Virtual & Augmented Reality at UCA

This course is available for applications into Year 2 or 3 only.

Expand your horizons and your knowledge of what virtual and augmented reality can offer on our innovative BA (Hons) Virtual & Augmented Reality degree course at UCA Farnham.

Whether it’s in the world of entertainment or education, medical or military, virtual and augmented reality are unlocking a raft of new possibilities when it comes to presenting information.  

This course will broaden your understanding of the field, and you’ll learn how to enable different elements to interact in film, audio, art, gaming, and more. You'll also explore how you can exhibit work as interactive media in a physical, spatial context, using techniques such as 360-degree perspectives. 

With a constantly updated suite of hardware and software to ensure you’ll be in line with industry when you graduate, you’ll have the freedom to follow your imagination in dedicated design spaces equipped with top-spec 360-degree cameras, spatial mics, tactile haptic feedback suits, and more.

If you’re prepared to rethink the scope of virtual and augmented reality, and are ready to study a practical, hands-on course, then this is the one for you. 

Please note, this course is only available for applications into Year 2 or 3 of the course. To apply for Year 2 please use the direct application link below. For entries into Year 3 please contact our admissions teams:

UK applicants: admissions@uca.ac.uk
International/EU applicants: internationaladmissions@uca.ac.uk

 

Key information

Campus
UCA Farnham
Start date(s)
September 2025
Duration
2 years full-time
Jump to...
Entry requirements
Tuition fees
What you'll study

What you'll
study

Launch Week
All launch weeks feature a range of activities, which will comprise an interdisciplinary Industry Guest Speakers’ Series offered to all students across the School of Games and Creative Technology.

There will also be other activities, such as study trips and/or studio visits, Design Sprints, could also take place.

Augmented Reality Technologies
You’ll examine the advanced specialist tools, methods, concepts and processes relevant to Augmented Reality through a series of projects, workshops and advanced technical sessions. This is a practical workshop-based unit where you’ll learn how to design and develop in augmented reality and all the technical and creative differences AR and VR.

This unit offers you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of working with software, and coding for mobile AR applications, to design and prepare assets and graphics for AR, and how to develop exciting AR experiences using a number of tools, such as Vuforia, Wikitude, ARKit, ARCore and ARToolKit.

The Conscious Practitioner
You’ll 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.

Opportunity Week
Opportunity Week gives you the chance to try something a little different, broaden your engagement and your subject knowledge, such as Games Jams and Design Sprints. There may also be study trips and/or studio visits locally, in major hubs like London and even internationally for festivals, or trips museums, galleries and festivals.

Spatial Interaction Design
You’ll explore the human element of designing XR. Without getting the human element correct, no amount of technology fixes will make XR experiences interesting. Using case studies and XR principles developed by experts, you can map out a framework of user experience and interaction design guidelines.

This unit will also explore haptics and touch interfaces, controllers and inputs for interaction design and 360 sound design to direct attention and guide users in XR storytelling and spatial interaction.

Industry Brief
You’ll use your skills and workflows to produce work for an industry brief, who will set specific parameters and conditions to be met by a deadline. This could include style guides, historic markers, format conditions, audience, and genre.

You’ll work as individuals or in a team (depending on the brief) and develop new skills in engaging and communicating effectively with your fellow students, including your ability to respond to an industry focused brief. In addition, you will focus on refining your presentation skills to ensure that you successfully share the outcomes, reflecting on your output.

ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome
These units are an extension of the Year 1 ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome.

Elective units
You’ll also be able to choose from two of the following elective units through the course of the year:

  • Conceptual Interdisciplinary
  • Immersive Media
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Hardware Projects using Arduino
  • Virtual Production Studio
  • Pervasive Game Studio
  • Creature Animation
  • Motion Capture Technologies
  • Environmental Storytelling

Launch Week
All launch weeks feature a range of activities, which will comprise an interdisciplinary Industry Guest Speakers’ Series offered to all students across the School of Games and Creative Technology.

There will also be other activities, such as study trips and/or studio visits, Design Sprints, could also take place.

Audience Engagement and Experiences
This unit relies on and build all the previous units in the course and offers you the opportunity to develop unique experiences for specific audiences in varied industries, using the tools and approaches available through XR.

You will evaluate contemporary interactive and immersive experiences, and study specific audiences, their needs and interests.

Through a series of projects and supported by workshops you will design experiences for specific audiences.

Immersion and Storytelling
You’ll broaden your understanding of interactive experiences to influence your future direction by utilising theory from seminars and research and developing your narrative skills. You’ll be encouraged to cooperate, test and rehearse your project ideas with your classmates. Several XR experiences, books, video games, and films will be discussed in class, from different perspectives

Final Major Project – self-directed or team
The Final Major Project is a culmination of your skills, passion and creativity. The final major project and your role in it if a team member, should be ambitious but achievable and framed within how you want to promote yourself as a XR Experience Designer.

Through projects, workshops, and lectures you will undertake a rigorous investigation into an aspect and topic of personal interest within XR. You are encouraged to critically engage with the discipline and its key debates to initiate and locate your body of work.

You will produce a creative, challenging, detailed and logical proposal for a body of work that you’ll complete in the final semester. You will plan the production of this work using a common industry methodology, the approach of which will be covered during this unit.

Alongside the project, you will be compiling a showreel of work to showcase your mini-projects and prototypes thus far. The unit and year will finish with an exhibition which celebrates the prototypes and projects completed for this unit and throughout the course.

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.

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Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • BA course: £9,250

Tuition fees - 2025/26

Tuition fees - 2025/26

  • BA 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

This course has studios with high end PCs with Alienware Aurora towers and the latest RTX 2080 graphics cards, 4k dual screen monitors and Wacom Cintiq graphics tablets, with software including Unity and Unreal games engines. There is also a VR development studio, and a dedicated Games Incubator Studio for graduate entrepreneurs looking to set up their own companies or looking to release games to market. In addition, our Farnham campus has sound production and Foley studios, pro tools and a specialist library.

View 360 virtual tour

Games studio, UCA Farnham

VR motion capture film studio, UCA Farnham

VR motion capture film studio, UCA Farnham

Library, UCA Farnham

Career opportunities

Graduate students can expect to leave their studies and begin their careers in this exciting industry with a variety of different roles. These include:

  • Augmented reality specialist
  • WebAR developer
  • AR content creator
  • Software engineer
  • Android lead
  • Creative technologist
  • Quality assurance specialist.

Our professional staff have close connections with alumni of the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, West Hollywood, as well as with new and established CG arts, animation and creative media opportunities.

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

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Entry & portfolio requirements

Entry & portfolio
requirements

BSc (Hons) course - Year 2*

The standard entry requirements* for this course are:

  • 120 credits from a relevant degree (at level 4)
  • Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE)
  • Higher National Certificate in a relevant subject

And/or Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

BSc (Hons) course - Year 3*

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.

Portfolio requirements

For these courses, 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.

BSc (Hons) course Year 2 / Year 3 entry

The entry requirements for these courses will depend on the country your qualifications are from, please contact our International Admissions team to discuss your application: internationaladmissions@uca.ac.uk

Portfolio requirements

You will be required to submit an online 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.

 


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:

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