Available in Clearing

Fine Art at UCA

Learn about yourself and where you fit in the world and connect it into your art on our close-knit and collaborative BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at UCA Farnham.

The course is all about connecting personal passion, ideas, and a broad range of skills to help you become an artist who can exhibit work with confidence and build an exciting professional career in any of a wide range of fields, from full-time artist to art therapist, to curator.  

Professional opportunities are embedded throughout the course, including organising a local art festival, entering local, national, and international competitions, and sharing your art externally. You’ll identify, plan, and prepare for life beyond graduation. And you’ll be taught – with plenty of one-to-one contact – by an academic team who are actively practising in industry.  

Most of all, you’ll be challenged to learn new things, investigate your own practice, see the world differently, and make mistakes. This is your home to grow creatively.

 

Apply through Clearing

Speak to our Admissions Team today to secure your place.

Call: 01252 918 240 Apply Online

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W101
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
3 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points
International equivalent qualifications

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W10K
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

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

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W10M
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W104
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points
International equivalent qualifications

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W10L
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

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

Close
Institution code
C93
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements

Two minute stories


Discover the stories of our Art students
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 with 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.

Photography
This is an interdisciplinary skills-based elective unit open to Fine Art and Digital Arts students and introduces you to multiple photography skills to build and enhance your existing skill set.

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

Professional Identities
This employment-focused programme-specific unit offers you the opportunity to identify relevant professional contexts and navigate your relationship with these contexts.

Learning Enhancement
In this unit, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake enhanced subject-specific workshops and training to enrich your existing skill set.

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, looking at the ways in which fine art practices document, intersect with, 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.

Conceptual disciplinary elective
This research-informed, conceptually driven interdisciplinary elective unit is for Fine Art, Digital Arts, and Photography students, to meet your own bespoke learning journey.

Opportunity
During this opportunity week you will receive one personal tutorial that feeds back on the previous terms work 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 fine art as an expanded field of creative practice, and how it can open out across multiple mediums and engages with the world. We want you to examine imaginative possibilities that sit between meaning and materiality using a range of approaches and processes.

Professional development
You’ll build on the work you did in Year 1 on your professional outlook, develop the necessary skills to confidently engage with relevant professional contexts, and putt together a professional experience plan.

Professional experience
Following on from the previous unit, you’ll get the opportunity to engage with external-facing professional contexts as part of your journey from student to graduate. This will enable you to understand how your practice sits within a range of professional contexts outside of an educational environment. 

ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome
These units are an extension of the Year 1 ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome.

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 previous terms work, 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

Industry placement
offer

Preparing graduates for successful careers underpins everything we do, and all students on this course may be offered support to identify and prepare for an industry placement according to their individual needs. We’ll draw on our wide range of contacts within the creative industries to help provide you with opportunities that align with your interests and future career aspirations.

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.

Explore our gradshow

Each year, we’re privileged to be able to share our graduates’ incredible work with the world. And now’s your chance to take a look.

Visit the online showcase
Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

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

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. 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 - 2024/25 entry

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

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. 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 - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated International Foundation Year: £16,950
  • 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 £3,390. 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 your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Facilities

Extensive studio spaces and access to work shop for painting, sculpture, wood and plaster and mould making; campus print studios with relief and block printing, plate or stone lithography, intaglio, letterpress, photopolymer plate printing and screen-printing; metals workshop with blacksmithing area and forge for large scale projects and also lathes, mills and bandsaw; modern library with a wealth of books, journals, special collections and online resources.

View 360 virtual tour

Fine Art studios, UCA Farnham

Print studios, UCA Farnham

Sculpture workshop, UCA Farnham

Materials workshop, UCA Farnham

Career opportunities

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 practicing:

  • Artists
  • Curators
  • Creative project managers
  • Special effects prop makers
  • Set designers
  • 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.

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

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

Catinca Malaimare

"I loved that, through the work on the course, I could participate in different areas of exhibition-making, fundraising events, work placements opportunities, internships, workshops and more."

Catinca Malaimare

Entry & portfolio requirements

For these courses we’ll need to see your portfolio for review. You'll be invited to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your portfolio review in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. International students will be asked to submit an online portfolio. Further information will be provided once you have applied.

View more portfolio advice

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

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