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Graphic Design [with Foundation Year]

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About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subject

Graphic design

**Develop your understanding of graphic design and visual communication, solve challenging design briefs and prepare for a career as a designer with our BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree.**

With its vibrant studio culture, our Graphic Design degree will encourage you to push boundaries and challenge existing thinking by developing innovative design solutions as well as a keen understanding of professional practice. You’ll experiment with print-based design as well as digital commercial practices including site-specific, interactive, motion graphics, mobile media, app design (UX/UI), web and multimedia work.

While studying our BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree, you’ll develop your skills in information design, visual identities, packaging and promotion, cross-platform advertising and design for the web, as well as experience design systems. Working in our dedicated Graphic Design Mac suites and base room, you'll bounce ideas off other student designers while receiving guidance and support from the course team, all of whom have worked in the design industry for clients including Tesco, Lotus Cars, Manchester United, Saatchi & Saatchi, The NUS, and the UK Film Council.

You’ll also work closely with a number of graphic design studios, including Cambridge University Press, CPL, The District, and Onespacemedia, who will set your live briefs as well as providing lectures and one-to-one feedback, ending with a final review that can often lead to work placements, internships and long-term professional relationships. Our students recently took part in a live brief with the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM), creating an identity for their relaunched Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Tours across online and offline promotional platforms.

You’ll also enter design competitions, including Penguin Random House Student Design Awards and D&AD.

**Industry-standard facilities**

As a Graphic Design student at ARU, you’ll have access to all our creative facilities including:
- Dedicated Mac and PC suites with the latest software including Adobe Creative suite

- Wide-format printers and scanners

- Ruskin Gallery, a professional digital art gallery

- Life drawing studio

- 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.

**Careers**

The creative industries are booming in the UK, employing more than two million people. Our BA (Hons) Graphic Design will prepare you for a career as a graphic designer, as well as for design-related roles in digital graphics, online media, communications and marketing, publishing, and advertising.

Our previous students have gone on to work with design studios or media and communication companies, producing advertising, corporate identities and promotions, packaging and branding, informational design, editorial and book design, web designs and interactive media.

You’ll have many opportunities to generate a strong portfolio of graphic design projects that will help you secure a job in this rewarding, vibrant and growing industry. These include getting involved with regional design agencies and national design networks such as D&AD and YCN, engaging in ‘live’ projects or commercial briefs and building your industry contacts. All of these can lead to freelance projects, work experience and internships, which could result in offers of work before you even graduate.

Cambridge is the perfect place to gain experience – a creative hotspot that’s home to thousands of established businesses and start-ups. Our students have gone on to work with the likes of Drench, Filofax, Nash Matthews, Onespacemedia, Coast Digital, Workshop Creative Agency and Piranha Designs.

Modules

Year 1 core modules: Interactive Learning Skills and Communication; Information and Communication Technology; Creative Workshops 1; Composition and Style; Approach to Design; Critical and Contextual Studies; Creative Workshops 2; Specialist Project. Year 2 core modules: Design Process; Graphic Design: Histories and Ideas; Introduction to Type Media; Introduction to Web Design. Year 3 core modules: Design Practice 1; Design Practice 2; Graphic Design: Media Specialisms 1; Graphic Design: Media Specialisms 2; Professional Studies in Design; Ruskin Module. Year 4 core module: Graphic Design: Final Project. Year 4 optional modules: Working in the Creative Industries; Research Project. Modules are subject to change and availability.

Assessment methods

Assessment is ongoing and includes one-to-one feedback, group crits and class design presentations, so you can be sure you’re receiving structured, insightful feedback throughout your degree 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
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 Art

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%
Graphic design

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?

67%
UK students
33%
International students
42%
Male students
58%
Female students
85%
2:1 or above
26%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
D

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
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Graphic Design with Typography
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 96-120
Nearby University
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Graphic Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 112-120
Lower entry requirements
Anglia Ruskin University | Cambridge
Graphic Design [with Placement year]
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 96
Same University
Anglia Ruskin University | Cambridge
Graphic Design
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 96

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the 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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here