2023 uni applications for those pursuing art and creative routes

[Duchessofmuchness]

The other thread discussing Uni applications for RG and academic routes isn't so relevant for DS. He's considering Art Foundation year or direct entry to uni for fashion design.

Anyone care to join a thread on similar creative paths. (Not just fashion!)

He's looking at art foundation at Kingston, Central St Martin's, UCA,

For Fashion BA looking at Central St Martins, London College of Fashion, Manchester Met, Nottingham Trent, Liverpool John Moores, Leeds Beckett.

Most seem to accept without art foundation but he would need one to Central St Martin's so if he wants to try for that will need foundation.

Lots of open days coming up and hopefully school will give him some more advice next week. No start on his PS yet!!

My DD didn't complete and submit her portfolios until Feb/ early March. She submitted her UCAS form just before Xmas.
I also agree that predicted grades are not so important - it's the portfolio they're looking for.

Thank you, think its hard sometimes when you are having to do more / think more than you expected to.

Does anyone have experience applying for the BA/BFA at the Slade School of Art at UCL? It doesn't require a foundation first so we're wondering whether it's worth applying during A-level year or waiting and doing a foundation...?

No @FactyFrances but the school art teacher should guide you here. It's a prestigious school so the portfolio must be very good and the A level grade requirement is also relatively high for an art school (ABB I believe).
Thing is teenagers will improve their skills a lot over a few months, and there may be an extra maturity and development in a candidate who has had an autumn term on a foundation course, plus the time creating over the preceding summer. This is why the art teacher should be able to advise if your child's portfolio is good enough now for direct entry. I suggest you look at the work of current students during an open day and online.

@FactyFrances if your DC is happy to go through UCAS and produce a portfolio for early '23 then it's worth a pop .... if they get offered a place then fab! They can always defer and do foundation if they want. My DD did parallel applications for UCAS and foundation as she wasn't sure at the time quite what she wanted.

@Localher0 this may be a stupid question, but when Kingston says it wants 15 observational drawings they don't mean 15 separate pdfs - my daughter can put, for example, 3 or so on the same page? Otherwise they'll be looking at 40 pages once all their requirements are met! The example videos on the website are like 8 years old and not digital.
And of course different formatting - Kingston wants PDFs in Dropbox and UAL uses PebblePad.
First things first though - music exam Saturday!

Hi, brilliant to find this thread. My DD is doing the UAL Extended Diploma Level 3 Art & Design. She's decided she wants to go for a degree in Textiles Design (but not specifically textiles for fashion, if that makes sense)? So for more general textiles degrees it would be the two UAL colleges - CSM (impossible to get into apparently) or Chelsea School of Art? Anything we're missing? Or if anyone can recommend anywhere else with a similar course (preferably in the SE) I'd be very grateful!

Also - what is a portfolio for UAL textiles meant to look like. I've heard it's meant to be 30 pages and showing a narrative? I can't find any examples online. Also, when is the portfolio due?

Any help would be amazing. Thank you and sorry to sound so clueless.

I take it she's not doing the UAL foundation at UAL? It's the Chelsea College of Arts branch of UAL that does textiles, not CSM, where the textile courses seem to relate mainly to fashion, and it certainly is possible to get into!
Whatuni or Discoveruni are really helpful in breaking down the course modules at each university- worth a look as they also have stats on common A levels of students, satisfaction, future prospects etc. YouTube also a great resource for portfolios - there's usually a 'my successful portfolio' for various subjects (though make sure it's for UK and not US as they have very different criteria), each uni should also have a breakdown of what they want in the portfolio. But I'm surprised the foundation teachers aren't helping with this - surely they should know?
Regardless look at What/discover uni for the universities that offer the courses, click on those for further info, then go to individual websites for more specific module info and about portfolios and deadlines. UAL deadline is 25/1/23 - I just looked at the website.

Welcome @portfoliolio !! My DD applied for Textile Design from Sixth form. Her choices were Nottingham Trent, Southampton (based in Winchester), Edinburgh, Arts Uni Bournemouth & Loughborough. Final 2 were NTU & Southampton. She then deferred NTU to do her foundation year.
I agree with @mondaytosunday that her foundation tutors should be helping her with choosing courses and preparing the portfolio. At KSA they've already started building new portfolios of work guided by their tutors.
@mondaytosunday will get back to you about the number of images but, from memory I think you're right about the number of drawings rather than pdfs

Thankyou so much. It's not the UAL foundation, but they have been told they can apply directly from the UAL Extended Diploma without doing a foundation. It's a two year course. Thanks for your help and I will look into those courses. I've no idea if she has enough for the portfolio or not. Hopefully the tutors will be guiding her in the next few weeks!

Hi @portfoliolio and good luck! This is a lovely thread. Deadlines vary wildly; my DD was pretty much ready to go for her top two choices when she pressed the button on UCAS, so she could submit quickly, but other strategies are also possible.

Ds is going to apply to BFA at Slade it's his 'aspirational' uni!! He is doing Foundstion at DMU at the moment. So no experience but there us a (very boring) on line talk on their website which covers PS and portfolio

Just back from visiting our local further ed college who do a level 4 ual art foundation. As a local option (15 mins drive), I quite liked it but not sure what DS thinking. It's all so new to him think he's getting a bit overwhelmed by the various options. In the end some choices may be made by where he get offers.

The course is 3 days a week in college and would be living at home. So think he could do a part time job alongside to earn some summer travel money. I get impression less intense than some others. It's our only local commute option as far as I have found and therefore attractive on cost front and also allows DS to mature a bit before uni. But on other hand can't believe it would be sane as some of the uni options ....

@Duchessofmuchness I've heard that the local courses are very good and students get onto all the competitive courses.

Is that a one year course Duchess, or two? I’m totally confused by all the different types of UAL v BTEC sort of foundation courses.

Most CSM courses seem to say the student must have a foundation of some description plus A levels. A lot of other courses don’t seem to be so prescriptive.

I’m thinking a year at home while living for free and earning may be the best way for DD to get to do a degree. All the money she could save to go towards rent!

@ArtGarfield the UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design or the Pearson BTEC Foundation Diploma (offered at Kingston Uni and others) is a one year pre undergraduate course post A level. It's just different accrediting bodies but they are pretty much the same thing.
There is an extended diploma which I think is aimed at post GCSE students that is two years.
CSM of course wants you to do a foundation - preferably their own! But if your portfolio is good enough you don't have to do a foundation year. Many do though, as a bridge between school and university, as an opportunity to develop more skills, explore different art/design areas and beef up their portfolio. Also if they are not quite ready to leave home (though some do when doing foundation too).
Some art schools have the foundation year as part of the degree - called Year Zero - and it basically just makes it a four year degree course. Beware, these foundations are not necessarily the same as standalone foundation courses taught at the same art school! They will be more subject specific.

“CSM of course wants you to do a foundation - preferably their own! But if your portfolio is good enough you don't have to do a foundation year”

I’m not convinced that CSM are trying to lock students in by getting them to do their foundation. CSM is part of UALand their other colleges don’t seem bothered about an art foundation for most of the courses. I suppose you could argue that their foundation was a loss leader but I don’t think they really need it. I think the requirement for foundation plus A levels v only A levels may be more to do with selection v recruitment courses at selection v recruitment institutions.

I would look very closely at course requirements as CSM does seem to suggest they want A levels and an art foundation for quite a few of their courses. I’m sure exceptional candidates may not but I’d imagine that’s more for people who couldn’t do A levels as they have v specific personal circumstances.

I think I now understand the different foundations once I get if they’re the two year or one year! Thanks!

In addition to @mondaytosunday's post; another thing to be wary of is that most of the university-offered Year Zero "foundation courses" are part of the full degree, and so charge tuition fees. They also assume that students will stay at the same uni after that year. (The other side of the coin is that maintenance loans are available, unlike the UAL/Pearson foundations.)

An art foundation course isn’t necessarily for those who didn’t do A levels as a standard foundation year pre degree would be.
An art foundation course might actually be perfect for someone who HAS done A levels to give them more time to explore creative interests and work on portfolio.

Some art schools say you don’t have to do foundation first but in reality a very high percentage (not everyone)might have. It may be worth asking at open days.

Well exactly @HannahDefoesTrenchcoat. I don't know anyone that's considering art foundation year that HASN'T done A levels (or equivalent) and an art A level in particular. The two year extended diploma - I heard of a couple kids considering it post GCSEs but felt in the end it was too restrictive if they subsequently decided against pursuing art as a career.
What I meant @ArtGarfield was that I think it might be harder to get into say, CSM, as a degree candidate if you didn't do their own UAL art foundation course AT CSM (as opposed to a UAL accredited course) as they say on their website that all who successfully complete it will be offered a place, and that guarantees them the fees - and they charge international students £18,850 for art foundation and £23,610/year for degree!! According to What Uni 50% of student as at UAL are international - and I think that international students believe doing a foundation year is a route into UAL; my daughter did a short course at CSM last summer and she said half the students were from abroad - one girl had flown in from China specially for the course! If they'll do that for a one week course they'll do it for a year long one - ka-ching!
But leaving UAL aside, I'd still say the majority of students who go on to art degree programs have done an art foundation, particularly at the very competitive schools (of course that means a minority don't).

Ah, I see what you mean. I think this is the confusion between CSM as an entity and UAL. Successfully passing either of UALs foundation courses at CSM/Camberwell will get you a place on a degree at UAL but not necessarily at CSM/Camberwell.

Yes, I can see how the foundation may be a loss leader in that respect. I’m afraid most Unis need foreign student fees to prop up the undergrad fees. This must be needed far more in a purely London uni where they mainly teach art subjects that need lecture theatres and studio space, lecturer and technicians. All that extra money! I wonder what the actual home student fee would be if it wasn’t capped? I am pretty certain there is a home student intake and a separate international intake though. Im also certain that there are certain courses within UAL that select their students and don’t recruit and I would imagine CSM fashion courses would be included.

Anyhow, enough of UAL. I'm only interested as they’re local options for DC. But all your experiences of visiting different cities make them sound so wonderful!

I am so pleased to hear that the majority here seem to think that A levels is still the way to go. It’s so difficult helping DC as there seem so many different options. Her school has a sixth form so I was wondering if they were pushing A levels for art and then art foundation because it benefited them. I will have to ask the art department if they assist with portfolio preparation straight onto a degree. All the blurb I’ve seen from them suggests not.

My DD really, really appreciated doing subjects other than her Art during her sixth form studies, although she knew she would be aiming for art school. She took an odd combination of things that she was genuinely interested in, and when she got her offer from art-school (unconditional based on portfolio which is not uncommon if they like the stuff) it meant that she could focus on the enjoyable bits of learning rather than the exam preparation side of things. (She ended up with decent but not spectacular grades.)

All three of her other subjects (she did 3 A levels plus an AS, rather than an EPQ) ended up heavily influencing her final A level art project, too, which was a bonus.

Her art teacher did help with portfolio prep, and also wrote the school's reference for UCAS, so it's worth asking.

@mondaytosunday I've just looked up ARU's international fees for DD's course and they're a bargain at £16k per year! (Oof.) One of DD's friends is from Austria without "settled status" and has to pay those.

The other art school in Cambridge (CSVPA, new and marketed mainly at overseas students) charges £31k for its UAL-accredited one-year foundation and its cheapest accommodation is £14k for the year (nearly three times what DD is paying). The degree courses are accredited by Falmouth, and I wonder how much of the money gets passed along?

I think it all depends - I'm not sure how much my daughter's A level art teacher is helping as they haven't even broached the subject yet! We did have a Foundation talk last year when the rest of the school were talking about UCAS, but he listed one or two London institutions that no longer offer foundation anymore 🙄.
All the unis publish their portfolio requirements , some quite detailed (X amount of observational drawings, Y amount of final pieces etc), some less so. I think mostly you are on your own, and the actual getting it organised and uploaded in the format they require is also quite time consuming!
But if doing Art A level, a student should have a sketchbook and a certain amount of final pieces, and that will make up the bulk of the portfolio. A few extra out of school projects to round it out (my daughter has some animation from that short course, for example). A wide variety of materials, styles, and projects will be expected (drawing, painting, prints, 3D work) for a foundation application.
For straight into degree, the portfolio will have to be much more focussed on the subject area. So if aiming for a ceramics degree, that portfolio should have predominantly ceramic pieces I would have thought. And there lies one benefit of a Foundation year - an opportunity to develop skills in a particular area which may not even been touched in A level art.

I'm 99% sure I've mentioned this before, but most of DD's art teacher feedback-on-portfolio-for-illustration was very useful (ordering pieces, captions, general consistent layout). However, art teacher persuaded DD to include a few "fine art" style pieces. When she met the course leader, he asked, "Great portfolio, but what was up with the fine art stuff?" 😀