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Sheffield Hallam University

UCAS Code: A034 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)

Entry requirements

Access to HE Diploma

M:15

An Access to HE Diploma with at least 45 credits at level 3 and 15 credits at level 2. At least 15 level 3 credits must be at merit grade or above from a QAA-recognised Access to HE course, or an equivalent Access to HE certificate.

GCSE/National 4/National 5

English Language or Literature at grade C or 4 or equivalents.

UCAS Tariff

80

With at least 32 points from one A level or equivalent BTEC National qualifications. For example: CDD at A Level. MMP in BTEC Extended Diploma. Pass overall from a T level qualification with C from core. A combination of qualifications which must include an A level grade C or BTEC grade M.

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About this course

This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.

Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2025

Other options

5 years | Sandwich including foundation year | 2025

Subjects

Animation

Computer animation and visual effects

**Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information**

**Course summary**
- Explore the unique capabilities of 2D, stop-motion and 3D animation.

- Supercharge your skillset using industry-standard tools and techniques.

- Share your story, perfect character performance and interpret motion.

- Adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of animation-related practice.

- Study career routes, plan for festival submission and craft your online portfolio.

Through our industry-focused learning and connections, you’ll learn to embrace innovation and challenge expectations. You’ll develop and showcase your skills in ways that are individual to your creative identity.

**How you learn**
On this course you’ll be based in our bespoke studios, workshops and digital spaces, joining a dynamic and collaborative learning community. With their support you’ll undertake creative adventures, explore possibilities and challenge conventions.  

Through our teaching, we’ll unfold your potential to contribute as a creative thinker and doer and apply your knowledge to industry, culture, society and life systems. The course covers a wide range of topics related to 2D, stop motion and 3D animation – from storyboarding and animatics to concept art, writing, direction, character animation and performance. You’ll explore model making, set building, art direction, rigging and professional distribution methods – as well as sustainable and ethical animation practices.  

You learn through:
- studio practice

- workshops

- technical demonstrations

- group and individual tutorials

- reviews

- lectures

- guest lectures

- external visits and field trips

- film screenings

**Key themes**
Your first year introduces you to the world of professional animation practice. You’ll explore the skills required to develop your own original animated projects and respond to live client briefs.

The second year builds on this learning, focusing on professional portfolio development and the curation of your industry presence – through practice, research, industry interaction and cross-discipline projects.

You can then choose to enter the industry during an optional placement year, working in studios and agencies, or setting up a business of your own.

In your final year you’ll lead industry-focused animated projects, focusing on sustainable production practices and the importance of getting your work seen in festivals and exhibition spaces.

**Applied learning**
We’ve designed the course to embrace real-world challenges and provide you with the practical skills and knowledge to be successful. You’ll develop your expertise in collaboration with various industry, commercial and creative practitioners, clients and organisations.

**Work Placements**
Through a series of work experience opportunities, you’ll gain knowledge, skills and professional behaviours to help you reflect on your goals, and future career paths. You’ll become more confident, resilient and practised in professional interactions, preparing you to succeed when you graduate.

You’re encouraged and supported to undertake a full-time work placement between your second and third year of the course. Sandwich placements give you valuable additional work experience to help prepare you for your future career. They can have a transformative impact on your personal and professional development, which you can enhance further by completing Sheffield Hallam’s Applied Professional Diploma.   

Previous students have gained work experience at local animation studios and thrived as freelance artists – both alongside their studies and through the dedicated placement year. Work experience and placements particularly enhance your final-year student experience, underpinning independent practice with real-world experience.

Modules

Important notice: The structure of this course is periodically reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students and ensure ongoing compliance with any professional, statutory and regulatory body standards. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment may change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Following any changes, updated module information will be published on this page.

You will be able to complete a placement year as part of this course. See the modules table below for further information.

**Year 1**

**Compulsory modules**

Foundation Projects — Developing Creative Practice
Foundation Skills & Methods

**Year 2**

**Compulsory modules**

Directing Story: Engaging Audiences
Doing Moving: Animation Principles In Motion

**Year 3**

**Compulsory modules**

Animator Elevator: Careers In Animation
Future Now: Collaboration In Action
Re-Animator: Character In Motion

**Elective module**

Study Abroad - Creative Industries

**Year 4**

**Optional modules**

Placement Year

**Final year**

**Compulsory modules**

Beyond Imagination: Professional Animation Production
Pure Imagination: Professional Concept Development

Assessment methods

Coursework

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,535
per year
England
£9,535
per year
EU
£17,155
per year
International
£17,155
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,535
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,535
per year
Scotland
£9,535
per year
Wales
£9,535
per year

Extra funding

Scholarships, discounts and bursaries may be available to students who study this course.

The Uni

Course location:

Sheffield Hallam University

Department:

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Read full university profile

What students say

We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

91%
Animation
79%
Computer animation and visual effects

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.

Cinematics and photography

Teaching and learning

88%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
85%
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

76%
Library resources
84%
IT resources
87%
Course specific equipment and facilities
61%
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?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
53%
Male students
47%
Female students
75%
2:1 or above
3%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
D
B

Computer games and animation

Teaching and learning

61%
Staff make the subject interesting
68%
Staff are good at explaining things
56%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
71%
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

38%
Library resources
47%
IT resources
57%
Course specific equipment and facilities
33%
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?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
53%
Male students
47%
Female students
75%
2:1 or above
12%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
D
B

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.

Cinematics and photography

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.

£21,000
low
Average annual salary
87%
med
Employed or in further education
51%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

24%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
23%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
13%
Other elementary services occupations

Computer games and animation

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.

£23,000
low
Average annual salary
75%
low
Employed or in further education
55%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

26%
Information technology and telecommunications professionals
12%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
9%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

This is a newly-classified subject area for this kind of data, so we don’t currently have very much information to display or analyse yet. Over time we can expect more students to study them — there could be opportunities that open up for graduates in these subjects as the economy develops over the next few years. But at the moment this looks to be a good degree if you want to work on the technical side of film and TV and this is the most common industry for new graduates.

What about your long term prospects?

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

Cinematics and photography

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

£18k

£18k

£22k

£22k

£23k

£23k

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.

Computer games and animation

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

£24k

£24k

£28k

£28k

£32k

£32k

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...

Higher entry requirements
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Same University
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Animation
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2025
UCAS Points: 112-120
Nearby University
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Futureworks | Salford
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UCAS Points: 104-120

This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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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.

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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.

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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