Painting Drawing and Printmaking (Extended Degree)
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
**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.**
If you want to pursue a creative degree at Arts University Plymouth but feel you have yet to acquire the experience and range of skills necessary, our Extended BA course will prepare you for entry to one of our BA (Hons) undergraduate courses. This four-year route offers an exploratory year, developing your insight into a range of art, design and media skills and approaches, before focusing on your Painting, Drawing & Printmaking degree.
**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
The first year of an Extended Degree is not a qualification in its own right, but when you successfully complete it you are guaranteed a place on our full undergraduate programme.
You’ll develop confidence in your use of drawing, visual research, contextual studies, digital imaging and design methods, and you’ll have the chance to experiment with a range of materials, equipment, processes and software.
As the year goes by you’ll specialise in your chosen undergraduate subject (illustration, graphic design, fine art, etc.), helping you to become a confident, independent and creative artist, designer or maker.
Tuition fees
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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?
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Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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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.
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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:
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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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