UAL art foundation course question

[Miljah]

DS will be doing this Art Foundation 1yr course at a local tech in Sept.

He wants to do Graphic Design at Uni.

He's doing GD A level and a 2 A level equivalent BTEC in digital design tech at 6th form, which he's predicted high grades.

'Art' admission to uni is very portfolio dependent, UCAS points above a certain level are not that important.

DS wants to effectively defer a year as he wants to get a good portfolio and a year's maturity, hence the Foundation.

Now, uni interviews are Jan/Feb. DS has mates with conditional offers at good unis to do GD already, based on getting the grades as their portfolios have passed muster.

My question (finally! 😊)- DS will be interviewed next Jan. He will have his results and a portfolio.

If they like him, his grades and portfolio are good enough, will they offer him unconditional? Or might they slap a grade requirement for the Foundation on him just because he's doing it? I understand that if his grades/ portfolio were 'borderline' they might want a grade in Foundation but frankly, his teachers say he'd get in now with his predicteds and portfolio (conditional).

What do you think?

Anyone?

Hi Miljah, I think I may have seen that some degree courses do ask for eg a merit in the foundation (emphasise 'may' - I can't remember which, and might be imagining it!) so it may be worth checking the official entry requirements for the course at the universities your ds wants to go to?

But even if the official requirement is just for a pass in foundation, you're wondering whether they may ask for more? Good question - may be worth e mailing admissions tutors of the preferred degree courses to ask whether they ever do this? Are you thinking ds might be better off just applying with his grades and portfolio rather than doing the foundation and then having to risk not getting the 'grade'? It would be a shame to be deterred from doing foundation by that if ds thinks it would be useful, but I can see the thought process! Might ds be more likely to get an offer from the univ he prefers if he does foundation?

I'm going back 10years to when I was in your sons situation so this may not be 100% up to date.

But all 5 of my university offers, for a design based degree (not GD though), including one to UAL were unconditional.

They didn't even asked about predicted foundation grade. I did however have 3 art and design based A-levels.

From my experience the foundation was the best and most useful part of my education it cemented what design field I went into and gave me a chance to experiment creativity without worrying about grades (only the last 10weeks are marked). I also found that the people that did a foundation were miles ahead when they started uni, they tended to get better grades and were more confident in themselves.

Hope he enjoys it as much as I did!

Thank you both very much, very useful.

I believe DS will enjoy the Foundation course- he is aware his 'Design' is quite weighted towards digital and he wants to branch out a bit so this course should provide for that-but, I do need to actually check once and for all whether 'failing' this Foundation (via say not meeting the design brief of the 'Final Piece'- unlikely!) might jeopardise his uni ambitions, so yes, I (he!) will contact the individual unis and ask specifically.

On the visits we made, UAL pretty much said they expected a Foundation, and 80% of Kingston apparently have.

Mine and dd's impression of AUL was they thought too much of themselves - dd is looking at foundation years too - had much better feeljng at Norwich and Birmingham city - also Greenwich have a good course more computer based but no foundation - most unis not all that jnterested in grades - if the portfolio is up to scratch they make an unconditional offer

Do UAL favour their own Foundation course students? I think they do on some courses so unless it really isn’t for you, they allow students to progress to the degree. I would check to see if they are generous in that way.

DD went to UAL and it can be a bit odd! Although that varies from course to course and the fashion ones are the most off beat!

DS found the UAL College of Communication a bit 'wanky', tbh . They really were quite up themselves!

I believe the UAL do favour their own Foundation students, but the Foundation DS is doing is the UAL one.

He currently wants to go to Kingston, Farnham (Uni of the Creative Arts), Bournemouth Uni of Art, in that order, having discounted UAL and Edinburgh uni.

We will visit Leeds and Loughborough this coming summer.