Photography
Entry requirements
96 UCAS Tariff points from a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent), including Grade C in Art, Design or Media subject.
UCAS Tariff Points accepted.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
3 GCSEs at grade C, or grade 4, or above, including English.
UCAS Tariff
UCAS Tariff points from a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent), including Grade C in Art, Design or Media subject.
You may also need to…
Attend an interview
Present a portfolio
About this course
**Explore and experiment with photographic practices by studying for our BA (Hons) Photography degree at Cambridge School of Art.**
Learn to create images that tell compelling stories, whether your dream is to be a fashion or fine art photographer or a photojournalist.
As a photography student at ARU you’ll develop skills in professional photography, multimedia, critical communication and exhibition.
Take full advantage of our specialist darkrooms, photographic studios, and digital post-production and printing suite. You can also borrow specialist camera equipment through our dedicated loan service.
You’ll be taught through individual tutorial and studio sessions, as well as in group lectures and workshops. You'll also benefit from regular career development events throughout your Photography degree.
Our BA (Hons) Photography scored 90% for Learning Resources in the National Student Survey 2023.
Studying photography at university will help you prepare for work in the creative industries, or for self-employment as a photographer or artist. Here at ARU, there's the chance to gain valuable experience and build a professional network through work placements.
All your creative work will be supported by academic staff working at the forefront of photographic research and innovation who have years of professional experience. This informs the design and delivery of our BA (Hons) Photography course, allowing us to respond to innovation in the sector, facilitate exciting industry-led projects, and speaker presentations. Our students are part of the organising committee for our Annual Public Photography Lectures which bring high-profile British and international photographers to ARU. Previous talks have featured Donna Ferrato, Laura Pannack, Anthony Luvera, Tom Hunter, Jane Hilton, Tim Flach and Hannah Starkey.
Through continuous experimentation, you’ll be encouraged to refine your photographic style and voice.
Critical and contextual studies will connect your own research and writing to your practice and will guide you to specialist resources in our campus library. Explore hundreds of photographers’ monographs and access technical and contextual texts, as well as other online resources, to underpin and expand your practice.
As part of your Photography course, you can expand your skillset with additional technical workshops including printmaking, 3D work and writing workshops. You can choose to take part in photography field trips too, and experience photographing different locations such as Venice and Prague.
You can also exhibit your work at exhibitions like Free Range in London, where industry reps will get to see your work. At the 2023 exhibition, two of our students, Mark Morgan and Erin Thorogood, were nominated 'Best in Show' by Amateur Photographer magazine. They follow in the footsteps of 2022 graduate Aliz Kovacs-Zoldi, who was selected as Student Photographer of the Year by the magazine.
While studying our BA (Hons) Photography degree, you’ll learn to adopt a professional approach to your work, covering aspects of career management such as rights issues, project management and self-promotion through social media. You can choose to take up work placements that will help you establish your own professional network, including opportunities such as working for magazines, galleries and photographers.
**Industry-standard facilities**
With your Photography degree at ARU, you’ll have access to all our creative facilities including:
- black & white and colour darkrooms, and black & white film processing room
- a bespoke digital suite with iMacs, flat bed and virtual drum scanners, and Epson professional large format inkjet printers
- three photographic studios with Profoto lighting and accessories
- an extensive range of analogue and professional digital cameras and lenses. including Canon, Sinar, Nikon, Pentax and Hasselblad
- Ruskin Gallery, a professional digital art gallery.
Modules
Year 1 core modules: Photographic Practice and Context; Production and Multi-Media. Year 2 core modules: Media, Process, Situation; Photographic Portfolio Practice; Critical Issues and Debates; Ruskin Module. Year 3 core modules: Major Project Photography. Year 3 optional modules: Research Project; Working in the Creative Industries. Modules are subject to change and availability.
Assessment methods
You’ll demonstrate your learning through both written and practical (portfolio) work, helping to prepare you for creating your own professional photography portfolio.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Cambridge Campus
Cambridge School of Art
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Cinematics and photography
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Cinematics and photography
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Cinematics and photography
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£16k
£18k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
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Course location and department:
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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