Program Overview

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Course Overview

Graphic Design BA (Hons)

The future graphic designer is visionary, informed, responsible and technically adaptable. Coventry University’s Graphic Design BA (Hons) course challenges and guides you to become just that.

Year of Entry

2026

Location

Coventry University (Coventry)

Study Mode

Full-time, Sandwich

Duration

3 years full-time, 4 years sandwich

Course Code

W211

Start Date

September 2026

What You'll Study

This course has a common first year. The common first year enables you to work alongside students doing similar courses to you, to widen your knowledge and exposure to other subject areas and professions.

Year One

• Design Exploration - 20 credits: Introduces you to a series of fundamental analogue processes, tools and techniques used in the expression and communication of design ideas.
• Design Visualisation - 20 credits: Introduces you to some of the key graphic design software and principles that you will need to develop and finish work on the course.
• Design Enquiry - 20 credits: Focuses on research: what it is and why it’s useful. You will be asked to produce graphic design work that draws on design theory and history for inspiration.
• Design Reflection - 20 credits: Encourages you to explore and engage with the world of graphic design, as well as critically reflect on your learning journey and potential career trajectory.
• Design Context - 20 credits: Challenges you to approach graphic design from a problem-solving perspective.
• Design Experience - 20 credits: The culmination of the first year—a celebration of your progress!

Year Two

• Design System - 20 credits: Pushes you to devise a commercially viable ‘design system’.
• Design Interaction - 20 credits: Asks you to balance audience needs, behaviours and motivations in the design of a fit-for-purpose app.
• Design Narrative - 20 credits: Allows you to explore the power of design to tell engaging stories.
• Design Activism - 20 credits: Focuses on the practice of design-for-change and asks you to use online and offline channels to deliver compelling calls to action in service of a cause.
• Design Profession - 20 credits: Challenges you to further explore graphic design professional practice in team assignments for real clients.
• Design Specialism - 20 credits: Allows you to explore and interrogate a specialism of your choice from the broad spectrum of graphic design fields of professional practice.

Year Three

• Design Agility - 20 credits: Draws on external national and / or international competition briefs for which you will design and submit solutions.
• Design Identity - 20 credits: Picks up where your second year ended by advancing your professional thinking and positioning.
• Design Experiment - 20 credits: Challenges you to redefine what graphic design can be and push the boundaries of the discipline.
• Design Adventure - 20 credits: Draws on an external national or international competition brief for which you will design and submit solutions in a team.
• Design Showcase - 20 credits: Requires you to prepare, pitch and develop ideas for your end-of-year graphic design showcase.
• Design Culture - 20 credits: Gives you space to demonstrate your intellectual prowess in the interrogation and debate of a graphic design idea related to your own practice and aspirations.

How You'll Learn

The course prides itself on a holistic approach, which exposes you to a wide range of graphic design contexts and outputs.

• Teaching Contact Hours: As a full-time undergraduate student, you will study modules totalling 120 credits each academic year.
• Guided and Independent Study: Throughout your studies, you will be expected to spend time in guided and independent study to make up the required study hours per module.
• Online Learning: As an innovative university, we use different teaching methods including online tools and emerging technologies.

Assessment

This course is assessed using a variety of methods that recognise module-specific skills and learning.

• Practical Coursework
• Digital Coursework
• Individual Work
• Group Work
• Live Presentations
• Video Presentations
• Video Essays
• Academic Essays

Entry Requirements

Typical Entry Requirements

• UK: 112 UCAS points
• International: Equivalent qualifications

Portfolio

You may be required to attend a portfolio showcase, activity session or audition or submit a portfolio via email (as is appropriate to your course), either virtually or face to face, as is practical to arrange.

Other Qualifications and Experience

Our students come from a variety of backgrounds, each with a unique story. We recognise a breadth of qualifications.

Fees and Funding

Tuition Fees

• UK, Ireland, Channel Islands or Isle of Man: 2026/27 fees TBC
• EU: 2026/27 fees TBC
• International: 2026/27 fees TBC

Additional Costs

• Any optional overseas field trips or visits: £400+ per trip
• Any costs associated with securing, attending or completing a placement: Variable

Facilities

The Delia Derbyshire building provides you with a range of facilities you can use to enhance your skills through practical applications.

• Print-making workshops
• Letterpress workshop
• Software suites

Careers and Opportunities

The structure of the course, the experiences and support made available to you are all designed with a view to developing the skills, competencies and imaginative thinking necessary for a creative career in a demanding, competitive and rapidly changing work environment.

Where Our Graduates Work

• Arsenal
• New Genre
• IBM
• Springetts
• Scholastic
• Tata Motors
• Havas Lynx Group
• BOND Agency
• Exient
• FutureDeluxe
• Kaizen
• Rebel Creatives
• Sky TV
• Simon & Schuster
• The Football Association
• THG
• Tottenham Hotspur Football Club
• Whiteroom Agency

Further Study

• Advertising and Marketing MA
• Brand Management MA
• Design Management MA
• Digital Marketing Management MSc
• Graphic Design MA
• Illustration and Animation MA
• International Marketing Management MSc