Program Overview

Automotive and Transport Design BA (Hons)

Overview

This course is for students and industry professionals who want to work as automotive or transport designers, or on exciting conceptual projects.

What You'll Study

• Develop your industry-relevant practical 2D and 3D skills as well as research skills to prepare you for a future-focused career in automotive and transport design.
• Master the use of clay modelling to advance your understanding of vehicle form and proportions.
• By combining creativity and research on global trends, you'll address contemporary challenges in the field and produce innovative designs.
• Alongside technical and creative skills, the course emphasizes portfolio development and innovative problem-solving to meet real-world industry demands.

Modules

Year One

• Design Exploration - 20 credits
  • Introduces fundamental analogue processes, tools, and techniques used in the development and communication of design ideas.
• Design Visualisation - 20 credits
  • Introduces essential discipline-specific software and skills used in the digital development and communication of design outputs.
• Design Enquiry - 20 credits
  • Focuses on research and its value as part of a critique of contemporary and historical design.
• Design Reflection - 20 credits
  • Encourages critical reflection on your work, your learning journey, and your future academic and professional aspirations.
• Design Context - 20 credits
  • Challenges you to develop innovative responses to a given design opportunity within strictly defined parameters.
• Design Experience - 20 credits
  • The culmination of your first year—a celebration of progress and practice.

Year Two

• Professional Development - 20 credits
  • Supports you in the development of a personal career-focused portfolio.
• Design Innovation - 20 credits
  • Critically explores and develops dialogue around design scenarios and considers the purpose and possibilities for future transport systems/devices from an innovation perspective.
• Design Futures - 20 credits
  • Considers design in its wider setting and highlights future scenarios as a platform to explore creative ideas against future ecological, sustainable, and social, technological contexts.
• Developmental Actions - 20 credits
  • Reflects on the specifics of your year two project work and organizes and evaluates your thoughts about your action plans.
• Design Investigations - 20 credits
  • Relates to the brief set by the industry collaborator and works initially in groups to investigate, research, and synthesize material.
• Industrial Design - 20 credits
  • Manages an investigation and responds to industry-aligned or client-inspired design briefs and follows the design process through to design solutions.

Placement Year

• UK Work Placement – 0 credits
  • Provides an opportunity to reflect upon and gain experience for an approved placement undertaken during your programme.
• International Study/Work Placement – 0 credits
  • Provides an opportunity to reflect upon and gain experience for an approved international study/work placement undertaken during your programme.

Final Year

• Concept Creation - 20 credits
  • Identifies a range of potential themes for design innovation which respond to current global challenges or anticipated future trends/contexts.
• Design Project – Select - 20 credits
  • Produces designs that align with your career aspirations and specialist interest.
• Design Portfolio - 20 credits
  • Critically reflects on your work and on how this impacts your future academic/professional path.
• Design Presence - 20 credits
  • Develops a professional level of presence necessary for real-world employment.
• Design Delivery - 40 credits
  • Delivers an agreed transportation design project which strongly represents your personal creativity, interests, and design ability.

Entry Requirements

• Typical entry requirements:
  • UK: 112 UCAS points, BBC A-level, DMM BTEC, 27 points IB Diploma
  • International: IELTS 6.0 overall, with no component lower than 5.5

Fees and Funding

• Student | Full-time | Part-time
  • UK, Ireland*, Channel Islands or Isle of Man: 2026/27 fees TBC, 2025/26 fees: £9,535 per year
  • EU: 2026/27 fees TBC, 2025/26 fees: £9,535 per year with EU Support Bursary, 2026/27 fees TBC, 2025/26 fees: £19,850 per year without EU Support Bursary
  • International: 2026/27 fees TBC, 2025/26 fees: £19,850 per year

Facilities

• Our purpose-built Delia Derbyshire creatives building will be your primary learning location.
• We have generous studio and making spaces.
• Our studio environment allows you to experience working practices that are typical in industry, and our workshops are equipped so that you can use a large variety of different materials and processes to make physical models.
• For digital work, we have PC labs equipped with high-performance machines that can handle digital model-making, visualization, and animation.

Careers and Opportunities

• Employability is a major strength of the course.
• The curriculum aims to embed industry interactions to offer the best preparation possible to help students obtain graduate employment and achieve their career aspirations.
• Students graduating from this course have traditionally enjoyed good employment in a range of design-specific roles.
• Career opportunities in automotive and transport design are vast and varied.
• You could start your own business, become a design consultant, modeller, illustrator, CAD professional, design manager, or marketing professional.