Programme Specifications

Creative Arts


1 : Awarding Institution / Body
Aberystwyth University

2a : Teaching Institution / University
Aberystwyth University

2b : Work-based learning (where appropriate)


Information provided by School of Art:

n/a



3a : Programme accredited by
Aberystwyth University

3b : Programme approved by
Aberystwyth University

4 : Final Award
Bachelor of Arts

5 : Programme title
Creative Arts

6 : UCAS code
WW48

7 : QAA Subject Benchmark


Information provided by School of Art:

Art and Design

8 : Date of publication


Information provided by School of Art:

September 2023

9 : Educational aims of the programme


Information provided by School of Art:

  • Offer sound training in the subject of the subjects covered by the Creative Arts Scheme; Fine Art, Film & TV, Theatre & Scenography, and Creative Writing.

  • Provide opportunities for students to develop knowledge, understanding, and proficiency in a broad range of media and processes, and the fundamental concepts and key skills of creative practice.

  • Provide opportunities for students to develop specialised proficiency in the offered discipline(s) of their choice.

  • Offer a flexible curriculum with a variety of pathways.

  • Encourage students to develop their aesthetic sensibility, creativity, curiosity, and artistic identity.

  • Provide opportunities for students to develop a broad range of subject-specific and transferrable skills that will equip them for further study and/or their future career (in particular as fine artists, writers, filmmakers, scenographers, performers, educators and professionals in the cultural industries).



10 : Intended learning outcomes


Information provided by School of Art:

The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas: Fine Art, Film & TV, Theatre & Scenography, and Creative Writing.

10.1 : Knowledge and understanding


Information provided by School of Art:

  • A1 A broad range of media and processes: their principles and techniques, history and development, and the relationship between media and process, and ideas and contexts.

  • A2 By the final year students will study two or more disciplines in depth, informed by staff practice and research.

  • A3 The ​fundamental issues, contexts, concepts, theories, and debates (historical, contemporary, cultural settings) in art and contemporary culture.

  • A4 The foundations of critical and historical ways of interpreting art and contemporary culture, knowledge of contemporary art and culture including some historical and cultural contexts.

  • A5 The contemporary art world and cultural industries, including the variety of opportunities for graduate employment; the significance of the work of other practitioners; major developments in current and emerging media and technologies; the role and impact of intellectual property; and the issues which arise from the creative practitioner’s relationships with audiences, clients, markets, environments, users, consumers, and/or participants.



10.2 : Skills and other attributes


Information provided by School of Art:

  • 1:1 tutorials

  • Small group tutorials and crits

  • Group studio sessions

  • Seminars

  • Lectures (synchronous and asynchronous)

  • Presentations

  • Workshops

  • Guided independent practice

  • Guided independent researc

Assessment methods used to enable outcomes to be demonstrated:
  • Portfolio

  • Exhibition

  • Professional projects

  • Essays

  • Dissertation

  • Seen and unseen examinations

  • Visual analysis

  • Object study

  • Reflective writing

  • Slide test

  • Presentation (live and recorded)

  • Exhibition project

  • Critical journal

  • Book review

  • Literature review

  • Annotated bibliography

  • Essay plan

10.2.1 Intellectual skills
  • B1 Creative skills: creatively and imaginatively conceive, produce, promote, and disseminate practice and research for intellectual and aesthetic contemplation​.

  • B2 ​Visual skills: close and systematic visual examination, informed by appropriate knowledge of materials, techniques, and cultural contexts; clear and precise description, using ordinary and specialist terminology as appropriate and demonstrating awareness of the inherently translative relationship between the visual and the verbal; technical evaluation of practice and research considering materiality, production, methodology, and cultural context.

  • B3 Interpretive skills : discern and explain the meaning and significance of art and contemporary culture created by oneself and others, drawing on close observation, personal response, knowledge of techniques, relevant theoretical and methodological debates, historical context, and contemporary relevance; produce logical and structured narratives and arguments, supported by relevant evidence.

  • B4 Cognitive skills: find creative solutions to aesthetic, practical, and theoretical and problems; generate ideas independently and in response to set briefs; make connections between intention, process, outcome, context, and methods of dissemination; evaluate and apply a variety of theoretical perspectives; analyse arguments, tasks, and bodies of evidence, breaking them down into, and effectively dealing with, their component parts.

  • B5 Open-mindedness: be open and receptive to new things and ideas; identify the merits of unfamiliar or cultural arguments and the merits or shortcomings of familiar ones; appreciate and evaluate divergent points of view and to communicate their qualities.

10.2.2 Practical skills
  • C1 Making skills: develop a body of ambitious creative projects through experimentation, technical innovation, and independent reflection on making in the creative translation of ideas into practice, drawing on research on historical and contemporary contexts, technical skill and knowledge in traditional and contemporary processes, and selecting and using materials, processes, and environments.

  • C2 Presentation skills: present bodies of work professionally and effectively, demonstrating awareness of audience and contexts; present and promote oneself as a creative professional; write text for a variety of purposes to support one’s artistic practice.

  • C3 Communication skills: communicate information, arguments, and ideas cogently and effectively within a range of discourses as appropriate to particular audiences, and in written, spoken, or other form using appropriate visual aids and information technology resources; particular abilities in the deployment of visual material in conjunction with written, oral, and other forms of communication; the ability to listen effectively, and to participate constructively in discussion and debate.

  • C4 Research skills: capacity for critical, effective, and testable information retrieval and organisation; ability to design and carry out a research project with limited tutorial guidance.



10.3 : Transferable/Key skills


Information provided by School of Art:

  • D1 Autonomy: generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions, or arguments independently; develop an independent practice that is informed by, but not dependent on, the work of others.

  • D2 Diligence: undertake and complete set tasks, whether routine and familiar or requiring the acquisition and application of new skills.

  • D3 Time management and personal initiative: work to briefs and deadlines, including managing concurrent projects; take responsibility for one’s own work; reflect on one’s own learning and make constructive use of feedback; take shared responsibility for one’s own course of studies.

  • D4 Teamwork: the ability to work constructively and productively in teams.

  • D5 Critical engagement: formulate and articulate reasoned, independent judgements and arguments, supported by analysis of evidence and experiences, and informed by, but not dependent on, the ideas and arguments of others.

  • D6 Problem solving: identify, analyse, and creatively solve problems individually or as part of a team.



11 : Program Structures and requirements, levels, modules, credits and awards



BA Creative Arts [WW48]

Academic Year: 2023/2024Single Honours scheme - available from 2014/2015

Duration (studying Full-Time): 3 years

Part 1 Rules

Year 1 Core (40 Credits)

Compulsory module(s).

Semester 1
AR15320

Interdisciplinary Practice 1

Semester 2
AR15420

Interdisciplinary Practice 2

Year 1 Options

Creative Arts students must use their remaining 80 credits by choosing one module from four of the five categories listed below. (A student must take at least one cultural contexts modules during the 3 years.)

Year 1 Options

Category 1: Fine Art (students wishing to pursue Fine Art options will be required to have a portfolio which will be considered during application stage):

Semester 1
AR11120

Drawing: Looking, Seeing, Thinking

AR11320

Drawing: Extended Practice

Semester 2
AR11220

Painting: Looking, Seeing, Thinking

AR11420

Painting: Extended Practice

Year 1 Options

Category 2: Film and TV Production:

Semester 1
FM11420

Making Short Films 1

Semester 2
FM11520

Making Short Films 1

Year 1 Options

Category 3a: Theatre and Performance:

Semester 1
TP11120

Studio Theatre Project

Semester 2
TP11420

Site-Specific Performance Project

Year 1 Options

Category 3b: Scenography

Year 1 Options

Category 4: Creative Writing:

Semester 1
WL10120

Re-imagining Nineteenth-Century Literature

WL11420

Literature And The Sea

Semester 2
WL10420

Introduction to Poetry

Year 1 Options

Category 5: Cultural Studies

Semester 1
AH11320

Pleasure, Power, and Profit: Art in the Long Eighteenth Century

AH11520

Looking into Landscape: Reading, Researching, Responding

AH11820

Photography Begins

FM10120

Studying Film

FM10620

Studying Media

FM17320

Writing Continuing TV Drama

TP11020

Theatre in Context 1

Semester 2
AH11220

Exploring the School of Art Collections: Research and Museums

AH11420

Revolutions & Modernities: Art in the Nineteenth Century

AH11720

Representing the Body

EN10520

Contemporary Writing

FM10220

Studying Television

FM10720

Studying Communication

FM11120

Movements in Film History

TP11320

Theatre in Context 2

Part 2 Rules

Year 2 Core (40 Credits)

Compulsory module(s).

Semester 1
AR25320

Interdisciplinary Practice 3

Semester 2
AR25420

Interdisciplinary Practice 4

Year 2 Options

Creative Arts students must use their remaining 80 credits by choosing at least one module from three of the five categories listed below. (A student must take at least one cultural contexts module during the 3 years.)

Year 2 Options

Category 1: Fine Art:

Semester 1
AR20120

Painting 1

AR20230

Painting 2

AR20720

Photography 1

AR20830

Photography 2

AR22110

Life Studies 1

AR22320

Printmaking 1: Etching and Relief Printing

AR22430

Printmaking 2: Etching and Relief Printing

Semester 2
AR20920

Painting 3

AR21030

Painting 4

AR21620

Photography 3

AR21730

Photography 4

AR21820

Book Illustration 1

AR21930

Book Illustration 2

AR22210

Life Studies 2

AR22520

Printmaking 3: Screenprinting, lithography & hybrid printing

AR22630

Printmaking 4: Screenprinting, lithography & hybrid printing

Year 2 Options

Category 2: Film and TV Production:

Semester 1
FM21620

Writing for Film and Television

FM26520

Creative Documentary

Semester 2
FM20920

Creative Fiction: Horror

Year 2 Options

Category 3a: Theatre and Performance:

Semester 1
TP21220

Acting: Process and Performance

TP21620

Devised Performance Project

TP21820

Directors' Theatre

Semester 2
TP23820

New Media Performance

Year 2 Options

Category 3b: Scenography:

Semester 1
FM20620

Television Genre

TP22320

Principles of Scenography

TP22520

Scenographic Composition

TP22620

Theatre Design Project

Semester 2

Year 2 Options

Category 4: Creative Writing:

Semester 1
WR20220

Beginning the Novel

WR21120

Telling True Stories: ways of Writing Creative Non-Fiction

WR22120

Adventures with Poetry

Semester 2
WR20620

Writing Selves

WR21720

Shaping Plots

Year 2 Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Art History):

Semester 1
AH20520

Modernisms: Art in the Early Twentieth Century

AH23420

Gothic Imagination

AH23620

Drawn to Order: British Illustration since 1800

AH23720

Art in Wales

Semester 2
AH20620

Postmodernism and Contemporary Art

AH20720

Rethinking Impressionism

AH22820

Thinking Photography

Year 2 Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Film and TV):

Semester 1
FM20620

Television Genre

FM22320

Youth Cultures

Semester 2
FM20120

LGBT Screens

FM20920

Creative Fiction: Horror

FM21520

Stardom and Celebrity

FM21920

Advertising

FM24420

Art Cinema

FM25520

Digital Culture

Year 2 Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Theatre, Performance and Scenography):

Semester 1
TP21820

Directors' Theatre

TP22320

Principles of Scenography

Semester 2
TP23220

Shakespeare in Performance

Year 2 Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (English):

Semester 1
EN20120

Literary Theory: Debates and Dialogues

EN21620

Contemporary Queer Fiction

EN23120

In the Olde Dayes: Medieval Texts and Their World

Semester 2
EN22120

Place and Self

EN22920

Literature since the '60s

WL20720

A Century in Crisis: 1790s to 1890s

Final Year Core (40 Credits)

Compulsory module(s).

Semester 1
AR35320

Interdisciplinary Practice 5

Semester 2
AR35420

Interdisciplinary Practice 6

Final Year Options

In addition, Creative Arts students must use their remaining 80 credits by choosing one module from two of the five categories listed below. (A student must take at least one cultural contexts module during the 3 years.)

Final Year Options

Category 1: Fine Art

Semester 1
AR31610

Life Studies 3

AR31730

Painting 5 - Paint Directed Practice

AR31840

Painting 6 Paint Directed Practice

AR31930

Printmaking 5 - Print Directed Practice

AR32040

Printmaking 6 - Print Directed Practice

AR32130

Photography 5 - Photo Directed Practice

AR32240

Photography 6 - Photo Directed Practice

AR32330

Book Illustration 3

AR32440

Book Illustration 4

Semester 2
AR30130

Exhibition 1: Graduation Show

AR32540

Exhibition 2: Graduation Show

Final Year Options

Category 2: Film and TV Production

Semester 1
FM33500

Experimental Media Production

FM33700

Documentary Production

FM34200

Fiction Film Production

Semester 2
FM33540

Experimental Media Production

FM33740

Documentary Production

FM34240

Fiction Film Production

Final Year Options

Category 3a: Theatre and Performance

Semester 1
TP33300

Playwriting

TP35520

Ensemble Performance Project

Semester 2
TP33340

Playwriting

TP33420

Performance and Architecture

TP39020

Musical Theatre Dramaturgies

Final Year Options

Category 3b: Scenography

Semester 1
TP31240

Advanced Studio Practice (scenography)

Semester 2
TP35940

Advanced Scenographic Project

Final Year Options

Category 4: Creative Writing

Semester 1
WR30000

The Writing Project

WR32120

Writing and Place

WR32620

Writing Music

WR32820

Humour and Conflict in Contemporary Writing

Semester 2
WR30040

The Writing Project

WR31220

Poetry for today

WR32420

Writing Crime Fiction

WR32720

Big Ideas: Writing Popular Science

Final Year Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Art History):

Semester 1
AH33420

Gothic Imagination

AH33620

Drawn to Order: British Illustration since 1800

AH33720

Art in Wales

Semester 2
AH30720

Rethinking Impressionism

AH30820

Thinking Photography

AH32720

Curating an Exhibition: Researching, Interpreting and Displaying

Final Year Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Film and TV):

Semester 1
FM34520

Experimental Cinema

FM38220

Cult Cinema: Texts, Histories and Audiences

FM38320

Gender and the Media

FM38420

Videogame Theories

Semester 2
FM34120

Media Semiotics

FM36720

Media Law

Final Year Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (Theatre, Performance and Scenography):

Semester 1
TP36000

Independent Research Project

Semester 2
TP33420

Performance and Architecture

TP36040

Independent Research Project

Final Year Options

Category 5: Cultural Context (English):

Semester 1
EN30000

Undergraduate Dissertation

EN30120

Reading Theory / Reading Text

EN30520

Romantic Eroticism

Semester 2
EN30040

Undergraduate Dissertation

EN30320

Victorian Childhoods

EN30420

Writing in the Margins: Twentieth-Century Welsh Poetry in English

EN30820

Haunting Texts


12 : Support for students and their learning
Every student is allocated a Personal Tutor. Personal Tutors have an important role within the overall framework for supporting students and their personal development at the University. The role is crucial in helping students to identify where they might find support, how and where to seek advice and how to approach support to maximise their student experience. Further support for students and their learning is provided by Information Services and Student Support and Careers Services.

13 : Entry Requirements
Details of entry requirements for the scheme can be found at http://courses.aber.ac.uk

14 : Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standards of teaching and learning
All taught study schemes are subject to annual monitoring and periodic review, which provide the University with assurance that schemes are meeting their aims, and also identify areas of good practice and disseminate this information in order to enhance the provision.

15 : Regulation of Assessment
Academic Regulations are published as Appendix 2 of the Academic Quality Handbook: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/aqro/handbook/app-2/.

15.1 : External Examiners
External Examiners fulfill an essential part of the University’s Quality Assurance. Annual reports by External Examiners are considered by Faculties and Academic Board at university level.

16 : Indicators of quality and standards
The Department Quality Audit questionnaire serves as a checklist about the current requirements of the University’s Academic Quality Handbook. The periodic Department Reviews provide an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of quality assurance processes and for the University to assure itself that management of quality and standards which are the responsibility of the University as a whole are being delivered successfully.