Wolverhampton School of Art

BA (Hons) Photography with Sandwich placement

BA (Hons) Sandwich 4 years

With a vital understanding of the myriad histories, identities and dimensions fuelling the field of photography, the historic Wolverhampton School of Art delivers a course enabling you to thrive in exciting and fast-moving creative industries across an array of career paths. 

With a vital understanding of the myriad histories, identities and dimensions fuelling the field of photography, the historic Wolverhampton School of Art delivers a course enabling you to thrive in exciting and fast-moving creative industries across an array of career paths. 

Award
BA (Hons)
Start date(s)
16 September 2024
UCAS Code
W642
Course specifications
Course length
Sandwich (4 years)
Campus location
Wolverhampton City Campus
UCAS points calculator

Why choose this course?

With a vital understanding of the myriad histories, identities and dimensions fuelling the field of photography, the historic Wolverhampton School of Art delivers a course enabling you to thrive in exciting and fast-moving creative industries across an array of career paths. Purpose-built studio spaces and workshops equipped with professional equipment – including darkrooms, a digital printmaking factory, scanning and editing suites – will be employed throughout the curriculum, ensuring that your exploration, development and creation of your informed work. Under the tutelage of the University of Wolverhampton’s staff, themselves internationally exhibiting specialists in a wide range of disciplines, you will contribute to a creative student culture through collaboration, presentation of ideas, live assignments and published work, the professional placement option available through the sandwich year programme further emphasising your qualities and professional development when exploring potential employment.

What's unique about this course?

  • Our modules are assessed on 100% course work. 
  • The National Student Survey 2022 and our students have awarded our BA (Hons) course with 100%
  • We have a strong focus on live projects and employability with regular live projects set within industry

What happens on the course?

Centred around coursework, much of this programme hinges on your development of knowledge, conceptual and contextual, exploring, challenging and interrogating established photographic genres with the freedom afforded to you by the curriculum. Using as a guiding principle the idea that images should be about something rather than of something, you will examine the relationships between identity and portraiture, place and location and narrative and performance among other engaging themes, drawing from a broad scope of art to build your critical practice and strengthening your self-motivation in the process.

Taking full advantage of the University’s facilities, you will be encouraged to participate in the culture of studios and workshops, keeping in contact with the art and design community. Live projects are embedded into the curriculum, with opportunities for you to participate in professional experiences and networking activities courtesy of prestigious contacts: galleries, curators, publishers and editors among others. The work portfolio you will be able to create through these activities will ably demonstrate your proficiencies, staying mindful of audiences, appropriate publication and future employment.

The sandwich year placement provides another excellent option for you to develop your practice in the workplace, enhancing your employability before the completion of your degree. You will be assisted by the School in securing work placements, undertaking live briefs, engaging directly with employers and developing key employability skills. Alumni typically go on to hold positions as editors, exhibiting and documentary photographers, publishers, curators and educators.

Course Modules

Potential Career Paths

Additional Information

Everything you need to know about this course!

Your curriculum will see you study in the School of Art’s purpose-built studio spaces and workplaces, making use of specialist equipment unavailable in other schools and colleges. Darkrooms, a printmaking facility, digital scanning facilities and editing suites are all provided to facilitate your coursework production. You will be granted opportunities to publish work, as well as compiling personal and professional portfolios using our studios and equipment.

The community of staff and students at the University of Wolverhampton is remarkably collaborative and constructive. Teachers are published, exhibited specialists in archives, identity, landscape, performance, phototherapy and portraiture, bringing their experience to the content of your course. With other industry professionals working alongside them, you will develop critical awareness of careers in contemporary photographic practice, building self-motivation for your own career journey.

This course’s teaching of photography covers a wide range of skills effective across creative industries. Editing, curating, publishing, documenting and educating all hinge on the abilities studied and developed in this programme. Options available to you will include work placements, live briefs, employer correspondence and achievement of an Employability Award. You may also use your skills upon graduation to enter practices such as arts and health, or otherwise continue research on a Masters level.

Location Mode Fee Year
Home Sandwich £9250 per year 2022-23
Home Sandwich £9250 per year 2023-24
Home Sandwich £9250 per year 2023-24
Home Sandwich £9250 per year 2024-25
International Sandwich £13450 per year 2022-23
International Sandwich £14450 per year 2023-24
International Sandwich £14450 per year 2023-24
International Sandwich £14950 per year 2024-25

Additional Course Costs

Additional Materials: £50 to 250 per semester - Prices vary according your subject of practice.

Additional Field Trips: £50 to 500 - Prices will vary according to location.

Additional Events: £350 - Degree Show/New Designers. Costs will vary according to the medium and mode of your practice but considerations will be around materials, installation and presentation.

Further information on these additional costs will be provided prior to the start of your studies.

Further information on these additional costs will be provided prior to the start of your studies

The University is committed to a transparent fee structure, with no hidden costs, to help you make an informed decision. This includes information on what is included in the fee and how fees are calculated and reviewed

Typical entry requirement: 96 UCAS points including a level 3 qualification in Art and Design.

  • A Levels - grades CCC / BCD
  • BTEC L3 Extended Diploma or OCR Cambridge L3 Technical Extended Diploma - grades MMM
  • BTEC L3 Diploma - grades DD
  • Access to HE Diploma (60 credits) of which a minimum of 45 must be at Level 3 (96 UCAS point equivalence, minimum 45 credits at merit)
  • UAL L3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design - grade M

Use the UCAS Tariff calculator to check your qualifications and points

Other Requirements

Those meeting the entry requirements may be shortlisted for a Portfolio Review. Further details can be found at https://www.wlv.ac.uk/apply/how-to-apply/4---after-youve-applied/subject-specific-applications/. Applicants will also be required to provide satisfactory reference.

Students must have studied a minimum of two years post GCSE level. However, it is expected that some applicants will be mature students with work experience, who wish to further their career development. These applicants will be processed through standard procedures, which may involve an interview as part of the process. Please see http://wlv.ac.uk/mature for further information.

Tuition Fees Loan (Home Fee Status):

Most students will be able to apply for a loans to pay for these subject to eligibility. To find out more information please refer to the government Student Finance website.

Changes for EU students:

The UK government has confirmed that EU students starting courses from 1 August 2021 will normally be classified as having Overseas Fee status. More information about the change is available at UKCISA:

EU citizens living in the UK with 'settled' status, and Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland, will still be classified as Home students, providing they meet the usual residency requirements, for more information about EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) click here.


Self-funding:

If you don’t want to take out a loan to pay your fees or if you aren’t eligible to receive a loan, you might want to take advantage of the University’s scheme to pay by instalments: See How to pay.

For more information please contact the Gateway.


Your employer, embassy or organisation can pay for your Tuition fees:

If your employer, embassy or organisation agrees to pay all or part of your tuition fees; the University will refer to them as your sponsor and will invoice them for the appropriate amount.

We must receive notification of sponsorship in writing as soon as possible, and before enrolment, confirming that the sponsor will pay your tuition fees.


Financial Hardship:

Students can apply to the Dennis Turner Opportunity Fund.

for help with course related costs however this cannot be used for fees or to cover general living costs.


Bursaries and Scholarships:

In addition the University also offers a range of Bursaries and Scholarships packages

You can find more information on the University’s Funding, cost, fee and support pages.

Telephone

01902 32 22 22

Email

enquiries@wlv.ac.uk

Online

Order a prospectus

How We Compare

Find out how our course is rated on Discover Uni, the official website for comparing UK higher education courses

Sandwich Course