Photography
Entry requirements
A level
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Higher
Scottish Highers – five passes at Grade C or above
T Level
UCAS Tariff
You may also need to…
Present a portfolio
About this course
**BA (Hons) Photography** at Arts University Bournemouth is a world-renowned, exciting and challenging course that allows you to develop your own ambitious practice in the medium of photography. If you get excited by the material processes of the 19th and 20th Centuries, black and white and colour film processing and darkroom printing, or lean more towards high-end digital photography, VR or moving image and sound, you will gain hands-on experience and guidance by specialists here at AUB. We are well connected and invite a wide range of industry and artworld professionals to lead you in workshops and tutorials; we also take you to practitioners’ studios, which have recently included Lucas Blalock and Erin O’Keefe in New York, and Richard Learoyd in London. With a professional degree, you will graduate with the ability to embrace a range of possible careers: professional photographer (documentary, portrait, still life…), editor, artist, curator, educator, gallerist or progress to postgraduate study. Internationally-recognised practitioners including Nick Knight and Wolfgang Tillmans began their careers here.
**What you will learn**
The course responds to contemporary photography in a creative and experimental way, embracing and integrating a range of technologies. You are asked to freely explore your individual ideas and impulses within a structured, well-resourced and supportive environment that values a strong visual investigation supported by a contextual awareness of the medium and how it relates to and assimilates into other disciplines. The expansive nature of the course allows you to experience photography in a wide cultural context gaining a comprehensive knowledge of the mediums positions and audiences. This is especially important in helping you to choose a vocational pathway as you define your practice and prepare for employment.
The course values the mediums history and recognises the importance of its influence on contemporary practice. It does not impose a house style but encourages you to be spirited and believe in your own modus operandi. The current diversity of photography is both exciting and challenging and the courses commitment to tutorial led learning and teaching ensures that you are well supported and encouraged in your studies.
The course ultimately aims to produce well-educated and creative individuals with the knowledge and skills to engage in and navigate the creative industries in a confident and interesting way. As you develop through the course, you will choose from a broad range of vocational pathways and acquire the skills and documentation needed.
Across the three years approximately 63% of your time will be contact hours, including scheduled teaching sessions, but also supervised time in the workshop or studio, and the remainder will be independent study. 100% of assessment for this course is coursework based.
**By the end of the course you will be able to...**
- Demonstrate that you have explored your creativity in an experimental and risk taking way and have developed and applied a range of specialist technical and professional skills.
- Demonstrate that you have developed your awareness of the medium of photography in relation to historical and contemporary photographic practice.
- Demonstrate that you have developed critical skills, advanced problem solving skills, awareness and judgement as well as being engaged in your practice with autonomy and professionalism.
- Demonstrate your awareness of ethical, sustainable, social and cultural issues appropriate to your practice.
- Demonstrate ambition and preparation for your professional career
**Studios and resources**
Studying BA (Hons) Photography at AUB means you’ll benefit from specialised equipment and state-of-the-art production facilities and studios. We support photography practices from analogue through to high-end digital production.
Assessment methods
Coursework and practical work
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Main Site - Arts University Bournemouth
Art, Design and Architecture
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
£22k
£24k
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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Teaching Excellence Framework (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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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:
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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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