Get degree ideas using our A level explorer tool

Photography

University Centre Grimsby

UCAS Code: W640 | Foundation Degree in Arts - FdA

Entry requirements


UCAS Tariff

80

About this course


Course option

2years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Photography

**What's your angle?**

**Photography is an exciting, historically important and culturally significant medium. Our FdA Photography is designed to appeal to anyone with an enthusiasm for photography and the desire to pursue photographic practice, either as a career or simply as a form of self-expression. In the first year of study, you will practise core photography skills, studio skills and darkroom skills, giving you an experience of both a digital workflow and traditional analogue/darkroom techniques. In the second year of study, you will apply these techniques to various genres of photography, providing you with an opportunity to work on client-based projects, pursue a self-initiated documentary project, and assemble a substantial self-directed photographic project. In the second year, you will also look at design and marketing for photographers, considering how best to market your photographic work and skills to potential clients and/or exhibitors.**

The course balances study of commercial photography with an exploration of the broader importance of photography in documenting the world around us – and its significance as a form of personal expression – in non-commercial genres such as documentary, fine art or street photography. Whilst the commercial element within photographic practice is undeniably important, the medium’s potential to document and explore society, and to allow individuals to express themselves creatively, is equally important. The degree will provide you with experience of working in commercial genres such as advertising and industrial photography, whilst also giving you the opportunity to explore the worlds of fine art, street and documentary photography. In addition, you will have the opportunity of studying the history of photography, and examining the work of important and contemporary photographers.

The degree is welcoming to people from all backgrounds, both traditional students and those returning to education as mature students. Entrants onto our degree level photography provision have in the past come from many different backgrounds: you may simply be an enthusiastic amateur, or you may already work as a photographer. However, regardless of your background, whether you are intending on pursuing a career within commercial photography, establishing your own business or seeking work as a freelancer, our course aims to build on your enthusiasm for the subject, giving you confidence in your abilities whilst providing you with the knowledge and skills necessary to practice or study photography at a higher level.

During your time on the course, you will be given the opportunity of working with both analogue (film-based) and digital formats, and you will be able to practise using our equipment – including our studio and darkroom facilities. During your second year, you will be asked to design, plan and produce your own extended independent project, which you will self-publish, giving you something which can be used to help market yourself as a photographer upon completing the degree.

This course is primarily designed for face-to-face learning, with attendance during lessons for the specified hours within the validation document. However, there may be periods of study where the government advises TEC Partnership that it is not safe to open campuses, or there is limited access due to social distancing measures. If the campus is closed, TEC Partnership will deliver your sessions online and offer you the necessary support and resources remotely. If there is limited access due to social distancing measures a blended model will be adopted, with some lessons taking place in small groups and others using online sessions and support.

Modules

Modules at Level 4 are intended to introduce you to core skills and key concepts whilst allowing you freedom to find you own approach within whatever types of photography interest you. At Level 4, you will study the following modules:
(i) Photography Skills, in which you will be introduced to the equipment and given opportunity to practise using it;
(ii) Studio Skills, giving you the opportunity to work in a studio environment;
(iii) Darkroom Skills, enabling you to learn how to develop and print your work in a darkroom setting;
(iv) Understanding Photographs and Study Skills, which will provide you with a comprehension of how photographs ‘work’ in communicating meaning to their audiences;
(v) Digital Workflow Systems and Employability, in which you will learn how to use modern professional software to manage, manipulate and archive photographs;
(vi) The History of Photography, in which we will examine the history and evolution of the medium
Modules at Level 5 are designed to provide you with a balance of practising photography within commercial genres against exploring the potential for non-commercial genres to extend the boundaries of photography. These modules are:
(i) The Camera as Storyteller: Documentary and Street Photography, a module focusing on documentary forms of photography and which considers the importance of storytelling to documentary / street photography, both in the form of single images and as photo essays
(ii) Authorship in Photography, in which you will look at the work of key photographers;
(iii) Design and Marketing for Photographers, which focuses on how to market your skills as a photographer and promote your work to clients and / or exhibitors;
(iv) Client-Based Projects: Working to a Live Brief, which will ask you to interpret a brief provided by a simulated client;
(v) Critical and Conceptual Practice: Self-Directed Project, in which you will be asked to produce an independent project in a form / on a topic of your choice and self-publish it.
Modules focused on photographic practice are intended to provide you with an appropriate skillset and a working methodology which, combined with a flexibility of approach, should be sufficient to enable you to enter into a career in photography, whether in the employ of others or via self-employment / entrepreneurship. These modules are focused on a number of genres, both commercial and artistic – including photojournalism and press photography, portraiture, advertising photography, industrial photography, fine art photography and documentary / street photography. These modules will be delivered alongside an ethos grounded in the principles of work-related learning; foregrounded at Level 5, the ethos of work-related learning will be presented to students via the setting of ‘live’, client-led briefs in appropriate modules and a simulation of work-based contexts.

Assessment methods

Assessment on the programme will be via the production of both individual photographs and sequences of images, including photo essays. Some modules will expect you to work towards a simulated ‘live brief’. Other modules will give you the freedom to select your own topic or issue and produce work which you will then be required to self-publish and submit in the form of a book. Alongside these methods of assessment, you will be asked to complete traditional academic assessments in the form of essays, both short- and long-form.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£8,500
per year
England
£8,500
per year
Northern Ireland
£8,500
per year
Republic of Ireland
£8,500
per year
Scotland
£8,500
per year
Wales
£8,500
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University Centre Grimsby

Department:

HE Creative and Digital - GIFHE

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.

92%
Photography

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.

Cinematics and photography

Teaching and learning

92%
Staff make the subject interesting
100%
Staff are good at explaining things
85%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
85%
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

77%
Library resources
100%
IT resources
85%
Course specific equipment and facilities
69%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

After graduation


We don't have more detailed stats to show you in relation to this subject area at this university but read about typical employment outcomes and prospects for graduates of this subject below.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Cinematics and photography

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£11k

£11k

£14k

£14k

£16k

£16k

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...

Share this page

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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