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Photography

BA (Hons)

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UCAS code: W640

Start dates: September 2026

Full time: 3 years, or 4 years with a work placement

Part time: 6 years, maximum 8 years

Location: Headington

School(s): School of Arts

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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.

Take a look at our students' work on Instagram

Order a Prospectus Ask a question Attend an open day or webinar

Student sitting with laptop

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Real-life experience

    You’ll build professional skills and a strong understanding of life within the creative industries by learning from expert practitioners.

  • Time to be heard

    Master how to present your ideas, inspirations and images to fellow creatives within the professional creative industries.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Create your own practice 

    Our studios are open 24-hours a day during term-time.

  • Additional language modules

    Our university-wide language programme is available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.

  • Accreditation(s)

    This course is accredited by the Association of Photographers.

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.
 

Student taking pictures with a camera

Learning and teaching

The first year provides opportunity an to explore your passions and interests outside of photography. You will use your interests to identify an area of specialisation. This will provide you with the basic skills and insights fundamental to aspects of photographic practice and theory. You will have the opportunity to explore moving image creation, visual narrative, darkroom practice and digital workflow.

In the second year you will develop your specialisation, further evolving your own interests and career trajectory. You will create your own website, an online presence through social media channels and undertake a work placement within the creative industries.

Your final year is made-up of modules that encourage confidence and independence. It culminates with an in-depth critical analysis dissertation, and an opportunity to develop a self-directed body of work with which to showcase your development. An end of year degree show will allow you to present your portfolio to industry.

Assessment

You are assessed on coursework only. This will include a final body of practical work and a dissertation. 

Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place face to face and you can expect around 12 hours of contact time per week. In addition to this, you should also anticipate a workload of 1,200 hours per year. Teaching usually takes place Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 6.00pm.

Contact hours involve activities such as lectures, seminars, practicals, assessments, and academic advising sessions. These hours differ by year of study and typically increase significantly during placements or other types of work-based learning.

Year 1

Compulsory modules

  • The self and the other Digital Workflow

    In this module, through a range of exciting workshops, seminars, group analysis discussions, tutorials and presentations, you’ll be introduced to the foundational digital skills for photographic practice. You’ll analyse studio-based portraiture to unfold the core ideas on the subject matter, learn studio-based lighting and how to use your camera to achieve professional results.

  • Photography and Context The Portrait

    This module introduces you to the fundamental, conceptual, communicative, contextual and technical elements of portrait photographs. You’ll add skills and knowledge to your skillset that will include composition, confidence, expectation, environment, dissemination, and exhibition of your work.

  • The politics and poetics of looking: Looking at People

    In this module you will be introduced to key theoretical ideas that frame critical debates around making and viewing photographic images, stimulating discussions from historical and contemporary perspectives. You’ll boost both your academic and study skills, equipping you with foundational skills in research, critical thinking, academic writing and image analysis.

  • Location and environment

    This module will equip with the required skills to achieve professional photographs of people and places. Building on the introductory skills you will have explored in Digital Workflow and The Portrait, you will develop your creative and technical capacities specific to making photographic work on location. In addition, you will learn about natural light and building a series of photographs.

  • Modes and sites of publication: The Photobook

    In this module, you’ll learn how to build photographic narratives as you create your own personal photobook. Through a range of exciting workshops, seminars, group analysis discussions, tutorials and presentations from professional photographers, you’ll be introduced to the world of making, distributing and selling books and zines within the art book publishing environment.

  • Space, place and culture Photography and Place

    This module will equip you with an understanding of the conceptualisation of space, place and culture within visual media. You’ll get to grips with the relationships surrounding these elements, and you’ll build on your foundational knowledge of your work in the Looking at People module.

Year 2

Compulsory modules

  • Mediation and moving image

    This module will introduce you to the creative possibilities of moving image creation. Whether it is using your smartphone or our professional filmmaking equipment you will have an opportunity to choose your own subject matter to create a short film. You’ll experience practical workshops, group discussions, and tutorials, led by professional filmmakers, and an end of module film show to showcase your work.

  • Photography and the Creative Industries Media and Communication

    In this module you’ll focus on creating a professional practice including building a website, understanding copyright, utilising social media, connecting with industry and presenting your work. Professional photographers, art directors, and editors contribute to this module to ensure that you hear directly from those across the creative industries.

  • Professional Practice

    In this module you’ll learn how to apply the skills you’ve learnt through practical work and lectures within a professional context. You’ll develop your abilities to build a professional photography practice and undertake a short period of work placement based on your personal interests and passions.

  • Media, culture and Communication

    This module focuses on notions of representation, political and the ethic dimensions of photography within media communication, with specific reference to the responsibilities a photographer must accept. This is considered alongside key media and cultural theories.

  • Visual narratives and cultural contexts Storytelling: Final Major Project Planning

    At this stage you will be developing a critical and vocational awareness of visual narrative and cultural contexts in relation to your career expectations. You’ll explore the relationships between industry and photographic images, creating a contextually aware series of photographs, that will be the foundation for your Level 6 Final Major Project.

  • Professional Practice

    You’ll be given the opportunity to apply all the knowledge you have obtained from your lectures within a professional context. Through client-led briefs and a work placement, you’ll elevate, frame and attune your professional practice to the commercial and creative demands of the creative industries.

  • Ethics, Politics and Visual Narratives

    This module will further explore the role that photography plays across different cultural contexts, and its relationships in how we experience photographs. You will be introduced to ideas from anthropology, ethnography and auto-ethnography, and engage in philosophical debates that shape and inform the stories that photographs tell.

Year 3 (placement year)

Optional modules

  • Career Development Placement

    Elevate your professional profile and professional confidence through experiential learning opportunities. You’ll get the opportunity to engage with external organisations on work placements, internships and industry experiences or alternatively study abroad. You’ll be in charge of your own learning and self-direction through identifying opportunities that align to your professional ambitions.  
     

Year 4 (or year 3 if no placement)

Compulsory modules

  • Final Major Project

    This module gives you the opportunity to undertake an intensive and extended period of self-directed, practice-based work as a foundation for your future career. You’ll compile your strongest work into a portfolio of original, professional photographic stills and/or moving image work that showcases your creative, professional and conceptual development during the course. This is your chance to frame your public-facing professional profile and career entrance strategies, culminating in an exciting end-of-year exhibition presentation.

  • Written Research Project

    This module allows you to consolidate your critical, contextual and evaluative thinking within a supportive, structured environment in which to produce an extended piece of written research.

  • Independent Practice

    In this module, you’ll be given the exciting challenge of undertaking a period of in-depth career-based research, and the development of your degree show. Throughout you will be in close contact with your tutors as you develop further ideas and outcomes for your exhibition and future employability.

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.

Student profiles

Kyria Dognon

"I would say the photography course here is quite different in a good way, because of its size and its real world applications. "

Read more about Kyria

Laura Skog

"You have the privilege to learn from so many active, inspiring industry professionals, including the tutors and visiting speakers."

Read more about Laura
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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 Grant
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Right

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 Grant

Related courses

Related course
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Related course
Graphic Design
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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: 27

BTEC: DMM

Contextual offer

What is a contextual offer?

UCAS Tariff Points: 88

A Level: CCD

IB Points: 24

BTEC: MMM

Further offer details

We welcome applications from candidates with alternative qualifications, and from mature students.

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process


Full time Home (UK) applicants
Apply through UCAS


Part time Home (UK) applicants
Apply direct to the University


International applicants
Apply direct to the University

Full time international applicants can also apply through UCAS

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
Home (UK) part time
£1,190 per single module
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£1,700
International full time
£16,750
International sandwich (placement)
£1,700
Home (UK) full time
£9,790
Home (UK) part time
£1,220 per single module
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£1,905
International full time
£17,250
International sandwich (placement)
£1,905

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
Home (UK) part time
£1,190 per single module
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£1,700
International full time
£16,750
International sandwich (placement)
£1,700
2026 / 27
Home (UK) full time
£9,790
Home (UK) part time
£1,220 per single module
Home (UK) sandwich (placement)
£1,905
International full time
£17,250
International sandwich (placement)
£1,905

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

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.

For further information please see our tuition fees FAQs.

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.

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

Job interview attendance funds from the Journalists' Charity Oxford Brookes Bursary for Continuing Students Undergraduate maintenance loans for part-time UK students Undergraduate maintenance loans for full-time UK students Undergraduate tuition fee loans for UK students Oxford Brookes Bursary for New Students 20% Alumni Discount Scheme 2026/27

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

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.