University of Chester
UCAS Code: W100 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Access to HE Diploma, to include 45 credits at level 3, 30 of which must be at Merit
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Higher
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About this course
As a developing artist, our Fine Art degree course will provide you with a dynamic and inspiring environment with which to explore, practice, expand, develop and deploy your creative potential. You’ll be supported and encouraged to engage with painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, lens-based and time-based media to expand the possibilities and opportunities inherent to your individual practice. The course is designed to cultivate your technical expertise and creative thinking, and to equip you with the necessary skills to excel as a Fine Artist in the Creative Industries.
You will develop your unique visual language making use of specialist techniques and processes whilst being informed by the contextual concerns and interests that are individual to you. At Chester, we support you in fostering a critical understanding of art's role in contemporary society; what you think, what you say, what you make, how you make it and how it is received are all questions you will consider and navigate.
Our studio projects ask you to visually experiment and innovate, and you will gain increasing autonomy and confidence in the development of your ideas and your practice. You will be supported and guided by expert academic and technical staff in social learning studio spaces and workshops. You will produce work that challenges perceptions and speaks to both personal and global issues making work that is significant to you and to your audience.
As you learn and collaborate with students across Art, Design & Innovation, you'll not only widen your social and professional network but also learn new skills that will underpin your success as a World Ready graduate.
Assessment methods
The Fine Art course employs a broad range of assessment methods that are applied to a variety of assessment tasks and outcomes. You are assessed through coursework, there are no written exams.
Studio practice projects and modules will see you developing both supporting artwork and resolved artwork in two and three dimensions, work that is time-based or performative or that is site-specific, site-responsive or installation based.
A Studio Journal (Level 4), Reflective Journal, (Level 5) and Contextual Research Journal, (Level 6) will accompany the Studio Practice, enriching and informing the conversation that surrounds it.
Written work will include essays, journals and reports and some modules have components which are assessed through student presentations.
Assessment is embedded, continuous and authentic. Continuous in as much as formative assessment occurs at regular intervals, whether that be at the end of a project or simply during a tutorial in the studio, with summative assessment at the end of a series of projects or the completion of a module. Assessment is authentic in as much as the premise, language, task, timeframe and output asked of the student replicate those experienced by Fine Artists working professionally.
Tuition fees
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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.
Art
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.
Art
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
Quite a few students of fine art have already retired and are taking the degree for the excellent reason that they love art, and they're willing to pay to study it. You should bear this in mind if the stats you see feature particularly low employment rates. If you need to earn a living once you've finished your fine art degree, be aware that freelancing and self-employment is common - about one in six fine arts graduates were working for themselves. Also common are what is termed 'portfolio careers' — having several part-time jobs or commissions at once - and many courses actually help you prepare for freelancing. One in ten of last year’s fine arts graduates had more than one job six months after graduation — over twice the average for graduates from 2015. Graduates from these subjects are often found in arts jobs, as artists, designers, photographers and similar jobs, or as arts and entertainment officers or teachers — although it's perfectly possible to get jobs outside the arts if you wish, with jobs in events management, marketing and community work amongst the most popular options.
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.
£16k
£19k
£21k
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):
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.
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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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