Craft & Material Practices (Extended Degree)

If you want to pursue a creative degree at Arts University Plymouth but feel you have yet to acquire the experience and range of skills necessary, our Extended BA programme will prepare you for entry to one of our BA (Hons) undergraduate courses.

What is Extended BA?
Our Extended BA (Hons) Degrees offers a unique four-year route for students aiming to delve into the diverse realm of art, design, and media. This programme provides an initial exploratory year, where you'll cultivate insight into various creative skills and approaches, laying a robust foundation before advancing to a specialised degree of your choice. Whether you're returning to education after a hiatus or entering without formal qualifications, our Extended BA equips you with the requisite skills, knowledge, and experience to secure a place in our full undergraduate program.

Our Intensive Extended Degree program is a dynamic blend of lectures, workshops, and practical studio sessions designed to challenge and inspire. Our diverse student body spans from fresh-faced eighteen-year-olds to seasoned creatives in their seventies, fostering a rich collaborative environment. With the freedom to take risks and experiment, you'll develop a diverse skill set through hands-on experimentation with materials, processes, and methodologies. This transformative journey hones critical skills essential for degree-level study, expanding your proficiency in drawing, visual research, contextual studies, digital imaging, and design methods. Gain invaluable experience in a supportive atmosphere that encourages creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

Explore contemporary craft through the evolving relationship between thinking and making. Develop your practice across materials and processes, with access to specialist workshops and digital prototyping in Fab Lab South West, plus live briefs, pitching and competitions.

With almost 150,000 people employed in the UK’s craft industry, skilled craftspeople are putting the country on the map for original, forward-thinking contemporary design. The relationship between thinking and making is constantly evolving, with experimentation and innovation driving a new wave of craftspeople to explore original directions.

On BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices at Arts University Plymouth, you’ll often explore methods in which we can live harmoniously within natural and fabricated environments while supporting a healthy ecosystem, developing your practice through materials, processes and making.

At a glance

• Degree: BA (Hons) Craft & Material Practices

• UCAS codes: 3-year degree 67T2 / 4-year extended degree 69K5

• Typical UCAS points: 104–120

Why choose this course?

• Explore an expansive range of material practices, including glassblowing and kiln-formed glass, ceramics, large and small scale metals, woodworking, concrete, plastics and textiles, in our industry-standard workshops.

• Engage with live briefs and real clients: students have worked with Tate Exchange, The Box, MAKE Southwest, Mount Edgcumbe Estate, Eden Project and New Designers among others.

• Become part of the international maker community by participating in our renowned, biennial Making Futures™ conference, a research platform exploring contemporary craft and maker movements as ‘change agents’ in 21st-century society.

Careers and future opportunities

Career opportunities include: Designer/Makers, Ceramicists, Glass Artists, Wearables Designers, Sculptors, Architectural Surface Designers, Mixed Media Artists, Fine Artists, Gallery and Museum Professionals, Teachers, Technicians, Material Restoration Technicians and Conservators, and Prop Designers.

Course Modules

The first year of an Extended Degree is not a qualification in its own right, but when you successfully complete it you are guaranteed a place on our full undergraduate programme.

You’ll develop confidence in your use of drawing, visual research, contextual studies, digital imaging and design methods, and you’ll have the chance to experiment with a range of materials, equipment, processes and software.

As the year goes by you’ll specialise in your chosen undergraduate subject (illustration, graphic design, fine art, etc.), helping you to become a confident, independent and creative artist, designer or maker.