Painting Drawing and Printmaking
Entry requirements
UCAS Tariff
Although many of our students do come in with top grades and high UCAS points, these aren’t necessarily essential for entry. We typically ask for a minimum of 104 UCAS points, but we understand that talented artists, designers and makers can have a wide range of relevant strengths and skills beyond formal qualifications. We’re just as interested in exploring your portfolio as we are in seeing your grades.
You may also need to…
Present a portfolio
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
**Arts University Plymouth is an arts university for the 21st century, preparing students who are uniquely placed to provide creative solutions to the complex global challenges of a changing world. Formerly known as Plymouth College of Art, we were granted full university title in Spring 2022. We are now the city of Plymouth’s first and only specialist arts university, allowing us to offer our students a dynamic and unique learning experience.**
In May 2022 we were awarded the **Best Small or Specialist University at the 2022 WhatUni Student Choice Awards**, coming top in a list of well-respected specialist UK universities, based on unbiased and honest reviews from students across the UK, in a category that highlights the quality of our provision as a specialist creative university.
**On this course, designed to immerse you in a wide range of traditional and contemporary techniques, you will develop a distinct creative voice as a contemporary professional artist.**
Based in large, open-plan studios designed with lofted ceilings and windows that allow for northern exposure to natural light, you will be encouraged to develop an ambitious working practice through encounters with all three disciplines.
Our tutors are all practising artists who bring unique, independent experience to the classroom and studio teaching. The course specialises in the embodied practice of painting, with the synergy of drawing and fine print together with colour as a conceptual and pedagogical practice.
During your three years of study, a comprehensive series of technical workshops and material demonstrations provide a core component to the curriculum, fostering a hands-on, deep material knowledge that will directly inform the ideas, methods and idiosyncrasies of your emergent studio practice. We teach the six visual languages: tone, line, space, movement, shape and colour, enabling each student to express their own imagination and find their own voice, to become the painters, artists and printmakers of the next generation.
Take advantage of the many cultural and community-based institutions located in and near Plymouth, providing you with opportunities to see and participate in timely exhibitions that increase your knowledge of the contemporary art world. Recent student trips have included visits to Tate Galleries in London and St Ives, the Barbara Hepworth Museum, Spike Island, Arnolfini, Hauser & Wirth and the Rabley Drawing Centre. Students on the course have travelled internationally to attend the Impact 10 printmaking conference in Santander, Spain, and have recently toured galleries and art fairs in Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam.
With active and ongoing university initiatives that help students develop relationships with the contemporary art world and curators, our students show their work in galleries in and near Plymouth, and have previously toured their degree shows at Second Floor Studios in London. Recent contributors to the programme include Turner Prize nominee Ciara Phillips, Freelands Foundation Creative Director painter and educator Dr Henry Ward, Sue Kennington, Sarah Hoskins, Josie Cockram (Royal Academy Schools alumni) and painter Nina Royle. Our students have gone on to establish successful art practices in Plymouth, Falmouth, St Ives, Exeter, Bristol, London and Europe.
Modules
Your progress throughout the three years is driven by a comprehensive series of technical workshops, underpinned by the teaching of drawing as a core component of your studio practice.
You will study painting, drawing and printmaking, whilst also learning about the professional strategies of the art world.
We will encourage you to think through making, with your own studio work providing you with a centre of enquiry and a point of departure through the deep learning of a core discipline.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Arts University Plymouth
Arts, Design and Media
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.
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.
Art
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
Art
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£13k
£16k
£18k
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...
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