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Open University

UCAS Code: Not applicable | Bachelor of Design (with Honours) - BDes (Hon)

Entry requirements

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About this course

Course option

6years

Distance learning | 2025

Subjects

Design

Engineering design

Our Bachelor of Design (BDes) enhances your design skills, empowering you to apply them creatively to today’s diverse social, ecological, and technological challenges and opportunities. It explores a diversity of creative thinking and practice used in design, cultivating professional design competencies while nurturing your unique design identity. It portrays design as a catalyst for change, showcasing its potential to tackle societal issues across various domains. You’ll participate in activities and projects that refine your skills and integrate knowledge from a spectrum of disciplines, and gain valuable collaborative experience. Moreover, you’ll craft design projects aligned with your interests, compiling your design work into a comprehensive portfolio.

**Key features**
- Cultivate your design identity, values and field of practice

- Develop confidence and ability to work with diverse groups across different disciplines

- Deepen your scholarship on design history, theory and practice

- Learn how you can use design to enhance our capabilities to live sustainably

- Build your social and professional networks to address real-world challenges and opportunities

Modules

This degree has three stages, each comprising 120 credits.

In Stage 1, you’ll study two 60-credit modules.
In Stage 2, you’ll study two 60-credit modules.
In Stage 3, you’ll study a 60-credit module and complete a 60-credit project module.

The Uni

Course location:

Distance Learning

Department:

The Open University

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What students say

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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.

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.

£22k

£22k

£26k

£26k

£29k

£29k

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.

Engineering (non-specific)

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

£37k

£37k

£41k

£41k

£47k

£47k

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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UCAS Points: -

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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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