Fashion (including foundation year)

Our Fashion (including foundation year) BA (Hons) is an alternative route into higher education if you don’t hold traditional qualifications or can’t meet the requirements to enter the traditional three-year undergraduate degree.

This four-year course has a built-in foundation year, which is designed to prepare you for academic study at undergraduate level and equip you with the skills and techniques you’ll use in workshops and studios.

You’ll graduate with the same award and title as students study the traditional three-year course.

More about this course

Our Fashion (including foundation year) BA (Hons) degree will give you a comprehensive view into the fashion industry and its professional environments, including design, material, technology, research and consultancy.

The foundation year will focus on creative practice within historical, conceptual, cultural and contemporary contexts, while developing your key study skills including writing, research and critical analysis. You’ll learn how to ask questions regarding your field of study, find answers via information gathering and critical analysis, as well as how to present them in an academic format.

On the foundation year you’ll also be introduced to techniques used within art, fashion and design that will be necessary when you begin working in studios and workshops. You’ll learn about a range of different materials, methods and processes to create work within the broad context of art and design. There will also be opportunities to practise the techniques you’ve learned via short practical-making projects, as well as through open-ended longer projects that will focus on developing your sense of direction and a personal perspective on art, fashion and design.

During these projects you’ll get the opportunity to explore pattern designing and cutting, couture fashion, textiles, embellishments and customisation, fashion drawing and photography.

Your subsequent three years of study will focus on more in-depth study of fashion and you’ll be joined by students on the standard three-year course, studying the same content and having the same choice of modules.