Explore art and design through an Integrated Foundation in Art and Design year before you progress onto your chosen BA (Hons) degree.

  • Evolve. Build your confidence, skills and knowledge in preparation for your undergraduate course.
  • Develop. Challenge perceptions, make, explore and investigate new territory through active projects.
  • Realise. Pursue your undergraduate specialism and benefit from scholarships at each level of your BA studies.

Undergraduate degrees at the Bath School of Art, Film and Media and Bath School of Design are available as three-year or four-year programmes. Four-year degrees include either an integrated Foundation year or a professional placement year.

We want to ensure that you reach your full potential. That's why we've devised an intensive and experimental Foundation course that develops your art and design abilities in relation to contemporary practice, and introduces you to our exceptional facilities and staff.

You'll enhance your drawing skills, and explore the many materials and processes encountered in art and design practice. As the year progresses, you'll begin to specialise in your chosen discipline, acquiring advanced skills and knowledge in preparation for continued study.

Art and Design undergraduate courses

The Bath Spa University Foundation Diploma in Art and Design can only be taken in conjunction with a full degree. You'll choose your undergraduate course when you apply (see the list below). When you're ready to apply, go to 'How do I apply?' on that page to apply directly for the full four-year course.

What you'll learn

Overview

Develop your ideas, skills and confidence during this Foundation year, in readiness for your chosen degree course.

Begin with a fast-paced introduction to experimentation and play as forms of investigation through active drawing, observation, making and recording.

You'll continue your enquiries into materials, processes and concepts, and select media, materials and technologies to create personal solutions in response to course briefs.

Finally, you'll specialise in your chosen discipline. You'll prepare and define objectives for a major personal project, assess your own work in relation to that of others, visually investigate and improve your preliminary ideas, and successfully oversee your major personal project from beginning to end.

Course structure

Foundation year modules

To delve into the details of your chosen course, please check the programme document.

Play Make Draw
You'll explore and expand on a broad range of approaches within art and design. We'll introduce the notion of a personal body of work; integral to this is the development of contextual awareness through interpretation of information and ideas.

Evolve
Identify and develop personal connections to explore ways of working within contemporary art and design. You'll reflect on and evaluate your progress and performance, and develop a responsive approach to advice and guidance. You'll also maintain reflective records via sketchbooks, logs, and/or journals.

Develop
Key to this module is your reflective and analytical approach to personal learning, project planning and outcomes. You'll identify and adapt appropriate methods and materials to develop ideas that address specific pathway briefs. You'll also develop an integrated approach to research and ideas, maintaining a detailed reflective journal throughout.

Realise
You'll create, manage, and curate a body of work within your chosen specialism for public exhibition. You'll write a proposal outlining a sustained art and design project that is inspirational, realistic and achievable (using a wide range of critical, contextual perspectives) and identify your project aims, objectives and influences.

Reflection and evaluation will play a key role in this task, and your work must be supported by evidence of this process, together with your experimentations and researches into the work of others to underpin and support your project.

Undergraduate degree

On successful completion of the Bath Spa University Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, you'll progress to your chosen art and design degree course. See individual course pages for the structure of your chosen degree programme:

How will I be assessed?

You're assessed at the end of each module via presentation of your work, be it experimental, developmental, journal-based, reflective analyses of talks and workshops, or documentation and analysis of exhibitions visited with the course.

Presented works may include journals / sketchbooks, material experiments / test samples, and digital files, in the form of USB, DVD and/or URLs.

How will I be taught?

All teaching staff are practising artists or designers.

Teaching is held through personal tutorials, as well as demonstrations and discussions. There are lectures on aspects of contemporary practice, in addition to collaborative work and outside visits.

You’ll be taught in a variety of ways, which may include:

  • Workshops
  • One-to-one tutorials
  • Lectures
  • Demonstrations.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Our Art and Design staff

person with short hair smiling in a modern-looking building

James Sale

Andrea Medjesi-Jones

Karen Richmond

Kellie Hindmarch

Jonathan Kelham

Toby Smith

Gaby Durnford

Gaby Durnford

Ian Parkes

Person with short light hair and glasses smiling in white shirt

Natasha Kidd

Associate Vice Provost: Creative Engagement

Hugh Sanders

A woman with glasses smiles at the camera

Julia Keyte

Opportunities

Fieldwork

There are opportunities for fieldwork and drawing visits to museums, art galleries and exhibitions in the UK.

Professional workshop facilities

You’ll be able to attend introductions to a range of professional workshop facilities offered by Bath School of Art, Film and Media and Bath School of Design.

Adobe Creative Campus

Develop a wealth of indispensable digital skills that you can take into your future career. One of only three Adobe Creative Campuses in the UK, we provide all Bath Spa students with access to the full Adobe Creative Suite, giving you the tools to communicate creatively, whatever your course or chosen professional field.   

Facilities and resources

Where the subject is taught

You’ll benefit from access to comprehensive digital workshops and specialist art and design facilities, including:

  • Our student service point at Locksbrook where you can purchase subsidised art and design materials, hire out equipment for free and collect Library resources
  • Access to our well-stocked Library at Newton Park
  • Specialist technical workshops across all of art and design
  • Access to studio space where you can work on projects and refine your practice.

Locksbrook campus

Locksbrook Campus is a Grade II listed building designed by Nicholas Grimshaw in 1976. It has now been transformed into an innovative, open plan space, redesigned to meet 21st century environmental standards, with technical workshops surrounded by flexible studio spaces and large social areas.

Locksbrook has received both a RIBA South West Award 2021 and RIBA National Award 2021, recognising and celebrating what an amazingly inspirational space it is to come together to design, make, do, create and learn in.

Exterior of the Herman Miller building at Locksbrook Campus with students in the foreground
Student using machinery in our art and design workshop.
Our workshops

Fees

2025 entry
Student Annual tuition fee
UK full time £9,535*
International full time £18,380

Scholarships

After you progress to undergraduate level, you'll be awarded a Progression Scholarship in all three years of your undergraduate course.

The scholarships will be applied as a tuition fee waiver. They apply to home and international students, but not for repeated years.

  • Year one: £1,250
  • Year two: £1,000
  • Year three: £1,000

Additional course costs

You may need to pay additional course costs over and above your tuition fees, for example, for specialist equipment or trips and visits. Please check the course Programme Document (linked under the main image on this page) for details of any additional costs. You can also read our Additional Course Costs Policy for further information.

Fee notes

*See "Scholarships" for more details of the equivalent £3,250 fee reduction.

Interested in applying?

What we look for in potential students

We’re looking for individuals who are committed to art and design. We value skills and abilities but also the willingness to question and experiment.

Typical offers

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed below:

  • A Level - grades BBB-BCC preferred including a grade B in an Art and Design or related subject.
  • BTEC – Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) in a related subject.
  • T Levels – grade Merit preferred in a relevant subject.
  • International Baccalaureate - a minimum of 32 points are required in addition to a HL Art subject at grade 5.
  • Access to HE courses – 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) in a related subject.

English Language Requirements for International and EU Applicants
IELTS 6.0 - for visa nationals, with a minimum score of IELTS 5.5 in each element.

Applicants will also need to provide a digital portfolio for review.

Course enquiries
For further information about the programme or entry requirements, please email us at admissions@bathspa.ac.uk.

Interview and portfolio guidance

Applicants for this course will be asked to provide an electronic portfolio of their work. Full details of what to include will be provided upon initial assessment of the application. If you have any questions, please contact our Admissions team, quoting the UCAS code given above.

Course coordinator: Jonathan Kelham
Email: j.kelham@bathspa.ac.uk