Overview
Top reasons to study with us
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7
7th for Art and Design
The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2022)
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12
12th for Art and Design Graduate Prospects
The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2022)
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Your own studio space, available 24/7
Lancaster's Fine Art and Design degree gives you the opportunity to study fine art practice alongside the practices of contemporary design.
Fine Art at Lancaster gives you the opportunity to integrate Fine Art Practice with Art History/Theory at a high level. From the first through to the final year of your degree you will have the opportunity to develop creative and technical skills in painting, drawing, sculpture, digital art and their hybrids. We have a wide ranging view of what fine Art can be in the 21st century and have no ‘house style’. Our emphasis is on Fine Art practice and Fine Art thinking. Students work across painting, drawing, sculpture, digital, live art and their hybrids. Our aim is for you to develop the practice and ideas that best reflect your aims and values as a young Fine Artist.
Lancaster’s approach to design reflects a department that is actively seeking new and innovative ways to apply design. The degree is taught by leading design researchers, and it moves beyond the scope of traditional disciplines such as graphic or product design. Instead you will be given the opportunity to develop the skills to solve complex cultural and social problems by combining design thinking with innovation, technology, business and research. This will equip you for a range of exciting careers in new and emerging industries. The Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts also has a range of interdisciplinary modules available to you to give you the opportunity to develop knowledge, skills and understanding that is relevant across both art and design.
The study abroad option is an exciting and informative experience for anyone who is thinking of working abroad during their career or who simply wants the experience of living and studying overseas as part of their degree. You will study in your third year at one of our international partner universities. This will help you to develop your global outlook, expand your professional network, and gain cultural and personal skills. During your year abroad, you will choose specialist modules relating to your degree as well as other modules from across the host university.
Lancaster University will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner university that offers appropriate modules. Occasionally places overseas may not be available for all students who want to study abroad or the place at the partner university may be withdrawn if core modules are unavailable. If you are not offered a place to study overseas, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent standard 3-year degree scheme and would complete your studies at Lancaster.
Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of the year abroad.
Your department
Careers
Fine Art and Design graduates from Lancaster University have found careers as professionals for creative agencies, working in television or for museums and galleries, while some go on to be professional artists. This joint degree will give you the opportunity to develop the necessary skills and experience to work in the fast-paced, changing, creative and digital industries.
As well as teaching and arts administration, the multidisciplinary skills our graduates acquire during their Fine Art and Design degree open doors across the creative industries and in many employment sectors.
This degree gives you the opportunity to develop skills preparing you to respond creatively to tomorrow’s fast moving business environment through the development of future visions for innovative products and services.. Our degree addresses the need for graduates that are capable of transcending the traditional boundaries of design and possess the requisite knowledge, skills and creative experience to develop novel interactions between people, products, virtual and physical environments.
Lancaster graduates successfully progress onto PGCE, MA, MPhil and PhD courses, either with us or at other high quality national institutions, for example the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Art.
Lancaster University is dedicated to ensuring you not only gain a highly reputable degree, but that you also graduate with relevant life and work based skills. We are unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which offers you the opportunity to complete key activities such as work experience, employability/career development, campus community and social development. Visit our Employability section for full details.
Entry Requirements
Grade Requirements
A Level ABB
IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.
Portfolio Applicants will typically be required to submit a portfolio before being made an offer. The department will contact applicants to request the portfolio. The portfolio should include imaginative, expressive and analytical work as well as objective drawing.
Other Qualifications
International Baccalaureate 32 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects
BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Merit
Foundation Courses Art Foundation Courses are not an essential requirement for this degree. Please note Foundation Courses are considered but not accepted in lieu of our academic entry requirements. Level 3 Art Foundation courses are considered on a case-by-case basis alongside two A levels at grade B or above.
We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.
Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk
Course Structure
Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme to complement your main specialism. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster please visit our Teaching and Learning section.
The following courses do not offer modules outside of the subject area due to the structured nature of the programmes: Architecture, Law, Physics, Engineering, Medicine, Sports and Exercise Science, Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedicine and Biomedical Science.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, and the University will make every reasonable effort to offer modules as advertised. In some cases changes may be necessary and may result in some combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research.
Core
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Critical Reflections in Creative Arts
Critical Reflections explores a number of key interdisciplinary philosophical and cultural concepts which will enable you to analyse, engage with, and reflect upon artworks in your own discipline. It also allows you to establish a common set of concepts which can be shared by students from all LICA subjects. The structure of the module consists of six three-week blocks: (1) Aesthetics, Formalism and Beyond, (2) Phenomenology, (3) Semiotics, Structuralism and Deconstruction, (4) Class and Society, (5) Feminism, Queer Theory and Gender, and (6) On Difference.Weekly plenary lectures make connections across the arts, and are supplemented by weekly, two hour seminars/workshops which allow students to work in their subject groups (art, film, theatre, design) on ideas and examples specifically tailored towards these disciplines.
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Design Issues
Through a combination of studio-based design practice and lectures, this module will provide you with a coherent, general picture of design as a multidisciplinary profession, an engine of innovation and creative thinking, and a force for social good. You will be introduced to a variety of methods and tools that enable you to develop key design skills in research, problem-finding, ideation, conceptualisation, visualisation, physical and digital prototyping, presentation and collaboration. You will work on both group and individual projects that enable you to begin developing a portfolio of design work that responds to important contemporary issues that impact upon personal, social and environmental wellbeing.
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Fine Art Practice
This module seeks to establish fundamental Fine Art practices and principles and initiate development of critical understanding of basic concepts, approaches, possibilities and ways of working. The module enables students to engage with the practical disciplines of painting, sculpture, digital art, drawing and inter-media practices that combine two or more disciplines. This creative work alongside academic work in LICA100 initiates training in thinking and making as a fine artist.
This practical course combines technical skills with different approaches to the disciplines as appropriate to developing individual interests as a practitioner of fine art. The teaching and learning systems for this course are designed to expose the student to ways of working and thinking as a practitioner; to thinking visually.
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Fundamentals: Art (part 2)
Continuing the study of Fine Art ideas and movements through pairings of major exhibitions throughout modern history.
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Fundamentals: Contemporary Arts and Design
This module will introduce you to key methods, tools and critical concepts used by academics to understand a broad range of creative work, its discussion and practice historically and today.
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Fundamentals: Design Studio (part 1)
This studio-based module focuses on user research and design ethnography. You will be introduced to a range of analogue and digital techniques that allow you to identify and understand the people you are designing for. The module culminates with a collaborative exploration of a specific issue in contemporary design resulting in the development of design work that is based on your user and ethnographic research.
Core
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Design Studio: Materials
This module explores how an understanding of materials and technology informs and influences the development of design artefacts. It considers how construction methods and associated technologies constrain and support the development artefacts, both physical and digital in nature.
This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which you will have the opportunity to develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions.
It aims to supplement theoretical courses in design interactions and design thinking by considering how a specific design problem may be explored through a particular lens and/or given constraints. The module develops practical making skills with a range of different materials through experimentation and the development of design responses to particular problems.
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Design Studio: People
This module focuses on people as both the recipients and potential creators of design interactions. It applies methods and tools to gain insight, meaning and understanding of the diversity of user groups (the individual, community, young, old, etc.) that may be both designed for and with. This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which students will develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions. It develops practical skills in design interactions and enables students to explore user experience and artefact meaning through the development of design responses
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Studio Practice
This module develops your knowledge and skills in fine art thinking and making. The module prepares and encourages you to direct your own research and to develop a self-reliant and independent approach to studio practice. You will work in your own dedicated studio space with 24/7 access. You will be supported by specialist tutors who are practicing artists. You will belong to a tutor group led by dedicated tutors with expertise in your area of practice. To support your creative development you will engage in one-to-one tutorials, group tutorials, technical workshops, and peer-feedback. You will also be encouraged to visit exhibitions and attend our visiting artist programme of talks.
Optional
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Art, Site & Interaction
This practical fine art focused module will introduce the skills and sensitivities needed to work outside the studio through interactions with people, places, and technologies. The module introduces you to the way that current fine art practitioners employ a wide range of strategies for such interaction. You will work through practical projects and critical reflection. The course will begin with an art historical grounding for this area of practice. You will then experiment and test out new ways of working in a variety of locations and situations such as: in the rural or urban landscape, in the virtual online world, or in a social space such as a cafe. We will explore a range of processes such as conversation, performance, video, movement and digital interaction.
Throughout the module you will build a range of skills and knowledge of technologies, for example: practical considerations in working ‘off-site’ (responding to and researching a place, collaborating with the public, gaining permission to work in specific sites); digital tools for working with networks and strategies and sensitivities for working with people (ethics, interviews, collaborations etc).
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Design Interactions
This module provides a theoretical foundation for design interactions. In particular this module introduces a general framework for designing interactions between people, products and places. It explores design interaction by posing three questions: How do you do? How do you feel? How do you know? The module gives you the opportunity to gain a broad historical and theoretical understanding of design interactions.
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Design Management
This module aims to provide students with an overview of the knowledge and expertise design management brings to organisations and prepare them to work successfully with designers on strategic design issues. Through the lectures and seminars you have the opportunity to l develop an appreciation of the contribution of design management for strategy, product development, customer relationships and internal problem-solving.
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Design Visualisation
This module gives you the opportunity to explore the ways in which designers use visualisation and visual thinking in design projects to develop ideas, explore possible interventions and communicate possible futures. The module introduces students to a range of tools for creating visualisations, challenging participants to put these tools to work in exploring a range of contemporary design issues.
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Documentary Drawing
This module will enable you to develop a range of graphic skills with the opportunity to approach and represent ideas, issues and experiences in a documentary manner. The module is designed to be relevant to creative practice in Fine Art, Theatre, Film and Design. You will have the opportunity to expand your knowledge and experience of observational and on-site drawing, and develop their learning and experience by engaging in further technical training and by introduction to drawing beyond the studio and 'in the field'. On completion of this module our aim is for you to have significantly developed their knowledge and awareness of drawing and the ability to engage in independent study and develop a substantial personal project for assessment.
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Expanded Painting Practice
The module provides training and experience in visual communication through painting in the broadest sense. Our aim is to provide students with an understanding of painting as an ‘expanded’ and interdisciplinary art form. Weekly workshops will introduce you to the scope of contemporary painting and some of its methods and approaches. You will develop skills through experimentation with a range of traditional and contemporary painting methods, approaches, ideas and equipment. Building on the teaching, you will develop an independent project that extends the language of painting beyond conventional bounds.
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What Is The Contemporary?
This module aims to give students a grounding in “the contemporary” as a key critical concept used in artistic discourses, and provide a number of ways that students can explore and articulate their own contemporaneity. In conversation with cutting edge ideas from art, science, technology and popular culture, the module will enable participants to discuss and identify what they are contemporaries of, how they relate to their own time as artists, citizens and critical writers and what this necessitates in their own practices.
Students will engage in critical discussion of key terms used to define the current moment, such as Anthropocene, Singularity, Post-Truth, and Globalisation, as well as understanding how particular technologies and phenomena, such as distributed and decentralised networks, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are reshaping the contexts in which the arts are made. These topics are explored through lectures and seminar discussions in which students are encouraged to produce and define their own position and modes for articulating what makes them contemporary.
The module is designed for creative students who wish to use writing and material practice to explore their own relationship to the ecologies, politics, trends, technologies, and aesthetics that typify our experience of the world today.
Core
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Your Year Abroad
In your third year you will study at one of our international partner universities. This will help you to develop your global outlook, expand your professional network, and gain cultural and personal skills. You will choose specialist modules relating to your degree as well as other modules from across the host university.
Core
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Advanced Studio Practice
This module supports you to develop your own distinctive voice as an artist. Our aim is for you to take increasing responsibility for the creative and conceptual direction of your artwork. You will work in your own dedicated studio space with 24/7 access and be supported by specialist tutors who are practicing artists. You will belong to a tutor group led by dedicated tutors with expertise in your area of practice. Teaching is delivered through one-to-one tutorials, group work and peer feedback. You will also be encouraged to visit exhibitions and attend our visiting artist programme of talks. The module culminates in a final end of year public exhibition.
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Design Studio: Contexts
This module considers contemporary issues (ecological sustainability, health and wellbeing) or ‘wicked problems’ though the exploration of a specific context (space, place or practice). It aims to provide a critical understanding of the problem context that enables appropriate design responses to be developed.
This themed design studio module is taught though a series of design exercises in which you will develop and apply practical design skills in design interactions.
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Design Studio: Things
This themed studio aims to extend and supplement the previous studios and the theoretical courses in Design by considering the potential futures of a chosen emerging technology (e.g. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Robots, Diamond Batteries, Biomimetic Materials, etc.). Students create artefacts that concretise future worlds in which they might exist by imagining a point of domestication. These studios will help to establish students’ ability to critically evaluate the full implications of particular futures based on current weak signals in the present – and how to practically represent such futures to an external audience in a manner that is both plausible and engaging.
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Dissertation
This core module is directed towards completion of an independent research project on a topic of your choice, presented in the form of a dissertation. The course is taught through lectures focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision. Students of Film can choose to make a short film as part of their project, and students of Design are encouraged to do a practical design project.
Optional
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Advanced Design Interactions
This module provides advanced, theoretical perspectives for design interactions. It aims to build upon the general framework for designing interactive products and systems, introduced in the second year Design Interactions module. It extends the knowledge and understanding of the theory, research and practice of design interactions into specialised areas, including human-computer, human-human, human-place and human-system interactions.
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Contemporary Dance and the Visual Arts
The module has two aims. Firstly, it aims to explore methods of improvising or choreographing movement from the practice and study of drawing, and, reciprocally, approaches to drawing that emerge from the experience of movement and the analysis of motion. This is assessed through either a staff-supervised, student-led group choreographic project with documentation or, alternatively, a portfolio of drawings presented at the end of the module. Secondly, the module examines twentieth and twenty-first century works in which choreographers have collaborated with visual artists. This part of the module is assessed through an essay. Teaching is through lecture, seminar and practical compositional exercises in movement and drawing.
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Creative Enterprise
This module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the ways in which creative practitioners produce and deliver their work. It will provide an overview of the challenges faced by freelance practitioners, producers and small cultural companies within the creative industries. You will also develop a working understanding of the key management and enterprise skills involved in delivering creative projects. Working in groups you will put your learning into practice through the delivery of your own live creative arts project. This will enable you to understand the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours relevant for employment in the arts and creative industries.
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Design Research Consultancy Project
This provides you with the opportunity to conduct a live, practical design research consultancy exercise requiring project management and execution. It enables you to develop the specific skills of problem definition, data collection, analysis, presentation and report writing. You will develop your ability to manage the realities and complexities of design research problems and develop their skills in working independently in small groups.
Fees and Funding
We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2023/24 entry fees have not yet been set.
Scholarships and bursaries
At Lancaster, we believe that funding concerns should not stop any student with the talent to thrive.
We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries to help cover the cost of tuition fees and/or living expenses.
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Additional costs
Additional costs for this course
You will need to buy some art materials during your course. Materials and equipment are available to use during some classes, and the departmental art shop sells materials to students at cost price. We will send you information about materials and equipment before you arrive so that you know what to bring with you and what you might need to buy during your course.
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small college membership fee which supports the running of college events and activities.
For students starting in 2022, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2023 have not yet been set.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Study abroad courses
In addition to travel and accommodation costs, while you are studying abroad, you will need to have a passport and, depending on the country, there may be other costs such as travel documents (e.g. VISA or work permit) and any tests and vaccines that are required at the time of travel. Some countries may require proof of funds.
Placement and industry year courses
In addition to possible commuting costs during your placement, you may need to buy clothing that is suitable for your workplace and you may have accommodation costs. Depending on the employer and your job, you may have other costs such as copies of personal documents required by your employer for example.
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Fees in subsequent years
Fees are set by the UK Government annually, and subsequent years' fees may be subject to increases. For international applicants starting in 2022, any annual increase will be capped at 4% of the previous year's fee.
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Fine Art
- Fine Art BA Hons : W100
- Fine Art (Placement Year) BA Hons : W101
- Fine Art (Study Abroad) BA Hons : W102
- Fine Art and Creative Writing BA Hons : WW18
- Fine Art and Creative Writing (Placement Year) BA Hons : WW19
- Fine Art and Creative Writing (Study Abroad) BA Hons : WW20
- Fine Art and Design BA Hons : W1W2
- Fine Art and Design (Placement Year) BA Hons : W1W3
- Fine Art and Film BA Hons : WP13
- Fine Art and Film (Placement Year) BA Hons : WP14
- Fine Art and Film (Study Abroad) BA Hons : WP15
- Fine Art and Theatre BA Hons : WW14
- Fine Art and Theatre (Placement Year) BA Hons : WW17
- Fine Art and Theatre (Study Abroad) BA Hons : WW13
Important information
The information on this site relates primarily to 2023/2024 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.