Program Overview

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Overview

The BA (Hons) Jewellery & Silversmithing course at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Farnham campus is designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in jewellery and silversmithing, preparing them for a professional life in the industry. The course focuses on traditional technical skills, material innovation, and experimentation, with an emphasis on creative practice and critical thinking.

What You'll Study

The course covers a range of topics, including:

Integrated Foundation Year (if undertaken)

• UCA's Integrated Foundation Year is designed to give students the skills they need to start their degree in the best possible way, with a focus on creative practice, study skills, and confidence-building.
• Students will explore a range of creative techniques and develop their portfolio, with their chosen subject in mind.

Year One

• Launch: Introduction to the term and year, review of summer project, research visits, and cross-programme activities with students on BA (Hons) Ceramics & Glass.
• Maker and Materials: Familiarization with the studio and workshop environment, visual and contextual research, and exploration of the act of making through materials and processes.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 1: Investigation of the theme of 'otherness and belonging,' questioning histories and practices used within the crafts industries that privilege dominant cultural values.
• 2D CAD Cam: Introduction to 2D digital software, including Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, to give students a fundamental understanding of the role digital technology plays in the design and making process.
• Opportunity: Research visits, inductions, and cross-programme activities with Ceramics & Glass students.
• Form and Surface: Introduction to production methods, including forming, mould-making, casting, and surface application, with a focus on repeatedly reproducing components for design and making.
• Professional Communication: Learning professional communication methods for self-promotion, identifying categories of makers and making, and understanding how that relates to future ambitions.
• 3D CAD Cam: Extension of understanding for the potential of digital technology in the design and manufacturing process, covering 3D computer-aided design (CAD) application.
• ATOM Activities: Small pieces of individual learning that facilitate interdisciplinary exposure across UCA, offering a flexible and impactful learning experience.
• PLE Digital Outcomes: A purposefully edited, self-directed record of constructive, level 4 engagement with and presence on digital media platforms across the year.

Year Two

• Launch: Review of summer work, project planning, research visits, and introduction to peer groups.
• Body, Object, Space: Investigation of the inter-relationships between body, object, and space (interior/exterior) as an impetus for developing work, exploring how location can positively inform creative practice.
• The Conscious Practitioner: Engagement with themes of inclusivity and diversity situated in the context of global histories, cultures, and politics, exploring and building an unbiased and progressive understanding of the ethical visual and textual language needed to challenge industry ideologies.
• Sustainability: Exploration of how materials and processes can be used and sourced sustainably, questioning and examining the ways in which we use and consume materials in designing and making, and the wider impact of our making choices.
• Opportunity: Term introduction, project planning session, project briefing, personalized learning session, and cross-programme activities with Ceramics & Glass students.
• Audience and Context: Further development of creative practice through research, designing, and making, defining who you are as a ceramicist or glassmaker, working more independently as you progress, and producing work that will be used later in the year.
• External Context: Development of an understanding of your chosen industry by choosing either an industry placement or internship, or an industry-focused live project, keeping an online reflective journal that documents and professionally presents progress throughout the unit, relating to your chosen option and evaluating your experience.
• Exhibiting: Working in teams to organize, curate, and present a group exhibition, generating and experiencing audience engagement and external feedback on your work in a public context.
• ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome: Extensions of the Year 1 ATOM Activities and PLE Digital Outcome.

Professional Practice Year (if undertaken)

• A placement within the creative industries to further develop skills and CV.
• Reduced tuition fee for that year (20% of the tuition fee rate).
• Additional travel and accommodation costs during the year.

Year Three

• Launch: Review of summer work, project planning session, research visits, managing autonomous practice, and introduction to thinking professionally.
• Minor project: Exploratory Research and Development: Undertaking an extensive body of exploratory research, as part of a negotiated period of work, including a written proposal that must clearly outline the scope of the project, paying particular attention to reflective and critical analysis of material testing and prototyping.
• Professional Practice: Preparing for a working life beyond university, learning about the range of issues and tasks that will be important in planning your future, establishing aims, and understanding elements of self-promotion and employment, self-employment, or further study.
• Opportunity: Term introduction, project reflection, project planning, and research weeks.
• Major Project: Realisation: Framing your individual Jewellery/Silversmithing practice and realizing a self-initiated, major project, which reflects individual potential, suitable for public exhibition and/or industry focus, with an emphasis on contextual and critical analysis and evaluation on the positioning of your work.

Study Abroad (optional)

• Opportunity to study part of your degree aboard at a UCA partner university, while still earning credits towards your UCA degree.

Fees & Financial Support

Tuition Fees - 2025/26

• Integrated Foundation Year: £9,535
• BA course: £9,535
• Professional Practice Year: £1,900 (reduced tuition fee)

UCA Scholarships and Fee Discounts

• Various scholarships and fee discounts available to assist students with the cost of their studies.

Financial Support

• Additional financial support available from UCA and external sources, including government funding regulations.

Additional Course Costs

• Students may incur additional costs for books, printing, study trips, and project materials.

Facilities & Equipment

• Specialist jewellery and silversmithing facilities, including a refurbished jewellery studio and hammer room, enamelling room, casting area, and associated machine rooms.
• Access to ceramic, glass, wood, and hot metal workshops.

Opportunities

• Industry links with professional organizations, such as the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and Tatty Devine.
• Overseas opportunities, including study abroad placements and European study trips.
• Career opportunities in design, teaching, marketing, retail, and more.

Entry & Portfolio Requirements

• UK applicants: Portfolio review in person at an Applicant Day.
• International applicants: Online portfolio submission.
• Standard entry requirements: 112 UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications.
• Foundation year requirements: 32 UCAS tariff points, see accepted qualifications.
• English Language Requirements: Varying requirements depending on country of origin.

Our Staff

• Debra Allman, Programme Director of Crafts.
• Ashley Howard, Senior Lecturer in Ceramics.
• Grant McCaig, Lecturer Silversmithing, Goldsmithing & Jewellery.
• Joshua Kerley, Senior Lecturer in Glass.
• Adrian Bland, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies.