Digital Art at UCA

If you want to approach fine art from a technological perspective, our BA (Hons) Digital Art degree course at UCA Farnham is the ideal starting place.  

On this course you won’t be drawing on tablets – you’ll be exploring digital culture and creating art in response to it. Technology might be your subject, your medium, or both: you could use VR headsets to create a virtual experience, or build a sculpture out of them! And with access to the full scope of facilities across the Farnham campus, you’ll have endless possibilities for thought-provoking work. 

With the skills and collaborative confidence, you’ll develop during your studies, you could choose a career as an artist, or move into areas like digital content creation. Our graduates have gone on to become successful YouTube creators like PJ Ligouri (KickThePJ), and TikTok influencers.

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for our BA (Hons) Digital Art degree:

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Digital Art
BA (Hons)

Our standard three year undergraduate degree for those who meet the entry requirements for higher education.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W690
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2026
Duration
3 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

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Digital Art
BA (Hons) with Integrated Foundation Year

A four year degree programme, including a foundation year to help develop your creativity before you embark on year one of a degree.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W69A
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2026
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

UK: 32 UCAS points
International / EU: 12 years of schooling (with good grades)

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Digital Art

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W69C
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
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Digital Art
BA (Hons) with Professional Practice Year

A four year programme, which sees you spend an entire year gaining valuable industry experience prior to your final year of study.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W691
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2026
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

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Digital Art
BA (Hons) with Integrated Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year

A five year course, including a foundation year to help develop your creativity before you embark on year one of a degree, and a year on a professional placement gaining valuable industry experience prior to your final year of study.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W69B
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2026
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

UK: 32 UCAS points
International / EU: 12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Close

Digital Art

A five year course, including a foundation year to help develop your creativity before you embark on year one of a degree, and a year on a professional placement gaining valuable industry experience prior to your final year of study.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Institution code
C93
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements

Upcoming webinars

We offer a range of webinars throughout the year that Digital Art students may be interested in.


22 Oct 2025

UCA Live: Making an Outstanding Portfolio & Applying to University
19 Nov 2025

UCA Live: How to write a personal statement for a creative degree
3 Dec 2025

UCA Live: Creative Careers & Life After University
10 Dec 2025

UCA Live: Supporting Students at University - Information for Parents & Guardians
14 Jan 2026

UCA Live: Making an Outstanding Portfolio & Applicant Day Advice
28 Jan 2026

UCA Live: Postgraduate Opportunities – A focus on Masters & PhDs

This includes subject talks, masterclasses, application proccess advice and student life guides. Check out our upcoming webinars and book your place today.

Accreditations, partners and industry connections

The Rookies logo

The Rookies

The Rookies is a leading platform for digital artists to promote their work and assists members in preparing for industry. We are proud to be ranked 25th in the 2024 Top 50 Creative Schools in the World.

View our course videos


Ivann Uzunov, BA (Hons) Digital Art, UCA Farnham

Digital Art with Jeremiah Ambrose
Graduation Show 2019, Film and Digital Art

BA Digital Art Showreel
View more work on the Gradshow website
What you'll study

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

Launch
This primary week at the beginning of the course will be used to prepare you for university learning. Many of the workshops on offer will be programme-wide and will be enhanced with subject specific learning. You will be introduced to a range of skills workshops designed to audit and refresh your existing skills in order to prepare you for the commencement of the course learning.

The Real
This is a programme-wide unit, run in course-specific groups, giving you the opportunity to investigate core subject-specific themes and ideas interpreted through the lens of ‘the real’. You’ll explore situations or communicate ideas about the social, political, and economic circumstances that shape human experience.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
You’ll be able to demonstrate an awareness of how your own social identity (such as gender, race/ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, and religion) informs how you navigate creative practices.

Professional Experience
You’ll be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to be competent and confident working creatively with mixed media practices. You’ll gain a good understanding of the integral relationship between mixed media technical skills and creative practice. Underlying this is an emphasis on subverting dominant technical norms, to stand out in a professional context.

Opportunity
During this opportunity week you will receive one personal tutorial that feeds back on the work of the previous term. There will also be a number of refresher workshops designed to recap any skills.

The Body
You’ll be introduced to a range of genres, styles, and critical and methodological approaches which are related to or centred on the body and our relationship to the body. This is a good opportunity to improve your research skills and gain a deeper understanding of your own creative practice.

Client Brief
You’ll use design skills and knowledge combined with critical contextual studies disciplines to produce work aligned to a client facing brief. Working alone or in a team, you’ll employ collaborative skills and build on your presentation and pitching skills, too.

Speculative Art
This unit is the introduction to the field of ‘Speculative’ or ‘Fantastic Art’ –– which includes, but is not limited to, artists engaging with Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Afrofuturism, African Futurism, Sinofuturism, Gulf Futurism, Arabfuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Utopianism, Cyberpunk, Salvagepunk, Weird Fiction, Alternate Histories, Magical Realism, Africanjujuism and Techno-Horror.

ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are small pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across UCA, and offer a flexible, impactful learning experience. They expand your creative horizon by accessing learning topics that would not otherwise be scheduled on your course specific timetable.

PLE Digital Outcomes
The PLE Digital Outcome is a purposefully edited, self-directed record of your constructive, level 4 engagement with and presence on, digital media platforms across the year.

Launch
You’ll prepare for the year ahead with a range of refresher skills workshops designed to recap on previous learning, together with preparation work for the forthcoming core unit Spatial Practices.

Spatial Practices
You’ll explore spatial practices and their relationship to ideologies and systems of power and look at the ways in which moving image and digital cultures document, intersect, and subvert traditional approaches to space and place.

The Conscious Practitioner
You’ll engage with subject specific concepts of inclusion, exclusion, and diversity, and interrogate how belief systems, values, and attitudes influence approaches to creative practices.

Opportunity Week
During this opportunity week, you will receive one personal tutorial that feeds back on the work of the previous term and take part in workshops designed to recap on any skills that was omitted during term 1. You’ll also prepare for the forthcoming core unit Expanded Practices.

Expanded Practices
You’ll explore digital art as an expanded field of creative practice, and how it can open out across multiple mediums and engage with the world. We want you to examine imaginative possibilities that sit between meaning and materiality using a range of approaches and processes.

Industry Brief
Individually or in teams, you’ll use design skills and workflows to produce work for an industry brief, to be interpreted and aligned to your discipline pathway. The client will set specific parameters and conditions to be fulfilled within the allotted project time. This could include style guides, historic markers, format conditions, audience and genre.

ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome
These units are a continuation of what you learned in your first-year ATOM and PLE Digital Outcome units.

Elective units
You’ll also be able to choose from two of the following elective units through the course of the year:

  • Conceptual Interdisciplinary
  • Immersive Media
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Hardware Projects using Arduino
  • Virtual Production Studio
  • Pervasive Game Studio
  • Creature Animation
  • Motion Capture Technologies
  • Environmental Storytelling

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

Launch
Your final Launch Week is a space in which you can reflect on your own independent learning journey. You will be encouraged to rework an existing piece of work to produce a new outcome and be guided through how to draft a viable proposal for the next unit.

Final Major Project – Development
You’ll begin developing work for your final major project, identifying and experimenting with a range of relevant creative and technical methodological approaches in a way that reflects your own research interests.

Critical Contexts
Drawing from interdisciplinary approaches to gathering research, you’ll be able to synthesise and contextualise your research interests within relevant critical contexts through either the written or spoken word.

Opportunity
During this opportunity week you will receive a personal tutorial that feeds back on the work of the previous term, and work independently to refine your final major project.

Final Major Project: Realisation
In this two-component unit you’ll complete your final major project with a major body of work that reflects your individual practice, and also complete your independent professional exit plan, as part of your transition to either a professional or postgraduate environment.

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: 60%
  • Scheduled teaching: 40%
  • Online delivery: 0%
  • Placement: 0%

Year one

  • Independent study: 61.7%
  • Scheduled teaching: 38.3% 
  • Online delivery: 2.2%
  • Placement: 0%

Year two

  • Independent study: 63.3%
  • Scheduled teaching: 36.7% 
  • Online delivery: 9.1%
  • Placement: 0%

Year three

  • Independent study: 65%
  • Scheduled teaching: 35% 
  • Online delivery: 4.8%
  • Placement: 0%

Professional placement or International year (if undertaken)

  • Independent study: 0%
  • Scheduled teaching: 0%
  • Online delivery: 0%
  • Placement: 100%

Please note, these details are for 2025 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.

Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2026/27

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,535
  • BA course: £9,535

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2026 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,900. 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.

Tuition fees - 2026/27

  • Details of the fees for 2026/27 will be available here shortly. As a guide please see the 2025/26 fees.

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,535 (see fee discount information)
  • BA course: £9,535 (see fee discount information)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2025 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,900. 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.

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.

Please note: The fees listed on this webpage 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.

Facilities & equipment

At UCA Farnham there are purpose-built film studios with dedicated technical support from industry specialists; Sound editing and mixing suites which include software such as Avid Media Composer, Symphony Nitris and Pro Tools; an on-campus media store with good supply of 16mm, super 16mm, digital HD video cameras and high-end sound recording equipment to hire and digital media suites with Macs and PCs with latest programmes for film editing as well as general design work.

Interior of the Music Control Room

Music Control Room

Room: RF07

This studio contains a 24 channel analogue mixing desk and professional audio monitoring solutions.
Interior of the Dubbing Suite

Dubbing Suite

Room: RF03

This room contains:

  • Avid S6 M40 mixing console
  • iMac Pro
  • Pro Tools Ultimate
  • 7.1.2 monitoring
  • 4K projector
Interior of the AVID Online Editing Suite

AVID Online Editing Suite

Room: W111

This room contains:

  • Eight high-end workstations
  • Avid Nexis servers
Interior of the AVID Offline Editing Suite

AVID Offline Editing Suite

Room: W110

This room contains:

  • 17 high-end workstations
  • 16 broadcast monitors
  • Projector for teaching
Interior of the Film studio

Film Studio

Room: B32

This room contains:

  • Egripment Studio Dolly
  • Egripment Dolly Skateboard
  • Wheel pack and tack system
  • Motion capture camera system
  • Computer for motion capture
  • 6x ARRI L7-C Focusable Fresnel
  • 2x SkyPanel S60-C
  • 2x L10-C Focusable Fresnel
  • 5x Large lighting stand
  • 3x Wind up stand
  • 4x C stand
Interior of the Pro Tools Mixing Suite

Pro Tools Mixing Suite

Room: W105D

This room contains:

  • iMac
  • Stereo monitoring
  • Avid Artist Mix controller
  • Arturia Keylab MIDI controller
  • Pro Tools Studio
Interior of a lecture theatre

Lecture Theatre

Room: RG21

This large Lecture theatre with retractable seats has full AV and seats 250 people.
Interior of PC Studio & VR at UCA Farnham

PC & VR Studio

Room: JL11C

  • 20 dual-screen PC workstations
  • Virtual reality play test area with two dedicated PCs
  • Full AV with 2 large screen TVs and full sound
Interior of VR Studio at UCA Farnham

VR Studio

Room: JL22

  • Virtual reality play test area
  • PC workstation and gaming consoles
Launch the Virtual Tour

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.

Ance Priedniece

"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

Entry & portfolio requirements

We’ll need to see your portfolio for this course:

  • 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. 

View Digital Art portfolio advice

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

What’s it like being a student at UCA?

That’s a big question. Get some answers from people who are studying right here, right now.

Chat to a student

Our Staff

Dr Digdem Sezen

Dr Digdem Sezen

Senior Lecturer in Games
Jim Smithyes

Jim Smithyes

Senior Lecturer in Digital Art
Smin Smith

Smin Smith

Lecturer in Digital Art
Darren Fisher, Senior Lecturer: Games, Comic and Concept Art

Dr Darren C Fisher

Senior Lecturer: Games, Comic and Concept Art

Your next steps...

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