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What makes Graphic Design at Worcester special?

Our broad-ranging Graphic Design course puts theory into practice, with live briefs for genuine clients from design and advertising consultancies, publishing organisations, local industries, sustainable design clients and national brands. The programme will give you exposure to commercial and professional situations as your academic knowledge and practical abilities grow. 

Digital designers are the gatekeepers of visual communication. Thanks to the smartphone, the entire internet now fits inside our pocket. In the digital age, there is a greater need than ever for eye-catching graphics and inspirational messages that stands out from the crowd.

From a single printed advert to wayfinding graphics, graphics that inform and educate and to the complex visual language of a major company's brand, you can create compelling stories in visual language. Our course will provide you with the skills needed to create these compelling visual stories, as you pursue a design career.

There are regular visits to museums and exhibitions in London, Bristol and live brief related day visits and workshops too. There is also an annual opportunity to take part in a visit to a destination in mainland Europe.

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Ranked 10th in the UK in the Guardian’s 2021 listings for ‘Design & Craft’ courses.
  • Extensive industry links, including live professional briefs run in collaboration with major organisations, expert guest lecturers and our own commercially experienced staff team
  • Two students on the course won the prestigious 2019 D&AD ‘New Blood’ Design Award which we’re really proud of.
  • Showcase your talent with our final year Degree Show. A prestigious private view opens the exhibition, your chance to share your work with top industry professionals
  • 94% of students within work or further study six months after graduation
  • Diverse future career possibilities, including digital design, children's publishing, web design, sustainable packaging and print design, arts and media administration, or as self-employed designers
  • Develop your design skills further while working on ‘live’ briefs for real industrial clients from both regional businesses, design & advertising consultancies and national brands

Register your interest

Enter your details below and we will keep you up to date with useful information about studying at the University of Worcester.


"The entire course staff have been nothing but supportive over the last three years, while encouraging and developing creative skills with all students."

Martin Price, Graphic Design BA graduate.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

104 UCAS tariff points (for example, BCC at A Level)

T Levels may be used to meet the entry tariff requirements for this course. Find out more about T levels as UCAS tariff points here.

Other information

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from the UCAS website.

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Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Multimedia in Context
  • Creative Digital Imaging and Typography
  • Design: Skills and Theory
  • Concept Visualisation

Optional

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Graphic Design for Internet and Multimedia
  • Graphic Design for Print

Optional

 

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Design Awards & Exhibition
  • Pressure Projects

Optional

  • Green Design
  • Major Project 1
  • Live Brief
  • Industry Collaboration
  • Authorial Practice
  • Documentary Photography 

I loved how broad the course was - I could pick from a wide range of modules to suit my interests. The lecturers were all so enthusiastic it was impossible not to enjoy the course.

Stephen Hall, Graphic Design & Multimedia student

Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork - Wind in the Willows cover Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork Graphic design degree course student artwork
2 female students and 1 male student working at table

Study Graphic Design as part of a joint honours degree

As well as a single honours degree, Graphic Design is also available as part of a number of joint honours combinations, allowing you to combine it with another subject to match your interests and career aspirations:

Animation and Graphic Design BA (Hons)

Graphic Design and Illustration BA (Hons)

Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

A big focus within the course is to make sure our students are experienced not only in an academic sense, but also practically through 'live' briefs with real clients and wants. Students will most likely encounter more 'live' briefs from year 2 onwards and will definitely be expected to have had some of these experiences by the close of year 3.'Live' briefs (where students normally only take design outputs to 'working prototype' level only) run in parallel with your academic learning on our year 2 and year 3 modules and provide excellent experiences and transferable skills as well as portfolio pieces that you as a graduate can use in interview situations and discussions with future employers.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of: taught sessions, workshops, individual tasks and occasional small and large group tasks. In addition, you may also witness visiting speakers and client meetings in years 2 and 3 as we scale up your involvement in real/live projects.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have an opportunity to develop your existing skills in design, visualising, mac skills (around the latest versions of the Adobe Suite) as well as your skills in liaising with and presenting to clients. As well as your academic learning we'll look to put on supporting/linked study visits where appropriate, visiting lectures from professionals across a range of related mediums and client meets and presentations.

You'll also have the opportunity to attend specialist trips to events, museums and sites linked to your studies.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 12-16 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically class contact time will be structured around lectures, briefings, practical projects, seminars, tutorials, critiques, group discussions, work placements and team-working. 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around up to 10 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve: completion of tasks set in the classroom, research linked to a brief set and/or ongoing development of your work linked to a module's major assessed brief.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources. We also offer up Skype tutorials now in some cases.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include: Assessment of written, design and personal development blog outputs by tutor. Assessment of presentation talks about work ongoing.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for the course is:

  • Visual and written research
  • Preparatory work
  • Learning journal
  • Finished artwork or production
  • Presentation
  • Learning report
  • Essay 

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate. We commonly provide feedback either as a 1-1 informal tutorial scenario or via e-mail or (on request) Skype or equivalent video conferencing.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes specialists with industrial experience in the fields of: Web Design and Coding, Typography, Visualising, Layout and Design for print and screen/linked media, Mac skills (with the Adobe Suite), Information Design Skills and Children’s Book Design and Publishing Skills to name but some.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy and 90 per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

andrew-stevenson

Andrew Stevenson

Andrew Stevenson lectures in children’s publishing, sustainable graphic design techniques, wayfinding and information graphics and the 24 hour ‘Pressure Projects’ module.

Andrew moved initially into book design and publishing after graduating from Falmouth School of Art in 1993. He worked mainly with Dorling Kindersley Books in London and then, latterly, Swanston Publishing in Derby, before becoming a freelance designer. During his time working freelance, he was the senior designer on illustrated historical and cartographic-based titles aimed at both the UK and American markets published by Macmillan, Penguin-Viking and Facts on File amongst others.

Andrew is currently studying for a part time PhD, his research question is: “Redefining the guide: Investigating the role of Graphical Representation in Facilitating Increased Participation in Recreational Walking.”

sam-collett

Sam Collett

Sam is a creative technician working in the areas of web, design, coding, strategy and games. His specialism is to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to working with digital media - specifically the web.

He is the recipient of many awards (often for effectiveness rather than straight design) and many great sites and digital 'things'. Sam has worked on numerous big brands during his 15+ years of digital agency work (1997-98: Designer, IMI-Net; 1998: freelance designer, DeepEnd Design; 1998-2004: Lead Designer, Lateral Net; 2004-05: Head of Creative, PartyGaming; 2005-2006: Designer, Inbox Digital ). For almost seven years, he worked on the Levi's account in both Europe and the US.

Sam now teaches part-time at Worcester alongside maintaining a professional web agency, Practically.io. Agency work is split between strategic marketing websites and campaigns alongside really big, complicated, web based applications. Based in Cheltenham, Practically's client base and work are all driven by word of mouth with long term partnerships. The design staff are all graphic design students from Worcester.

Final Year Art Shows

The Worcester Degree Shows are the culmination of work from students on the University of Worcester's arts courses.

Visit the website
Careers

Careers

Employability

Graduates of our Graphic Design course have gone on to work in sectors such as:

  • Publishing
  • Digital design
  • Web design
  • Media and arts administration
  • Self-employment
  • Design agencies and studios
  • Self-employment and/or freelance design roles.

This course also provides an excellent basis for postgraduate study, to further progress your career as a designer or other digital professional.

Its interdisciplinary nature means that students develop skills that are attractive to employers. In a Destinations Survey carried out by the University of Worcester Careers Service, 94% of Design students had found work or had gone on to further study within six months of graduating.

Two students are walking next to each other and smiling

Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential
Amy Warburton

Amy Warburton

Amy has now graduated with First class honours and has expressed how the support and opportunities at Worcester have helped her achieve this.

"It was the course that drew me to Worcester,” “I loved the variety within the course, along with the fact that many projects involve real live clients which helps tremendously in gaining experience and skills via completing briefs for them. Another element was ‘Pressure Projects’ which as a team is completed, where outputs are produced for a brief within 24 hours, which I really enjoyed due to the time pressure and briefs. It went so well for my team I managed to get work experience out of it.” 

"The support I received from lecturers was great, with them being so active in providing help if needed whether it was a 1-1 Teams call, an email or within the online lectures. As well as this they worked so hard to be able to let our degree show be in person in the arthouse, even being able to have family and friends come and visit, which really ended the year on a high."

Amy is currently working as a designer for a Birmingham-based restaurant and hopes one day to work for a design agency.

Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The Government has announced that it will increase tuition fees and maintenance loans by 3.1% from the 2025/26 academic cycle. Subject to approval, the University intends to increase our tuition fees in line with this and as per our terms and conditions. This means that from September 2025 the standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees will be £9,535 per year.

For more details on course fees, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2025/26 academic year is £16,700 per year.

For more details on course fees, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The Government has announced that it will increase tuition fees and maintenance loans by 3.1% from the 2025/26 academic cycle. Subject to approval, the University intends to increase our tuition fees in line with this and as per our terms and conditions. This means that from September 2025 the tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees will be £1,190.83 per 15-credit module, £1,587.77 per 20-credit module, £2,381.66 per 30-credit module, £3,175.55 per 40-credit module, £3,572.50 per 45-credit module and £4,763.32 per 60 credit module.

For more details on course pages, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Halls' at £131 per week to 'Ensuite Premium Halls' at £228 per week (2025/26 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.
How to apply

How to apply

Part-time applications

If you would like to apply to study this course part time, please complete our online application form.

Applying through UCAS

Single Honours:
Graphic Design BA (Hons) - W210 BA/GDM

Joint Honours:
Please visit the individual joint honours course pages for UCAS links:
Animation and Graphic Design BA (Hons) - WWP2
Graphic Design and Illustration BA (Hons) - W292

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

UCAS Code

W210

Apply Via UCAS

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Admissions Office

admissions@worc.ac.uk
01905 855111

Alistair Nash

Course leader
alistair.nash@worc.ac.uk
01905 542794

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