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Performance

Entry requirements


Scottish HND

Pass

HND in Acting and Performance OR Musical Theatre OR Performing Arts with CB in the graded unit

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Acting

**This course is available for advanced entry only.**

Focusing on practice, this two-year course offers you the knowledge and skills to make innovative, relevant and engaging new work for contemporary audiences and communities. It is an articulation route for students who have already achieved an HND in Acting and Performance.

Why QMU?

• Our teaching draws upon a vast experience and legacy of successfully preparing students for entry into the field of professional performance - there are QMU graduates in most of the major theatre and performance institutions in Scotland, and, of course, many have gone on to successful careers further afield.

• Just a six-minute train ride from the centre of Edinburgh, we are well placed for easy access to the year-round performance opportunities that the Festival City provides, and our students often use the festivals as springboards for their own careers.

On this course you will:
• Develop your knowledge of the field of performance and be equipped with the practical skills that are essential for developing a career in this sector.
• Experience a tailored route to a degree level qualification.
• Learn through physical exploration of the subject.
• Experience a combination of learning and teaching methods including workshops, lectures, seminars, tutorials, case studies, demonstrations, simulation exercises, embedded skills training, field trips and projects.
• Gain valuable placement experience through our growing links with external stakeholders. Examples of placement opportunities range from the Edinburgh International Festival to working with independent theatre companies or the Brunton or Lyceum theatres as well as a range of local primary and secondary schools. The mix of student placements is very diverse and we aim to accommodate all student aspirations.

Focusing on the breadth of forms that performance can take, the course will be of interest to those who wish to explore the potential of performance beyond the conventional modes and spaces with which it is most traditionally associated.

You can opt to study for an ordinary degree, completing one year of this course or an honours degree, completing two. You will complete a range of modules each year as outlined below.

Modules

Year Three
• Contemporary Scottish Theatre in Context
• Devising Practices
• Drama in Education
• Performance Project
• Designing a Research Project
• Optional module

Year Four
• Creative Practice & Enterprise
• Honours Study
• Creative Learning and the Community
• Optional module

Optional modules change annually, but may include:
• Playwriting
• Site-Specific Performance
• Site & Sound
• Experiential Learning Placement
• Devised Physical Theatre
• Performance Art Practices
• Theatre Laboratory Practices
• Directing, Designing and Performing Shakespeare
• Directing
• Designing and Performing Contemporary Plays
• Student Initiated Module

The modules listed here are correct at time of posting (Feb 2022) but may differ slightly to those offered in 2023. Please check back here for any updates.

Assessment methods

The course adopts a blended learning approach with teaching and learning activities mostly falling into two broad categories, each best suited for particular types of activities: seminars and workshops, which comprise the majority of the hours of staff-student contact on the course.

In seminars students will participate in active debate on theories, concepts and ideas in this academic field, collaborate on problem solving and engage in critical analysis of performance.

Workshops are the primary form of student-staff contact for this course, with students engaging in practical activities facilitated by the lecturer (or supervised by members of the staff team) either individually or in groups, as best befits explorative learning within this collaborative art form. The teaching team recognises that student-to-student interaction can be a highly effective learning activity and use various forms of group work, problem-solving groups, case based learning and project production teams, to enable this.

Peer teaching is enabled through the use of seminar presentations, postings of individual and group research processes on the Hub and/or PebblePad, and collaborative devising or workshop generation processes. Students are encouraged to be enquiring, critical and innovative. Emphasis is placed on analytical, divergent ways of thinking. In addition to their own independent learning, students also initiate and lead individual tutorials/workshops with members of staff related to coursework or dissertation supervision. Most modules on the BA (Hons) Performance are core, with one optional module in Year Three and one in Year Four.

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
International
£8,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£1,820
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Queen Margaret University

Department:

School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management

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.

89%
Acting

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.

Drama

Teaching and learning

96%
Staff make the subject interesting
93%
Staff are good at explaining things
92%
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

73%
Library resources
79%
IT resources
76%
Course specific equipment and facilities
71%
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?

98%
UK students
2%
International students
20%
Male students
80%
Female students
69%
2:1 or above
0%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
B
A*

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.

Drama

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.

£16,640
med
Average annual salary
98%
high
Employed or in further education
40%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

27%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
16%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
14%
Teaching and educational professionals

What about your long term prospects?

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

Drama

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

£14k

£14k

£16k

£16k

£25k

£25k

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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Lower entry requirements
University of Essex | Colchester
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UCAS Points: 80

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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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