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Product and Furniture Design (Professional Placement Year)

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B-B,C,C

A Level - grades BBB-BCC including a Grade B in Product Design or other Art and Design subject.

Access to HE Diploma

M:45

Typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, at Merit or higher) together with evidence of experience in Art and Design.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

A minimum of 32 points are required.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDM-DMM

Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) in a related subject, or evidence of experience in Art and Design.

T Level

M

Grade Merit is preferred in a relevant subject.

UCAS Tariff

104-120

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

You may also need to…

Attend an interview

Present a portfolio

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time with year in industry | 2024

Subjects

Product design

Furniture design and making

**Learn to address the future needs and challenges of sustainable production through materials, making and innovation on this contemporary Furniture Design degree.**

- Develop the practical and critical design skills you need to flourish in the global workplace through interdisciplinary, project focused study.

- Learn principles of sustainability and explore materials through traditional and digital processes in our excellent workshops.

- Taught by design and industry experts, you’ll become a confident, creative, digitally-literate and critical designer.

Want a career in design? If you're motivated by making, this innovative product and furniture design course is for you.

Taught by industry professionals, our Product and Furniture Design degree enables you to build a foundation of technical and practical design skills and explore manufacturing processes, from traditional techniques to computer-aided design (CAD) and digital fabrication. You’ll work with a wide range of materials and develop your unique creative vision through practical, project-based briefs.

Essential professional skills and entrepreneurship are at the heart of the course. You’ll become a flexible problem-solver and expert collaborator, providing you with new opportunities as a designer in a sustainable, digital and global economy.

See what we're making on Instagram: @product_bathschoolofdesign and @bathschoolofdesign

**More about the Professional Placement Year**
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where a student undertakes a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between the students' second and third years of undergraduate study. Students can engage in up to 3 placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) themselves with support from the Careers & Employability Team.

Modules

In Year one you’ll develop a foundation of core design skills from sketching and model-making to digital and analogue making processes, material knowledge and experimentation. You’ll acquire skills in design communication, visualisation, research and prototyping, and develop your understanding of small to large-scale production. You’ll get access to all the technical workshops, enabling you to progress confidently into year two.

In addition, you’ll be introduced to our excellent library staff and the extensive design reference and research resources and learn about critical issues in contemporary design, such as the circular economy, distributed manufacturing and experiential design.

In Year 2 you’ll deepen your understanding of design practice and the opportunities available, and start to identify your personal direction in design. You’ll apply more focused design principles around sustainability and human-centred design.

External briefs and study visits provide direct engagement with the design industry, and ensure you explore design innovation with a global outlook. Entrepreneurial approaches to design will be supported, and you’ll gain valuable experience of collaboration and project management.

Finally, in Year 3 you’ll further develop, challenge and explore design and your understanding of your field of practice in preparation for establishing your career. Your final research and contextual study project will underpin your practice and critical thinking as you expand your industry awareness and produce product solutions and design proposals.

Part-way through the year, you’ll have the opportunity to present your work through a public platform, gaining essential feedback and experience to confidently progress your final project and develop an outstanding portfolio of work to be able to promote yourself to your industry networks.

Your final project challenges you to create a professional level of design work to present to an external audience, showing at the end of year degree show and often in an external show such as New Designers.

Assessment methods

Assessment is 100% based on coursework, presented at the end of each module. You’ll receive formal feedback so you’ll know how to improve or develop your work, as well as feedback from tutors and peers throughout the course.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£17,585
per year
International
£17,585
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Bath Spa University

Department:

Bath School of Design

Read full university profile

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.

53%
Product design
53%
Furniture design and making

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.

Design studies

Teaching and learning

70%
Staff make the subject interesting
72%
Staff are good at explaining things
73%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
65%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

57%
Library resources
68%
IT resources
67%
Course specific equipment and facilities
36%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

93%
UK students
7%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
10%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
A
B

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.

Design studies

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.

£18,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
71%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

53%
Design occupations
12%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
7%
Other elementary services occupations

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Design studies

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£14k

£14k

£20k

£20k

£22k

£22k

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
Kingston University | Kingston upon Thames
Product and Furniture Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 112-128
Lower entry requirements
University of Plymouth | Plymouth
Product and Furniture Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 96-120
Nearby University
Bristol, University of the West of England | Bristol
Product Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 112
Same University
Bath Spa University | Bath
Product and Furniture Design (with Foundation Year)
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time with year in industry 2024
UCAS Points: 104-120

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Course location and department:

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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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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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here