BA (Hons) Graphic Design Bachelor's degree at the University of Plymouth
BA (Hons) Graphic Design at University of Plymouth covers core theory, research and methods, applied practice, specialist options, an independent project, and professional skills.
About this course
Develop innovative ideas and concepts in response to design briefs and creatively solve design problems using words and typography with the University's undergraduate BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree. From the provider’s course page.
BA (Hons) Graphic Design is a Bachelor's degree (BA (Hons)) at the University of Plymouth, based in University of Plymouth Campus. It runs 3 years, studied full-time.
For Design studies graduates from this provider, 90% were in work or further study 15 months after graduating, 70% in highly skilled roles, typical earnings around £21,000. (HESA Graduate Outcomes / LEO, via Discover Uni.)
For the typical curriculum, specialisations, career paths and graduate earnings for Art & Design, see the sections below.
Course evidence score
The arithmetic mean of the official measures available for this course: NSS satisfaction, graduate activity and continuation.
Published threshold met NSS publication requires sufficient responses; small differences are not a rank. NSS mean of 7 published themes (Discover Uni snapshot 2026-06-21)
Limited evidence Published sample: 10; treat comparisons cautiously. Cohort 2022-23. Graduate Outcomes work or further study 90% (2022-23; Discover Uni snapshot 2026-06-21)
Published threshold met Discover Uni suppresses continuation data below its publication threshold. Cohort 2022-23. Continuation 90% (2022-23; Discover Uni snapshot 2026-06-21)
Curriculum & modules
Real modules published for this course, grouped only where the source gives a year, stage or level.
Year 1 6 modules
- Type as ImageCore
Module details
Explore how type can bring ideas to life. You'll get hands-on with traditional and digital tools, learn how to make design choices that communicate clearly, and discover the creative power of typography. From sketch to final layout, you'll build your confidence by experimenting, developing ideas, and creating work that's expressive and meaningful.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Design HistoriesCore
Module details
Discover how design has shaped, and been shaped by, culture, technology, and society. Through writing, discussion, and creative activities, you'll explore the history and theory behind graphic design and its impact on today's industry. Build critical thinking, contextual awareness, and reflective skills that help you position your work in a fast-moving creative landscape.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Type and ImageCore
Module details
Explore how type and image work together to communicate ideas. You'll experiment with analogue and digital techniques to create bold, thoughtful designs. Through research, sketching, making, and reflection, you'll develop your creative process and learn how to bring type and image into powerful visual relationships.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Editorial DesignCore
Module details
Learn how to design multi-page layouts that tell a story and guide the reader. You'll explore how type, images, rhythm, and format work together to handle more complex content. Build your confidence in editorial design, develop your own creative process, and discover how to make your layouts clear, engaging, and visually powerful.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Identity DesignCore
Module details
Learn how to create bold, memorable brand identities that connect with real audiences, across print, digital and 'out of home' environments. Explore how to visualise a brand's voice and personality, build your creative process, and bring your ideas to life across different platforms with confidence and style.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Motion DesignCore
Module details
Explore how type and imagery moves! You'll design motion graphics for screens, such as animated logos, social media ads, and digital displays. Learn to plan and create dynamic sequences while sharpening your design thinking and creative process in the fast-paced and growing world of motion design.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
Year 2 6 modules
- UX/UI DesignCore
Module details
Design for interaction across digital platforms. Explore how users engage with interactive media, such as websites, apps, and emerging tech like wearables and spatial computing. Learn to plan and create visual interfaces using UX and UI principles. Build hands-on experience in visual communication and interaction design to shape intuitive, user-focused experiences.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Experimental Graphic PracticesCore
Module details
Experiment with typography and graphic design in playful, creative, and unexpected ways. Explore how risk and non-routine processes can lead to new possibilities. Develop work across editorial, identity, and digital formats.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Design ContextsCore
Module details
Explore how graphic design ideas evolve through time and shape culture today. Investigate current and historical debates through lectures, tutorials, and collaborative sessions. Share your research through presentations and writing. Use theory to frame your practice and understand how design influences, and responds to, the world around us.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Designing for ChangeCore
Module details
Use graphic design to spark change, challenge norms. Create impactful work such as publications, grass-roots campaigns, NGO brand identity systems, animated sequences, app concepts or immersive pop-up experiences. Build your skills in editorial, identity, and digital design while exploring ethical perspectives. Apply your thinking to contemporary issues through hands-on, purpose-driven work.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Designing for BrandsCore
Module details
Develop your skills in identity and digital design through a hands-on project. Create work such as typefaces, brand systems, product packaging, motion graphics, or immersive brand experiences. Explore new ways to analyse graphic design and apply them to contemporary examples, building a clearer understanding of your creative direction.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Collaborative Design ProjectCore
Module details
Collaborate across disciplines to tackle a real-world challenge through graphic design. Explore the opportunities and rewards of teamwork to develop designs that are not possible when working individually, embracing skill-sharing, fresh thinking and collective problem-solving.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
Final year 5 modules
- Research ProjectCore
Module details
Examine how research underpins creativity and innovation in art and design. Explore key methodologies for creative inquiry, while developing critical thinking, analytical skills, and original exploration. Build confidence in forming research questions, investigating ideas, and articulating findings with clarity and depth.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Transformative ProjectCore
Module details
Lead a self-directed design project that tackles real graphic communication challenges. Choose a focus, core, editorial, identity, or digital, and explore your creative direction. Use this opportunity to refine your skills, test ideas, and build work that supports your final year ambitions and award choice. Shape your practice through hands-on problem-solving.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Competition BriefCore
Module details
Respond to real-world design challenges through international competitions and externally set briefs. Apply advanced design skills, tackle professional constraints, and develop independent, industry-ready solutions. Create work that showcases your creative thinking, technical ability, and ambition, aiming not just to enter, but to stand out and succeed.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Industry PortfolioCore
Module details
Explore your future in design by researching the industry and shaping your career plan. Build a personal brand identity and create promotional materials like CVs, business cards, and social media profiles. Design a digital portfolio that showcases your creative strengths and ambitions, helping you communicate your professional identity with clarity and impact.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
- Major ProjectCore
Module details
Propose and embark upon an ambitious self-directed design project that reflects your interests, career goals, and everything you've learned so far. Create a major body of work that showcases your creative identity and ambition. Share your final project in a public exhibition, with invited industry guests, as you prepare to transition into professional practice or further study.
Assessment: 100% Coursework
Source: provider course page. Modules can change; required/optional status, credits, descriptions and assessment are shown only when explicitly published.
Course in depth
What this course covers, who it suits and where it leads.
What you'll study
This course develops your ability to respond creatively to design briefs and solve visual problems using typography and conceptual thinking. A course like this typically builds from visual foundations in Year 1, colour, composition, materials and design history, before moving to sustained studio practice and digital media in Year 2. You'll work on live briefs with real clients and deadlines. Year 3 allows deeper specialisation in areas such as illustration, UX & digital, fashion & textiles or fine art, culminating in a self-directed major project for your degree show. Throughout, you'll develop both practical making skills and the contextual understanding that grounds contemporary design practice.
Who it's for
Most entrants to this course held another higher-education qualification; around half of accepted students came in with prior higher-education experience. The typical UCAS tariff band among accepted students was 128–143 points. You'll study full-time in English, with access to university bursaries and scholarships. Check the university's funding pages for details.
Careers & job market
Across Art & Design courses nationally, 87% of graduates were in work or further study 15 months after graduating. Of those working, 55% were in highly skilled roles or undertaking further study. National earnings data shows starting salaries of £22,000–£27,000 at 15 months post-graduation, rising to £20,825–£29,400 after five years. First-year continuation rates for the subject stand at 85%. These figures reflect national Graduate Outcomes and LEO data, not university-specific guarantees.
University & format
University of Plymouth is a publicly funded university located in the South West of England. This BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree is full-time, lasting 3 years, and taught in English. The university is a recognised UK degree-awarding body; your degree is nationally recognised. The course holds Gold for teaching quality in the Office for Students' TEF 2023.
Student satisfaction
How students on this course answered the National Student Survey, by theme.
Share of students responding positively.
Published threshold met NSS publication requires sufficient responses; small differences are not a rank. NSS mean of 7 published themes (Discover Uni snapshot 2026-06-21)
Applicant information
The next application dates for this course, followed by facts the provider publishes.
- 2027 entryCompleted applications can be submitted
Your application needs a reference before you can send it.
- 2026 entryFinal date for 2026 applications
Applications must reach UCAS by 18:00 UK time.
- 2026 entryLast day to add a Clearing choice
Check that this course still has a vacancy before adding it.
- 2027 entryEqual-consideration deadline
18:00 UK time for most undergraduate courses.
Show 5 later dates
- 2027 entryUCAS Extra opens
Applicants who used all five choices and hold no offer may be able to add another choice.
- 2027 entryLast day applications go directly to providers
Applications received after 18:00 UK time are entered into Clearing.
- 2027 entryClearing opens
Eligible applicants can see vacancies and release themselves into Clearing.
- 2027 entryFinal date for 2027 applications
Applications must reach UCAS by 18:00 UK time.
- 2027 entryLast day to add a Clearing choice
Check that this course still has a vacancy before adding it.
Provider-published requirement; check the linked course page before applying.
Entry & how to get in
Who gets in
What recently admitted students actually held, official admissions data, not a stated requirement.
UCAS tariff of entrants
Grades are the A-level equivalent of each points band. Tap a band to check your own chances below.
Qualifications held on entry
| Qualification | Share |
|---|---|
| another higher-education qualification | 50% |
| A-levels or equivalent | 50% |
Entry & your chances
An honest read from the official entry data, plus your personal match.
Entry is set by the university and based on your offer. Use your predicted grades to see how you compare, then check the university's stated requirements.
Will you get in? Plot your grades
Pick your predicted A-levels and watch your UCAS points land on the real spread of students admitted to this course.
Each bar is the share of admitted students in that UCAS-points band (lower → higher). Grades show the A-level equivalent.
Based on the official admitted-student tariff distribution. Many universities make contextual (reduced-grade) offers, so a result below the range doesn’t rule you out.
How to apply
Undergraduate applications go through UCAS. Here’s what matters for this course, the right deadline, the grades to aim for, and the steps in order.
- 1Register on UCAS Hub
Create your UCAS application and add this course. One application covers up to five choices.
- 2Write your personal statement
A single statement covers all your choices, so keep it broad enough for similar courses while showing genuine interest in this subject.
- 3Submit by 13 January 2027, 18:00 UK time
UCAS equal-consideration deadline for most undergraduate courses. Source: UCAS 2027 dates.
- 4Reply to your offers
When decisions are in, pick a firm (first) choice and an insurance (back-up) choice with slightly lower grades.
- 5Results day & confirmation
On results day (mid-August) your place is confirmed if you meet the offer. Just missed? Talk to the university, or find a place through Clearing.
Fees & funding
What this course costs and how UK student finance covers it.
Tuition per year
Provider fee page (England 2026/27 cap where not stated).
Check fees at University of Plymouth →For students who normally live in England
2026/27 Student Finance England figures. Maintenance support is means-tested and this two-point view is not an entitlement calculator. The course total uses its published length and home fee where both are available; a missing full-time fee uses the clearly labelled England-cap scenario, while part-time fees and unknown lengths are never guessed. Use the official calculator. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use separate systems: SAAS, Student Finance Wales, and Student Finance NI.
Starting on or after 1 January 2027?
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement is a separate system. A new learner’s tuition entitlement is currently stated as £39,160 (about 480 credits at 2026/27 fee levels), subject to prior study and eligibility. Check the official LLE guide.
Paying for it
- Tuition Fee Loan: can cover eligible tuition up to the applicable limit and is paid straight to the provider.
- Maintenance Loan: up to £10,830/yr away from home outside London (England, 2026/27), means-tested on household income.
- Repayment: 9% of income above £25,000, nothing below it; written off after 40 years.
- Earn alongside: most students work part-time in term, part-time roles on the StudySmarter job board.
England figures shown; Scotland, Wales & NI run their own schemes, check gov.uk.
Scholarships & bursaries you could qualify for
That does not mean no funding exists. Check the university directory for current amounts, eligibility and application dates.
We only display a named award when its provider source identifies the award and who it is for.
Still deciding what to study?
StudyKit brings course choice, applications and funding together in one place, with a personal AI assistant. Find what really fits you and start your UCAS application step by step.
Careers & earnings
What Art & Design graduates actually earn, from real outcome data, 15 months, 3 years and 5 years after graduating.
Graduate earnings: this course
| When | Median | Typical range | Graduates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 months after | £21,000 | £19,000 – £25,000 | 10 |
| 3 years after | £21,000 | £16,000 – £24,500 | 175 |
| 5 years after | £25,000 | £21,500 – £32,000 | 185 |
Nominal earnings for graduates of this course/subject at this provider. Limited evidence. Published sample: 10; treat comparisons cautiously. Cohort 2022-23.
Graduate outcomes, 15 months on: this course
- 1Graduate roleFirst role after the degree · 0–2 yrs
- 2Specialist / PractitionerWorking in art & design · 2–5 yrs
- 3Senior / LeadLeading work and people · 5–10 yrs
- 4Head of / ExpertSenior leadership or deep expertise · 10+ yrs
How pay grows: this course vs Art & Design nationally
National figures for Art & Design graduates, HESA Graduate Outcomes (15 months) and the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset (3 & 5 years). These are national, not university-specific; actual pay varies by employer, region, role and experience. Different cohorts, so the bars are not one group over time.
Work out your pay
Headline figures hide a lot. Calculate realistic take-home pay for this field by role, region and experience, then check your CV before you apply.
What happened to 100 students?
Choose an outcome to translate the published percentage into a simple 100-person view. Each dot represents one percentage point, not an individual tracked student.
were in work or further study
15 months after graduation
Source: Discover Uni, using Graduate Outcomes and continuation data. Cohorts: 2022-23. Limited evidence. Published sample: 10; treat comparisons cautiously. Cohort 2022-23. Each tab is a separate published measure; categories can overlap and should not be added together.
Value compared with similar courses
How this course’s 5-year median earnings compare with Art & Design courses at the same study level.
Compared with 1,698 courses with compatible official earnings data. This is a course-value comparison, not a quality ranking.
UK occupations graduates enter
Published graduate destinations, joined conservatively to UK SOC 2020, ONS pay and Skills England demand.
- Web and Multimedia Design ProfessionalsSOC 2020 214 · 50% of published destinations · ASHE median £32,574
- Business and public service associate professionalsSOC 2020 35 · 15% of published destinations · ASHE median £38,760
Discover Uni JOBLIST/JOBTYPE; ONS ASHE 2025 provisional, all employee jobs; Skills England Occupations in Demand 2025. SOC is shown only for an exact normalised label match; demand is shown only at exact four-digit SOC. Published sample: 35; response rate: 65%. Pay describes the occupation across workers, not a guaranteed graduate salary.
Job market & outlook
How Art & Design graduates fare in the labour market, and how AI is reshaping the work.
How AI is changing the work
AI doesn't replace the profession, it shifts it: routine tasks get automated, while judgement, working with people and using AI well become more valuable.
What AI takes off your plate
- Routine information gathering
- First-draft writing and summaries
- Standard analysis and admin
- Repetitive processing tasks
More human than ever
- Judgement and original thinking
- Working with and leading people
- Owning and sense-checking AI output
- Ethics and accountability
The strongest graduates pair subject depth with the ability to use AI tools critically.
Roles & employers
Where Art & Design graduates typically go, indicative destinations from graduate career data. Each role links to live openings on the StudySmarter job board.
Roles graduates go into
Where they work
- Design studios & agencies
- In-house brand teams
- Games & media companies
- Freelance & self-employed
Jobs after this course
Current roles from the StudySmarter job board that suit Art & Design graduates.
Fine Art TechnicianFirst Choice StaffPharmacy Technician – Brand New State-of-the-Art HospitalCompass AssociatesArtificial Intelligence Engineering ManagerMBN SolutionsArtificial Intelligence EngineerExperis UKDelivery Driver (Part Time 24 hours) - AndoverOcado LogisticsCompliance Business PartnerNashrock Insurance RecruitmentIs this course right for you?
The essentials UK applicants ask about: finance, outcomes, entry and quality.
Student finance
For comparison, the standard full-time England tuition cap is up to £9,790 per year in 2026/27; the actual fee varies by course and provider. If you normally live in England, eligible students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan, plus a Maintenance Loan for living costs. Under Plan 5 you repay 9% of income above £25,000, nothing below that, and the balance is written off after 40 years.
Where graduates go
90% were in work or further study 15 months after graduating, with a median salary of £21,000. See the full breakdown in Careers & earnings above.
Your entry chances
Use the UCAS points calculator above to see how your predicted grades compare with admitted students, and whether a contextual offer could apply.
Official-data snapshot
Averaging the official measures published for it, this course scores 8.6 out of 10: NSS 79% · in work or study 90% · continued 90%.
Who studies here and in this subject?
Provider- and UK subject-level context.
University of Plymouth
Design, and creative and performing arts across the UK
HESA student record 2024/25. Counts are rounded.
Local crime-data context
A neutral snapshot around the published teaching location.
Around University of Plymouth Campus
3,218 street-level reports returned within roughly one mile across 2026-04 to 2026-06.
Police.uk street-level API. Approximate locations, not confined to campus. England, Wales and Northern Ireland; not Scotland.
Is Art & Design right for you?
Tick what applies to you and see how good a fit it is.
International students
What applying to University of Plymouth from outside the UK involves: fees, English, visa, funding and living costs.
Tuition fees
International tuition is £18,150 / year for this course (from the provider’s fee page). You’re not eligible for UK Tuition Fee or Maintenance Loans, so plan for fees plus living costs upfront.
English language
Most UK undergraduate courses ask for around IELTS 6.0–6.5 (no band below 5.5–6.0), or an accepted equivalent. If you’re just short, most universities run a pre-sessional English course that counts towards the requirement.
Student visa
You’ll usually need a Student visa (Student Route). After you accept an offer the university issues a CAS; you then show funds for fees plus about £1,023–£1,334/month living costs and pay the Immigration Health Surcharge for NHS access.
Scholarships & funding
Many universities offer international/global scholarships (often £2,000–£6,000/yr), check University of Plymouth’s funding pages.
Living costs
Budget roughly £1,100–£1,400/month outside London and £1,400–£1,800/month in London for rent, food and travel; the figure also matters for your visa.
Working while you study
A Student visa usually allows up to 20 hours/week in term time and full-time in holidays, useful alongside study, though not something to rely on for fees.
Visa rules and fees change. Always confirm the current requirements with University of Plymouth and gov.uk before you apply.
Related courses
More at University of Plymouth
Common questions
How competitive is entry?
What are the entry requirements?
What do graduates go on to do?
What will it cost me?
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