Photography BA (Hons)

Study level: Undergraduate
Photography students working on a studio project

Our Photography degree is designed to create ‘next generation’ photographers – independent, creative, critical, adaptable and professional. With a broad view of photography, we aim to develop your interests towards careers as photographers, editors, art directors, curators, designers, writers, multimedia makers and producers.

Year of entry

Location

Coventry University (Coventry)

Study mode

Full-time
Sandwich

Duration

3 years full-time
4 years sandwich

Course code

W640

Start date

September 2024

Available through Clearing

We recognise a breadth of qualifications and relevant experience and may be able to consider your portfolio or other examples of your practice-based work even if you do not have the required points. Speak to one of our advisers today for more information. Your portfolio and/or practice-based work will be reviewed by the Course Director who will make a final decision.*
*Applicant offer decisions are final and there is no right of appeal.



Course overview

The course is designed to be highly motivating – the teaching and learning activities are conceived to have clear relevance to your future career. We will focus on the development of problem solving, reflective practice, critical thinking, technical and practical skills related to photographic practice.

We will:

  • Support the development of personal interests through experimentation with a wide range of skills, techniques, materials and equipment.
  • Explore global communities and opportunities in photography and related creative industries2.
  • Develop critical thinkers that are malleable, responsive and reactive to shape the future of photography.
A star in the centre of a rosette.

Rated Gold Overall

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023

Five stars in a speech bubble.

5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

City buildings next to a tree.

Top 5 Student City in England (Coventry)

QS Best Student Cities Index 2025

Why you should study this course

  • We will provide you with the opportunity to develop your technical skills and teach you to understand what it is to situate yourself within a professional photographic environment. You will have opportunities to use an outstanding set of equipment in brand new facilities at the heart of our creative community.
  • We’ll introduce you to wider thematic questions and encourage critical thinking about the medium to help to better equip you to think as an informed image-maker.
  • Throughout the course, we make the international photography community our classroom, enabling you to engage directly with global communities and industry.
  • We will question and explore the latest developments in photography – recently this has included data mining, geotagging, gif making, glitching, distributed authorship, archives, hypertext navigation, collaborative photographic practices, alternative processes and much more.
  • You will be encouraged to develop your understanding of visual communications within the context of different industries, ranging from fashion photography through to fine art. You will have opportunities to learn and work on projects with students from other courses across the faculty. These collaborative opportunities are a defining feature of your learning experience and should place you in an advantageous position in developing your skills and employability on graduating.

Why study Photography BA (Hons) at Coventry University?

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What you'll study

This course has a common first year.

The common first year enables you to work alongside students doing similar courses to you, to widen your knowledge and exposure to other subject areas and professions. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with other students, so you can share your insights and experience which will help you to develop and learn.

If you discover an interest in a specific subject you have studied, upon successful completion of your first year, you could swap degrees with another course in your common first year (subject to meeting progression requirements).

Common first year courses

  • Fine Art BA (Hons)
  • Illustration BA (Hons)
  • Photography BA (Hons)

In the first year, the curriculum is shared across related courses allowing you to gain a broad grounding in the discipline before going on, in the second and third years, to specialist modules in your chosen field.

Modules

In year two you will continue to develop the skills and knowledge you’ve learnt. We do this by embedding the following four principles into the curriculum and developing your:

  • Technical skills – digital fluency, backed with the right academic knowledge
  • Study skills – to be an adaptive, independent and proactive learner
  • Professional skills – to have the behaviour and abilities to succeed in your career
  • Global awareness – the beliefs and abilities to be a resilient, confident and motivated global citizen

You will develop more advanced knowledge and skills to do with: culture, post-digital publishing, and creative collaboration, amongst others.

Modules

There’s no better way to find out what you love doing than trying it out for yourself, which is why a work placement2 can often be beneficial. Work placements usually occur between your second and final year of study. They’re a great way to help you explore your potential career path and gain valuable work experience, whilst developing transferable skills for the future.

If you choose to do a work placement year, you will pay a reduced tuition fee3 of £1250. For more information, please go to the fees and funding section. During this time you will receive guidance from your employer or partner institution, along with your assigned academic mentor who will ensure you have the support you need to complete your placement.

Whilst we would like to give you all the information about our placement/study abroad offering here, it is often tailored for each course every year and depending on the length of placement or study abroad opportunities that are secured. Therefore, the placement and study abroad arrangements vary per course and per student. Request further information about going on a placement or study abroad year.

Modules

Year three aims to bring you to the level to enter the world of work by consolidating your knowledge and skills from year one and two. Your studies could culminate in a final project, which you are expected to research, experiment and produce to a professional standard.

Modules

We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.


How you'll learn

Our teaching places an emphasis on experimentation, critical research, versatility and technical expertise.

It is informed by staff practice and research in areas such as photobook publishing; documentary photography; collaborative photographic practices; socially-engaged practice, photography education; digital appropriation and expanded photography practices; the representation of death in contemporary culture; art and anthropology; the ethics and aesthetics of participation; photography and time; photography and cinema; community photography; the pedagogical turn of contemporary art; and photography and the archive.

Students successfully completing the first two years of the course can opt to take a Professional or International Enhancement module, spending a year out between the second and third years on placement or study abroad (subject to availability, competitive application, meeting visa requirements and additional costs2).

Your personal tutor, who will be a member of the photography team, will review and discuss your progress with you and will be available for advice.


Teaching contact hours

We understand that everyone learns differently, so each of our courses will consist of structured teaching sessions, which can include:

  • On campus lectures, seminars and workshops
  • Group work
  • Self-directed learning
  • Work placement opportunities2

The number of full-time contact hours may vary from semester to semester, however, on average, it is likely to be around 12 contact hours per week in the first and second year dropping to around 10-12 contact hours per week in the third and final year as you become a more independent learner.

Additionally, you will be expected to undertake significant self-directed study of approximately 15 hours each week, depending on the demands of individual modules.

Part of university life is undertaking self-directed learning. During a typical week you will have time that allows you to work independently to apply the skills and knowledge you have learnt in taught or facilitated sessions to your projects or assignment briefs. This self-directed learning allows you to use your research skills, consolidate your knowledge or undertake collaborative group work.

As an innovative and enterprising institution, the University may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the university may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.

Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions, or orders and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.


Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods include:

  • Practical or project work
  • Coursework
  • Essay
  • Reports
  • Presentations

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes. Assessments may include exams, individual assignments or group work elements.


International experience opportunities

Our sandwich degree option allows a full-year placement, which can be taken abroad2. In the past, photography students have studied abroad at places such as the International Centre of Photography, New York, USA; Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain; Karlstad University, Sweden; Hanze University, Groningen, Netherlands; and Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. The university also runs a number of schemes to allow students short periods of overseas study, places include: China, USA, South America and parts of Europe.

Throughout the course, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects are facilitated in collaboration with universities overseas, enhancing your global experience and international networks. Recent COIL projects have taken place with partners in Universidad de Europa de Madrid, Spain, and Universitatea Nationala De Arte, Bucharest. (Projects are subject to availability2).


Entry requirements

Clearing places available on this course

See if you have enough points (UCAS tariff 2024)

Don't know your points total? Work it out
Additional requirements may apply

Typical offer for 2024/25 entry.


Fees and funding

2024/25 tuition fees.

Student Full-time Part-time
UK, Ireland*, Channel Islands or Isle of Man £9,250 per year Not available
EU £9,250 per year with EU Support Bursary**
£19,850 per year without EU Support Bursary**
Not available
International £19,850 per year Not available

If you choose to do a work placement2, you should consider travel and living costs to cover this. There is also a tuition fee3 of £1,250 that will cover your academic support throughout your placement year.

For advice and guidance on tuition fees and student loans visit our Undergraduate Finance page and see The University’s Tuition Fee and Refund Terms and Conditions.

We offer a range of International scholarships to students all over the world. For more information, visit our International Scholarships page.

Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them. Find out what's included in your tuition costs.

The following are additional costs not included in the tuition fees:

  • Any optional overseas field trips or visits: £400+ per trip.
  • Any costs associated with securing, attending or completing a placement (whether in the UK or abroad).

*Irish student fees

The rights of Irish residents to study in the UK are preserved under the Common Travel Area arrangement. If you are an Irish student and meet the residency criteria, you can study in England, pay the same level of tuition fees as English students and utilise the Tuition Fee Loan.

**EU Support Bursary

Following the UK's exit from the European Union, we are offering financial support to all eligible EU students who wish to study an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree with us full-time. This bursary will be used to offset the cost of your tuition fees to bring them in line with that of UK students. Students studying a degree with a foundation year with us are not eligible for the bursary.


Facilities

We have a well-stocked Media Loan Shop so you can borrow an extensive range of specialist, professional equipment, including 4K and HD video cameras, DSLR cameras, tripods, audio equipment and lighting (subject to availability).

The course supports the development of a range of techniques and approaches with access to digital and analogue facilities and workshops. Our darkroom and processing facilities offer the opportunity to explore and experiment with film, cyanotypes and anthotypes.

television studio

Television Studio

Where applicable, you’ll have access to our on-campus TV studio The Tank, with its specialist TV studio equipment, including large cameras, mixing facilities and fibre-optic wiring throughout.

photography suite

Photography Suite

The photography suite is a superb facility that includes virtual drum scanning, photography studios, black-and-white print darkrooms, free black-and-white film processing, and a digital print bureau.

recording equipment

Media Loan Shop

As a student, you’ll have access to Coventry University’s specialist Media Loan Shop. This well-stocked facility offers an extensive range of specialist, professional photography and film equipment.


Careers and opportunities

On successful completion, you will be equipped with the skills to:

  • Demonstrate technical skills relating to a wide range of analogue and digital photography, and associated media equipment, platforms and processes.
  • Apply your photography skills creatively to a brief to a high standard of aptitude, demonstrating the appropriate breadth and depth of conceptual development.
  • Apply creative solutions to a brief, using technical means and appropriate application of materials, processes and technologies to develop a coherent body of work that reflects the particular characteristics of your own creative perspective.
  • Communicate themes and ideas about lens-based media clearly, analytically and comprehensively in visual, oral and written forms.
  • Apply critically informed knowledge of professional practice in photography, and the wider visual arts and media related fields.
  • Effectively organise and manage independent and collaborative projects and apply entrepreneurial skills in dealing with audiences, clients, consumers, finances, markets, sources and/or users.

Like all of our creative courses, Photography is very much practice-led and informed by research and critical thinking. Throughout your course, you will be encouraged to develop projects that enable you to determine which fields you wish to specialise in, while at the same time building a portfolio of work which will stand out from the crowd.

To celebrate your works of art, we produce a Degree Show exhibition every year. This is an important platform for graduates as professionals from across the industries of photography are invited to view the exhibition and receive copies of its accompanying catalogue. The Degree Show is also an important opportunity to host portfolio reviews with high profile industry experts, picture editors, curators, and commissioners.

Through our strand of professional development modules in all years, we work with you to identify and target specific areas of industry that are aligned with your interests. The culmination of this process leads to clear and specific career goals that we work towards throughout the degree with the aim of immediate career paths after graduation.

Where our graduates work

Graduates from this course have gone on to work at photography companies such as Grain Projects, Multistory, Photomonitor, British Journal of Photography, NHS Wales, FORMAT Festival, Wellbeck Publishing, Cheshire Young Carers, Big Sky Studios as freelance photographers, visual artists, picture editors, curators, archivists, researchers, writers, gallery and museum educators, art therapists, and teachers.

Further study

You can choose to continue your studies at Coventry University with the Photography MA. You may be entitled to an alumni discount on your fees if you decide to extend your time with us by progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate study.

Graduate Immigration Route visa

Based on current information from the UK Government, international students whose study extends beyond summer 2021 may be eligible for a visa under the UK Government’s Graduate Immigration Route, which will enable students to stay and work, or look for work, in the UK at any skill level for up to two (2) years. Check the most up to date guidance available to check your eligibility and any updates from the UK Government before making an application or enrolment decision.


How to apply

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