A BA (Hons) Art and Design degree is the broad-based creative course, and its purpose is different from the specialist ones. Rather than committing you to graphic design or photography or illustration at eighteen, it lets you work across disciplines in the first year and specialise as your strengths become clear.
For students who know they are creative but do not yet know in which direction, that structure is genuinely valuable. For students who already know exactly what they want to make, a specialist course will take them further in the same three years.
What you study
Three years, studio based, with a broad first year narrowing to a specialism.
- Year one: drawing and visual language, across a range of workshops covering print, digital, photography, three-dimensional making and moving image, plus art and design history and critical theory.
- Year two: a chosen pathway with supporting cross-disciplinary work, collaborative and live briefs, and professional context.
- Year three: a major self-directed body of work, degree show, and professional practice covering exhibiting, commissions, freelancing and further study.
Critical and contextual studies carry more weight here than students expect, and the written dissertation or extended essay is a real component of the final grade.
Entry requirements from Nepal
The figures below are what most of our partner universities ask for. They are not fixed, and individual universities set their own thresholds each intake, so treat this as a guide and let us confirm the exact position for the courses you shortlist.
- Academic: +2, A-Levels or IB at roughly 60 per cent and above, with the portfolio weighted heavily and often decisive.
- English: IELTS 6.0 overall with no band below 5.5 is common, with some courses accepting 5.5 overall. 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.
- Breadth: for a broad art and design course, showing range works in your favour. Include work in different media and show that you experiment.
- 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
- Design roles across graphics, digital, product and spatial disciplines depending on your pathway
- Studio practice and exhibiting as an artist
- Arts administration, galleries and cultural organisations
- Creative education and community arts
- Museum, curation and heritage work
- Postgraduate specialisation, which many graduates go on to
- Freelance and commission-based practice
Choosing between this and a specialist course
Our advice is straightforward. If you can already name what you want to make, apply to the specialist course: graphic design, illustration, photography, fashion design or animation. You will graduate with a deeper portfolio in that field.
If you are genuinely undecided, this degree buys you a year of informed exploration without losing time. That is a legitimate reason to choose it, and a better one than applying to a specialism you are unsure about and switching later.
Where Real Dreams comes in
We have been placing students from Nepal in UK universities since 2003. Bring us your academic documents and we will be candid about your prospects for art and design rather than encouraging you towards whichever university pays the most commission. That includes telling you when a different course would serve you better.
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.
