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Interior Design [with placement year]

Entry requirements


GCSE/National 4/National 5

3 GCSEs at grade C, or grade 4, or above, including English.

UCAS Tariff

96

from a minimum of 2 A Levels (or equivalent level 3 qualifications), including Art, Design or Media subjects.

About this course


Course option

4years

Sandwich | 2024

Subject

Interior design and architecture

**Interior designers work with clients to create attractive, safe and functional rooms and spaces. Study BA (Hons) Interior Design at ARU in Cambridge, and develop your creative vision.**

As an interior designer you might work with homeowners, public bodies and businesses. You'll consider the use of furniture, lighting, flooring, artwork and decoration, decor and colour pallettes to create residential or commercial spaces that people enjoy using.

To become a professional interior designer you'll typically need a university degree in interior design or a related subject. Practical experience is also valuable and here at ARU, you'll receive ongoing support to find placements and work experience.

With our small studio groups, your tutors will really get to know you and your work, and help you become a resilient interior designer with a distinctive creative voice.

Our BA (Hons) Interior Design scored 95% for Academic Support and 93% for Teaching on my Course in the National Student Survey 2023.

Exciting and intriguing interior spaces offer experiences that make us want to return again and again. Discover how you can embed stories into your designs – stories that help others to develop social connections and make your designed spaces important to the community.

By studying BA (Hons) Interior Design at ARU, you’ll explore the relationships between design, experience and narrative.

Based in our dedicated interior design studio in Cambridge, you'll learn to create effective design proposals. Your studio work will include:
- preparing 2D plans and elevations

- developing fully realised 3D drawings

- creating built models

- considering the use of furniture, lighting and materials

- looking at small- and large-scale interior design projects.

You'll also learn about project management, professional communication, budgeting, and specification skills.

Throughout the course, you’ll be encouraged to propose design questions, such as: How can public spaces cater for multiple activities and users? How much space do we need to live in? How do major brands reinvent themselves to respond to new markets?

We think your ideas and design skills are important. You’ll develop these by working in small teams at different stages of your degree, sometimes alongside students from other creative courses.

There’s the opportunity to get inspired on European field trips, and to study abroad for a semester – with funding available to help cover the cost.

You can also see your designs become reality in live projects briefs with our partner organisations - our students recently worked with Cambridge Library Services to re-design the café interior at Cambridge Central Library - and foster professional relationships through Design Bench, a series of industry networking meetings.

**Industry-standard facilities**
As well as our dedicated interior design studio, you’ll have use of all our creative facilities including:
- 3D workshops for physical media including wood, plastic, metal and clay

- specialist printmaking workshop

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

- Ruskin Gallery, a professional digital art gallery

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

- life drawing studio.

**Careers**
Our BA (Hons) Interior Design degree will prepare you to work with architects or in spatial design practices on residential, commercial, hospitality, health, lighting, entertainment or furniture design projects, or to set up your own interior design practice after graduation. The creative skills you develop will help you find a career in the visual arts, film, television, event and theatre design, or exhibition and museum design; while the management skills will be useful for project management roles on creative projects.

Modules

Year 1 core modules: Design Context and Technology; Studio Culture 1; Visual Communication. Year 2 core modules: Critical Issues and Debates; Digital Media in Application; Studio Culture 2; Ruskin Module. Year 3: Work placement. Year 4 core module: Studio Culture 3; Human Behaviour Research Project. Modules are subject to change and availability.

Assessment methods

Our studio projects will allow you to focus on your creative development, while you’ll also demonstrate your process and creative decisions through a combination of portfolio, written and practical studio work.

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%
Interior design and architecture

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
13%
Male students
87%
Female students
71%
2:1 or above
12%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
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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This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

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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:

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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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