Acting at UCA

Take the spotlight, tread the boards, and break the fourth wall on our exciting industry connected BA (Hons) Acting degree course at UCA Farnham. 

Our practical and performance-based degree gives you the in-depth vocational training you’ll need to excel on stage, on screen and in digital media, with rigorous practical learning and collaborations with a wide range of industry partners and networks including the National Theatre and British Film Institute. This course is also accredited by Spotlight and Equity UK.

You'll participate in workshops specialising in voice, movement, text and character, and as this course is production focused, you will be cast in both live and recorded performances as well as devising your own work. You'll be supported in your professional development, producing a portfolio including headshots, a voice reel, showreel and website.

You’ll be able to use our state-of-the-art facilities, including our recording, motion capture, and virtual production studios, while our partnerships with Farnham Maltings and other respected theatres will enable you to learn and showcase your work in professional live performance environments. When you graduate, you’ll also be able to audition for the new UCA Graduate Company. 

This course has previously been named BA (Hons) Acting & Performance and the title has been updated to BA (Hons) Acting from September 2025 entry.

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W410
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
3 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W41A
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

UK: 32 UCAS points
International / EU: 12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W41C
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W412
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points

International equivalent qualifications

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
W41B
Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

UK: 32 UCAS points
International / EU: 12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Close
Institution code
C93
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements

Accreditations, partners and industry connections

National Theatre logo

National Theatre

The National Theatre has been sharing unforgettable stories for more than 50 years. In its role as the leader of theatre in the UK, it works tirelessly to bring theatre to audiences around the world and encourages the art of theatre through commissioned work, learning programmes and strategic partnerships.

British Film Institute (BFI) logo

British Film Institute (BFI)

The BFI is a charity and the UK’s leading organisation for film and moving image. It promotes and supports British film from newcomers to established makers, and cares for the BFI National Archive, the world’s largest film and television archive.

Spotlight logo

Spotlight

Spotlight is at the heart of the performing arts industry and connects performers with roles in theatre, television and film productions. Spotlight are recognised as the industry’s best, and work with its partners to find the right performer for the job, wherever they are in the world.

Equity logo

Equity

Equity is the UK’s performing arts and entertainment trade union, representing more than 47,000 performers and creative practitioners across the country, for more than 100 years.

What you'll study

What you'll
study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

UCA’s Integrated Foundation Year is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and more.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated Foundation Year

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Launch Week
For your first Launch Week, you’ll be introduced to studio etiquette, and the disciplines of movement and voice work, with vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day.

Acting Skills 1
This unit will introduce you to a set of skills that will provide a robust foundation for the course and underpin a life-long process of learning for the professional actor and performer. You’ll cover:

  • Movement: getting to know your own physical awareness and choices and using physicality in performance
  • Voice: you’ll explore body, breath and voice and how to use voice to interpret and work on a text, and how the use of voice work can inform acting choices
  • Text and Character: techniques to improve reading aloud and sight-reading
  • Improvising and Devising: group workshops to free you to work spontaneously and collaboratively, through games and other methods

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The unit provides an opportunity for students to explore what is meant by equality, diversity, and inclusion and the implications of these concepts for creative practice. It will equip students to understand how our social identities (such as gender, race/ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, and religion) contribute to the inclusion and/or exclusion of individuals in creative spaces.

Professional Development 1
This unit will be the first to address marketing yourself as an actor and performer when you leave UCA. You will start to meet actors, casting agents and directors from industry who will discuss with you the work you want to make and be cast in.

Opportunity - Stage Combat and Intimacy Co-ordination 1
For your first Opportunity Week, you’ll learn about intimacy practices as part of Stage Combat training. You explore the concepts of consent, soft and hard boundaries, rehearsal and repetition practices in order to create story-specific consistency. Non-armed stage combat will be explored with a specialist.

20th & 21st Century Theatre
You will rehearse and perform in a live theatrical production from or inspired by the period, directed by a member of university staff and supported by workshops and masterclasses. Cross course collaboration is encouraged, and the final production will be performed in front of a public audience.

Screen Acting
You’ll study the fundamentals of screen acting and film creation to make a five-minute non-dialogue film inspired by the film genre you have studied. You’ll develop your understanding of the craft of screen acting and how to convey emotion, thought, physicalisation and movement and storytelling on camera without using dialogue, and explore the basic skills of film including how to set up a camera for filming, framing, lighting and editing.

Individual Performance Project
This final unit of Year 1 combines the skills you have learned throughout the year and anticipates elements of your Final Major Project. You’ll create a live solo performance lasting between five and seven minutes, comprising two different elements, from a monologue or piece of storytelling, a poem, a stand-up routine, a piece of movement or dance or a even a puppet show

ATOM Activities
ATOM activities are tiny pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across the university. Collectively they form a small fraction of your curriculum that is determined through your own personal choice and interest.

PLE Digital Outcome
In this unit you will collate a digital record, reflecting on your learning journey through the first year of your degree. You will be identifying key points and developments within all units undertaken. We are interested in seeing a detailed account of your academic, technical and creative progress and development.

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Launch Week
As a Year 2 students your Launch Week will involve welcoming new students to the fold, introducing them to the studio etiquette you learned in your first year, and engaging in vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day.

Elizabethan & Jacobean Theatre 
You will rehearse and perform in a live theatrical production from or inspired by the period, directed by a member of university staff and supported by workshops and masterclasses. Cross course collaboration is encouraged and the final production will be performed in front of a public audience.

The Conscious Practitioner
This unit aims to promote progressive values and attitudes to diversity and inclusion in creative practice. You’ll have the opportunity to explore global perspectives and influences on creative practice, drawing upon interactions with varied identities, cultures, politics, and histories. The unit will explore how beliefs, values and attitudes drive behaviour and practices. Students will reflect on the development of their own creative influences, perspectives, practices, and sense of belonging as developing creative professionals in global and contemporary spaces.

Acting Skills 2
Developing further the practical approach to acting and performance skills introduced in year 1, you will advance yourscreen acting, voice acting, creative and technical skills and focus on remote/ recorded voice skills. You’ll also be introducedto scriptwriting and get an overview of social realist filmmaking.

Opportunity - Movement for Camera and Intimacy Co-ordination 2
In Year 2 you experiment with creating movement for camera with the use of intimacy and boundary practices. The movement for camera will allow time to experiment with the frame and non-naturalistic filming techniques. As with year 1, this project is physical, fun and allows the consent and intimacy work to be developed away from sexually intimate scenes. These are always worked on with an intimacy coordinator and a risk assessment.

Professional Development 2
This unit has a focus on audition preparation and finding opportunities for work, helping you populate showreels with self-tapes and photographs. You’ll be introduced to the various avenues open to you for finding/attracting work as an actor, and practice techniques for auditioning.

ATOM Activities
This unit is an extension of your Year 1 ATOM Activities.

PLE Digital Outcome
You’ll build your industry community and professional networking footprint, creating a digital folder evidencing that you are actively engaging in sustainable professional development. You’ll showcase current and newly established professional networks and identify common interests.

Elective units

You will study two of the following elective units across the year.

Farnham

The following electives are available at UCA Farnham:

  • Acting Through Song: You’ll learn and develop skills relevant to character and narrative-driven musical performance, rehearsing and performing a sharing that may include selected sequences from a play or plays with music or musical theatre.
  • Applied Skills for a Sustainable Media Industry: UCA is a founder member of the albert Education Partnership from BAFTA, which brings together Film and TV course providers from across the country and empowers their students to consider and help alleviate the screen industry’s impact on the climate crisis. Upon successful completion of this unit, you will achieve certification as an ‘albert Grad’, signalling your achievement of highly employable skills for a sustainable industry.
  • Audio World Building: Sound design can have an enormous impact on any moving image project. This unit will encourage you to explore the way sound can be used to underpin action, describe the unseen, establish an environment, set a tone, depict a mood or even to directly elicit an emotional response from an audience. 
  • Cinematography: This unit is essential if you want to develop yuor skills in visual storytelling and creating compelling visuals for film and video. By taking this unit, you will learn the principles of cinematography and gain hands-on experience using industry-standard equipment to create professional quality visuals.
  • Consent, Intimacy and Stage Combat: This unit focuses on the fundamental skills and principles required for performing effective, believable, and safer intimacy and unarmed (hand to hand) combat for stage and screen.
  • Film Production: This unit is designed to provide learners with practical skills and knowledge in film production, with a focus on collaboration, professionalism, and self-reflection. The unit will culminate in a group film production project, where learners will have the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Music and Theatre: This unit encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between Music, Acting & Performance, and Design for Theatre & Screen to plan, rehearse and deliver a live performance piece to an audience of peers and the public. This project puts music performance at the centre of the collaboration. 
  • Loops and Micro Format Films: You’ll discover the creativity and versatility of the simple animated (or live action) loop for use on your website as a showcase to promote your own work or engage your ‘brand’, and create three loops to upload to your websites or use in social media for self-promotion.
  • Motion Capture & Green Screen: Motion capture is a technique used to capture the movements of actors or objects in digital form. Green screen is a technique used to composite two or more images or video streams together by replacing a specific colour (usually green or blue) with another image or video stream. In this unit you’ll learn about how both these things can work in the VFX industry.
  • Physical Theatre: You’ll work together with students from a wide range of courses to make a live physical theatre production. This could be further augmented by animated material or filmed material. TV or film students may also be involved capturing or streaming the performance.
  • Postproduction Editing: This elective unit is essential if you want to become proficient in the art of post-production film editing. Using industry-standard software - Avid Media Composer (Davinci Resolve, and Premiere Pro) – you’ll create a professional quality scene and have analysed and evaluated professional editing and sound design workflows.
  • Screen Writing: You’ll be introduced to a range of creative writing skills and, in particular, the highly visual medium of writing for film and television. You will view and compare the work of some of the industry’s most accomplished contemporary screen writers, learn how to present and format a script and write your own story outline for a short film, series or screenplay.
  • Shakespeare Festival: In this unit you will stage an abridged version of a Shakespeare play in an outdoor festival setting at sites around UCA Farnham campus. A director will help you shape the play and actors, composers and designers will work together to rehearse and run the festival events. 
  • Verbatim: You will explore Verbatim texts and performance practices including ‘headphone’ theatre and documentary theatre practices. The unit will culminate in small group films/performances using the practical techniques studied.
  • Virtual Production: Virtual production has emerged as a cutting-edge technology that revolutionizes the way film and television productions are made. You’ll gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to use virtual production tools and techniques to create immersive and interactive digital content.

Maidstone

You can also choose from the following electives offered at Maidstone TV Studios:

  • Immersive Production: You will explore cutting edge and future focused technology to gain a broad comprehension of the expertise and skills required if you want to delve further into immersive media production. The unit will enable you to get a strong understanding of where the production industry is heading and allow you to pitch a concept using these technologies for a television production brief.
  • Prestige Television: Starting with the claim that television reaches more people than any other cultural form, this unit examines and articulates the meanings of ‘Quality’ and ‘Prestige’ as they relate to Television, and why these genres of ‘Prestige’ have become dominant.
  • TV in the Age of Digital Disruption: This unit examines and critically interrogates the changing dynamics of television production, distribution, textual analysis and audience engagement in an age of ‘digital disruption’, particularly following the rise of streaming services.

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a placement within the creative industries to further develop your skills and CV.

While on your Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

Please note: If you are an international applicant, you will need to enrol onto the course ‘with Professional Practice Year’. It will not be possible to transfer onto the Professional Practice Year after enrolment

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Launch Week

As a final year student, Launch Week presents an opportunity to work with new and Year 2 students on the annual acclimation and ‘bootcamp’ activities, including vocal workouts, energetic movement material and drama games leading to an informal sharing of work on the final day. You can learn to mentor new students and if you’re interested in a career in teaching, you may opt to assist with class delivery.

Screen Performance

For the culmination of your studies in screen acting, you’ll work on a film performance through scenes (and monologues), from commissioned or published screenplays. Additionally, you are likely to be called upon to crew as required. Screen acting sometimes requires an intimate relationship with the camera as well as with your scene partner. You will be taught skills in creating intimacy safely and consensually.

Live Performance

This unit is the final directed performance of the course. Led by professional directors and senior staff, you will work on a live staged performance, to be shown to an invited audience.

Opportunity week - Professional Development 5

This is an intensive week of industry talks and networking opportunities. Speakers may include UCA alumni, stage and screen actors and directors, casting directors, Equity, Spotlight and more. The week will culminate in a tutorial where the student can reflect on the ideas and information and get personalised career advice from a member of the team.

Final Major Project – Practice as Research

This final unit engages you with several periods of sustained research on an individually negotiated subject. This will most likely be related to the contextual and/or theoretical concerns of your chosen areas of practice. Once you have your research title agreed, you’ll explore it through the following typical assessments:

  • An essay in which you’ll articulate your research
  • A performance project to practically explore and investigate the issue, concern, practice or theory of the topic
  • A viva voce to examine or discuss a critical reflection of the process you undertook for your research, the exploration of your analysis and your modes of expression

This course is designed to offer you (if eligible) the opportunity to study part of your degree aboard at a UCA partner university, while still earning credits towards your UCA degree.

For more information please visit the Study Abroad section

UCA Graduate
Company

UCA is excited to introduce an innovative addition to our Performing Arts programme – the UCA Graduate Company. This tuition-free initiative is designed to provide you with a unique opportunity to further develop your skills and continue your journey into the creative industries.

The UCA Graduate Company is not just an extension of your degree; it’s a transformative experience. You will create multi-media, multi-disciplinary and multi-linguistic work that complements our postgraduate courses.

To be eligible for the UCA Graduate Company, you will need to meet specific criteria during your time with us. The application process takes place in the later stages of your formal studies, offering a seamless transition into this immersive experience.

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Explore our gradshow

Each year, we’re privileged to be able to share our graduates’ incredible work with the world. And now’s your chance to take a look.

Visit the online showcase
Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,535
  • BA course: £9,535

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2025 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,900. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,535 (see fee discount information)
  • BA course: £9,535 (see fee discount information)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2025 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,900. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £16,950
  • BA course: £17,500

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2025 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £3,390. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Please note: The fees listed on this webpage are correct for the stated academic year only, for details of previous years please see the full fee schedules.

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of the Course Information Document for more details of the costs you may incur.

Facilities

This course has an on-campus performance space and study spaces for group working, tutorials, seminars and technical workshops. It is also in partnership with the Farnham Maltings and the larger performances are housed there. The Maltings is a leading performance venue located in the heart of Farnham with a network of professional theatre makers based there and regular live and screened performances which give Acting and Performance students a valuable live/screen experience every week.

View 360 virtual tour

Acting & Performance student workshop

Motion Capture & Virtual Production Studio, UCA Farnham

Acting & Performance space, UCA Farnham

Recording studio, UCA Farnham

Career opportunities

Taught by lecturers with professional acting or directing experience, you’ll quickly learn what it takes to be an industry professional. Our degree course is designed by professionals to train contemporary actors, and our valuable industry links include:

  • National Theatre
  • British Film Institute
  • Spotlight
  • Equity UK
  • Farnham Maltings
  • British Actors’ Equity
  • Drama UK (the body that oversees drama training across the country).

Alongside (or as an alternative to) theatre, TV, radio or film work, a portfolio career for the professional freelance actor may also include:

  • Acting in corporate films, and live role-play in business training
  • Forming a company to create and stage your own work
  • Commercials (film or audio)
  • Voicing computer games and animations
  • Creating original material for Image Capture projects
  • Community projects such as theatre in schools.

You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.

Jamahyl Chan-Ellis

"The course has been an amazing, invigorating experience especially the whole university journey as a whole from moving from London to Farnham and adapting to a new environment and engaging with new peers"

Jamahyl Chan-Ellis

Lucy Hellier CDG

"It was clear that the students, as experienced 3rd years at UCA, have learnt so much and are ready to enter into the wider world of acting and performance, and put all their knowledge into practice. I have no doubt they will all do brilliantly."

Lucy Hellier CDG Casting Director (Skyfall, Spectre)

Acting & Performance
news and stories

Read the latest news and blogs from our Acting & Performance courses

Entry & audition requirements

For these courses we’ll need to see an audition, your audition piece should contain two monologues, both between 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes maximum. One piece should be from an Elizabethan or Jocobean play and the other from a 20th or 21st Century play or screenplay. Choose a character that is similar to you.

For this course, we’ll also need to see your portfolio: 

  • UK applicants: We will invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person.
  • International applicants: We will ask you to submit an video audition. 

Further information will be provided once you have applied.

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

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