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You'll study units which introduce you to the process involved in creating a successful advertising campaign in your first year, encouraging you to develop your writing skills and learn how to communicate with your audience. 

Personal Development
You’ll be given three briefs and with each one you’ll be asked to promote a product, service or event of your choosing. You’ll do this by researching creative thinking models and art direction as well as through copywriting, digital media and creative direction.

Through this unit you will be introduced to appropriate practical and technical skills through workshops related to your briefs, art direction and copywriting, supported by mac skills.

Visual Communications: Context and Theory
Based on a series of illustrated lectures, you’ll be introduced to a number of key historical and contemporary contextual frameworks for visual culture and communication practices, encouraging you to begin to identify changing relationships between visual culture, communication and wider social and cultural concerns.

Art Direction
This unit will introduce you to art direction, while exploring the creative and practical processes involved in creating a successful advertising campaign. The unit will provide you with a variety of creative thinking tools that will enable you to learn techniques of ‘interrogation’ and how to ask ‘creative questions’.

Copywriting
In this unit you will explore copywriting, the vernacular of your audience, long and short copy and its relationship with media. You will also explore the ‘endline’ through creating a proposition/promise within the context of advertising.

Digital Media
Digital channels and platforms have created a seismic shift in the way that brands advertise, but that is not without its challenges. The proliferation of online media has changed customer interaction with brands. In this unit you will understand the role of digital media in advertising, explore the different channels and platforms available to brands.

We'll give you the platform to create and experiment with strategic concepts and ideas in your second year. 

Advertising Strategy
You’ll explore a variety of strategies deployed by the world’s leading advertising agencies.

Advertising Communication
By exploring verbal, written and visual language in conjunction with genre, you’ll gain a better understanding of creative and strategic communication, exploiting ‘storytelling’. You will also be expected to consider the impact of technology within advertising practice, and the use of ‘direct targeted’ advertising.

Contextual and Theoretical Perspectives
We'll encourage you to position your own practice by recourse to a variety of theories, contextual frameworks and critical evaluations. You'll be introduced to a variety of research methods to facilitate independent study towards coherent, self-reflective argument in written form.

Personal Practice
Capitalising on prior learning, you’ll consider how you as an art director, copywriter or digital creative, can create ad campaigns that clearly connect with the viewer. Through a D&AD brief (or other student competition including IPA, Creative Circle, etc), you will consider your audience/s and how they may respond to ad campaigns that you will create using verbal, written, visual and behavioural language. 

Study Abroad (optional)
This optional unit will allow you to spend a period of time in an overseas educational institution.

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a placement within the creative industries to further develop your skills and CV.

While on your Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

You'll realise your professional and research skills through the creation of a series of holistic campaigns and a dissertation, culminating into a folio of work that will allow you to graduate with a strong knowledge of the industry and your potential role within it.

Personal and Professional Practice
Concentrating on you, and your future, this course features three briefs.  You will, through negotiation, select your favourite award-winning ad campaign produced by the ad agency you wish to work with. Subsequently, you will produce a case study applying a variety of theories. Thereafter you will produce a pastiche/parody of the ad you selected, followed by a promotional material for the agency and a piece of self-promotion directed at the agency.

Research and Professional Practice
The briefs for this unit have been designed for you to apply and celebrate your learning as well as your career aspirations affording you the opportunity to synthesize your learning in art direction, copywriting or digital media. For the most part, you will determine the content through negotiation. However, it is expected that aspects will reflect an international content, and test your creative directorial skills.

Dissertation
You'll undertake a substantial period of sustained, individually negotiated research on a subject related to the contextual and/or theoretical concerns of your discipline or chosen area of practice, towards the provision of structured written argument.

This course offers the opportunity to study abroad for part of your second year. To find out more about studying abroad as part of your course please see the Study Abroad section:

• Study abroad information

Tuition fees
The course fees per year for 2021 entry are:

• UK students - £9,250 
• EU students - £9,250 (see fee discount information)
• International students - £16,950 (standard fee)
• International students - £16,270 (full early payment fee)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

Additional course costs
In addition to the tuition fees please see the additional course costs for 2021 entry.

Further information
Find out more about our course fees and any financial support you may be entitled to:

The standard entry requirements* for this course are:

One of the following:

• 112 new UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Distinction, Merit, Merit at BTEC Extended Diploma
• Merit at UAL Extended Diploma
• 112 new UCAS tariff points from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma in appropriate subject
• 27-30 total points in the International Baccalaureate Diploma with at least 15 IB points at Higher level, see more information about IB entry requirements.

And four GCSE passes at grade A*-C and/or grade 4-9 including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).

Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.

*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results.

To view the equivalent entry requirements for your country please select it in the list below.

• Non-UK equivalent qualifications
• English language requirements

Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?

You may be able to enter the course through the following entry courses:

• Pre-sessional English courses in the UK or China
• UCA International Foundation courses
• The UCA International College

Our BA/BSc (Hons) Advertising course has links with some of the biggest names in the advertising industry, including:

• Ogilvy & Mather
• Bartle Bogle Hegarty
• JWT
• Y&R
• Wieden+Kennedy
• Publicis
• CHI & Partners
• Beattie McGuinness Bungay
• Mother
• TBWA.

Our graduates are equipped to work in a multitude of advertising roles, and have secured rewarding positions across the sector, including as:

• Art directors
• Copywriters
• Account managers
• Account planners
• Media buyers and planners
• Producers and creative service managers.

You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.