The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

One or a combination of the following accepted full Level 3 qualifications:

• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Level 3 or 4) and one A Level at grade C or above
• Merit, Pass, Pass (MPP) at BTEC Extended Diploma (preferred subjects include Art, Art and Design or Design and Technology)
• Pass at UAL Extended Diploma
• Access to Higher Education Diploma equivalent to 64 UCAS tariff points (preferred subjects include Art, Art and Design or Design and Technology)
• Pass at Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Level 3 or 4) plus equivalent EU/international qualifications, such as International Baccalaureate Diploma

And three GCSE passes at grade 4 or above (grade A*–C).

Entry to this course will also be determined by assessment of your portfolio.

AP(E)L – Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning

Exceptionally applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

• Related academic or work experience
• The quality of the personal statement
• A strong academic or other professional reference

Or a combination of these factors.

Each application will be considered on its own merit but cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

English language requirements

IELTS score of 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking (please check our main English language requirements webpage).

We select applicants who can demonstrate current ability and potential to:

Work imaginatively and creatively in 2D and 3D visual and material media:

• Engage with experimentation and invention
• Show imagination and ambition in proposals for their work
• Take informed risks.

Demonstrate a range of skills and technical abilities:

• Through their portfolio, demonstrate a range of approaches to design
• Development, originated from personal experience or visual research
• Progressed through logical stages to finished design solutions
• Evidence handling a medium or material with sensitivity to its qualities
• Demonstrate engagement and improvement in a recently learned technical skill
• Demonstrate an awareness of planning and time management skills.

Provide evidence of intellectual enquiry within their work:

• Demonstrate relevant research skills
• Evidence your ability to critically reflect and evaluate their achievements.

Demonstrate cultural awareness and/or contextual framework of their work:

• Evidence an interest in contemporary fashion design communication and promotion
• Identify social and/or cultural influences on their work.

Articulate and communicate intentions clearly:

• Discuss their work in individual and group situations
• Present their work appropriately and effectively.

Demonstrate commitment and motivation in relation to the subject and the course:

• Develop their own ideas and address both set and personal project briefs
• Show willingness to collaborate
• Show initiative.

What we are looking for

In this fast-moving global industry it takes hard work, flexibility and passion to succeed. This course is aimed specifically at applicants who are passionate about fashion, but do not want to follow the design route: spirited, informed and mature individuals who want to be innovative, confident, responsible, informed, skilled and adaptable graduates who will become the fashion photographers, stylists, art directors, fashion-show producers, film-makers and public relations experts, bloggers and social networkers, on-line marketers, “traditional” writers, journalists, curators, commentators and theorists of the future.

Communicating with you

After you have successfully submitted your application, you will receive an email confirming we have successfully received your application and providing you with your login details for the UAL Portal.  We will request any additional information from you, including inviting you to upload documents / portfolio / book an interview, through the portal.  You should check your UAL Portal regularly for any important updates and requests.

What happens next

Initial application check

We check your application to see if you meet the standard entry requirements for the course.  If you do, you will be invited to submit a mini portfolio through UAL’s online portfolio review system.

Mini portfolio

The mini portfolio should be no more than 20 pages comprising your best work showing your sensitivity to design, skills and thinking. You can create the pages in any layout (for example, presentation boards) but they should be uploaded as jpeg images.  It should include:

• Sketching
• Photographs
• Illustrations
• Graphics
• Film/ Animation
• 3D work including experimentation and development
• Finished work accompanied by a short explanation of the piece and your thinking
• Idea generation
• Inspiration and research material.

Following the review of the mini portfolio we select a small number of applicants to move on to the next stage of the process.  These applicants will be invited to a full portfolio review.

Full portfolio review – Home / EU applicants

If you have been selected you will be asked to choose a time to attend a full portfolio review at college.  Reviews include an interview and are likely to take place in the weeks beginning 17 February and 24 February, 2020.

Full portfolio review – International applicants

International applicants will be invited from January to March, 2020.

If you are unable to attend the full portfolio review in person, you will be asked to submit a FULL digital portfolio (up to 30 pages) through UAL’s online portfolio review system.  We may also interview you by Skype.

Please note that we do not accept portfolios by post.

Portfolio advice

Your portfolio should demonstrate creative development, whether for a college project or in your personal work. By creative development, we mean ideas that have originated through your own experience and research and progressed towards potential visual and 3D proposals. We are interested in seeing your ideas, visual research and experimentation and finished design solutions. It is important that the creative work you include reflects and demonstrates your thinking, initiative and personal commitment to a particular project, theme or idea.

Your portfolio should contain a range of visual material, including sketchbooks, research and photographs of 3D pieces or work of scale.

Your work should demonstrate creative development, whether for a college project or in your personal work. By creative development, we mean:

• The quality of the work is more important than the quantity
• Where possible, large or 3D work should be photographed and scanned
• Please organise your work by project, with supporting work presented alongside final outcomes.

How we notify you of the outcome of your application

You will receive the final outcome of your application through UCAS track.

BA Fashion Communication graduates work across a very wide spectrum of careers in fashion. From curators and archivists to journalists, stylists, photographers, fashion show producers, illustrators, editors and retailers the range of career opportunities is diverse.

Many of our graduates have gone on to work with fashion companies throughout the world:

Love Magazine | Port Magazine | The Telegraph | Pop Magazine | Acne Paper, Burberry | 10 Magazine | SHOWstudio.com | Grazia Magazine | Six Creative | Vogue.com | Reiss | Proud Galleries | Gainsborough & Whiting Show Production | Alexander McQueen | Burberry | Margaret Howell | Bonhams | Asos.com | Daphne Guinness Collection | Christian Louboutin | Somerset House | Topman | Urban Outfitters | i-D | The Face | Net-a-Porter

Others have gained a reputation as important fashion creatives:

Ib Kamara | Campbell Addy | Hanna Moon | Joyce Ng | Gareth Wrighton | Holly Hay | Andrew Davis | Laura Bradley | Kay Barron | Tamsin Blanchard | Alex Fury | James Sherwood | Alexandra Gordienko | Julie Grieve | Jeremy Langmead

Recent graduates have also entered postgraduate study at the following institutions:

Royal College of Art | Goldsmiths | London College of Fashion | Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum | The Courtauld Institute of Art

Developing your links

Located at the heart of the London fashion industry, BA (Honours) Fashion Communication is able to link education and industry providing students with 'live' projects and professional feedback. The BA (Honours) Fashion Communication course has also developed an excellent relationship with the international fashion community, so that placements for its students are drawn from a wide and distinguished range of sources.

Students benefit enormously from studying in London. While there are other fashion courses on the outskirts of the capital, none can offer you the daily stimulation and advantages of being in the middle of an international cultural and fashion centre, surrounded by all levels of the retail market and sectors of the industry within which you will later find employment.

Current collaborations across the design pathways include work with L'Oreal Professional, Triumph, Liberty, Tie Rack, Paul Smith, Dior and Christian Dior Couture. Fashion History and Theory students collaborate with Pringle of Scotland. SHOWstudio.com, Somerset House Embankment Galleries, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Historic Royal Palaces/ Kensington Palace and Alexander McQueen.