In the first year, you'll be introduced to the University and the technical workshops and facilities available to you. On the course you’ll learn the technical and conceptual skills that will give you a solid foundation from which to explore your areas of specialist activity.

Contemporary Art Practice
This unit introduces you to the key concepts of contemporary art practice. Throughout you'll develop both practical and intellectual skills relevant to establishing a meaningful relationship with art. This will be informed by the conditions of current political, social, environmental experience.

Critical Dialogues
This unit is a study of both historical and theoretical ideas that inform Contemporary Art. You'll be introduced to the genealogy of art history that influences contemporary art practice.

Spatial Practices
This unit introduces the role of space within Fine Art practice. Space is a key element of the making, presentation, consideration and critique of an artwork. It is also fundamental to how audiences interpret the value, meaning and status of artworks.

Research and Analysis
This unit increases your understanding of ways of viewing, commenting and deciphering art works and media. You'll learn how to collate, reflect, critique and disseminate concerns and interests in written form through research folders, reflective and critical journals. Through a series of workshops and seminars, you'll be introduced to ways of supporting and enhancing practice through ideas and commentary, and will learn how to confidently present your ideas and work.

The second year focus is on finding your own specialist way of working and you’ll be encouraged and supported to start working more independently. During this year you may also have the opportunity to complete an industry work placement or even study abroad. 

Studio Practices
Within your chosen broad areas of discipline (painting, sculpture or print media), you'll develop your understanding and development from an initial awareness of your subject focus and intent, to an accomplished knowledge of the complexities and debates surrounding your subject.

Critical Theory
You'll explore key ideas and debates relating to art practices of the current and last century.

Contemporary Exhibition Practice
We'll ask you to conduct a personal field study of the contemporary art world. Through a process of reflection and critical analysis, and in collaboration with your fellow students, you'll then be asked to pitch a joint proposal for a cultural event to a group of your peers. This will culminate in a live project external to the University which you and your peer group will organise and curate.

Study Abroad (optional)
This optional unit is designed to broaden your educational experience and deepen your understanding of cultural diversity, enabling you to study within a different cultural context and gain fresh perspectives of fine art.

The third year will see you achieve a greater level of independence with self-managed research, study and practice, resulting in a final major project and a written dissertation. 

Practice Resolution
This work will form the basis of your practical work in Year 3. You'll be encouraged to identify key issues and concerns in your work through your project proposal, which may provide the basis for your future development and help you to discover a distinctive identity. We'll ask you to focus primarily on the resolution of current issues and concerns in your studio practice, rather than on the formulation of new ideas.

Dissertation
You'll undertake a substantial period of sustained, individually negotiated research on a subject related to the contextual and/or theoretical concerns of your discipline or chosen area of practice, towards the provision of structured written argument.

Realising Professional Practice
In this unit you'll be introduced to the specifics of creative management relevant to Fine Art and how this can be applied to sustaining and realising a practice externally.

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

As a long-established and well connected course, Fine Art at our Farnham campus has strong industry links with highly regarded names in the art world, including:

• The Institute of Contemporary Art
• Jerwood Space
• Zeitgeist Art Platform
• Henry Moore Institute
• Blythe Gallery (Imperial College)
• Resonance FM
• Leeds and Cass Sculpture Foundation.

Students have exhibited at galleries such as 242 Gallery, 10 Gales, Blyth Gallery at Imperial College London, Bargehouse in South Bank and so on. They've exhibited locally at The Lightbox in Woking, James Hockey Gallery and Alice Holt Forest in Farnham and Watts Gallery in Guildford. They've also been selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the Threadneedle Prize, amongst other competitions.

Our alumni have won the Jerwood Drawing Prize, John Walker Painting Prize and Neo Art Print Prize, and recent graduates have gone on to become practising:

• Artists
• Curators
• Creative project managers
• Teachers
• Writers
• Production assistants
• Technicians
• Arts administrators
• Entrepreneurs
• Gallery owners
• Illustrators
• Art historians.

The adaptability instilled in our students has translated into exciting and diverse opportunities for many of our graduates, such as creating concert projections for Madonna, collaborations with Sadler’s Wells and the highly specialist casting of human organs for medical research.