independent study: 72%
  • Scheduled teaching: 28%
  • Maximum percentage of scheduled delivered online: 20%

Year one

  • Independent study: 72%
  • Scheduled teaching: 28%
  • Maximum percentage of scheduled delivered online: 20%

Year two

  • Independent study: 74%
  • Scheduled teaching: 26%
  • Maximum percentage of scheduled delivered online: 20%

Year three

  • Independent study: 76%
  • Scheduled teaching: 24%
  • Maximum percentage of scheduled delivered online: 20%

Professional placement or International year (if undertaken)

  • Independent study: 98%
  • Scheduled teaching: 2%
  • Maximum percentage of scheduled delivered online: 100%

Please note: these details are for 2026 entry and could be subject to change for other years of entry.

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Upcoming webinars

We offer a range of webinars throughout the year that you may be interested in.

You can also view recordings of all previous sessions through the UCA webinar archive.


Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2026/27

    • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,790
    • BA course: £9,790

    If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee, for 2026/27 this is £1,955. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

    Government guidance indicates that tuition‑fee caps will rise annually with inflation from 2026, subject to legislation, so tuition fees are likely to increase each year of study. 

Tuition fees - 2026/27

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,790 (see fee discount information)
  • BA course: £9,790 (see fee discount information)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee, for 2026/27 this is £1,955. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Government guidance indicates that tuition‑fee caps will rise annually with inflation from 2026, subject to legislation, so tuition fees are likely to increase each year of study. 

Tuition fees - 2026/27

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £18,000
  • BA course: £18,000

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2026 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £3,490. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

The fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only, for details of previous years please see the full fee schedules.

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of the Course Information Document for more details of the costs you may incur. 

Find out what's included in your tuition fees.

Digital Art career opportunities

As a student on this course, you'll benefit from our strong industry links, which cover a broad range of sectors. We regularly host visiting lecturers who share their experiences and expertise, giving you a great opportunity to make contacts and gain invaluable insights into areas that interest you, as well as contextualise your studies. Recent guest lecturers have included:

  • Commercial film and video directors
  • Music video companies
  • Visual effects artists
  • Experimental filmmakers
  • Video artists

We also have close connections with post-production facilities, games companies, production companies and art venues.

We've produced a host of distinguished alumni, including national award winners. A number of recent graduates have gone on to work on Hollywood movies, BBC television programmes, and on projects with companies such as:

  • Cartoon Network
  • Boomerang
  • Conran Design Group
  • pd3
  • Incentivated
  • M&C Saatchi Mobile
  • Tiger Aspect Productions
  • Double Negative
  • The Mill
  • Framestore
  • Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

Roles include film and video directors, lighting camera ops, sound ops, producers and production managers, digital film editors, digital visual effects artists, CGI animators, sound designers, games designers, phone app creators, flash animators, experimental film and video artists, installation artists and digital photographers.

Graduates have also started their own companies, with recent successes including Kode Media, Bright Stem and This Place.

You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.


Digital Art entry requirements

For both the BA (Hons) course and the Integrated Foundation Year course we will need to see your portfolio, see the portfolio requirements section for more details.

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

Portfolio requirements

For both the BA (Hons) course and the course with the Integrated Foundation Year we will need to see a portfolio.

  • UK applicants: We will invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your portfolio review in person.
  • International applicants: We will ask you to submit an online portfolio. 

Your portfolio should show visual evidence of a range of relevant skills, and your ability to develop a project or idea. We recommend you bring 12-20 examples of a range of your current work which best reflects your level and range of achievements. 

Please check our Digital Art portfolio requirements and read our advice on creating a strong art portfolio.

UCAS applicants should also check our UCAS personal statement guide for art applicants.

Full portfolio requirements and advice

Ance Priedniece, BA Film & Digital Art

What our Digital Art students say

"The best part of the course is that it isn't limited and teaches skills ranging from practical workshops with cameras to editing and visual effects. It’s perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to limit themselves to just one aspect of the industry"
Ance Priedniece

Chat to UCA students

Apply to BA (Hons) Digital Art

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UCAS codes

  • UCA institution code: C93
  • Three year degree: W690
  • Plus professional practice year: W691
  • Plus integrated foundation year: W69A
  • Plus integrated foundation year and professional practice year: W69B

BA (Hons) Digital Art key statistics

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