A piece of artwork being displayed in an exhibition space.

BA(Hons) Fine Art (with Foundation Year)

Entry year
2025/26
Course code
W10F
Application
UCAS
Level
Undergraduate
School
School of Arts
Tariff points
72
Campus
City Campus
Duration
Four years
Delivery
Full-time
Programme leader
Mary Murphy

This course is open for applications

Introduction

Build your confidence in fine art practice and develop a range of transferable professional skills to support your future in the creative industries and beyond.

Accreditations and partnerships:

Why study fine art?

Art generates powerful platforms for debate. Artists make new ideas visible and play important roles in society as cultural commentators, teachers and activists. Fine Art at UWE Bristol opens doors to a wide range of careers within the global landscape of the creative industries.

Why UWE Bristol?

BA(Hons) Fine Art is based at Spike Island, an internationally renowned contemporary art venue in the heart of Bristol. This is part of UWE Bristol’s City Campus, along with Bower Ashton Studios, which house exceptional making facilities and resources. Here, you’ll join a vibrant arts and cultural community that’ll challenge and inspire you.

This multi-disciplinary course offers a collaborative environment, modern facilities, supportive workshop instruction, critical discussion and expert input. Studying here will allow you to develop your practice in areas such as painting, sculpture, installation, performance, film and digital media.

Tailoring the course towards your particular interests and ideas, you'll have the chance to work in any medium during your studies, develop your ideas and shape your own professional journey.

You'll exhibit and showcase your work regularly throughout the course, including in the renowned annual Spike Island Open Studios, when the whole of Spike Island opens to the public.

Where can it take me?

Our BA(Hons) Fine Art course is dedicated to fostering your career growth. As a graduate, you could not only become an accomplished artist, but also emerge as a leader, educator or social entrepreneur.

You’ll develop skills and strengths that are highly valued by a wide range of employers, making you a desirable graduate. You could find employment in diverse roles across the cultural sector, the creative industries, and beyond.

Structure

Content

In level 4, you'll be guided through a combination of practical and contextual modules that will introduce a range of technical skills and concepts related to contemporary art practices.

In level 5, you’ll build from the skills developed at Level 4. You will continue to develop your art practice as well as expand your knowledge in professional practice and contextual modules.

In level 6, you'll create an ambitious, self-directed practice underpinned by contextual research. You'll hone your understanding of your graduate strategy through the professional practice support.

This structure is for full-time students only. Part-time students study the same modules but the delivery pattern may be different.

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved, we'll inform you.

Learning and Teaching

The learning outcomes for this course are achieved through a mix of active teaching methods in timetabled sessions, as well as tutorial support and independent study.

You’ll participate in activities led or facilitated by teaching staff. These include lectures (such as the Fine Art Lecture Series), seminars, tutorials, presentations, peer reviews, technical workshops, practical studio time, and off-site visits and events.

Most sessions are face-to-face on campus, with some blended learning to enhance your experience. Tutors include fine artists, curators, and writers with national and international profiles, connected to UWE Bristol research groups and the wider cultural sector.

A key difference from school or college is the emphasis on independent study. You’ll prepare for sessions through project development, research tasks, and assessment preparation. Independent study time increases as you progress, reflecting a greater focus on self-directed learning.

See our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.

Study time

In a typical week in your first year, you could expect to be timetabled with academic staff for an average of 12 hours, with the expectation that you'll also work on practice and assessment tasks through independent self-study for an additional 12 -18 hours. 

Assessment

There are no exams on this course. You'll be assessed through the art you make, presentations, reflective and analytical written assignments and research projects through a series of modules during the course.

You'll be supported by tutors in developing your assessment tasks. The University also provides a wide range of study support.

Learn more about assessments.

Features

Placements

Students who get work experience tend to graduate with better degrees. Experience also hones your skills, industry knowledge and professional network, making you a sought-after graduate. Work experience is a component part of this course. We've extensive links with industry and commerce and the cultural and voluntary sectors.

Study abroad

Broaden your perspective by taking part in our international exchange programme.

Increase your confidence, intercultural communication skills and boost your employability. Explore our study abroad pages to find out more.

We provide support and encouragement for students who want to apply for competitions, further study and funding.

Fieldwork

You'll go on study visits during this course. We organise trips to see new exhibitions and connect with arts professionals in UK locations.

Study facilities

Access a range of resources available at other City Campus sites, including Bower Ashton and Spike Island.

Learn more about UWE Bristol's facilities and resources.

Take a personalised virtual tour of the Art facilities and experience what a typical day could look like here for you.

Life

Accommodation

An excellent range of options for all of the Bristol campuses and the city centre.

Bristol

A stunning city for student living with all the qualities to make you want to stay.

Sports, societies and activities

There is more to your experience here than study. Choose to make the most of it and try new things.

Health and Wellbeing

We provide support in the way you need it.

Campus and facilities

Discover our campuses and the wealth of facilities provided for our students.

Careers

Careers / Further study

BA(Hons) Fine Art at UWE Bristol is strongly focused on your career development. As well as becoming successful artists, our graduates become leaders, educators and social entrepreneurs, employed in a wide range of roles in the cultural sector, creative industries and beyond.

Our Fine Art graduates possess skills and strengths that are important to a wide range of employers. You’ll develop valuable transferable skills through our integrated professional practice modules that build your confidence about career development year on year. This includes undertaking work experience.

We have also developed a series of professional opportunities with high profile partners to help your emerging career as an art practitioner. For instance, recent graduates have benefitted from opportunities such as British Council Venice Fellowships, Graduate Fellowships with Spike Island and Spike Associates Bursaries.

Past students have been selected for some of the most prestigious contemporary art platforms in the UK including New Contemporaries and The Turner Prize.

Our graduates have gone on to be employed by the Tate, Hayward Gallery, Arnolfini, Camden Art Centre and many other cultural institutions. Others have held senior positions in secondary education, universities and regional government and have set up acclaimed social enterprises and businesses, such as Frank Water.

Some graduates go on to further study at postgraduate level, including our own MA Fine Art course and PGCE teacher training postgraduate courses.

Get inspired

Our award-winning careers service will develop your employment potential through career coaching and find you graduate jobs, placements and global opportunities.

We can also help find local volunteering and community opportunities, provide support for entrepreneurial activity and get you access to employer events.

Visit our employability pages to learn more about careers, employers and what our students are doing six months after graduating.

Fees*

Supplementary fee information

*The UK Government recently proposed that tuition fees for Home students will increase by 3.1% to £9,535 from 1st August 2025. This increase is subject to Parliamentary approval and the vote is expected to take place later this year.

Any tuition fee which is impacted by this change will be updated following approval.

Please see GOV.UK for further information.

Your overall entitlement to funding is based on how long the course is that you're registered on. Standard funding is allocated based on the standard number of years that your course lasts, plus one additional year.

You'll apply for funding each year that you study and Student Finance will take into account how long the course is in each year that you apply. So if you register for the five year course and then transfer to the four year course, the number of years you can apply for funding will change. Student Finance will reassess your funding based on how many years you have been in study, not just those years for which you received student finance.

Always seek advice before taking any action that may have implications for your funding.

Learn more about funding.

Additional costs

Additional costs are for items you could need during your studies that aren't covered by the standard tuition fee. These could be materials, textbooks, travel, clothing, software or printing.

Learn more about costs.

Entry

Typical offers

  • Tariff points: 72
  • Contextual tariff: See our contextual offers page.
  • GCSE: Grade C/4 in English, or equivalent.
  • English Language Requirement:

    International and EU applicants are requirement to have a minimum overall IELTS (Academic) score of 5.5 with 5.5 in each component (or approved equivalent*).
    *The university accepts a large number of UK and International Qualifications in place of IELTS. You can find details of acceptable tests and the required grades you will need in our English Language section. Please visit our English language requirements page.

  • A-level subjects: No specific subjects required.
  • Relevant subjects: Art and Design.
  • EDEXCEL (BTEC) Diploma: No specific subjects required.

    For information on required Guided Learning Hours please see our minimum entry requirements page.

  • Access: No specific subjects required.
  • Baccalaureate IB: No specific subjects required.
  • Irish Highers: No specific subjects required.
  • Welsh Baccalaureate: We accept tariff points achieved from the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales in conjunction with other Level 3 qualifications.
  • Cambridge Technical: No specific subjects required.
  • T Levels: No specific subjects required.

Selection process

Applicants may be required to submit a digital portfolio for review within three weeks of their application being received.

For more details on the process, please visit our selection page.

Entry requirements

If you exceed the entry requirements you may be eligible for BA(Hons) Fine Art.

International applicants

For country specific entry requirements please find your country on the country information pages.

Read more about entry requirements.

How to apply

Read more about undergraduate applications.

Read more about international applications and key international deadline dates.

For further information

Unistats

UWE Main Campus

Full Time

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