Fashion Design with a Foundation Year
Birmingham City University
UCAS Code: W23C | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Birmingham City University
UCAS Code: W23C | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
80 UCAS tariff points from three A Levels. Grades CDD (or equivalent). AS Level: Must be in a different subject to A Levels. A maximum of four subjects will be considered.
Pass with 60 credits, 45 credits at level 3. Accepted subjects: Arts, Media and Publishing subjects preferred but other subjects also considered.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
This course does not require evidence of GCSE qualifications. Please see A Level, BTEC and other level 3 requirements below.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Obtain a minimum of 24 points overall
Minimum of 80 UCAS tariff points, achieved in five Higher level subjects
80 UCAS tariff points. Diploma accepted with one A Level or equivalent level 3 qualifications. Extended Certificate accepted with two A Levels or equivalent level 3 qualifications.
80 UCAS tariff points. Diploma accepted with one A Level or equivalent level 3 qualifications. Extended Certificate accepted with two A Levels or equivalent level 3 qualifications.
80 UCAS tariff points. Diploma accepted with one A Level or equivalent level 3 qualifications. Extended Certificate accepted with two A Levels or equivalent level 3 qualifications.
80 UCAS tariff points from three Advanced Highers (DDD) or two Advanced Highers (DD) plus two Highers (DD)
80 UCAS tariff points from three Advanced Highers (DDD) or two Advanced Highers (DD) plus two Highers (DD)
T Level
Pass (C and above)
Pass overall (C or above on the core). All subjects accepted but Craft and Design preferred.
UCAS Tariff
About this course
Our BA Fashion Design Course at Birmingham City University will provide you with a comprehensive fashion design education. The course encourages innovation in both design skills and technical craftsmanship with a focus on sustainability, system thinking and socioeconomic practice. We will provide you with international opportunities and integration with our industry partners to empower you to explore your individuality, creativity, and future employability.
The foundation year is an exciting step towards your chosen creative degree pathway. You will embark on a fun, creative year of discovery. An opportunity to innovate, experiment, develop craft and research skills, equipping your professional journey into the creative industries.
We will support you to become part of the Birmingham City University’s Fashion & Textiles community, where you can fully explore yourself within an inclusive environment, amongst a likeminded and diverse peer group.
Our bespoke course encompasses Fashion Design, Textile design, Fashion Business and Fashion Communication degree routes. Providing you a platform to collaborate, share and learn from others. You will develop visual communication, subject specific craft skills, and processes to build confidence and independence ready for the next stage of your degree.
We aim to innovate, excite, engage, and challenge you. Inspiring and encouraging you to develop your personal aesthetic, offer sustainable awareness, and ignite a lifelong enthusiasm to learn. We are proud to see our foundation students continuing to thrive as they progress through the degree pathways and graduate as leaders within the industry.
Within your first year of undergraduate study, you will explore pure fashion design skills through a fundamental grounding in garment knowledge, construction, materiality, fabric and fibres analysis, tailoring and drape delivered in an atelier environment. In your second year you will discover systems thinking in relationship to Fashion design and our course’s structure will allow you to strategically balance between physically traditional and virtually digital craftmanship. Your final year of study provides you with the opportunity to express your individual design methodology in one of many creative formats, including a collection of garments, fashion products, material research and digital design technology.
We will guide you with the decision of taking a placement year between your second and final year of study. Our dedicated internal careers team will support you through this process. We are proud that our recent cohorts have taken year placements with renowned designers such Paul Smith, Christopher Kane and Craig Green as well as industry super brands such as Superdry, NEXT and Adidas. We let you choose your design identity and tread your own design path.
You will work with industry experts and a dedicated team of academic researchers and practitioners. A decolonised curriculum structures the innovative approach to 2D and 3D design resulting in diverse experts of your craft. You will study a programme that is specifically designed to produce job-ready graduates with transferrable skills that can form and reshape our industries.
Our Fashion Design Course has built a reputation for students entering the industry as original, creative, independent thinking employable designers. Our award-winning graduate portfolios and fashion collections are showcased on international, digital, and local west-midland based platforms.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Parkside Building Campus
School of Fashion and Textiles
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score 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.
Design studies
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
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Fashion design
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
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Design studies
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£17k
£20k
£24k
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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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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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:
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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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