Performance
Entry requirements
Scottish HND
HND in Acting and Performance OR Musical Theatre OR Performing Arts with CB in the graded unit
About this course
**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:
The Uni
Queen Margaret University
School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management
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.
Drama
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
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.
Top job areas of graduates
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
£16k
£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.
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