BA in Art and Design

Maker? Thinker? Futurist? Coder? Performer? Technologist? Conservationist? Designer? Interested? Many innovative creative studios now define themselves as interdisciplinary, a word which we define as the fluid movement across the fields of art, design and technology.

What's covered in this course?

Our course will prepare you to be ready for employment within the creative industries by providing you with long-term creative skills to map out your creative future. With you at the centre, we will explore the intersections of art and design, providing a space where you can understand, develop and create a career in the evolving creative industries. You will develop the necessary self-awareness to question, make, play and create with others.

The versatility of our experimental studio environment will enable you to explore the necessary collisions that innovative ideas creation now requires while enhancing a range of core skills including design thinking, creative problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and making.

Whether you choose to combine creative coding with foraging for natural materials, photography with artificial intelligence, or welding with audio performance, you will respond to live briefs set by real-life clients.

The flexible, student-centred approach to the curriculum, informed by professional practitioners, will enable you to be imaginative, confident and convincing in designing and shaping your role in tomorrow’s free-flowing, boundary-free creative industries.

Creative technologies pathway

All students will be introduced to the fundamentals of interdisciplinary art and design practice with a focus on new creative technologies, which forms the core ethos of this course. In line with the development of our digital futures, we are introducing an optional pathway in Creative Technologies which will give you the opportunity to focus specifically on further developing your digital skills through a breadth of technological approaches.

If you choose the Creative Technologies pathway you will cover the same curriculum but will opt for technology-based outcomes. You will be assessed in relation to your exploration, questioning and use of a range of contemporary digital technologies and your creative applications in relation to the module theme. Work may still embrace a sense of physicality, but the focus will retain an element of Creative Technologies. You can either choose the Creative Technologies pathway at the start of your studies or transfer over to the Creative Technologies pathway at the end of each academic year. At the end of each year, during feedback with tutors, you can transfer over to the Creative Technologies pathway, but you will be required to evidence 80% engagement with the weekly Creative Technologies workshops, which you will document on a digital platform ‘Workshop Log’. If you have not engaged in workshops to 80%, you will need to evidence sufficient engagement over the summer.

Professional placement year

This course offers a professional placement year. This allows you to spend a whole year with an employer, between the second and third years of your degree and is a great way to find out more about your chosen career. Some students even return to the same employers after completing their studies.

The University will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. If you do not find a suitable placement, you will be automatically transferred back to the standard, non-placement version of the course.

Please note that fees are payable during your placement year, equivalent to 20% of the total full-time course fee for that year (£1,850 for UK students).

Why choose us?

1. 92% of students are satisfied with the teaching of this course (NSS 2022).
2. Our cutting-edge course is future-focused and has been designed in collaboration with leading industry partners.
3. Creative Technologies are one of the leading future jobs markets.
4. You will work on live briefs set by real-life clients, and in your second year, you will have the opportunity to choose to do a work placement or study abroad.
5. Our course explores and unites the fundamental creative principles that are common to all three schools of Birmingham City University’s Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts (BICA). These are the School of Art, the School of Visual Communication, and the School of Games, Film and Animation.
6. Birmingham School of Art is celebrating 130 years of art at Margaret Street – its Grade I-listed building, located in the heart of the Colmore Business District, and in close proximity to the city’s cultural institutions and creative hubs, e.g. Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Barber Institute and the Jewellery Quarter.

First Year

In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following core modules (totalling 120 credits)

Second Year

In order to complete this course you must successfully complete at least 20 credits from the following list of optional modules:

• Collaborative Practice
• Work Placement

Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.

Professional Placement Year (Optional)

• Professional Placement Year

Final Year

Enhancing employability skills

Placements

Links to Industry