“We were given such an array of knowledge and experience across every sector in the industry.”
BA (Hons)Fashion and Beauty Media
Apply on UCAS
Starting in: 2026
Register your interest- 3 years
- 4 years with foundation year
UCAS code: FBT3
Institution code: S30
UCAS points: 48Flexible entry options available
Campus: Southampton City CentreView on Google Maps
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.
- 0%positivity measure for learning opportunities (NSS 2025)
- 0ndin the UK for learning resources in the subject of media studies, out of 90 institutions (NSS 2025)
- 0%positivity measure for teaching (NSS 2025)
- This course is ranked 6th in the UK for student experience in communication and media studies, out of 80 institutions (The Times Good University Guide 2026).
- You will be taught by award-winning industry professionals who have worked at some of the UK’s leading fashion and beauty brands.
- Creatively using AI and prompt engineering to develop new career opportunities in an emerging landscape.
- 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, plus a range of influencer marketing and communication agencies worldwide.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Email: Call:Course overview
The fashion and beauty industries are 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 design and digital graphics to create innovative and sustainable editorial and promotional campaigns, through our in-house brand, Carbon. Under this brand, you’ll assume industry roles, work collaboratively to produce real-world outputs and be mentored by our network of industry experts to ensure you’re ready for the fast-changing world of fashion.
On this exciting real-world course you'll learn how to create fashion and beauty content and plan impactful, sustainable social media and marketing strategies, create trend-driven storytelling, 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, social media, marketing, trend forecasting or creative content production 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’ll also gain a minimum of 100 hours of work experience in industry, and have the opportunity to globalise your portfolio.
Alongside our amazing employability data which ensures every student is working in industry using their skills within 15 months, work from our final year students across our fashion-related degrees is showcased at Graduate Fashion Week (GFW). In 2024, eight students were shortlisted by the Graduate Fashion Foundation across a number of different categories at the GFW24 award with one student from BA Hons Fashion and Beauty Media winning the coveted Fashion Marketing Award. Read the full story.
If you’re looking to study our fashion and beauty media degree but don’t have the relevant qualifications or experience, the art and design foundation year will help you develop the core skills and knowledge to progress. Find out more about the art and design foundation year.
Who is this course for?
This 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.
Graduate stories
Hear from Solent alumni about where their careers have taken them and how studying at Solent prepared them for their future.
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.
International opportunities
Broaden your horizons by adding an international dimension to your CV – essential to achieving success in today’s fast-changing, global environment.
Studying, working or volunteering in another country could be the experience of a lifetime. Enhance your degree by developing important global skills such as knowledge of other countries, language skills, intercultural awareness, adaptability and confidence.
For more information, please email international.mobility@solent.ac.uk.
What you'll study
Core modules
Industry Skills
In a progressive and supportive manner, you will build your confidence to communicate your ideas in both a visual and written manner that is in keeping with industry practices.
Industry Awareness
This module helps you to appreciate and understand how decisions are made to plan effective industry specific scenarios.
Materials and Methods
This module introduces you to a range of technical skills appropriate to your future learning. You will learn, experiment and research other practitioners’ works to help you develop your own ideas.
Research and Ideas Development
This module places importance on both independent study and communication between students and is designed to establish strong and supportive peer networks.
Personal Development Planning
This module provides a programme of Personal Development Planning (PDP) tools. The three concepts of personal development, improving learning and performance, and forward planning to achieve goals are brought together in this module.
Degree-related Project
In other modules you have had the opportunity to develop research, design and communication skills. This module is designed to help you now apply these skills to your own project.
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.
Core modules
Creative Media Practice
In this module you will work to a explore the world of virtual and augmented reality to see how brands and media companies are moving content creation to the metaverse. You will develop working methods to approach a visual communication challenge with a rational, methodical and creative approach to satisfy future digital trends and user experience demand.
Design for Marketing and Promotion
This module explores the design and creation of marketing strategy both within physical and digital environments. From social media content strategy to advertising and in-store promotional materials, the module explores the strategy that underpins the design decisions of brands and builds on this to create innovative, creative and on-brand content across all platforms.
The Fashion and Beauty Writer
This unit will examine the role of the fashion and beauty writer and their relationship within the public sphere. You will experience the pace, demands and flexibility needed to be a good editorial writer and review content across a range of platforms to analyse how the craft of fashion, beauty and lifestyle journalism plays out in the real world.
The Fashion Frame
This module builds on skills and knowledge learnt in The Fashion Image and develops practical skills relating to camera, lighting and editing with regards to creating fashion film/documentary content.
The Fashion Influencer
This module examines the role of the fashion influencer and its relationship within the public sphere, focusing on the ways in which these icons of style have developed their very own brand.
Optional modules
Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.
Fashion Media Business
This module provides a more detailed knowledge of the fashion publishing arena and how brands are changing how they use and monetise editorial and creative media content.
Branding and Identity
This module will introduce the concepts of branding and identity within the fashion and beauty industry giving you a clear understanding of markets, concept origination and the application of practical skills. The module will investigate the use of design to create identity and impact and will encourage conceptual and original content creation within a commercial context.
Core modules
Portfolio Development
Throughout this module you will develop an individual creative array of works, producing an original branded reflection of your capabilities that would have the potential to be developed further in a real world.
The Media Event
From styling to fashion photography, journalism to social media, page design to digital content this module will show you all sides to the dynamic magazine industry. You will write and design content on a variety of different subjects and develop skills in visual and written communication and essential time management skills.
Virtual Fashion
This module will provide a platform for developing foresight skills, understanding how the digital and virtual environment will change and impact the future of the fashion and beauty industries and investigate emerging and future developments of technology, questioning its role, considering how these can enhance well-being, sustainability or offer solutions to socio-economic issues.
Industry Placement
During this period you are expected to complete a minimum 100hrs requirement in industry. This is your opportunity to gain real world experience and an understanding of working in the creative economy. As you transition from a student to a graduate working in the industry, this will be an invaluable process and will help equip you for the exciting career paths ahead. Following the 100 hours of work-based learning experience you will be guided in your reflection and analysis of your chosen experience.
Optional modules
Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.
Dissertation
A key focus of the module will be on the written structure and production of a critical paper and presentation methods of a viva voce presentation, that will allow you to utilise the knowledge and analytical skills that you have acquired throughout your study on your course.
Final Major Project
The Final Major Project is the culmination of three years of undergraduate study and provides you with the opportunity to pursue in-depth individual, analytical, critical and creative inquiry into an area of vocational interest.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Email: Call:How you will learn and be assessed
You will learn by:
You may be assessed by a combination of:
- Digital portfolios
- Live and simulated client briefs
- Sketchbooks
- Films
- Case studies
- Collaborative learning
- Creative design projects
- Debate
- Design based portfolios
- Feature articles
- Individual and group projects
- Reflective accounts
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 more
Study 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.
The disability advice team 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 a career in fashion and beauty media?
The UK is the third largest apparel and footwear market worldwide, after China and the United States, with a market size of approximately £57.92 billion pounds. (Euromonitor International).
Studying fashion and beauty media can make graduates well-placed to work in various roles in fashion, media and marketing, in a number of roles, including content creator, magazine journalist, marketer, press officer, fashion photographer, event manager or social media manager amongst others.
Solent's diverse guest lecture programme 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.
You could earn:
Magazine journalist
Senior staff: £18,000 to £35,000
At entry level typical starting salaries range from £15,000 to £26,000, although many are as low as £12,000. With experience, your salary is often negotiable. Senior staff (senior staff writer, sub-editor or features editor) usually earn between £18,000 and £35,000. If you work on a major publication or become editor-in-chief of a magazine, your salary will be anything from £22,000 to £65,000+.
Creative director
Starting salary: £20,000 to £28,000
Starting salaries for advertising creatives are between £20,000 and £28,000.Experienced creative directors, who manage small teams, can earn between £40,000 and £60,000.Experienced creative directors can earn higher salaries of £80,000+, depending on the size of the agency.
Social media manager
Typical salary: £25,000 to £45,000
As an assistant or junior social media manager your starting salary is likely to be between £20,000 and £28,000, depending on your experience. Social media managers typically earn between £25,000 and £45,000. With substantial experience, in roles such as head of social media, your salaries can range from £50,000 to in excess of £60,000.
The stated salaries are published on prospects.ac.uk.
Graduate stories
Hear from Solent alumni about where their careers have taken them and how studying at Solent prepared them for their future.
“We were given such an array of knowledge and experience across every sector in the industry.”
Solent Careers
The Solent Careers 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.
We also have graduate job opportunities just for Solent graduates.
6th
UK uni for sustained employment
Longitudinal Educational Outcomes, 2022
Certificate in Practical Artificial Intelligence
Every student at Solent University will also have the option to study an additional Certificate in Practical Artificial Intelligence qualification alongside their course. Free of charge, the course ensures you'll be prepared for a fantastic and varied career after graduation.
Further study
Thinking about studying further than an undergraduate degree? Alumni can get 20% off their postgraduate study.
MA Creative Direction for Fashion and Beauty
Take charge and lead a wealth of fashion and beauty brands to success with your innovative and creative vision on this practice-based master's degree.
Find out more
MA Visual Communication
Do you have an eye for design? Would you like to help influence the future of visual communications? Our MA Visual Communication degree is ideal for creatives keen to refine their practice, working as part of an interdisciplinary group of students.
Find out moreTuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year are not yet available. For guidance, the 2025/26 fees were:
- UK, ROI, EU (settled status) and Channel Island full-time fees: £5,760 per year for foundation level. Fees will increase for year 1.
- UK, ROI, EU (settled status) and Channel Island full-time fees: £9,535 per year (from year 1)
- International full-time fees: £15,050 for foundation level. Fees will increase from year 1 onwards.
- International full-time fees: £17,750 per year (from year 1)
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 2026/27 additional costs are not yet available. For guidance, previous additional costs have been:
Compulsory costs:
External hard drive (minimum 2TB): £50-£60
Printing of own brand magazine: approx £80
Foundation year: Foundation year - Portfolios, A4 ringbinders, and basic drawing materials will be required, approximately: £150
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.
Solent EU Welcome Scholarship (Fee Discount)
This scholarship is available to students from an EU country, with EU nationality, who are applying for an undergraduate course starting in September 2025. The scholarship will reduce your tuition fees to £10,500 per year - this includes foundation years.
Find out more about the scholarship
Cost of living support
At Solent, we understand that the cost of living crisis may be of some concern. To help, we've put together some detailed information to show what support is available and how to make your money go further.
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 £20. Please note, we do not guarantee there will be any extra tickets available to purchase.
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Email: Call:Entry requirements
Please select an option below:
Key entry requirements
48 UCAS tariff points
- from A-levels, a BTEC Extended Diploma at PPP or BTEC Diploma at MP, T-level Pass (D or E) or equivalent.
- 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.
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 see our course entry requirements document.
Key entry requirements
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 international qualifications, please see our course entry requirements document.
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.
How to apply
Want to apply through Clearing? Contact us today
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 31 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.
Find out more about Solent's contextual offers
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.
UCAS points: 48
Any questions?
Contact international admissions
Email: Call:Make your application
- 3 years
- 4 years with foundation year
