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Fashion Communication and Branding

Entry requirements


GCSE/National 4/National 5

3 GCSEs at grade C, or grade 4, or above. If English is not your first language you will be expected to demonstrate a certificated level of proficiency of at least IELTS 6.0 (Academic level) or equivalent English Language qualification, as recognised by Anglia Ruskin University.

UCAS Tariff

96

from a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent).

You may also need to…

Present a portfolio

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Fashion

**Forge an international career in the £1.5 trillion fashion industry. Learn the fundamentals of fashion business and marketing, before developing all the necessary commercial skills to get you ready to start your own business or work for a fashion house.**

In an increasingly competitive, commercial and technological environment, communication and branding professionals have never played such a central role in buying, retail, import and export, digital marketing and more.

Study BA (Hons) Fashion Communication and Branding at ARU Cambridge, and develop the skills, understanding and knowledge that are critical to international fashion design and business functions. You’ll gain a broad understanding of the fields of fashion, branding, journalism, PR, marketing and management in a global context and develop an understanding of the complex issues surrounding sustainable fashion and environmental impact.

**What does a Fashion Communication and Branding student do?**

You’ll work closely with students from across our University, including the Faculty of Business and Law on marketing and events, and Cambridge School of Creative Industries and Cambridge School of Art to create eye-catching campaigns and digital content.

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll get time, guidance and support from our experienced staff who, as well as launching and managing their own brands, have worked with companies such as Chloe, Alexander McQueen, Warner Bros Records, and London Records.

Talks from visiting lecturers and live briefs from industry are built into our course. They focus on areas including event management, brand identity, entrepreneurship, sustainability, marketing and promotion.

We'll encourage you to build your profile by entering national and international competitions, as well our as own competitions such as the Sustainability Art Prize. You'll have the chance to develop a business plan and pitch for start-up funding, and you can get involved in our Student Creative Careers Conference too.

You'll also have opportunities to find placements and internships, and visit trade fairs and conferences.

**Fashion communication or fashion design?**

At ARU we offer degree courses in Fashion Communication and Branding, and Fashion Design. Our Fashion Design degree will help you develop as a designer of womenswear or menswear. You'll create your own fashion designs from day one. Meanwhile, our Fashion Communication and Branding course focuses on fashion journalism and PR, marketing and management, and luxury branding.

**Industry-standard facilities**

With our Fashion Communication and Branding degree, you’ll have access to all our creative facilities including:
- dedicated fashion workshops with a variety of industrial sewing machines

- Ruskin Gallery, a professional digital art gallery

- Mac and PC suites equipped with the latest software including Adobe Creative suite

- specialist printmaking workshop including etching, screen-printing and lithography

- 3D workshops for physical media including wood, plastic, metal and clay

- photography and media facilities including darkrooms; studios; film processing; digital printing suite; video editing; and professional equipment loans

- life drawing studio.

**Careers**

The global apparel market is projected to grow in value from £1 trillion in 2020 to about £1.6 trillion by 2025, showing that the consumer demand is on the rise across the world (Statista, 2021). As a BA (Hons) Fashion Communication and Branding graduate, you could consider career opportunities as a creative director; brand manager; retail manager; account manager (wholesale); branding consultant; global supply chain manager; fashion buyer; fashion PR; journalist; fashion editor; stylist; visual merchandiser; trend forecaster; studio manager; product developer; colour developer.

You might also consider the areas of fashion marketing, and promotions and events management – or branch out on your own as an entrepreneur.

Modules

Year 1: Fundamentals of Fashion Business; Fashion History and Contexts; Fundamentals of Fashion Marketing; Creative Direction; Fundamentals of Fashion Communication. Year 2: Commercial Context and Employability for the Creative Industries; Advanced Integrated Fashion Communication; Retail and Experiential Marketing; Luxury Fashion: Strategies for Prestige Branding & Communication; Critical Issues and Debates; Ruskin Module. Year 2 Optional modules: Digital Media Theory: Social Media, AI, and the Cultures of the Internet; Online Journalism; Teenage Kicks: Youth Culture and Media; Anglia Language Programme. Year 3 core modules: Sensorial Marketing; Personal Enterprise: Inspiration and Commercialisation; Major Project. Year 3 optional modules: Working in the Creative Industries; Research Project. Modules are subject to change and availability.

Assessment methods

Your progress will be continually evaluated throughout each year in group critiques and presentations, where your practical and theoretical research is reviewed in relation to each project proposal. The Personal Development Plan will also give you a critical tool for self-evaluation. You will submit coursework at the end of each module, which will include both your completed project work as well as your developmental visual and contextual research, while your critical and contextual studies will be assessed through essays, seminars, visual presentations, and stand-alone contextual modules.

Specific forms of assessment will include research and translation; design/product development and realization, portfolio/visual communication; critical and contextual studies; market, consumer, and research analysis; and placement reports.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
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:

Cambridge Campus

Department:

Cambridge School of Creative Industries

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.

69%
Fashion

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

80%
Staff make the subject interesting
80%
Staff are good at explaining things
82%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
88%
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
72%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
52%
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?

69%
UK students
31%
International students
27%
Male students
73%
Female students
71%
2:1 or above
20%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

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.

£16,500
low
Average annual salary
94%
med
Employed or in further education
49%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

29%
Design occupations
17%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
12%
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.

£16k

£16k

£18k

£18k

£23k

£23k

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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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

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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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