About Photography With Foundation BA Honours in University of Westminster, London

Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster. Whether you do not feel ready for degree-level study, don’t have the right qualifications, want to change your subject specialism or return to study after an absence from education, we aim to encourage a broad range of students to undertake our Foundation year in order to progress onto their full honours degree with us.

The Foundation year is designed to give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, opening up new perspectives on the key debates within your chosen field. During the foundation year you will explore a range of creative disciplines and get a chance to develop in your chosen field, benefiting from workshops in our high end facilities and working with leading academics who will encourage you to become a confident and creative thinker. Core modules accelerate your academic and professional development and you will also You will also take modules within your chosen field, giving you the chance to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on your course.

On successful completion of the Foundation year (Year 0), you will be able to move on to study for the Photography BA Honours degree over a further three years study.

This is a course in the creative and critical practice of photography. You will be encouraged to develop your own visual practice through an appreciation of the history of the medium as well as a critical understanding of it's wider social and cultural significance. You will also explore a wide range of relevant contemporary theories and debates designed both to stimulate a critically engaged practice and to better prepare you for a range of related careers. You will also gain cognitive and transferable skills necessary for lifelong personal and professional development.

Many of our graduates go on to work as photographers and photographic artists, but equally they pursue a range of careers within the broader photographic and creative sectors, as designers, historians, magazine editors, museum and gallery curators, picture editors and researchers, teachers, and writers. Many also go on to postgraduate study.

This is the only Photography BA Honours degree course in the UK, which offers both three years full-time and four years part-time study. Part-time students are taught one day a week with further access to the facilities. Applicants should apply to the most appropriate route, but can also change route should their circumstances change. Course content is the same in three years full-time or four years part-time study.

The Photography BA Honours will enable you to develop your creative production skills across a range of photographic and lens-based media, to establish a critically engaged and self-reflective creative practice. It will equip you with the skills to adapt to creative opportunities, participate in contemporary cultural debates, and increase your awareness of the political, ethical and aesthetic implications of your work.

The course is part of the University of Westminster’s School of Media, Arts and Design, based at our state-of-the-art Harrow Campus – a cutting-edge creative hub, and one of the leading media, arts and design educational facilities in Europe.

Project based modules are designed to equip you with the techniques and skills of a variety of digital and analogue photographic media including video. You are encouraged to develop a creative, critically informed and self-reflective approach to your practical work. Alongside this, theory modules with written outcomes reflect on the history and criticism of photography, drawing on a number of related fields including art history, media and cultural theory, and sociology. You will learn to form independent, informed opinions of your own work and that of others. There is a continual emphasis on personal and professional development throughout the course. 

​​​Academic qualification equivalents

• HSC XII: CBSE, ICSE, Kolkata, or Tamil Nadu boards with an overall average of 70% or above*
• HSC XII: West Bengal board with an overall average of 58% or above*
• HSC XII: Maharashtra or Gujarat boards with an overall average of 75% or above*
• HSC XII: All other state boards with an overall average of 80%+ or above*
• a recognised International Foundation course from a UK institution or an Indian institution following a validated UK syllabus. Entry requirements vary but we normally ask for between 60% and 65%

English language requirements (one of the below):

•  IELTS: 6.0 overall with a minimum 5.5 in each component
• TOEFL iBT : 78 overall with a minimum of 17 in Listening, and Writing, 18 in Reading and 20 in Speaking 
• PTE:54 average with 51 in each component

University of Westminster, London Highlights

University of Westminster Cost of Attendance

The average estimated annual cost for 2020/2021 session is presented on the table below: