BA (Hons) Acting
Develop your skills through practical training with industry professionals
Learn from collaborations with the National Theatre and British Film Institute
Apply to join the UCA Graduate Company, Spotlight and Equity UK
Develop your skills through practical training with industry professionals
Learn from collaborations with the National Theatre and British Film Institute
Apply to join the UCA Graduate Company, Spotlight and Equity UK
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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
For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Foundation Year, based at UCA Farnham to bring students from around the world to one hub of creativity.
This year of preparatory study 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 the English speaking and writing skills you’ll need to succeed.
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 International Foundation Year
Year 1
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, and; 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.
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.
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.
Approaches to Acting
Approaches to Acting introduces you to both the theoretical and practical approaches to creating a role. You will be introduced to the theory and practice of Konstantin Stanislavski, whose well-documented systems of preparation and rehearsal have had a lasting influence on actor training in the western world. Working on scenes from one of Anton Chekhov’s major plays; you will put the ‘Stanislavski System’ into practice and learn how to approach rehearsal as a mode of inquiry.
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.
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.
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.
Staging Dissent
Using examples of scenes from the plays influential and emerging writers, you will explore the underlying themes, subtexts and metaphors that writers employ to create meaning and depth in their work and how as an actor you interpret and translate these intentions into a performance.
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'll also undertake two elective units across the year - choose from:
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
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.
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.
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.
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:
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 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.
Preparing graduates for successful careers underpins everything we do, and all students on this course may be offered support to identify and prepare for an industry placement according to their individual needs. We’ll draw on our wide range of contacts within the creative industries to help provide you with opportunities that align with your interests and future career aspirations.
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.
If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. 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.
If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. 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.
If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 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.
At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.
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.
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 your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.
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 tourActing & Performance student workshop
Black Box Studio
Acting & Performance course space
Recording studio
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:
Alongside (or as an alternative to) theatre, TV, radio or film work, a portfolio career for the professional freelance actor may also include:
You may also like to consider further study at postgraduate level.
"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"
"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."
Read the latest news and blogs from our Acting & Performance courses
BA (Hons) course
BA (Hons) course with Professional Practice Year
The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:
And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).
Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.
Audition requirements
For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.
BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year
BA (Hons) course with Integrated Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year
The standard entry requirements* for these courses are one of the following:
And four GCSE passes at grade 9-4/A*-C including English (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2).
Other relevant and equivalent Level 3 UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.
Audition requirements
For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your audition in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied.
*We occasionally make offers which are lower than the standard entry criteria, to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results. We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios, as well as their grades - in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.
BA (Hons) course
BA (Hons) course with Professional Practice Year
The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please check the equivalent qualifications for your country:
Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.
Audition requirements
For these courses, we’ll need to see an audition, this will be an individual piece (for a maximum of two minutes); either: a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you have written. You should upload your audition digitally via your UCA Applicant Portal. Further information will be provided once you have applied.
BA (Hons) course with Integrated International Foundation Year
BA (Hons) course with Integrated International Foundation Year and Professional Practice Year
For these courses you need to have completed 12 years of schooling (with good grades) and show strong evidence of your ability to successfully complete the programme and progress onto your chosen degree.
Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.
Audition requirements
These courses don't require an audition.
English language requirements
To study at UCA, you'll need to have a certain level of English language skill. And so, to make sure you meet the requirements of your course, we ask for evidence of your English language ability, please check the level of English language required:
Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?
You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:
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