Course contact details
Admissions
Email:admissions@aub.ac.uk
Phone:01202 363228
Arts University Bournemouth
Wallisdown
Poole
BH12 5HH
Illustration
- Bachelor of Arts (with Honours)
- 3 Years
- Full-Time
- 28 September 2027
- Undergraduate
- Main Site - Arts University Bournemouth
Course summary
On BA (Hons) Illustration at AUB, you will experiment, test, and develop your creative practice. Curriculum and studio culture is prioritised around the space to build fun and engaging cultural product. In this environment, you will shape a skillset with appropriate tools, media, and conceptual approaches. With this aim in mind, students take part in workshops, lectures, seminars and more within our curriculum focused illustration studios located in Arts University Bournemouth’s exciting cultural learning specialised campus.
Illustration is a way of seeing and understanding the world as well as a way of applying image making skills in a commercially relevant way. Throughout the course you will challenge and interrogate the way you think about illustration, imagery, and style, guided by a dynamic course team consisting of specialist practitioners. Visiting lecturers and industry partners also place considerable emphasis on the realities of working within the professional environment and the wider creative community.
Overall, the course aims to foster rich, distinctive illustration-based practice. You will explore a range of processes and techniques from drawing, painting, and printmaking, towards digital painting, moving image, games art, CGI and more! This broad palette of creative strategies will let you hone and choose your own professional visual identity. The intention is for you to build a tool kit enabling connection and communication with diverse audiences across the multitude of contemporary platforms accessible in our world today.
By the end of the course you will be able to...
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Relate the specialist knowledge and skills that you have chosen to develop on the course to the dynamic possibilities of the commercial and cultural creative landscape.
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Critically evaluate discourses and practices, making informed judgements using an appropriate range of sources from both within and beyond the field of illustration.
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Make coherent visual statements integrating observation, analysis, interpretation, and speculation.
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Develop and refine ways of making and thinking about image through engagement with cultural, social, environmental, theoretical, and historical contexts.
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Apply transferable skills, exercise initiative and personal responsibility with the ambition of building sustainable post degree audience-based practice.
Assessment method
Coursework and practical work
Ways to study this course
Campuses
- Main Site - Arts University Bournemouth
Study options
- Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) • Full-Time • Placement (optional) • 3 Years
Start dates
- 28 September 2027
Apply by
13 January 2027
This is the equal consideration deadline. You can still apply after this date, but your application may not receive guaranteed consideration.
Application codes
- Course code:
- W220
- Institution code:
- A66
- Campus name:
- Main Site - Arts University Bournemouth
- Points of Entry:
- Year 1, 2, 3
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)
Arts University Bournemouth has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.
See why these ratings were awarded
What does this TEF outcome mean?
How to apply
Apply by
13 January 2027
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:
- W220
- Institution code:
- A66
- Campus name:
- Main Site - Arts University Bournemouth
Points of entry
The following entry points are available for this course:
- Year 1
- Year 2
- Year 3
Entry requirements
Typical qualification requirements
AUB considers the whole of the application when making admissions decision. While we'll make an offer based on the qualifications declared on your application, we also factor in your personal statement, your reference and – where appropriate – your portfolio or audition. Therefore, applicants who may not achieve the academic results listed here are still encouraged to apply.
We are happy to accept a wide range of qualifications, including combinations of qualifications. Please see our website for a full list of our entry requirements, including tariff points where applicable. Email Admissions (admissions@aub.ac.uk) with any queries about entry requirements. https://aub.ac.uk/apply/undergraduate
Additional entry requirements
- Portfolio
- Once your application has been reviewed admissions will email you to request a link to a digital portfolio for review by the course team. See https://aub.ac.uk/portfolios for more information
English language requirements
| Test | Grade | Additional details |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic) | 6 | 6.0 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each component (reading, writing, speaking and listening). IELTS Online is accepted. |
| TOEFL (iBT) | 80 | With 80 overall and a minimum score of 18 in writing, listening, and reading and 19 in speaking. Please note the home version of this test is not accepted. NEW scoring scale from January 2026 overall 4.5 with a minimum of 4 in each section. Home edition of TOEFL is not accepted. |
| Cambridge English Advanced | C | Minimum grade C |
| PTE Academic | 64 | With 64 overall and a minimum of 59 in each component |
| Cambridge English Proficiency | C | Minimum grade of C. |
| Trinity ISE | Pass | An overall score of 90 with at least 80 in each skill |
| Institution's Own Test | OIDI ELLT overall score of 6 | Oxford International Digital Institute's English Language Level Test with a score of 5 or above in each section. If you wish to take this test at a discounted rate, please contact international@aub.ac.uk for a bespoke link. |
See our website for more information on other accepted English qualifications including national curricula and required scores.https://aub.ac.uk/elp
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.
Caution should be given to our grades on entry data, with over half of our undergraduate applicants each year undertaking qualifications that are not included in this data. This includes the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, which represents a sizeable number of our applicants. We encourage applications from a wide range of educational backgrounds and for more information please view our website: www.aub.ac.uk.
International entry requirements
We welcome applications from all different educational profiles and experiences as talented creatives can develop in many environments. AUB considers the whole of the application when making admissions decision. While we'll make an offer based on the qualifications declared on your application, we also factor in your personal statement, your reference and – where appropriate – your portfolio or audition. Therefore, applicants who may not achieve the academic results listed below are still encouraged to apply. If your country isn’t listed on our website, please reach out to our Admissions Team (admissions@aub.ac.uk) with details about your education and we would be happy to provide detailed admissions advice specific to your case. https://aub.ac.uk/apply/undergraduate#tab-1503931-qualifications-by-country
Historical entry grades data
This section shows the range of grades that students who received offers were previously accepted on to this course 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.
Not enough data available
We are unable to show previous accepted grades for this course. This could be because the course is new, it's a postgraduate course, there isn't enough historical data, or the provider has opted out of sharing their entry grades data for this course - learn more.
Historical entry grades report
This report uses your grades to show how students with similar results have done when applying to this course in the past. Sometimes, there isn’t data for every possible set of grades. When that happens, universities and colleges occasionally fill in the gaps for sets of grades that are typically accepted.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
Per year tuition fees
| Location | Fee | Year |
|---|---|---|
| England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands & Republic of Ireland | £10050* | |
| EU & International | £19950* |
* This is a provisional fee and subject to change.
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
Please see our website for more information https://aub.ac.uk/fees/undergraduate.
All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study. If you're unsure about this optional placement, you don't need to decide now. Once you're here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that's right for you.
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