BA (Hons)Fashion and Beauty Media
Apply on UCAS- 2023
- 2024
Why study a fashion and beauty media degree at Solent University
Use your passion for fashion and beauty to become a multi-skilled storyteller – guided by our industry experts and using professional facilities to deliver content and campaigns for UK brands.
- 0rdmost affordable city for students in the UK (Student Living Index 2022, NatWest)
- £0minvestment in our campus and industry-standard facilities
- You will be taught by award-winning industry professionals who have worked at some of the UK’s leading fashion and beauty brands.
- Access to professional-standard facilities, including a digital reprographics lab, our recently rebuilt colour and black-and-white darkrooms, finishing and film processing rooms, a modern multimedia lab featuring 24 iMacs with Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro, plus large professional photographic studios and associated make-up and styling rooms.
- Contribute to 'Carbon', our real-world brand providing 360° media content across digital, print and web. In 2019 Carbon was nominated in the Student Magazine of the Year (internationally) category by the media platform Stack.
- Industry work placement of more than 100 hours.
- Prestigious guest speakers, from Queenie Yang, Asia Editor of Vogue International to luxury brands such as Alexander McQueen and Chanel.
- Our students go on to work for a range of luxury and high street brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, Fenty, Asos, Zara, PLT, Vogue, Elle, Alexander McQueen and L’Oreal Paris.
- A creative, multi-disciplinary environment for world-leading research in media, culture and the arts – you will learn from experts in their field.
This video 'Why study BA (Hons) Fashion and Beauty Media' is available as a text transcript, with a description of visuals.
Course overview
The fashion and beauty industry is increasingly looking for dynamic and multi-skilled practitioners to produce a range of 360° content across editorial and commercial platforms. This degree will support you to become a fashion and beauty industry storyteller, using words, pictures, film, virtual and digital graphics to create the innovative and sustainable editorial and promotional campaigns of the future.
This exciting real-world course, run by industry experts, teaches you how to create fashion and beauty content and plan impactful, sustainable social media strategies, create trend-driven story-telling, design industry-ready campaigns, and analyse markets to understand how the editorial and commercial worlds of fashion and beauty connect. You'll design innovative and fresh ways to engage audiences and translate a passion for fashion and beauty content to a global multimedia stage.
If you’re unsure whether you’d best suit a career in PR, editorial, marketing, trend forecasting or creative content design we will help you to explore the wealth of opportunities and future trends the fashion and beauty industries have to offer. This course will allow you to keep your options open and gain a professional portfolio in a wide variety of media disciplines that you refine and specialise as you progress towards a career that’s right for you.
You will study a range of industry focused modules including influencer marketing, fashion and beauty photography, social media strategy, virtual fashion, circular fashion and sustainability, PR and media business alongside key modules on styling and writing for fashion and beauty print and digital platforms.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Call: +44 (0)23 8201 5066Email: admissions.international@solent.ac.ukCourse features
Specialist facilities
This course has access to specialist facilities
Further studies
After successfully completing your studies, there's an opportunity to continue your studies at Solent
Top-up option
If you have an appropriate Level 5 qualification, you can top it up to a degree in just a year
Who is this course for?
Solent's Fashion and Beauty Media course is ideally suited to students who want to develop professional written, photographic, digital and design skills to create innovative and exciting promotional and editorial campaigns for leading fashion and beauty brands, magazines and social media. Students will want to develop their own, unique method of storytelling to create a varied portfolio of industry-ready content from the first day of their studies, be introduced to leading industry experts, work on real-world briefs with known editorial and marketing brands and collaborate with like-minded students from other fashion disciplines.
What does this course lead to?
This course can lead to a wide variety of careers in fashion and beauty marketing and promotion, social media strategy and content creation, magazine journalism, influencer marketing, PR, fashion and beauty photography, event management, advertising and within digital creative agencies offering editorial and commercial content production.
Meet the team
The course team consists of industry professionals and experienced academics who have backgrounds within the fashion, beauty and media industry. The team has a wealth of contacts and experience in journalism, PR, marketing, graphic design, content creation, photography and event management, all of which enhances the student learning experience.
The University cannot guarantee any particular members of staff will teach specific aspects of the course in the future, but will endeavour to ensure the teaching team maintains their balance of experience and qualifications.
Facilities
Course facilities include an extensive media loans programme, providing access to high-end DSLR cameras such as the Canon 5D MKII, an extensive range of lenses (including many ‘L’ series and Prime lenses), 35mm cameras, medium format cameras (645, 6x7 and 6x9), large format 5x4 cameras and lenses, and a full stock of accessories – light meters, tripods, flash guns, remote-controlled boom-mounted flash systems and more.
You’ll also have access to our digital reprographics lab, featuring commercial-standard and large-format printers, flatbed scanners, three Hasselblad drum scanners scanning up to 5x4 size and a colour-calibrated ProMac-based reprographic suite. Our recently rebuilt colour and black-and-white darkrooms are of the highest industry standards and students can also freely use our in-house colour film processing machine. Additionally, we have finishing and film processing rooms, a modern multimedia lab featuring 24 iMacs with Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro, plus large professional photographic studios and associated make-up and styling rooms.
Core modules
Fashion Communities and Networks
In this module you will examine social media strategies of leading fashion and beauty brands and develop future thinking campaigns across all existing and emerging platforms.
Fashion Research and Visualisation
Develop the knowledge and understanding of how fashion trends work, through the collation, synthesis and analysis of primary and secondary research focusing on a current fashion trend.
Making Magazines
This module introduces you to the creative processes involved in the formation of written and visual outcomes and how to apply these skills appropriately to fashion content across a variety of platforms.
PR and Marketing
This module will introduce you to methods of marketing and promoting fashion and beauty and communicating brand identity. The main focus is on the promotional mix.
The Fashion and Beauty Industry
In this module you will gain an understanding of the fashion and beauty industries through both primary and secondary research and discover how the various professional roles within it contribute to the economy and affect consumers. You will learn about a variety of professional roles operating across both industries and meet a variety of guest lecturers.
The Fashion Image
This module will allow you to examine the role of the photographer in the process of creating fashion images, giving you insight into the development cycle of commercial photography.
How you will learn and be assessed
You will learn by:
You may be assessed by a combination of:
- Written assessments
- Portfolios
- Group presentations
- Individual presentations
Solent’s curriculum framework builds on our unique, creative and applied approach to teaching. The transformation of students’ lives is at the heart of our mission as a university, and our curriculum – informed by the latest theory – reflects this shared educational vision.
Find out moreStudy support
The student achievement team are on hand to help you succeed during your studies at Solent. They aim to contact you at key times during your time here with personalised information, advice and guidance, by email or phone.
Access Solent provides information, advice and guidance for disabled students.
All students can access Succeed@Solent, Solent's online guide to getting better grades. It offers extensive, practical information and advice on topics such as academic writing, research and presentations.
Why choose the industry?
Employment in the UK creative economy comprises of jobs in the creative industries and creative jobs which are in non-creative organisations (e.g. design or marketing teams within manufacturers).
We have a dynamic and diverse guest lecture programme which features industry professionals from journalism, social media, advertising, styling, business, trend forecasting and international media as well as brand collaborators, fashion influencers, publishers and marketing professionals. In the past few years, guest speakers have included editors from Vogue International, Grazia, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, VICE, Wonderland, Alexander McQueen, The Daily Mail, Goat, WGSN, Trend Spot, The Sunday Times, Oasis, Topshop, Google.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2023/24 academic year are:
- UK, EU (settled status) and Channel Island full-time fees: £9,250 per year
- International full-time fees: £15,000 per year
For further information, please visit our tuition fees page.
Extra course costs
While most course costs are covered by your tuition fees, some essential resources and optional extras may need to be paid for separately. These additional costs are listed below. For advice on budgeting and managing your money, please contact student.funding@solent.ac.uk.
The 2023/24 other costs are not yet available. For guidance, previous other costs have been:
Compulsory costs
External hard drive (minimum 2TB): £50-£60
Printing of own brand magazine: £80 approx
Year two - compulsory printing: between £60 to £100 (dependent on project size)
Year three - compulsory printing/production and website: £300
Final Major Project (End of Year Show artefacts): approx. £300
Optional costs
Year one - Mac computer, study trips and software: £1,200
Year two - optional study trips: £200
Year three - optional study trips: £300
Bursaries, scholarships and financial support
Solent University offers a range of bursaries and scholarships that provide financial assistance or waive fees for tuition or accommodation. Each bursary or scholarship has specific eligibility criteria. Check out our bursaries and scholarships pages to find out more.
Graduation costs
There is no charge to attend graduation, but you will be required to pay for the rental of your academic gown (approximately £45 per graduate, depending on your award). You may also wish to purchase official photography packages, which range in price from £15 to £200+. Graduation is not compulsory, so if you prefer to have your award sent to you, there is no cost. Extra guest tickets will go on sale after results publication and will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis. The cost per ticket is currently £15. Please note, we do not guarantee there will be any extra tickets available to purchase.
Financial information videos
Student finance - bitesize This video 'Student finance - bitesize' is available as a text transcript, with a description of visuals.
Student funding - the essentials This video 'Student funding essentials - Student Funding for 2023' is available as a text transcript, with a description of visuals.
Entry requirements
Please select an option below:
Key entry requirements
104-120 UCAS tariff points
- A minimum of two completed A-levels, a BTEC Extended Diploma at MMM or BTEC Diploma at D*D, T-level Merit or equivalent qualification or a combination of qualifications which comply with the minimum entry requirement of 104 UCAS points.
- Direct entry into the second or third years may be considered for this course.
- Applicants over the age of 21 may be considered based on relevant experience, without having the required tariff points.
- Applicants will be required to submit an e-portfolio.
- For further information about UK qualifications, please contact admissions.
Key entry requirements
As a general guide, we look for qualifications that are equivalent to the British high school A-levels.
Applicants from outside the UK will be required to submit an electronic portfolio for consideration.
If you are applying from outside the UK, find information about entry requirements, visas and agents for your country here.
For further information about EU qualifications, please contact admissions.
Key entry requirements
As a general guide, we look for qualifications that are equivalent to the British high school A-levels.
Applicants from outside the UK will be required to submit an electronic portfolio for consideration.
If you are applying from outside the UK, find information about entry requirements, visas and agents for your country here.
For further information about UK, EU and international qualifications, please contact admissions.
Note to all international students requiring a visa:
All international applicants need to be aware that the English language requirements to attend Solent University, and the English language requirements to obtain a visa from the Home Office, may be different. This means that if you meet the Solent University language requirement to gain a place on the course, you may still have to meet additional requirements to be granted with a visa by the Home Office.
We strongly advise all applicants to visit the Home Office website which outlines all the requirements for a successful visa application and to take a look at this PDF document which outlines both Solent University and Home Office requirements for a number of language tests.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Call: +44 (0)23 8201 5066Email: admissions.international@solent.ac.ukHow to apply
Full-time
Any student applying for the first year of a full-time/sandwich undergraduate course must apply through UCAS (University and Colleges Admissions Service). This includes mature, overseas and EU students.
Nearly all schools and colleges offer their students the facility of applying electronically through the UCAS website using 'Apply'; it may also be used by those applying independently in the UK and overseas. This facility and all course information can be found on the UCAS website: www.ucas.com.
Your application should reach UCAS by 25 January if you hope to enter a course the following autumn. Early application is advised for the most popular subject areas. Late applications may be made until the end of June. The UCAS Code for the University is S30, code name SOLNT.
Find out what happens after you apply
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:
- IELTS minimum 6.0 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each individual component
- TOEFL IBT minimum 80 with a minimum of 20 in each individual component
- Duolingo English Language Test - 115 overall with minimum of 95 in each component or equivalent.
Qualifications are checked before enrolment, and international students must bring their original certificates or certified copies when coming to study at the University.
Pre-Sessional English programme
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.
We will prepare you for your future
Suitable roles for graduates include
- Content creator
- Magazine journalist
- Influencer marketing
- PR
- Fashion photographer
- Beauty photographer
- Event manager
- Advertising executive
- Social media manager
We will help you start your career
The Solent Futures team is committed to getting students into great careers.
While you are studying, the team can help you with finding work experience or placements, link you with a mentor, check your CV, or offer one-to-one guidance.
If you're in your final year, we also have graduate job opportunities just for Solent graduates.
Find out moreSupport at Solent
All students at Solent University have access to a range of specialist support services. Whether you are having financial difficulty, need additional help with academic skills or want advice on setting up your own business you'll find that help is always on hand.
Most of our specialist support services are based around the Student Hub, a central space where you can access all the information and support you may need during your time at University. The Student Hub is the first point of contact if you have any queries relating to your course, including questions about your timetable, options, and assessments and extenuating circumstances.
We work in partnership with the University to build a sense of pride and confidence in your Union, University and student experience.
Find out moreFurther study
Thinking about studying further than an undergraduate degree? Alumni can get 20% off their postgraduate study.
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