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Graphic Design

Entry requirements


A level

C,C,D-B,C,C

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

MMP-DMM

UCAS Tariff

88-112

A typical offer will be a UCAS Tariff score of 88 - 112. A minimum of two full A-levels (or equivalent) is required. Every application is considered on an individual basis.

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About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Graphic design

If you want to break into the world of graphic design and visual communication, this course emerges you within industry-ways before you even graduate. Experiment across a variety of media and find your style, whilst bringing stories, brands and products to life to audience all over the world.

**Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?**
With a history of delivering industry-standard graphic design education for more than 30 years, Buckinghamshire New University is the perfect place to start your creative career. As a well-established course, we have built up an excellent network of Alumni. Many are now in senior positions in the design world, both nationally and internationally, whom we can call upon.

Led by our enthusiastic and dedicated team of design practitioners and experienced academics, you’ll benefit from their industry knowledge and network of professional they bring to the course. And with London only a short journey away, you can take the opportunity to visit some of the world’s best exhibitions, galleries, and museums for inspiration.

Opportunity modules are a key part of the BNU curriculum. You’ll choose modules in your first year from a broad selection in areas such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, creativity, digital skills, personal growth, civic engagement, health & wellbeing and employment. Opportunity modules are designed to enable you to develop outside the traditional boundaries of your discipline and help you to further stand out from the crowd to future employers.

**What facilities can I use?**
You’ll be encouraged to explore both traditional and current mediums to craft your design solutions, you can do this through our;

silkscreen equipment
plotter cutters
letterpress equipment
photography studios
litho equipment
laser cutting
3D printing technology
Adobe Creative Cloud

The Graphic Design course itself is situated in an open plan studio alongside the Creative Advertising course, meaning you get to experience how a working advertising and design agency would run in the real-world.

**What will I study?**
Studying on the course will help prepare you for this continually expanding field. Not only will we support you as an individual in the development of your visual and creative problem-solving skills, but we also equipped you with the knowledge and confidence to enter and negotiate your career in this challenging, but exciting field.

Over the course of the degree, you'll be given lots of opportunities to explore the diverse world of graphic design and its practice, including vital skills in creative problem solving, research methods, team working, project management, presentation skills, design strategy, art direction and independent learning.

Through practical hands-on, project-based learning you'll explore the fundamental core aspects of the subject like typography, narrative structure, hierarchy, layout and composition, information design, image creation and conceptual thinking skills.

You’ll develop your historical perspectives, research, and writing skills and gain the academic grounding on which to develop critical understanding and practical application. As well as this you'll explore the many workshop facilities and equipment our design department has to offer, from laser cutting and letterpress printing, to photography and the Adobe Creative Suite. Our experienced technical instructors will be there in your workshop sessions to support you with your activities and help bring your ideas to life.

We always encourage our students to take risks in their work and learn to challenge established languages and processes through questioning and individual experimentation. All our modules on this course reflect this ethos, they are in place to help you form and consolidate presentation, critical and strategic thinking, and complex problem-solving skills, whilst at the same time developing and refining practical design abilities.

Modules

**Year one Modules**
**Core Modules**
Critical and Historical Thinking
Design Processes
Design workshops
Projects
Conceptual Thinking

**Opportunity Modules**
2 x 10 credit year one Opportunity modules

**Year two Modules**
**Core Modules**
Design Research and Theory
Professional Studies for Graphic Design and Illustration
Applied Graphic Design Studies 1: Editorial
Applied Graphic Design Studies 2: Branding
Industry Brief

**Year three Modules**
**Core Modules**
Creative and Professional Development
Professional Practice
Personal Projects and Commissions
Dissertation
Final Major Project

Assessment methods

At the centre of this course is studio-based activity. You’ll spend a significant amount of time in the Graphic Design studio working on both individual study and group tuition. On the course you are pushed to explore your own style, which you’ll build into your own distinctive portfolio that demonstrates your unique strengths and interests for prospective work opportunities after graduation.

During your time with us you'll study modules that are centred around your own career aspirations and, through guest lectures from industry specialists, seminars and live industry projects,

We also aim to provide masterclasses and industry brief opportunities for you to apply your knowledge, skills and understanding into real-world contexts, whilst gaining feedback from current industry-leaders.

Individual and small group tutorials led by industry professionals, are not only to support you throughout the degree but more importantly to prepare you the professional world afterwards with an outstanding portfolio and a network of employers.

You’ll also be assessed though; 1:1 or small group tutorials, Portfolio and presentations, written assessments, sketchbooks, group critiques and self-directed study.

At the end of your studies, you’ll have the chance to take part in the graduate Art and Design Showcase exhibition at the University. In addition, students are offered the opportunity to put forward work for the D&AD New Blood exhibition in central London where a selected group of students are also invited to attend.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£15,000
per year
International
£15,000
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

Extra funding

Buckinghamshire New University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.bucks.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/financial-support-bursaries-and-scholarships

The Uni


Course location:

Buckinghamshire New University

Department:

School of Art, Design, and Performance

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.

94%
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

95%
Staff make the subject interesting
98%
Staff are good at explaining things
89%
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

61%
Library resources
76%
IT resources
70%
Course specific equipment and facilities
91%
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?

92%
UK students
8%
International students
34%
Male students
66%
Female students
73%
2:1 or above
18%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
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.

£19,000
med
Average annual salary
89%
low
Employed or in further education
69%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

36%
Design occupations
12%
Media professionals
9%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals

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.

£17k

£17k

£21k

£21k

£24k

£24k

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