Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster.

Whether you do not feel ready for degree-level study, don’t have the right qualifications, want to change your subject specialism or return to study after an absence from education, we aim to encourage a broad range of students to undertake our Foundation year in order to progress onto their full honours degree with us.

Our Foundation year in Art and Design is designed to provide you with an introduction to our range of subject areas, and to prepare you for the discipline of your choice. It will give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, opening up new perspectives on the key debates within the field. It begins in the first semester with the development of fundamental Art and Design skills, as well as practical exploration across all of the disciplines in our Art and Design Foundation programme. In the second semester, you are encouraged to specialise in your own discipline and are supported at this stage by tutors from your host course. You will also benefit from workshops in our high-end facilities, and from working with leading academics who will encourage you to become a confident and creative thinker. Your practical development is accompanied by modules in both semesters on foundational academic skills – skills that will be essential as you progress to your chosen full degree.

On successful completion of the Foundation year, you'll be able to move on to study for the Fine Art Mixed Media BA Honours degree over a further three years study.

Our Fine Art Mixed Media BA is an innovative course which will give you the opportunity to explore and develop work across boundaries, within the ever-expanding contemporary fine art disciplines.

Our course enables you to work across disciplines or within the more traditionally defined areas of practice, while referencing relevant critical and theoretical debates.

You'll be encouraged to bring highly individual approaches to studio practice, coupled with an emphasis on experiential learning – these are the defining factors that have established the course at the cutting edge of contemporary practice.

We encourage creativity, individuality and personal growth, and once you've acquired the basic skills you can negotiate your own individual programme of study with tutors.

We select only the most dedicated and creative students who have the energy, enthusiasm and commitment that our course requires.

Based at our Harrow Campus, you'll work alongside students from film, photography, music, fashion and journalism, in a unique hothouse of creative opportunity. 

Our studio-based course provides you with a permanent space, depending on the type of work you engage with as you progress through the programme.

You'll be taught by practising artists with national and international profiles working in and across the mediums of sculpture, painting, moving image, performance, photography and sound. Our exceptional team are supported by state-of-the-art facilities and workshops that are at the forefront of current technical innovation.

Our teaching and learning methods will encourage you to create a body of work characterised by personal commitment and an increasing sense of autonomy.

Our teaching methods include lectures, tutorials (individual and group), presentations, crits, workshops, and gallery visits and talks. 

Fine art disciplines include:

• Digital
• Drawing
• Installation
• Intervention
• Interdisciplinary
• Moving image
• Painting
• Performance
• Photography
• Printmaking
• Sculpture
• Sound

Placements/ Year abroad

Between Year 2 and 3, you may also undertake an optional year-long placement. If you take advantage of this option, you’ll undertake an additional year-long industry placement module running parallel to your work placement, and your final degree award will be BA Honours Fine Art Mixed Media with Professional Experience.

Career

This course will prepare you for a range of roles, including:

• Advertising executive
• Artist 
• Arts educator
• Curator
• Features writer
• Journalist
• Gallery owner or director
• Moving image production professional
• Museum archivist