Art Diploma / Foundation degree

[nicolat73]

My DD has commenced A levels and her ultimate goal is to become an Art teacher. We are already researching Universities but with Art I am becoming more confused. Is a one year Art diploma / foundation really necessary or a waste of time / money. Can anyone help ? One year diploma / foundation on top of three years degree plus one year teacher training..
Any advice appreciated..

If she is doing art A level and no other art-type subjects she won't have enough of a portfolio to go straight into a degree course so foundation diploma is the normal entry route.

If she did a BTEC Extended Diploma in Art and Design, equivalent to 3 A levels, she would have a strong enough portfolio to go straight to a degree, but this route obviously doesn't give her any room for other degrees if she changes her mind.

I'm currently doing the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design (although I'm a mature student) and my understanding is that it gives students the chance to try out different mediums which they wouldn't have covered at A level, before they make up their minds on which degree course to apply for.

My DD did Art and Art Photography A level and went straight onto her degree course. It is unlikley the Art A level is enough on its own, so the Foundation Course is the route to take. However, some universities more or less guarantee you a place on their degree course if you do the Foundation with them, so do the research. Yes, teaching takes forever but lots of degrees are 4 years anyway e.g. MFL and Engineering, so 4 years for art is not so different.

In the 6th my daughter did BTEC Graphic Design and Art and Psychology A levels, having already decided she wanted to do a degree in Graphic Design. She still didn't get offered a place at university straight from school, and was advised by more than one institution to do a Foundation Course. She did one at a local university, so was able to live at home, thus cutting down on costs, and was subsequently accepted onto her first choice of degree course.

So my advice would be to research Art Foundation courses within commuting distance, if possible. If there's more than one institution that offers the course locally, research all of them and pick the one that gets the most students into their preferred university. There are normally no course fees to pay, though there is usually a studio fee and there's the cost of books and materials and commuting costs, and of course your offspring has to be fed, but it's cheaper than living away from home.

My DD went, in September, straight into an extremely competitive creative degree with an unconditional offer but says that it really is in at the deep end, almost all are older than her and the talent on the course phenomenal. So, in her view, any extra experience before you go should be considered a good thing.

She is enjoying it but the workload has been relentless and she has three briefs set for completion over Christmas. So, the greater your talent and skills when you start the better.

I studied Fine Art and I strongly, strongly recommend doing Foundation Art first. It's basically art boot camp, and although it may be possible to get into a degree without it, she'd be doing so with significantly less experience and it could have an impact on how well her studies go.