In the first year, you'll be introduced to contextual frameworks and you'll begin to examine the process of design development. 

Interior Practice Process 1
The purpose of this unit is to introduce you to the design process from research to final outcome. You will be introduced to fundamental skills and knowledge that provide the learning foundation to help to inform the design process. The unit is informed by close reference to relevant historic and contemporary practice.

Contextual Studies 1
This unit introduces you to a range of historical and contemporary contexts that serve to locate crafts and design practices within wider social and cultural frameworks and promotes contextual research as a fundamental aspect of creative practice. Through a series of illustrated lectures and seminars, the unit explores a range of theoretical and practice-based positions in order to demonstrate the rich diversity of existing approaches to crafts and design, and to consider specific aesthetic decisions in relation to their contexts.

Interior Practice Process 2
This unit builds on Practice Process 1 and you'll test and develop skills and material knowledge from inception to resolution within the context of a given environment. You'll increasingly synthesise processes of research, ideas generation, exploration, documentation, evaluation, resolution and communication at a fundamental level.

Interior Practice Process 3
The purpose of this unit is for you to develop competency in the range of processes, materials and structures learned in previous units and acquire a new range of related skills to further synthesise your ability to respond creatively and with confidence to project briefs.

Your second year will focus on fiding your own specialist way of working, developing communication processes and positioning your own practice. 

Interior Practice Exploration 1
The purpose of this unit is for you to extend and develop your conceptual thinking. This is undertaken through engagement with project briefs and is seen as an impetus to engage in speculative and conceptually led design proposals; team work will feature. Emphasis is placed upon independent critical decision making and external industry awareness. Project concepts remain the catalyst for further design development.

Contextual Studies 2
Objects and environments are fundamental to our understanding of the world. The purpose of this unit is to introduce a range of contexts that demonstrate the importance of meaning, and the ways that this meaning can be used to create and express value within crafts and design practices.

Interior Practice Exploration 2
The purpose of this unit is for you to explore projects in further detail. You are required to consider how a concept develops through to realisation. A comprehensive understanding of the technical drawing process should be demonstrated through development of scale models, joints and junctions, material efficiency and orthographic drawing, as well as detailed design drawings. Emphasis will be placed upon the production of models and drawings at scales from 1:20 through to full size.

Interior Practice Exploration 3
This unit provides, within a defined framework, an opportunity to develop work in response to a live brief resulting in a full size built environment. You are encouraged to develop and refine teamwork as well as individual approaches to research, designing and making and to reflect upon the full scope of second year exploration.

On this course you'll have the unique opportunity within UCA to add an additional year of study at an overseas institution (either at a higher education establishment or workplace).

This optional year 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. 

Studying abroad can be a life-changing experience. Living in another country, you'll experience new places, people, cultures and possibilities. You'll develop initiative, independence, motivation and, depending on where you go, a working knowledge of another language – all qualities employers are looking for. You will return to complete your degree with all the benefits of the International Year experience behind you.

To find out more about studying abroad as part of your course please see the Study Abroad section:

• Study abroad information

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a work placement with a subject appropriate employer to further develop your skills and CV.

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. 

Professional Practice and Portfolio
The professional development of a design project is explained through a lecture series based on the Royal Institute of British Architects 'Stages of Work'. Lectures and tutorials provide methodologies for the preparation of a portfolio of work, curriculum vitae, letter of application and interview techniques.

Final Major Project
The purpose of this unit is for you to realise a graduate major project from a self-initiated brief, within a given framework, that realises individual potential. A selection of topics and sites of a high level of architectural quality will be provided, offering an appropriate level of design challenge.

Contextual Studies 3
The purpose of this unit is for you to conceive, develop and construct a personally meaningful portfolio of contextual research that informs, augments and reflects upon practice, towards the provision of structured narratives that critically engage with a range of contextual and theoretical frameworks and serve to support the positioning of individual practice in relation to past, present and possible future endeavours. 

We’ve established a range of strong industry connections, and companies that often employ our students work for household name clients, including: 

• Aston Martin
• Jaguar
• Mercedes-Benz
• BBC
• Virgin
• AT&T
• The V&A
• Science Museum
• Imperial War Museum
• Karen Millen
• All Saints
• H&M
• Selfridges
• Harvey Nichols
• Hotel Chocolat
• Ritz-Carlton
• Four Seasons
• JW Marriot.

Recent graduates have secured positions in a wide range of design areas such as retail leisure (restaurant, cafes, bars), exhibitions and events, offices and conferences, hotels and clubs, residential, cruise ships and transportation, film sets and computer animation.