Photography (Top-Up)
Entry requirements
HND (BTEC)
BTEC HND with a Merit or above or equivalent qualfication in a relevant subject
You may also need to…
Attend an interview
About this course
The rising popularity of photography has seen a wealth of opportunity spring up for creative photographic practitioners. A degree in photography from Solent University will help position you at the cutting-edge of this medium, preparing you to enter the world of work with highly developed and refined creative and technical skills.
If you’re an experienced photographer, this one year degree will give you the opportunity to ‘top-up’ your existing skills and qualifications into a full honours degree, spending the year producing work for your portfolio.
Throughout the course you will be supported to develop your creative, imaginative and critical abilities – skills that are essential in a creative career. You’ll also explore a range of photographic subjects and will embed photographic skills through dynamic projects.
Solent’s experienced teaching team will guide you in creating a rich and varied professional portfolio, and will ensure that you have the creative freedom to make a portfolio that best represents your own unique style, while at the same time demonstrating that you are a competent, adaptable and employable practitioner.
Regular course lectures are supported by a programme of industry guest speakers, which in the past have included appearances from Richard Billingham, Catherine Yass, Charlotte Cotton, Ori Gersht, Brian Dillon, Peter Fraser, Dan Holdsworth, Chrystel Lebas, Jeremy Millar, Sophy Rickett, Margaret Salmon and Tom Hunter.
Your studies will take place in the multi-million pound Media Academy – featuring state-of-the-art teaching and photography facilities including digital and analogue studio spaces. You will also learn in the Photography Base Room – a dedicated, flexible teaching space.
Think a career as a photographer might be for you? With first-class facilities and a unique emphasis on freelance work, Solent University’s photography programme is a great first step towards your dream career.
Photography at Solent offers leading photography production and teaching facilities.
**What does this course lead to?**
Many graduates have gone on to work in commercial, editorial, fashion, portrait, documentary, photojournalism, landscape and fine art photography. Graduates also enter related fields, including post-production, museum and galleries, book and journal publication, picture editing, education (FE and HE) and have also gone on to postgraduate study.
**Who is this course for?**
This intensive one-year top-up programme is ideally suited to students who are qualified at a HND level and would like to upgrade to a full undergraduate honours degree.
Applicants should aspire for careers in editorial, fashion, promotional, freelance or fine art photography.
Modules
CORE MODULES
Contemporary Photographic Practice
Contemporary Photographic Journal
Image Text Analysis 1
Image Text Analysis 2
Final Major Project
Assessment methods
The course is assessed through a structured combination of project work (including portfolio, book, and film outcomes) and written work.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
Extra funding
Solent University offers a number of bursaries, grants and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.solent.ac.uk/finance/grants-bursaries-scholarships/bursaries
The Uni
Solent University (Southampton)
Department of Art and Music
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.
Cinematics and photography
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.
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.
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.
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.
£16k
£20k
£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.
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
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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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