Photography
BA (Hons)
UCAS code: W640
Start dates: September 2024 / September 2025
Full time: 3 years, or 4 years with a work placement
Part time: 6 years, maximum 8 years
Location: Headington
Department(s): School of Arts
Overview
Develop your own ways of seeing with our well-connected, career-focused Photography BA. From day 1 you will begin to form your own digital photographic practice in the area of photography most relevant to your future career.
Approaching photography from all angles, you’ll study its history, theories and ethics. You’ll explore how the role of the image has evolved in the 21st century and develop your own distinct photographic identity.
You’ll develop skills to help you communicate your ideas, and build your professional practice centred around your passions. You’ll discover how to speak a visual language that’s understood by multiple creative industries.
Whatever your career aspirations, targeted modules build your professional skill set. Make the most of our well-established relationships with award-winning photographers and internationally known associate lecturers.
By the end of the course, you’ll know how it feels to be a working photographer in your chosen field.
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Why Oxford Brookes University?
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Real-life experience
You’ll build professional skills and a strong understanding of life within the creative industries by learning from expert practitioners.
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Time to be heard
Master how to present your ideas, inspirations and images to fellow creatives within the professional creative industries.
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Explore the world
Find yourself shooting on location in the UK and overseas, as well as in your own environment. There’s plenty to see beyond the studio.
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Never miss a beat
We understand travel comes as part of the job, so when you’re away on assignment you can join modules via our online virtual classrooms.
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Create your own practice
Our studios are open 24-hours a day during term-time.
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Free language courses
Free language courses are available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.
Course details
Course structure
This course provides flexible bespoke learning to help you build transferable skills whether you’re preparing to shoot fashion, food or football.
Year 1 is your time to explore passions and interests away from photography. Could your future be in galleries, among magazine pages or catching the action from the touchline? We’ll give you a complete set of skills and insights to help you decide.
In Year 2 you will begin to specialise, evolving your interests and career trajectory. We’ll help you build your own website, and speak out on social media. A relevant work placement will set you firmly in the professional world.
Final year modules are designed for you to showcase your creative confidence and independence. In your final essay you’ll demonstrate your knowledge and ability at critical analysis. Your self-directed body of work will be exhibited at the end of year degree show, where you will launch your career.
See all this in action by visiting our student portfolio @photooxbrookes on Instagram.
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Study modules
Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.
Careers
Employers will recognise and value your industry knowledge and strong technical competence. Your specialisations and industry understanding will help you stand out from the crowd.
Having established your own creative practice, you’ll be a skilled visual communicator with your own voice and identity.
Take maximum advantage of the course’s strong links with local, national and global creative industries to boost your network further.
Many graduates establish themselves as self-employed photographers or go on to a range of careers within the creative industries. That extends to publishing, television, film, post-production, research and marketing.
Developing your career – either through professional practice or further study – could take you into roles including:
- photographer
- director of photography
- cinematographer
- publisher
- creative director
- stylist
- art director
- photo editor
- documentary filmmaker
- post-production
- content strategist.
Our Staff
Grant Scott
Grant Scott, BA Photography Subject Coordinator, specialises in photography, the moving image, visual narrative and professional practices, and teaches across the course. He is a working photographer and has written three books on photography including 'The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography'. Grant is also the founder/ curator of www.unitednationsofphotography.com and the presenter/producer of the weekly podcast 'A Photographic Life'.
Read more about GrantRelated courses
Entry requirements
Wherever possible we make our conditional offers using the UCAS Tariff. The combination of A-level grades listed here would be just one way of achieving the UCAS Tariff points for this course.
Standard offer
UCAS Tariff Points: 112
A Level: BBC
IB Points: 30
BTEC: DMM
Contextual offer
UCAS Tariff Points: 88
A Level: CCD
IB Points: 27
BTEC: MMM
Further offer details
We welcome applications from candidates with alternative qualifications, and from mature students.
Specific entry requirements
Please also see the University's general entry requirements.
Selection process
Applicants are offered places through:
- a portfolio review - see guidance below
- an interview with a member of staff from the programme
Portfolio guidance:
What are we looking for?
Your portfolio should introduce us to your work, passions and skills as a photographer. We want to see your interests outside of photography and how they inform what, where and who you photograph. Through your portfolio we encourage you to demonstrate your inspirations and what motivates you as a photographer. It is important that your portfolio contains a range of work including recent work for college / school and personal self-initiated images.
What do you need to include?
- Your portfolio should feature between 10 - 15 photographic images that you feel represent who you are and what you like to photograph.
- Your images should be formatted to fit pages which are all the same size.
- Within your portfolio, you can also share with us other visual work that gives us insight into your creative background. For example, if you have any of the following, you could include a link to your Instagram page, YouTube account or examples of self-created video.
- In addition to your portfolio of photographs you should include images of your workbook or sketchbook. These demonstrate your creative processes and show the research, reflection and analysis that is behind your photographs. They help us to understand your practice as a photographer.
You can present your portfolio as a PDF file or you can use an online service to put your portfolio together such as Issuu or a similar provider of your choice.
When putting your portfolio together, ensure that it is well organised and that your work is clearly labelled. The portfolio is all about you as a photographer, so give it the best possible chance of making a good impression.
English language requirements
Please see the University's standard English language requirements.
English requirements for visas
If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements. Find out more about English language requirements.
Credit transfer
Many of our courses consider applications for entry part-way through the course for students who have credit from previous learning or relevant professional experience.
Find out more about transferring to Brookes. If you'd like to talk through your options, please contact our Admissions team.
Terms and Conditions of Enrolment
When you accept our offer, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.
International qualifications and equivalences
How to apply
Application process
Full time international applicants can also apply through UCAS
Tuition fees
Questions about fees?
Contact Student Finance on:
Tuition fees
Please note, tuition fees for Home students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Oxford Brookes University intends to maintain its fees for new and returning Home students at the maximum permitted level.
Tuition fees for International students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students.
The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.
How and when to pay
Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.
- For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
- For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page
Additional costs
Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.
Compulsory costs
| Additional costs | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
Adobe Creative Suite |
£16 per month |
Degree Show Presentation |
About £100 |
Website domain name |
From £6 per month |
Website hosting |
From £16 per month |
Optional costs
| Additional costs | Amount (£) |
|---|---|
You will have the opportunity to go on a photography field trip to Paris. |
About £350 |
It’s your responsibility to cover print / binding costs where coursework submission is required. Please note that a lot of the coursework is now submitted online. |
From £30 |
| You may choose to purchase books to support your studies. Many books on our reading lists are available via the Library, or can be purchased secondhand. | £20-60 per book |
Accommodation fees in Brookes Letting (most do not include bills) |
£94-265 per week |
Accommodation fees in university halls (bills included, excluding laundry costs) |
£122-180 per week |
Graduation costs include tickets, gowning and photography. Gowns are not compulsory but typically students do hire robes, starting at £41. |
Typically £0-200 |
Students are responsible for their own travel to and from university for classes. BrookesBus travel is subsidised for full-time undergraduate students that are on a course with a fee of £9,250 or more, or living in an Oxford Brookes hall of residence. There is an administration fee for the production of a BrookesKey. |
From £10 |
Funding your studies
Financial support and scholarships
Featured funding opportunities available for this course.
All financial support and scholarships
Information from Discover Uni
The BA Photography was launched in 2019 and we are excited that our first cohort completing the course will be graduating in the summer of 2022. As such, there are no National Student Satisfaction (NSS) survey scores for the BA Photography at Oxford Brookes just yet. In this case, we are obliged to show a satisfaction score for a wider group of courses. The satisfaction score shown below does not include any students from the BA Photography course.
Full-time study
Part-time study
Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been
published on the website. For more information, please visit our
changes to programmes page.