Skip navigation
You are viewing our beta course page.

Animation (with Integrated Foundation & Professional Practice Years)

Course details
  • BA (Hons)
  • 5 Years
  • Full-time including foundation year
  • 15/09/2025
  • Undergraduate
Course location
Farnham

Course summary

Our BA (Hons) Animation (with integrated Foundation year and Professional Practice year) is five year degree programme, including a foundation year to help develop your creativity before you embark on year one of a degree.

If you’re keen to forge a career within the world of animation, then look no further than our renowned BA (Hons) Animation course at UCA Farnham.

Established in 1972 by Academy Award™ winner Bob Godfrey, ours is one of the best-known and most highly regarded animation courses in the world, with graduates going on to create iconic characters such as Hey Duggee, Peppa Pig, and Compare the Market’s meerkats. Whatever your preferred medium – whether you want to make animated films using CGI, traditional drawing, oil on glass, sand animation, or pixelation – you’ll be encouraged to follow your passions and aim high.

To help you achieve this, you’ll have access to our incredible facilities, including a stop motion studio with Dragonframe Capture, professional camera equipment, and stages pre-rigged with grips, stands, and lights. Not to mention computer suites kitted out with the latest Adobe, Toon Boom, and Maya CG software.

Along the way, we’ll support you with our extensive knowledge, experience, and industry contacts, providing everything you need to become an innovative storyteller and artist.

Related courses

  • BA (Hons) Comic and Concept Art (with integrated Foundation year and Professional Practice year)

  • BA (Hons) Games Animation (with integrated Foundation year and Professional Practice year)

  • BA (Hons) Illustration (with integrated Foundation year and Professional Practice year)

Modules

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.

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 refer to course page www.uca.ac.uk/study/courses/ba-animation/ for further module information.

How to apply

Apply by
29 January

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Course code:
W61B
Institution code:
C93
Campus name:
Farnham
Campus Code:
F

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Foundation

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

UCAS Tariff - 32 - 168 points

We consider the strength of our applicants’ portfolios as well as their grades and we therefore may make offers which are lower than our standard entry criteria of 32 tariff points (this is the entry requirement for our degrees which have an Integrated Foundation Year). This may be to students who have faced difficulties that have affected their performance and who were expected to achieve higher results - in these cases, a strong portfolio is especially important.

A level

32 UCAS tariff points from one A-Level qualification. As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) - PPP

48 UCAS tariff points from BTEC Extended Diploma qualification. As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

Access to HE Diploma

A minimum 45 credits (54 UCAS tariff points) from an accredited Access to Higher Education Diploma. As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

Scottish Higher

32 UCAS tariff points from Scottish Higher qualifications. As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

Pearson BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF) - MPP

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme - 24 points

24 total points in the International Baccalaureate Diploma with one subject at Higher Level 5 (H5). As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

GCSE/National 4/National 5

In addition to 32 UCAS tariff points, you also required to achieve a minimum 4 GCSE's, grade 4/C or above, including English Language.

T Level - Pass (D or E)

Minimum Pass at E or above. As this course requires a portfolio review, you are not required to have a Art and Design-related subject.

For further information on how to apply to UCA: https://www.uca.ac.uk/study-at-uca/applying-to-uca/

Find out more about qualification requirements for this course.

Additional entry requirements

Portfolio
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.

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)6Listening 5.5, Reading 5.5, Speaking 5.5, Writing 5.5
We require evidence of your English language ability to meet the requirements for your course. If you're a Home student and studied in the UK, we require GCSE English at a minimum grade C/4 (or Functional Skills English/Key Skills Communication Level 2). If you’re an EU student and studied a European qualification, we may accept the English Language score from your main qualification - please review your country from the list on our website to see whether we will accept it: https://www.uca.ac.uk/international-study/equivalent-qualifications/ If your qualification is not on this list, we accept the following English language qualifications: IELTS (overall score 6.0), TOEFL ibt (overall score 88), PEARSON PTE Academic (overall 55), Cambridge Proficiency Exam (overall score 169), Cambridge Advanced Exam (overall score 169). If you need a Tier 4 student visa to study in the UK, you will need to take an IELTS test, and achieve an overall score of 6.0 and a minimum score of 5.5 for each element (Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing).

For more information on English Language Requirements, please visit our website: https://www.uca.ac.uk/International-study/language-requirements-support/

Contextual admissions

Universities and colleges consider more than grades when assessing applications and may make offers based on a range of criteria. Learn more about contextual offers.

UCA is a place for creativity, ingenuity, and personality. We always consider the strength of an applicant's portfolio / audition as well as their grades and may make offers lower than our standard entry criteria to applicants with strong portfolios. We also make lower offers to students with mitigating circumstances or who have faced difficulties.

You shouldn’t be deterred from applying if your predicted grades are lower than the range we’ve accepted in the past.

Historical entry grades data BETA

This section shows the range of grades students (with UK A-Levels or Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diplomas) who received offers were previously accepted with (learn more). It is designed to support your research but does not guarantee whether you will or won't get a place. Admissions teams consider various factors, including interviews, subject requirements, and entrance tests. Check all course entry requirements for eligibility.

Data from:
This course and 31 other creative arts and design (foundation only) courses
Date range:
2022-2024

Offer rate for UK school & college leavers

98% Students aged 17/18 who applied to this course were offered a place.

How do you compare?

See how students with your grades have been accepted onto this course in the past.

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students

76 Employment after 15 months (Most common jobs)

87 Go onto work and study

The number of student respondents and response rates can be important in interpreting the data – it is important to note your experience may be different from theirs. This data will be based on the subject area rather than the specific course. Read more about this data on the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

LocationFeeYear
England£9535Year 1
Northern Ireland£9535Year 1
Scotland£9535Year 1
Wales£9535Year 1
Channel Islands£9535Year 1
Republic of Ireland£9535Year 1
EU£16950Year 1
International£16950Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website.

Additional fee information

If you are classified as a Home student and qualify for the government-regulated undergraduate tuition fee, you will be charged a single tuition fee for each academic year. Our policy is to charge the maximum regulated fee. To reflect increased costs of delivery and maintain a high-quality student experience, we will therefore increase fees in line with any uplift determined by the UK Government by law or government policy in the second and subsequent years of your course. Such increases are usually linked to inflation and determined using RPIX (the Retail Price Index excluding mortgage interest payments).

For all other students, your tuition fees may increase in the second and subsequent years of your course. Any increase in fees will be in line with inflation as measured by the RPIX but in any event by not more than 5%.

We will notify you of any fee increase by no later than July before the start of the next academic year.

For further information on fees, please go to: https://www.uca.ac.uk/study-at-uca/fees-finance/undergraduate/

Sponsorship information

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Further details can be found via our Scholarships page: https://www.uca.ac.uk/study-at-uca/scholarships/

and our Financial Support page: https://www.uca.ac.uk/study-at-uca/fees-finance/financial-support/

Like this page