BA (Hons) Acting & Performance

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

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Foundation Year, based at UCA Farnham to bring students from around the world to one hub of creativity.

This year of preparatory study 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 the English speaking and writing skills you’ll need to succeed.

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 International Foundation Year

Year 1
For your first Launch Week, you’ll be introduced to studio etiquette, and the disciplines of movement and voice work, with vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day.

Acting Skills 1
This unit will introduce you to a set of skills that will provide a robust foundation for the course and underpin a life-long process of learning for the professional actor and performer. You’ll cover: Movement – getting to know your own physical awareness and choices and using physicality in performance; Voice – you’ll explore body, breath and voice and how to use voice to interpret and work on a text, and how the use of voice work can inform acting choices; Text and Character – techniques to improve reading aloud and sight-reading, and; Improvising and Devising – group workshops to free you to work spontaneously and collaboratively, through games and other methods.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The unit provides an opportunity for students to explore what is meant by equality, diversity, and inclusion and the implications of these concepts for creative practice. It will equip students to understand how our social identities (such as gender, race/ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, and religion) contribute to the inclusion and/or exclusion of individuals in creative spaces.

Screen Acting
You’ll study the fundamentals of screen acting and film creation to make a five-minute non-dialogue film inspired by the film genre you have studied. You’ll develop your understanding of the craft of screen acting and how to convey emotion, thought, physicalisation and movement and storytelling on camera without using dialogue, and explore the basic skills of film including how to set up a camera for filming, framing, lighting and editing.

Opportunity - Stage Combat and Intimacy Co-ordination 1
For your first Opportunity Week, you’ll learn about intimacy practices as part of Stage Combat training. You explore the concepts of consent, soft and hard boundaries, rehearsal and repetition practices in order to create story-specific consistency. Non-armed stage combat will be explored with a specialist.

Approaches to Acting
Approaches to Acting introduces you to both the theoretical and practical approaches to creating a role. You will be introduced to the theory and practice of Konstantin Stanislavski, whose well-documented systems of preparation and rehearsal have had a lasting influence on actor training in the western world. Working on scenes from one of Anton Chekhov’s major plays; you will put the ‘Stanislavski System’ into practice and learn how to approach rehearsal as a mode of inquiry.

Professional Development 1
This unit will be the first to address marketing yourself as an actor and performer when you leave UCA. You will start to meet actors, casting agents and directors from industry who will discuss with you the work you want to make and be cast in.

Individual Performance Project
This final unit of Year 1 combines the skills you have learned throughout the year and anticipates elements of your Final Major Project. You’ll create a live solo performance lasting between five and seven minutes, comprising two different elements, from a monologue or piece of storytelling, a poem, a stand-up routine, a piece of movement or dance or a even a puppet show

ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are tiny pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across the university. Collectively they form a small fraction of your curriculum that is determined through your own personal choice and interest.

PLE Digital Outcome
In this unit you will collate a digital record, reflecting on your learning journey through the first year of your degree. You will be identifying key points and developments within all units undertaken. We are interested in seeing a detailed account of your academic, technical and creative progress and development.

As a Year 2 students your Launch Week will involve welcoming new students to the fold, introducing them to the studio etiquette you learned in your first year, and engaging in vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day.

Staging Dissent
Using examples of scenes from the plays influential and emerging writers, you will explore the underlying themes, subtexts and metaphors that writers employ to create meaning and depth in their work and how as an actor you interpret and translate these intentions into a performance.

The Conscious Practitioner
This unit aims to promote progressive values and attitudes to diversity and inclusion in creative practice. You’ll have the opportunity to explore global perspectives and influences on creative practice, drawing upon interactions with varied identities, cultures, politics, and histories. The unit will explore how beliefs, values and attitudes drive behaviour and practices. Students will reflect on the development of their own creative influences, perspectives, practices, and sense of belonging as developing creative professionals in global and contemporary spaces.

Acting Skills 2
Developing further the practical approach to acting and performance skills introduced in year 1, you will advance yourscreen acting, voice acting, creative and technical skills and focus on remote/ recorded voice skills. You’ll also be introducedto scriptwriting and get an overview of social realist filmmaking.

Opportunity - Movement for Camera and Intimacy Co-ordination 2
In Year 2 you experiment with creating movement for camera with the use of intimacy and boundary practices. The movement for camera will allow time to experiment with the frame and non-naturalistic filming techniques. As with year 1, this project is physical, fun and allows the consent and intimacy work to be developed away from sexually intimate scenes. These are always worked on with an intimacy coordinator and a risk assessment.

Professional Development 2
This unit has a focus on audition preparation and finding opportunities for work, helping you populate showreels with self-tapes and photographs. You’ll be introduced to the various avenues open to you for finding/attracting work as an actor, and practice techniques for auditioning.

ATOM Activities
This unit is an extension of your Year 1 ATOM Activities.

PLE Digital Outcome
You’ll build your industry community and professional networking footprint, creating a digital folder evidencing that you are actively engaging in sustainable professional development. You’ll showcase current and newly established professional networks and identify common interests.

Elective units
You'll also undertake two elective units across the year - choose from:

• Applied Skills for a Sustainable Media Industry - UCA is a founder member of the albert Education Partnership from BAFTA, which brings together Film and TV course providers from across the country and empowers their students to consider and help alleviate the screen industry’s impact on the climate crisis. Upon successful completion of this unit, you will achieve certification as an ‘albert Grad’, signalling your achievement of highly employable skills for a sustainable industry.
• Audio World Building - Sound design can have an enormous impact on any moving image project. This unit will encourage you to explore the way sound can be used to underpin action, describe the unseen, establish an environment, set a tone, depict a mood or even to directly elicit an emotional response from an audience. 
• Cinematography - This unit is essential if you want to develop yuor skills in visual storytelling and creating compelling visuals for film and video. By taking this unit, you will learn the principles of cinematography and gain hands-on experience using industry-standard equipment to create professional quality visuals.
• Consent, Intimacy and Stage Combat - This unit focuses on the fundamental skills and principles required for performing effective, believable, and safer intimacy and unarmed (hand to hand) combat for stage and screen.
• Film Production - This unit is designed to provide learners with practical skills and knowledge in film production, with a focus on collaboration, professionalism, and self-reflection. The unit will culminate in a group film production project, where learners will have the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge.
• Immersive Production - You will explore cutting edge and future focused technology to gain a broad comprehension of the expertise and skills required if you want to delve further into immersive media production. The unit will enable you to get a strong understanding of where the production industry is heading and allow you to pitch a concept using these technologies for a television production brief.
• Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Music and Theatre - This unit encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between Music, Acting & Performance, and Design for Theatre & Screen to plan, rehearse and deliver a live performance piece to an audience of peers and the public. This project puts music performance at the centre of the collaboration. 
• Loops and Micro Format Films - You’ll discover the creativity and versatility of the simple animated (or live action) loop for use on your website as a showcase to promote your own work or engage your ‘brand’, and create three loops to upload to your websites or use in social media for self-promotion.
• Motion Capture & Green Screen - Motion capture is a technique used to capture the movements of actors or objects in digital form. Green screen is a technique used to composite two or more images or video streams together by replacing a specific colour (usually green or blue) with another image or video stream. In this unit you’ll learn about how both these things can work in the VFX industry.
• Physical Theatre Production - You’ll work together with students from a wide range of courses to make a live physical theatre production. This could be further augmented by animated material or filmed material. TV or film students may also be involved capturing or streaming the performance.
• Postproduction Editing - This elective unit is essential if you want to become proficient in the art of post-production film editing. Using industry-standard software - Avid Media Composer (Davinci Resolve, and Premiere Pro) – you’ll create a professional quality scene and have analysed and evaluated professional editing and sound design workflows.
• Prestige Television - Starting with the claim that television reaches more people than any other cultural form, this unit examines and articulates the meanings of ‘Quality’ and ‘Prestige’ as they relate to Television, and why these genres of ‘Prestige’ have become dominant.
• Screen Writing - You’ll be introduced to a range of creative writing skills and, in particular, the highly visual medium of writing for film and television. You will view and compare the work of some of the industry’s most accomplished contemporary screen writers, learn how to present and format a script and write your own story outline for a short film, series or screenplay.
• Shakespeare Festival - In this unit you will stage an abridged version of a Shakespeare play in an outdoor festival setting at sites around UCA Farnham campus. A director will help you shape the play and actors, composers and designers will work together to rehearse and run the festival events. 
• TV in the Age of Digital Disruption - This unit examines and critically interrogates the changing dynamics of television production, distribution, textual analysis and audience engagement in an age of ‘digital disruption’, particularly following the rise of streaming services.
• Verbatim - You will explore Verbatim texts and performance practices including ‘headphone’ theatre and documentary theatre practices. The unit will culminate in small group films/performances using the practical techniques studied.
• Virtual Production - Virtual production has emerged as a cutting-edge technology that revolutionizes the way film and television productions are made. You’ll gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to use virtual production tools and techniques to create immersive and interactive digital content.

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 Week
As a final year student, Launch Week presents an opportunity to work with new and Year 2 students on the annual acclimation and ‘bootcamp’ activities, including vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day. You can learn to mentor new students and if you’re interested in a career in teaching, you may opt to assist with class delivery.

Live Performance
This unit is the final directed performance of the course. Led by professional directors and senior staff, you will work on a live staged performance, to be shown to an invited audience.

Screen Performance
For the culmination of your studies in screen acting, you’ll work on a film performance through scenes (and monologues), from commissioned or published screenplays. Additionally, you are likely to be called upon to crew as required. Screen acting sometimes requires an intimate relationship with the camera as well as with your scene partner. You will be taught skills in creating intimacy safely and consensually.

Opportunity week - Professional Development 5
This is an intensive week of industry talks and networking opportunities. Speakers may include UCA alumni, stage and screen actors and directors, casting directors, Equity, Spotlight and more. The week will culminate in a tutorial where the student can reflect on the ideas and information and get personalised career advice from a member of the team.

Final Major Project – Practice as Research
This final unit engages you with several periods of sustained research on an individually negotiated subject. This will most likely be related to the contextual and/or theoretical concerns of your chosen areas of practice. Once you have your research title agreed, you’ll explore it through the following typical assessments:

• An essay in which you’ll articulate your research
• A performance project to practically explore and investigate the issue, concern, practice or theory of the topic
• A viva voce to examine or discuss a critical reflection of the process you undertook for your research, the exploration of your analysis and your modes of expression

This course offers the opportunity to study abroad for part of your second year. To find out more about studying abroad as part of your course please see the Study Abroad section:

• Study abroad information

Tuition fees - 2024 entry

UK students:

• Integrated Foundation Year - £9,250
• BA course - £9,250

EU students:

• Integrated International Foundation Year - £9,250 (see fee discount information)
• BA course - £9,250 (see fee discount information)

International students:

• Integrated International Foundation Year - £17,500
• BA course - £17,500

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850 (UK students) and £3,390 (International students). 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. 

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

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.

You'll find everything you need to know for your level of study on our scholarships page.

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 your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Taught by lecturers with professional acting or directing experience, you’ll quickly learn what it takes to be an industry professional. Our degree course is designed by professionals to train contemporary actors, and our valuable industry links include:

• Farnham Maltings
• British Actors’ Equity
• Drama UK (the body that oversees drama training across the country).

Alongside (or as an alternative to) theatre, TV, radio or film work, a portfolio career for the professional freelance actor may also include:

• Acting in corporate films, and live role-play in business training
• Forming a company to create and stage your own work
• Commercials (film or audio)
• Voicing computer games and animations
• Creating original material for Image Capture projects
• Community projects such as theatre in schools.

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

BA (Hons) course
BA (Hons) course with Professional Practice Year

The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:

• 112 UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Distinction, Merit, Merit at BTEC Extended Diploma / BTEC National Extended Diploma
• Merit at UAL Extended Diploma
• 112 UCAS tariff points from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma in appropriate subject
• 27-30 total points in the International Baccalaureate Diploma with at least 15 IB points at Higher level, see more information about IB entry requirements.

And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.  

Audition requirements

For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

More portfolio advice

BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year
BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year

The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:

• 32 UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Pass, Pass, Pass at BTEC Extended Diploma / BTEC National Extended Diploma
• Pass at UAL Extended Diploma
• 32 new UCAS tariff points from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma in appropriate subject
• 24 points from the International Baccalaureate, see more information about IB entry requirements.

And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply. 

Audition requirements

For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results. We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios, as well as their grades -  in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.

BA (Hons) course
BA (Hons) course with Professional Practice Year

The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:

• 112 new UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Distinction, Merit, Merit at BTEC Extended Diploma / BTEC National Extended Diploma
• Merit at UAL Extended Diploma
• 112 new UCAS tariff points from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma in appropriate subject
• 27-30 total points in the International Baccalaureate Diploma with at least 15 IB points at Higher level, see more information about IB entry requirements.

And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.  

Audition requirements

For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

More portfolio advice

BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year
BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year

The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:

• 64 new UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Merit, Pass, Pass at BTEC Extended Diploma / BTEC National Extended Diploma
• Pass at UAL Extended Diploma
• 64 new UCAS tariff points from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma in appropriate subject
• 24 points from the International Baccalaureate, see more information about IB entry requirements.

And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply. 

Audition requirements

These courses do not require an audition. If you receive an offer, you’ll be invited to attend an Applicant Day where you can meet the course team and learn more about the course. 

*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results. We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios, as well as their grades -  in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.

BA (Hons) course
BA (Hons) course with Professional Practice Year

The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please check the equivalent qualifications for your country:

• Non-UK equivalent qualifications

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

Audition requirements

For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. If you would prefer to upload your audition digitally, there is also the option to submit it online via your UCA Applicant Portal. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

BA (Hons) course with Integrated International Foundation Year
BA (Hons) course with Integrated International Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year

For these courses you need to have completed 12 years of schooling (with good grades) and show strong evidence of your ability to successfully complete the programme and progress onto your chosen degree.

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

Audition requirements

These courses don't require an audition. If you receive an offer, you’ll be invited to attend an Applicant Day where you can meet the course team and learn more about the course. 

English language requirements

To study at UCA, you'll need to have a certain level of English language skill. And so, to make sure you meet the requirements of your course, we ask for evidence of your English language ability, please chcek the level of English language required:

• English language requirements