FoundationArt and Design Foundation Year
Why study an art and design foundation year?
Explore your creativity on a design foundation year at Solent University. Develop your technical, creative and study skills before your starting design-related degree.
- 0minvested in a dedicated art and design school
- Top0best student city (StudentCrowd, 2024)
- Top0%for teaching quality, out of 131 institutions (Times Good University Guide, 2025)
- The foundation year provides all the creative, technical and study skills needed for entry onto a creative degree-level in art, design, or fashion course.
- Students are encouraged to work collaboratively in groups, reflecting a cross-discipline working ethos in industry.
- The foundation year will help you establish a confident and self-directed approach to learning.
- Many of the academic team on the foundation year also teach on the degree-level courses.
Course overview
The Art and Design Foundation Year builds the fundamental skills, behaviours, and creative confidence needed for successful progression into higher-level study or early-stage industry engagement. Through a practice-led curriculum, you will learn to generate ideas, experiment across a range of media, and communicate visually through a developing portfolio- key expectations within creative professions. You'll also learn to interpret contextual research, reflect on your practice, and engage constructively with peers and tutors, mirroring industry processes of collaboration, critique, and iteration.
You'll be supported to develop resilience, adaptability, and self-awareness and by the end of the year, you will have a portfolio demonstrating creative progression, an understanding of how research informs experimentation, and the confidence to participate in a creative community. These foundations position you strongly for degree-level study and for exploring future opportunities within the creative industries.
Most students progress from the foundation year into their chosen creative degree, leading to careers in areas such as fine art, photography, graphic design, illustration, interiors, fashion, make-up and prosthetics, and related creative industries. However, the course also develops strong transferable and employability skills, including creativity, adaptability, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Email:Â Call:ÂWho this course is for
This course is ideal for students who are interested in creative study but may be unsure of their chosen pathway or need additional preparation before starting a degree. It suits applicants from a wide range of educational backgrounds, including those returning to education or lacking confidence, who want to develop practical skills, build a portfolio, and explore creative disciplines in a supportive university environment.
- Foundation years are designed to help prepare you for undergraduate study and are ideal for gaining an introduction into your chosen subject area.
- If you've been out of education for a while, a foundation year provides a supportive environment for returning to studying.
- Foundation year students have access to the same facilities, and academic and student support as students on undergraduate degrees.
What you'll study
Find your degree
Meet the team
The teaching team for the foundation year is made up of lecturers who also teach on the degree courses.
Entry requirements
48 UCAS tariff points
- From A-levels, a BTEC Extended Diploma at PPP or BTEC Diploma at MP, a T-Level Pass (D or E), or equivalent.
- We will consider mature students who have not recently undertaken a formal course of study at A-level, or equivalent, but can demonstrate relevant work or voluntary experience, that's indicative of their ability to complete the course successfully.
For international and EU students
- As a general guide, we look for qualifications that are equivalent to the British high school A-levels.
- If you are applying from outside the UK, find information about entry requirements, visas and agents for your country here.
- For further information about qualifications, please contact admissions.
Contextual offers
Solent endeavours to offer learning opportunities to students from all backgrounds. When we receive and review an application, we take into consideration the context and personal circumstances of applicants when making a decision, which means our advertised entry tariff could be reduced.
Language requirements
Applicants who do not have English as their first language will be required to demonstrate an approved level of proficiency in the use of the English language. The agreed minimum requirements for this course are:
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IELTS 6.0 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each individual component, or equivalent.
Qualifications
Qualifications are checked before enrolment, and international students must bring their original certificates or certified copies when coming to study at the University.
The University also offers a pre-sessional English programme for international students who wish to improve their level of English before starting a degree course.
Find your degree
Our foundation years are designed to offer a broad range of academic skills alongside a taste of the wider industry before you start your chosen specialist undergraduate degree. Some degrees also include a year in industry, meaning you can gain valuable first-hand work experience with a year-long full-time work placement between the second and third years of your degree.
Applying is simple, just:
- 1
Find the undergraduate degree you’re interested in studying, and explore the course page – this is also where you’ll find the modules you will study throughout your degree.
- 2
Make sure you’ve selected a ‘foundation year’ (or foundation year and year in industry) variant; you’ll find this under ‘Course length’, near the top of the relevant course page.
- 3
Click the ‘Apply on UCAS’ button, and check the UCAS summary mentions ‘foundation year’ under ‘Study mode’.
And don’t worry if you discover a new skill or subject you love during your foundation year, it’s easy to switch to another linked degree!
