Studio Practice (Fashion Image & Styling) (top-up) at UCA
UCA’s new one-year BA (Hons) Studio Practice degree course in Fashion Image & Styling is the ideal way to boost your existing qualifications or prepare for postgraduate study.
Taught at UCA’s Epsom campus, this course is essentially the final year of our three-year degree and will prepare you to engage at all levels of the global style business, from high street retail through to luxury brands.
And, as it sits with and is closely aligned to both BA (Hons) Fashion Photography and BA (Hons) Makeup & Hair Design, you’ll be able to work collaboratively on shoots and other projects.
Taught by a range specialist academics and experienced industry professionals, you’ll have gain insight into industry commissions, professional roles, and have a chance to hear from industry leaders. You’ll also be able to develop, refine and contextualise your own work in relation to diverse industry outputs and working models.
As well as developing highly specialist skills for fashion stylists and image makers, you’ll gain a wealth of transferable skills, too, including research skills, critical reflection, ethical judgement, cultural knowledge, communication skills, teamwork and project management.
What you'll
study
Project Pitch
Your final year begins with a project pitch week. This is your opportunity to share ideas that you will have developed over the summer about your degree project, receive feedback and fine tune it before you start actively working on it as part of your last year at university.
Innovation for industry
How we communicate and present our concepts for innovation in fashion imagery is crucial to successful visual communication and, ultimately, relevance and longevity for both ourselves and our clients. In this unit, we will introduce you to a client who will set a research question that is relevant to current industry practice. Using the research question as a starting point, you will take a broader view of what you determine to be the definition of ‘innovation’ in response to the client brief and also to your own developing portfolio, specialist skills and practice. You will need to identify and present new and innovative concepts, and propose an original idea to support a launch, a product, a reinvention of a product, or perhaps a narrative within a specific media arena.
Critical Thinking for Publication
Following on from your Academic Proposal (completed at the end of Year 2) and your summer project, you’ll define your angle or argument, and communicate this through creative content for a specified platform or publication. The creative outcome will be supported by a research document in which you reflect on your learning journey. You will evidence the growth of the argument and contextualise the topic within the global fashion industry.
Graduate Career Fair
The Graduate Career Fair taking place during the first week of your second term to help your job search as you prepare for life after graduation. Companies that are actively hiring in your sector will be present to give you information about them, the kind of candidates they are looking for and their hiring process.
Creative Direction for Fashion
The development of a creative business narrative, within the world of Fashion Image and Styling and at all levels of the industry, is among the most complex, yet most rewarding tasks within the marketplace. There are three components to this final unit, which showcases the skills and insight you’ve gained over the course of the degree:
- Specialist Outcome & Presentation – you’ll create a substantial project that focuses on your area of professional interest and showcases your specialist skills. This work could be a body of editorial work, a series of films, photography or even a retail or installation project.
- Research Document & Personal Development Planning Career Document – you’ll extend your research skills and complete your own career document. You will be expected to demonstrate and identify innovative forms of communication, and then use your creative skills to plan how you will realise and communicate your fashion concepts. Your planning career document is to support you in your professional practice after graduation.
- Graduate Portfolio & Promotional Showcase - An online Graduate Portfolio and an emailable Promotional Showcase is the perfect place to promote your personal signature brand, which clearly expresses your individual strengths and skillsets. The projects selected to display in your portfolio must articulate imaginative and professional methods of communication and should be related to a career direction.
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 gradshows
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 showcaseFees & financial support
Tuition fees - 2025/26
- BA (top-up) course: £9,535
Tuition fees - 2025/26
- BA (top-up) course: £9,535 (see fee discount information)
Tuition fees - 2025/26
- BA (top-up) course: £17,500
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
The course has access to the campus printmaking workshops with dedicated technical support, campus photographic studios with lighting rigs, green screen lighting set up and digital media suites equipped with Macs and PCs, programmed with specialist design software.
View 360 virtual tourPhotography studios, UCA Epsom
Print studios, UCA Epsom
Digital suite, UCA Epsom
Library, UCA Epsom
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Entry & portfolio
requirements
BA (Hons) course (top-up)
The standard entry requirements* for this course are:
- 240 credits from a relevant degree (120 credits at level 4 and 120 credits at level 5), with a minimum of 55% overall
- Foundation Degree in a relevant subject
- Higher National Diploma in a relevant subject
And/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)
In recognition that you may already have a relevant professional qualification, or appropriate working experience in the relevant industries, APEL may be accepted for entry on to the course. This will be based on the partnership articulations and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
Other relevant and equivalent UK and international qualifications are considered on an individual basis, and we encourage students from diverse educational backgrounds to apply.
Portfolio requirements
We’ll need to see your portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to attend an Applicant Day so you can have your portfolio review in person, meet the course team and learn more about your course. Further information will be provided once you have applied. View more portfolio advice
*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 (top-up)
The entry requirements for this course 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.
Portfolio requirements
You will be required to submit a portfolio for review. Further information on specific portfolio requirements and how to submit your portfolio will be sent to you after we have reviewed your application. View more portfolio advice
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: