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BA (Hons) Illustration

Experiment with different illustration mediums and tools as you build your creative identity and professional skills on our well-regarded course at Norwich University of the Arts.

Our BA (Hons) Illustration degree course has a reputation for challenging conventional thinking. We will help you to develop your personal style as your expertise grows in drawing, print, collage and multi-media.

You will explore visual storytelling and both digital and analogue image-making: from the page to the screen, to installations and interactive experiences.

Step towards an illustration career

Live projects, competitions and collaborations will offer work opportunities to prepare you for a successful career in illustration.

You will develop your own way of thinking about illustration, storytelling and the connection of images to text or the spoken word.

We will help with advice about working in the creative industries, including freelance careers, employment and entrepreneurship, and practical tips on handling commissions and negotiating with clients.

Awards and accolades

Student accolades include the RSA Student Design Award, D&AD New Blood, Penguin Design Awards, Carmelite Prize for Children’s Picture Books, YCN Awards and New Designers Best in Show.

Course information

All courses run as a blend of on-campus and digital teaching and learning, and follow current UK government safety advice. Applicants and students will be notified directly if any changes need to be made.

Typical career paths include:

  • Freelance illustrator
  • Self-publisher
  • Printmaker
  • Designer
  • Picture book designer
  • Public artist
  • Artist in residence
  • Book publisher
  • Animator
  • Filmmaker
  • Curator
  • Director
  • Editorial publisher
  • Gallery assistant
  • Illustration agent

You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.

Course Information

Institution Code: N39
Course 3 Year UCAS code: W220
Course 4 Year UCAS code: W221
Course length: 3 or 4 year options
Sandwich courses: Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 diploma), or Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 diploma), available between years 2 & 3

Christain Harrop

Typical UK offers

A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BBB. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject

T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above

UAL Extended Diploma
Merit

UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit

UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 27 points

Norwich welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.

International applications

We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.

Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).

We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.

You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.

BA (Hons) Illustration degree portfolio guidance

We are calling the traditional portfolio a ‘development portfolio’. This is to emphasise that what we would like to see is where you are now in your creative journey. You don’t need to spend a long time making the perfect work, as we can assess your potential from your work in progress. Your development is the most important part of your learning.

Your development portfolio should be relevant to this course, but you can include a wide range of work that shows your creativity, technical competence and understanding of storytelling.

You may wish to include some of the following:

  • Drawings, painting or illustrations that demonstrate your skills, including life drawings, still life and images drawn from observing people and landscapes or from your imagination
  • Collages and mixed media
  • Experimental workbooks
  • Animations
  • Work created using Adobe Creative Suite or other appropriate design software package
  • Photography and photo-montage
  • Sequential art including graphic novels/comic strips and story boards
  • Examples of experiments with print making processes
  • Illustrated stories or comics

Further portfolio advice and tips

Get more advice on presentation formats, layouts and when to submit your development portfolio in the application process.

2023/24 University fees for new entrants

Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs

Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements.  They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich’s tuition fees upfront.

Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.

Fee status Course Annual fee
Home Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) £9,250
Overseas Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) £18,000

For Home undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.

For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.

See our Fees and Funding page for further information which is also available in a downloadable format.

Financial support for UK students in 2023

Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.

Four year degree

Our innovative four year degrees are exactly the same as our three year degrees but include an extra year of study at the beginning – Year 0.

Year 0 is all about developing the skills and knowledge you need to successfully complete your degree course. Building on your experience from A Level or equivalent courses, the Year 0 curriculum allows extra time to develop the practical, technical and creative skills that are critical to successfully completing an undergraduate degree at Norwich.

While studying Year 0 BA (Hons) Illustration you’ll develop visual research strategies through studio-based workshops, considering narrative, and illustration as a mode of communication.

Within the first project you will explore the potential for ‘story-telling’ and sequence. You’ll explore a range approaches to image making, building upon this as you move through the second project, which is focused on specific environments; their past and their present.

As you negotiate the unit you will begin to develop you own visual language, and greater degrees of independence. Projects will be led by course tutors and as part of the Illustration course you will join all years for guest lectures and course events.

Typical UK offers and entry requirements for Year 0 entry

GCE A/AS Levels
2 A-level qualifications at grades CC or higher.

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Merit, Merit, Pass in an art, design or media related subject

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit in an art, design or media related subject

T Levels
Pass (D or E on the core)

UAL Extended Diploma
An overall Pass

UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
An overall Pass

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design 
Pass

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 24 points

Norwich welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

Find out more

Lecturers

Bee Willey
Adam Avery
Toby Morison
Adam Larkum
Stef Murphy

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Top 10 for
Teaching Quality

by the Times and Sunday Times 2022

Top Two UK
Creative Arts
University

by The Complete University Guide 2024

GOLD-rated
University

the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

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