Photography BA(Hons) (Online)
Create compelling images that affect positive, global change.
Course overview
With a distinct focus on visual storytelling, this online photography degree will equip you with the skills to become an agile and ethical multimedia content creator.
Taught by practicing academic staff as part of Falmouth’s renowned Institute of Photography, you’ll join a global online community of bold and progressive image-makers working to promote social and sustainable change.
By the time you graduate, you will have a professional-standard portfolio of meaningful images, an industry-ready skillset and the ability to inspire and motivate through creative, purposeful work.
Why study this course at Falmouth?
- Refine your technical skills and master emerging technologies through engaging online workshops
- Join a growing global community of ambitious photographers
- Build relationships with working practitioners who are shaping the photography industry
- Collaborate on international projects and help to define the role photography plays in today’s media landscape
Interested in studying this online degree? Join our Taster Session on 29 April
Find out moreCourse details
Through active engagement with online workshops, you will develop technical photographic skills in response to the challenges of the industry, learning to fuse experimental and professional approaches to photography. You will be supported and encouraged to experiment, take risks, and produce innovative and unique work.
By sharpening your research, analysis and collaboration skills - and with the ability to work from anywhere in the world - this online degree will prepare you for a global career in photography and visual communication; from producing multimedia content for social justice campaigns to working on cutting-edge freelance projects.
Course study options
On this accelerated online Photography degree, you’ll have the opportunity to gain a BA(Hons) degree over two years full-time or three years part-time.
From module information to course aims and assessment criteria, discover the full course details:
Through practical and critical enquiry, you will be supported to disrupt, experiment and question creative processes. This initial stage of the course requires courage to test, and curiosity to explore. You will be joining an immersive community culture, collectively growing skills, embracing innovation and encouraging creative endeavour.
Through live briefs, and online workshops and lectures, you will be introduced to a range of creative processes, from critical thinking to practical hands-on skills across different photographic mediums. You will also begin to engage with a wider industry context, preparing you for the future workplace.
Modules
Explore
You will immerse yourself in the course from week one, building a community and laying the foundations for a long-lasting creative practice.
You will also begin to explore the medium through experimentation with a range of photographic approaches and post-production techniques.
Source
This investigative module aims to build your professional collaboration and research skills, helping you to develop important industry awareness at an early stage in your studies, preparing you for a range of careers in the creative industries.
In Source you will work with peers and people in your own community to gather collective intelligence and find creative responses to shared questions.
Make
This photographic practice module develops your image making and post-production skills and refines your use of materials, processes, and techniques.
You will be invited to explore the world around you, bringing together storytelling and process and finding exciting ways to make images using film, digital or alternative processes.
Reflect
This module focusses on your critical thinking skills, and how you use research and image analysis to better understand the context of photographs. We will explore what it means to ‘create for good’ and consider our responsibilities as creatives.
Through the lens of sustainability and change, you will explore how your own and others’ images can communicate impactfully.
Advancing and deepening your technical skills, you will experiment and begin to specialise in certain areas of photographic practice by exploring responses to set briefs. You will have opportunities to collaborate with others on your course and industry partners, to produce ambitious group projects using online platforms.
You will grow an awareness of audience, refining your practical and critical research skills, project management, and your knowledge of contemporary photography, history and theory. As you progress through this stage, you will begin to develop your own self-initiated projects and collaborations. As more industry-facing experiences begin to be introduced, you will be challenged to question convention, disrupt, innovate and maintain courageous thinking.
Modules
Define
This module aims to develop your ability to shape ideas and photographic outcomes, and to interrogate ethical and sustainable approaches to your practice.
You will be working on a brief for a non-profit organisation or sustainable business, using your skills to help advance key narratives and ideas.
Audience
Practicing a range of research methods, you will develop a group response to contemporary issues, exploring social, ethical, and environmental situations.
In this module you will also reflect upon professional work culture to build a collective learning environment which can generate ideas and visual possibilities.
Engaging with the concept of ‘Audience’ you will be analysing and re-imagining the impact of photographs and creative outputs in promoting positive change.
Innovate
Applying the knowledge and skills you have developed so far, and supported by your learning community, this self-directed practice module will harness your ability to generate innovative photographic responses to a variety of challenges, underpinned by your developing critical voice.
Collaboration
Working as part of a team, you'll work on 'Challenge Briefs' that reflect the sort of assignments you could expect to be working on in industry. Developing your 'soft skills', like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and leadership, you'll sharpen your ability to work well as part of a group to produce outstanding work.
This module is a collaboration with Falmouth’s other online courses including interior design, illustration, visual communication, creative writing and more. You will therefore have an opportunity to widen your professional network and collaborate with people in different creative fields.
The stage supports you to refine your photographic approach and to challenge your emerging fields of interest, culminating in a final portfolio of work and a contextual report that grounds your work. You will refine core skills and reflect critically on your strengths, exploring alternative models of practice that help define your creative future beyond the course.
Modules
Develop
This module is designed to enable you to develop your professional identity ahead of your Final Major Project. You will evolve and refine a specialist body of creative, innovative work and identify a future career pathway in the creative industries.
Futures
This industry module aims to situate your practice and prepare you with the skills needed for a successful and dynamic career in the creative industries.
You will receive practical and technical advice about a diverse range of creative industry roles, from experienced industry practitioners.
You will define what success means to you and approach the values and mission you want to take with you after you graduate.
Launch
In your Final Major Project, you will develop an innovative final photographic portfolio that demonstrates a high level of professionalism and industry level finish, appropriate for your career ambitions.
Frame
This module requires you to write a report contextualising your work within the broader industry and identifying future audiences for your practice.
The modules above are those being studied by our students, or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.
Student work
" The positive environment created by the tutors encourages us to unleash our creativity and take risks. "
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Top 5 reasons to study a photography degree online
From nurturing your technical prowess, to helping you to anticipate and respond to the ever-changing demands of the visual storytelling landscape, here are 5 reasons to study photography online.
Read moreResources and Support
- Dedicated easy-to-use virtual learning environment (VLE)
- Accessible online audio / visual content
- A Student Advisor to support you throughout your studies and access to our Student Support Services
- Access to our Employability Service
- 24/7 access to Falmouth's extensive online library of contextual books, journals and resources
- Access to online software tutorials at LinkedIn Learning
- Students' Union community
- Optional in-person events
- Invitation to attend alumni events
Although online students don't have access to on-campus facilities as part of the course, you can hire equipment and access facilities by paying a charge. Find out more about availability and prices here.
Is Online Study for Me?
The creative culture at our core is not confined to our Cornwall campuses; with our online degrees, ...
Online Learning Support
You'll have access to a range of support throughout your studies with us to help you thrive and deve...
Creative Writing BA(Hons) (Online) in-person event © Ellie Hope / © Mayn Creative
In-Person Events
As an online student at Falmouth, you’ll have the opportunity to attend in-person events throughou...
Parents & Carers Guide to Online Study
See how you can support a student considering an online degree at Falmouth.
How you'll learn & be assessed
This practice-based accelerated online degree is underpinned by rich online resources, workshops and video-based tuition. We offer a truly inclusive, conscious and multidisciplinary syllabus designed to meet the demands of photography within and beyond the creative industries.
What sort of activities will I do?
The weight of your academic teaching will take place through pre-recorded lectures from your core academic team and practicing professionals in the creative industry. You will have a weekly webinar where you can connect with your fellow students and staff for stimulating discussions and feedback. You will also receive technical inductions from pre-recorded videos and resources which you can refine and enquire about during your webinars.
You will be joining a supportive and diverse course community in which you will develop your unique creative practice through inquiry-based collective learning fostering responses to challenges and connection opportunities in your own communities and contexts.
What will my study hours be?
Depending on your choice of full-time or part-time study, you'll spend between 27-50 hours a week developing dynamic creative processes and contextual understanding.
What does accelerated study mean?
An accelerated degree condenses your degree modules into two years on the full-time route, or three years on the part-time route. This means you'll be working across three study blocks per year, instead of two, including through the summer. Typically, there is a break of around two weeks between submitting your final assignment for each module and the start of the next study block. You will also get breaks on public holidays, for around two weeks at Easter and for around three weeks in December.
This BA(Hons) Photography online degree employs a variety of assessment strategies over the course of the year. These include the submission of portfolios of practical work, presentations, verbal reports and a final major project.
Your summative (final) assessments occur at the end of each module, usually at the end of the study block whereas you may have interim formative assessments part way through a module as well. These assessments help ensure that you remain on track with your work.
You will receive continuous written and/or verbal feedback on all your work throughout the year. At the end of the module, you will receive detailed feedback in written form.
You'll be able to check in with your online tutor to discuss your progress and ask any questions you have about your course.
Staff
Falmouth’s Institue of Photography has global connectivity to a broad range of photographic practitioners. This connectivity provides essential networking opportunities for our students and graduates and helps inform and shape our curriculum.
Dr Catarina Fontoura
Course Leader, Photography BA(Hons) (Online)
Catarina Fontoura is an artist, educator and writer. She has submitted her PhD thesis in History of ...
Clare Bottomley
Lecturer & Module Leader
Clare Bottomley is an artist, educator, and early career researcher, originally from Gloucester UK, ...
Oliver Udy
Head of Photography
Oliver Udy is a photographer, publisher and general facilitator of things.Udy joined Falmouth Univer...
Mandy Jandrell
Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts & Communication
Mandy Lee Jandrell is an internationally exhibiting artist working with installation, photography an...
Andrew Hilling
Lecturer, BA(Hons) Photography
After beginning to study BA Philosophy at the University of Reading, I moved back to the visual arts...
Celine Marchbank
Lecturer, Photography BA(Hons) (Online)
Celine Marchbank is a British photographic artist based in London. Her practice explores the beauty ...
Some members of staff only teach on specific modules, and your course might not feature every staff member who teaches on the course.
From Polaroids to creating positive change: an interview with Dr Catarina Fontoura
We chatted to Catarina about her early forays into photography, her passion for creating for good, and why she is excited to lead this unique course.
Read more" There is a lot of change happening in the world, and images play a big part in shaping our understanding of that and how we can influence positive change through image-making. "
Careers
As a BA(Hons) Photography (Online) graduate you could become:
- Self Employed Photographer/Videographer
- Digital Assistant
- Photoshoot Producer
- Picture Editor
- Digital Archivist (Photo Libraries/Museum sector)
- Curator
- Social Media Strategist
- Digital Content Editor
- Multimedia Designer
Further Study options include:
- Postgraduate study within photography and related disciplines, or education
- PhD and research degrees
A professional Photography degree gives you the opportunity to develop your unique creative practice.
How to apply
Apply
You have the option to apply via UCAS or directly with us, depending on your education and experience. Find out more about ways to apply.
UCAS codes
You can apply for the September 2024 full-time route through UCAS using:
- University code: F33
- Course code: W64F
Course route | Course start | Apply now |
---|---|---|
Full-time | September 2024 | |
Part-time | September 2024 | Apply now |
Application advice & interview information
Go to ToolkitWe consider all applications on their own individual merit and potential. We invite all applicants to an online interview to give them the opportunity to demonstrate this along with what inspires and motivates them in their field. Applicants will also be able to show their portfolio or give a performance depending on the course. We welcome applications from all subject backgrounds, whether you've specialised in STEM, the arts or humanities.
Applying with UCAS points
Course route | Entry requirements |
---|---|
BA/BSc(Hons) degree | 104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points |
Check the title of your course to see if it's a BA or BSc award. UCAS Tariff points will primarily be from Level 3 qualifications such as but not limited to A-levels, T Levels, a BTEC/UAL Extended Diploma or a Foundation Diploma.
Check how many points your qualifications are worth
Applying without UCAS points
We'll welcome your application if you have formal or 'certified' learning (such as training courses not run by universities or colleges) and learning from work experience or self-study. This is called Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL), and should have been gained within the last five years, and be equivalent to the learning outcomes of our minimum entry qualifications. Find out more about APL.
If your first language is not English, you'll need to take an English Language test. We accept:
- IELTS - minimum overall score of IELTS 6.0 with at least 5.5 in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening
- TOEFL iBT (online test) - minimum of 80 overall and at least 19 in all 4 components
- LanguageCert (online test) - a High Pass from the ESOL B2 Communicator test in reading, writing, speaking and listening (2 parts)
We also accept a range of other recognised English language qualifications. You can visit our English Language Requirements page for more information.
For more information about equivalent international qualifications or English language requirements please contact our friendly Course Advisors.
For starting your studies in 2024
Applications for these courses remain open whilst there are spaces available. We encourage you to apply as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
The academic start date is 23 September 2024*.
Please note:
*Virtual Welcome Week begins the week before the academic start date. During this time, our Student Advisor team will host Welcome Webinars and be in touch with practical information on how to study online.
What we're looking for
- Someone with aspirations to use photography for positive change and to reshape the creative industries
- Someone who is ambitious, entrepreneurial and wants to develop their own visual language
- Someone looking to accelerate their current career within a supportive, collaborative community
Fees, costs & funding
Tuition fees for September 2024 entry
Annual tuition fee | Student |
---|---|
£10,400 per year | 2 years accelerated full-time |
£6,935 per year | 3 years accelerated part-time |
Tuition fees for September 2025 will be confirmed in summer 2024.
Tuition fees are set annually and are subject to review each year. The University may therefore raise tuition fees in the second or subsequent years of a course, in line with inflation and/or the maximum permitted by law or Government policy. Students will be notified of any changes as soon as possible.
The figures above don't include accommodation and living costs
What funding can I get?
Funding for online study is different to on-campus study. You'll find information about both tuition fees and how you can fund your online study on this page.
Explore funding optionsTypical course costs
One-off costs
You will need a DSLR or Mirrorless camera system. There are lots of options for buying these, including second hand cameras. We would recommend a camera that has full manual controls and the ability to produce still and moving images, e.g.:
- Canon EOS DSLR or EOS R series
- Nikon DSLR or Z Series
- Sony A Series (A7 or A9)
- Fuji X series
NB: Each of these will need two lens – we would recommend a zoom lens (24-70mm or similar) and a prime lens (50mm equivalent).
You will need to purchase a laptop/desktop computer. It is an essential piece of equipment that you will need right from the start of the course. Our students use both PCs and Macs.
When considering your purchase of a laptop, the most important things to look out for is the CPU/RAM/graphics card, as you will be using production software that needs a large amount of power. We recommend one with as fast a processor as you can afford (8GB of RAM minimum) and a reasonably sized screen (13" minimum, 15" is optimum), plus the following minimum computer specifications:
Windows:
- Windows 10
- At least an i7 processor
- No less than 8-16GB Ram
- Graphics Card (nVidia 1080 minimum, not Intel Iris integrated graphics) with at least 2GB
- 256GB hard drive space minimum
- 1920 x 1080 display resolution or higher (most displays offer a higher resolution than this)
Apple MacBook Pro:
- Mac OS 10.15 or newer
- At least an i7 processor
- No less than 8-16GB Ram
- Graphics Card
- 256GB hard drive space minimum
- 1920 x 1080 display resolution or higher (most displays offer a higher resolution than this)
Other digital equipment/software:
- 1TB hard drive (approx. £50)
- Wireless or Bluetooth mouse (approx. £15)
Recurring annual costs
- £100-£200 - Studio kit (outlined in your Welcome Letter)
- £100-£200 - Recommended reading throughout course
- Face-to-face events (optional): £100-£800 - As an online student you will be given the opportunity to attend up to two events per academic year to meet your classmates and tutors in person. Dates and location of the events will vary, but previous trips have include London, New York, Amsterdam, Paris and Bristol. There will also be a face-to-face event in Falmouth once per year.
- Adobe Creative Cloud: You will need access to Adobe Creative Cloud. You may be eligible for discounted licenses through Adobe's education pricing and Falmouth University seeks to provide further discounts when possible. If any discounts are available, we will communicate these to you. For more information please visit Adobe Creative Cloud.
Funding
For information about funding available, please visit our student funding pages.
Ask a student
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From course details and academic support, to the social scene and settling in, our students are ready and available to answer any questions you might have. Simply set up your account, send them a question and they'll get back to you within 24 hours.
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