Photography at UCA

Enhance your skills, broaden your scope and refine your style as a photographer on our Photography degree course at UCA Farnham.

This course will encourage you to be bold, both in your work and the way in which you display it. You will be encouraged to speculate, experiment and add complexity to your projects, using our extensive facilities to help you realise your ideas.

We also focus on the dissemination, exhibition and publication of photographic work, as well as covering critical theory and reading and writing about the image.

With a balance of support that will develop your practical skills and foster a high standard of diverse critical approaches, you will respond to the diverse field of contemporary photography and explore practices of representation that engage with the still and moving image, as well as performance and installation.

Your studies will be supported by a number of internationally renowned staff in a department that encourages experimentation. This will help you to establish yourself as a rounded professional who can formulate ideas in a sophisticated framework, whilst also communicating impactfully with others, both visually and verbally.

Wherever your career aspirations lie - from fashion to fine art, editorial to curation - we place a strong emphasis on publication, empowering you to find creative ways to disseminate your work beyond the academic context. 

The MA is also available as an MFA route which offers a further enhanced opportunity for students wanting to develop their professional portfolio to the highest level, or to build a proposal for Doctoral level study, and pursue an academic research career path. Applicants can apply to undertake the full MFA, or undertake an MA and transfer to the MFA at the end of the MA period.  

 

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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Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
1 year full-time
Entry requirements

Honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in the subject/related discipline
and/or
Relevant work experience

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Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
2 years full-time
Entry requirements

A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject

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Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
2 years full-time
Entry requirements

Honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in the subject/related discipline
and/or
Relevant work experience

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Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
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Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
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Entry requirements

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Discover the stories of our Photography 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.

On this course you’ll prepare for postgraduate study with a mix of online and face-to-face learning that will give you the study skills required to complete a Masters course. 

Establishing Practice
You will be introduced to advanced research skills and subject specific knowledge, so that you can develop a systematic and critical awareness of current issues, concepts and techniques regarding contemporary photography. You will learn to identify and comprehensively apply relevant research and experimentation to establish your independent photographic practice.

Research Contexts
You will explore the design, construction and expression of practice as a process of research, and be introduced to critical research methodologies which you can employ in your independent research enquiries

Expanding Photographies
This unit will encourage you to think about photography as a tool for experimentation, as an expanded language that intersects different approaches and disciplines. You will be introduced to the idea of contemporary photography as an expanded field of practice, that engages with theoretical and conceptual ideas spanning across analogue, digital and virtual spaces.

Professional Contexts
Focused on professional development, this unit will engage you with relevant professional contexts, through opportunities and projects developed with partner organisations. Through group work and individual research, within this unit you will establish and develop a sense of your own position in relation to your identified subjects, interests and practice areas. This unit also includes the opportunity to develop a creative business plan, funding application, or pitch to professional audiences.

Major Project
As the culmination of your studies, you will undertake a sustained, in-depth and critically informed research inquiry, defining your practice through a substantial body of work and demonstrating an understanding of how it sits in relation to others.

The extension of your degree to an MFA means studying this Advanced Practice unit in addition to the units listed above. This unit is dedicated to developing, extending, and furthering your professional practice. Through advance research methods, you will have to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, confidence, and originality that you have developed as a curatorial practitioner. You will be supported in preparing PhD applications, curating exhibitions, organising public events, and seeking external platforms to work with artists and engage audiences.  

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

MA course:

  • 2025/26 (full-time): £10,500
  • 2025/26 (part-time, year 1): £5,250

MFA course:

  • 2025/26 entry (full-time, year 1): £7,000 

Tuition fees

MA course:

MFA course:

  • 2025/26 (year 1): £7,000  (see fee discount information)

Tuition fees

MA course:

  • 2025/26 (MA): £18,000
  • 2025/26 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - Sept & Jan): £17,500
  • 2025/26 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - May): £8,750

MFA course:

  • 2025/26 (MFA year 1): £11,700

Please note: the fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only. For more detailed information about our course fees please see our fees and finance pages

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of financial support information available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Current UCA students and alumni may be eligible for a tuition fee discount.

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 scholarships and fee discounts.

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.

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 show

Facilities

We have three fully-equipped photographic studios; colour and black and white darkrooms for traditional printing from small, medium and large-format negatives; dedicated digital area with medium and large format printers and high specification digital scanners. Our on-campus media store has both analogue and digital cameras and lighting for hire.

Photography studios, UCA Farnham

Photography studios, UCA Farnham

Photography studios, UCA Farnham

Photography studios, UCA Farnham

Career opportunities

Our MA/MFA Photography course enjoys extensive links with a number of photographic, media and fine art professionals, curators, publishers, specialist printers and book designers. These connections enrich your experience through visiting lecturer and seminar programmes.

In the last three years, speakers on the course have included photographers and other creative practitioners such as:

  • Ori Gersht
  • Zed Nelson
  • Sarah Pickering
  • Eva Stenram
  • Katja Mayer
  • Chiacomo Brunnelli
  • Chris Coekin
  • Harry Borden
  • Jim Mortram

Additionally, creative professionals and industry links for our course include:

  • Benedict Burbridge, editor of Photoworks
  • Stuart Smith, book designer at Smith-Design
  • Karen McQuaid, senior curator of The Photographer's Gallery
  • Jennifer Thatcher, art critic for Art Monthly and Art review
  • Jean Wainwright, curator and art critic for Art Newspaper and Tate Audio Arts
  • Terry King, specialist printer
  • Emily Pethick, director The Showroom
  • Robert Shore, writer and editor of Elephant Magazine
  • Edward Dorrian, organiser of Five Years
  • Aron Mörel, independent book publisher
  • Bruno Ceschel, independent publisher ‘Self Publish Be Happy’
  • Nick Clements, photographer and publisher of Men’s File Magazine
  • Fred Mann, gallerist

Our postgraduate degree prepares you for your career through professional practice units, talks by visiting artists and portfolio reviews with figures from across the photographic industry. Career opportunities include:

  • Freelance photography
  • Fine art
  • Fashion
  • Advertising and editorial
  • Post production/digital imaging
  • Picture editing and research
  • Curating
  • Image, arts and community arts management
  • Gallery administration.

Graduates of MA/MFA Photography have gone on to win the Jerwood Photography prize; to exhibit their work in The Photographers' Gallery, Photofusion, ArtSway and the Geffyre Museum as well as publishing their outputs in different venues ranging from The Sunday Times Magazine to monographs with Dewi Lewis Publishing.

Our course provides an excellent platform for you to connect with your subject, or to further your teaching career at an advanced level.

It also helps prepare you for further study or research to specialise even further.

We also encourage you to apply to national and international competitions and residencies. Recent graduates have met with success at the PhotoforumPasquArt in Switzerland and Emergent Lleida, Spain. Alumni have also gone on to study for PhDs and to teach in many different national and international institutions at a range of levels.

Angus Fraser

"Doing the MA felt like a natural next step for me, both personally and professionally. I had already gained considerable 'real-world' experience and I wanted to return to my studies in order to see what new directions my work could go in. The creative freedom that the course encouraged enabled me to explore different styles and approaches."

Angus Fraser

Entry & portfolio requirements

For this course we will need to see your portfolio for review. You can either submit a digital portfolio or request an in-person portfolio review with the course team. Further information will be provided once you have applied. View portfolio advice

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