A BA (Hons) Advertising, Branding and Design degree teaches you to build the identity and the campaign together. It combines the strategic side of advertising, understanding an audience and finding the idea that moves them, with the craft side of design, making that idea look and sound like something people trust.
It differs from a pure graphic design course in the weight it gives to strategy, insight and copy, and from a marketing degree in the weight it gives to making the work rather than planning it. Graduates tend to be more useful in an agency than either specialist alone, because they can take a brief from insight through to execution.
What you study
Three years, studio and brief driven, usually with agency placements built in.
- Year one: advertising principles and consumer insight, brand fundamentals, typography and visual language, copywriting, and campaign basics.
- Year two: integrated campaign development across media, brand strategy and positioning, digital and social advertising, art direction, and live client briefs.
- Year three: a major campaign project, professional practice, portfolio and book preparation, and entry into student advertising competitions.
In this industry the portfolio is called a book, and it is judged on ideas rather than on finish. Six strong campaign ideas beat twenty polished but ordinary ones.
Entry requirements from Nepal
Requirements differ between universities and can move from one intake to the next, so read the following as the usual range rather than a guarantee. We check your documents against each university current criteria before anything is submitted.
- Academic: +2, A-Levels or IB at roughly 60 per cent and above, assessed alongside a portfolio.
- English: IELTS 6.0 overall with no band below 5.5 is typical. Copywriting elements make written English more important here than on most design courses. Many of our partner universities also accept PTE Academic, Duolingo, or a Medium of Instruction letter from Tribhuvan, Pokhara or Kathmandu University. See our IELTS score comparison and the routes that do not require IELTS.
- Portfolio: this is the requirement students from Nepal most often miss. Creative courses assess a portfolio alongside your grades, usually submitted digitally and sometimes followed by a short online interview. Fifteen to twenty pieces that show your thinking, including rough work and development, count for more than a small number of finished images. Start assembling it months before you apply and we will review it with you before it goes anywhere.
- Study gap: most universities accept a gap, commonly up to five years and sometimes up to ten, as long as you can account for the time.
- Finance: the student visa requires evidence of your first year tuition plus living costs, currently 1,529 pounds a month for London and 1,171 pounds a month elsewhere, held for nine months. Our page on UK university fees for international students sets out the detail.
Where the degree leads
- Advertising agencies, in art direction, copywriting or account planning
- Brand strategy and brand identity work
- In-house creative and marketing teams
- Digital and social campaign production
- Content and creative production studios
- Freelance creative work
Suitability and honesty
Advertising is idea-driven and competitive, and agencies recruit on the strength of a book plus persistence. It suits students who enjoy the puzzle of persuading people and who can take repeated, blunt criticism of their ideas without losing momentum, because that is the daily reality of a creative department.
For Nepalese students, the strategic and brand thinking transfers directly to a domestic advertising and digital marketing sector that has grown considerably. If you would rather analyse markets than make the work, marketing is the better route.
Get a straight answer on your chances
Since 2003 we have guided Nepalese students through UK admissions, and the useful conversation is always the specific one. Show us your marks and we will tell you which universities are likely to make you an offer for advertising, branding and design, where the deadlines fall, and what you need to have in the bank before the visa stage.
Counselling is free and there is no obligation. Our offices are in Kathmandu, Chitwan, Pokhara, Butwal and Bhairahawa, with a further office in London. Get in touch when you are ready, start an application, or look through the full course list.
