Why study Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University?
- Take a virtual tour of this year's Fine Art degree show
- Taught by nationally and internationally-renowned artists who work with sculpture, painting, installation, video, performance, printmaking, site-specific practice, and art theory
- Opportunities to take part in national and international study trips
- Specialist workshops provide expert training and guidance in digital audio and video production, sculpture and 3D construction, digital studio photography and film, printmaking, 3D printing, textile work, and painting
- Teaching in the RIBA award-winning, purpose-built John Lennon Art and Design Building
About your course
The BA (Hons) Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University is unique in its focus on public exhibiting of artwork, and opportunities to work with local, national and international arts professionals, agencies and galleries.
Right from the start of your BA (Hons) Fine Art course you will be working with a professional arts agency or gallery in the city and showing your work in the public arena. Meanwhile, in your day-to-day studio practice you have the freedom to work in any media you choose, refining your skills and working on realising your individual vision, with help from your tutors who are always on hand to offer advice.
Every year we offer national and international study trip opportunities, and we also actively encourage you to seek work placements in the UK and abroad.
Hear our students talking about their experience on the BA (Hons) Fine Art:
"The Fine Art programme at LJMU was an exciting experience and opportunity to develop my work in a professional and friendly environment. Great technical support and facilities enabled me to experiment with a variety of media and learn new skills. The course created possibilities to connect with various institutions and organisations which I am finding beneficial today."
Fees and funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students
Fees
The fees quoted above cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as:
- Library membership with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources
- Access to programme-appropriate software
- Library and student IT support
- Free on-campus wifi via eduroam
Additional costs
Although not all of the following are compulsory/relevant, you should keep in mind the costs of:
- accommodation and living expenditure
- books (should you wish to have your own copies)
- printing, photocopying and stationery
- PC/laptop (should you prefer to purchase your own for independent study and online learning activities)
- mobile phone/tablet (to access online services)
- field trips (travel and activity costs)
- placements (travel expenses and living costs)
- student visas (international students only)
- study abroad opportunities (travel costs, accommodation, visas and immunisations)
- academic conferences (travel costs)
- professional-body membership
- graduation (gown hire etc)
Funding
There are many ways to fund study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you’ll find all of the information you need on our specialist funding pages.
Employability
Opening lots of opportunities to develop your professional practice.
There are many opportunities for contemporary artists who are building their own professional practice. You may be able to apply for grants, and supplement your income by running workshops for galleries and museums, taking up residencies, working collaboratively with other artists and artists groups, managing projects within the cultural sector and curating exhibitions and shows.
Student Futures - Careers, Employability and Enterprise Service
We are committed to ensuring all our students experience a transformation in their employability skills and mindset and their career trajectory. A wide range of opportunities and support is available to you, within and beyond your course.
Every undergraduate curriculum includes Future Focus during Level 4, an e-learning resource and workshop designed to help you to develop your talents, passion and purpose. It will enable you to become more proactive, adaptable and resilient in your awareness and approach to career possibilities.
Every student has access to Careers Zone 24/7, LJMU’s state-of-the-art suite of online tools, resources and jobs board. There are opportunities for flexible, paid and part-time work through Unitemps, LJMU’s in-house recruitment service, ensuring students can build experience whilst they study.
One-to-one careers and employability advice is available via our campus-based Careers Zones to accelerate your job search and applications, CV and interview technique. Themed careers and employability workshops, a programme of employer events and recruitment fairs run throughout the year and students have the opportunity to hear from a range of alumni who openly share their own onward experience.
Student Futures work with businesses to create opportunities for fully funded internships which help students increase their network within the Liverpool City Region and beyond. Our Start-Up Hub can help you to grow your enterprise skills and to research, plan and start your own business or become a freelancer.
A suite of learning experiences, services and opportunities is available to final year students to help ensure you leave with a great onward plan. You can access LJMU’s Careers, Employability and Enterprise Services after you graduate and return for one-to-one support for life.
Go abroad
LJMU aims to make international opportunities available to every student. You may be able to study abroad as part of your degree at one of our 100+ partner universities across the world. You could also complete a work placement or apply for one of our prestigious worldwide internship programmes. If you wanted to go abroad for a shorter amount of time, you could attend one of our 1-4 week long summer schools.
Our Go Citizen Scheme can help with costs towards volunteering, individual projects or unpaid placements anywhere in the world. With all of these opportunities at your feet, why wouldn’t you take up the chance to go abroad?
Find out more about the opportunities we have available via our Instagram @ljmuglobalopps or email us at: goabroad@ljmu.ac.uk.
A life-changing experience
There's so much more to university than just studying for a degree.
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What you will study on this degree
Please see guidance on core and option modules for further information on what you will study.
Further guidance on modules
Modules are designated core or option in accordance with professional body requirements, as applicable, and LJMU’s Academic Framework Regulations.
Whilst you are required to study core modules, optional modules may also be included to provide you with an element of choice within the programme. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to meeting minimum student numbers.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Level 4
Core modules
Building a Vocabulary
40 credits
The aim of this module is to introduce you the role of collaborative and individual practice within the culture of Fine Art. You will be introduced to a variety of approaches in order to develop and produce contemporary Fine Art practices.
Form and Purpose
40 credits
This module will introduce you to self-directed contemporary art practice and familiarise you with a broader context of contemporary Fine Art issues and introduce you to the notion of studio practice towards the production and distribution of contemporary Fine Art practice.
Introducing Criticality 1
20 credits
You will critically reflect on your own engagement with Fine Art practices, relating to your own studio practice via the upkeep of a blog and writing of an essay.
Introducing Criticality 2
20 credits
You will critically reflect on your own engagement with Fine Art practices, relating to your own studio practice via the upkeep of a blog, writing of an essay with self reflection skills.
Level 5
Core modules
Practice and Experimentation
40 credits
This module aims to increase your ability to learn your own unique practice within the wider context of the Visual Arts and to develop the practical and critical skills relevant to this practice through experimentation and analysis of successes and failures.
Practice and Production
40 credits
Within this module you will consider the appropriateness, mode and situation of media used in Contemporary Fine Art Practice so that you can consider the role that audiences play in the production and distribution of contemporary art practice.
Criticality 1
20 credits
The aim of this module is to advance your critical independent understanding of historical Fine Art practice, methodology and context to relate your personal interest to your own studio practice through the upkeep and presentation of a blog and writing of an essay.
Criticality 2
20 credits
This module requires you to critically and professionally reflect on your engagement with art both historically and contemporaneously, using a variety of theoretical approaches to explore issues of representation in visual culture, with particular reference to class, race, gender and disability. This is related to your own studio practice by the upkeep and presentation of a blog and writing of an essay.
Level 6
Core modules
Advanced Practice & Experimentation
40 credits
This module will equip you with an awareness of postgraduate courses, career focus/professional practice through developing a personal development portfolio. You will focus on various ideas of research towards the development of contemporary Fine Art practice.
Advanced Fine Art Practice and Production
60 credits
The aim of this module is to equip you with the practical, intellectual and interpersonal skills necessary for careers as professional artists, by producing and distributing contemporary Fine Art practice in a public setting at a professional level.
Critical Research and Publication
20 credits
This module enables you to undertake an in-depth critical and theoretical evaluation of your own theoretical interests to plan and propose a research project. You will develop the ability to plan, implement and complete a sustained piece of research related to your own art practice.
Teaching and work-related learning
Excellent facilities and learning resources
We adopt an active blended learning approach, meaning you will experience a combination of face-to-face and online learning during your time at LJMU. This enables you to experience a rich and diverse learning experience and engage fully with your studies. Our approach ensures that you can easily access support from your personal tutor, either by meeting them on-campus or via a video call to suit your needs.
Work-related Learning
The degree averages around 50 public exhibitions a year compared to most degree courses that will not do more than a single degree show.
As Liverpool has more museums and galleries than any UK city outside London, there can be few better places in which to study Fine Art. Against this rich cultural backdrop, the Fine Art degree at LJMU has connections with a huge range of contemporary art institutions in the city including Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial and FACT through the School's unique joint academic appointments with these significant organisations. All of these institutions directly support our work with students. We also work with major organisations in the UK and abroad such as Grizedale Arts and Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands.
This collaborative way of working will give you a real taste of the dynamic world of contemporary art, as well as giving you a chance to develop your ideas and learn how to present them as project proposals. Such experience is invaluable preparation for your future career, whether as a practising artist or working in a related field.
Support and guidance
Dedicated personal tutor, plus study skills support
If you decide to pursue a Fine Art degree at LJMU, you will join a friendly and supportive department in which you will be encouraged to develop your creative talent and to also view your own and others’ work with a critical eye. Continual peer review and the constant guidance of your tutors are designed to help you be the very best in your particular artistic discipline. The course also offers you a consistently high contact rate.
Assessment
Assessment varies depending on the modules you choose, but will usually include a combination of exams and coursework.
The primary methods of assessment are a presentation of your work to fellow students and staff or submission/installation of a portfolio of practical projects with supporting research and development work.
The way you do this depends on the kind of work you do, but we always ensure that the process is friendly and supportive and that portfolio submissions are done in the studio. Other forms of assessment include written essays, reviews, proposals, reports, a personal development planning folder and a CV and/or blog.
Your tutors will schedule individual tutorials to help you prepare for assessments, but they will also be continually on hand to help you evaluate your work and assess your progress. Verbal feedback is given during review and critique activities and at the end of individual tutorials.
You will also receive written feedback with an indication of your marks for reviews and presentations within three weeks of submitting work, although this may take longer if the marks go through an external moderation and approval process.
Course tutors
Our staff are committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning
Roy Claire Potter
Programme leader
Roy Claire Potter
Programme leader
<p>I am a practising artist specialising in performance art and experimental writing with a specific interest in production constraints, editorial methodologies, and socially and politically framed subject areas such as sociolinguistics, violence, and the temporality of traumatic experience. My current practice-research projects reflect on improvisational collaboration methods in performance, and respond to the methodological potentials of autistic language use.</p><p></p><p>I teach on the studio module for second and final year students of BA Fine Art, and I'm module leader for the Critical Research and Publication module for final year students. As a visiting academic to post-graduate programmes across the UK, I develop workshops that explore experimental writing as research practice methods for masters-level and doctoral candidates. I'm a short-course tutor of Hybrid Writing for the public literary organisation, Arvon Foundation.</p>
We run a unique programme that forefronts experimental approaches to art learning, and exhibiting as a key part of the learning process – previously we averaged around 55 exhibitions a year (compared to most courses doing one). In a previous degree show, we put his students on Mars for their graduate exhibition during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Facilities
What you can expect from your School
Rated a Top 10 Art School in the 2021 Guardian University League Tables.
Cross-disciplinary learning in art and design subjects takes place in the Liverpool School of Art and Design’s John Lennon Art and Design Building, based in the Mount Pleasant Campus. Here students studying a variety of disciplines, including Architecture, Art in Science, Exhibition Studies, Fashion, Fine Art, Graphic Design, History of Art and Museum Studies and Interior Architecture, will have the opportunity to develop their work in state-of-the-art workspaces and facilities within a stimulating and critically demanding environment.
Entry requirements
Please choose your qualifications below to view requirements
Minimum points required from qualifications: 112
GCSE and equivalents
Prior to starting the programme applicants must have obtained Grade C or Grade 4 or above in English Language and Mathematics GCSE or an approved alternative qualification below:
- Key Skills Level 2 in English/Maths
- NVQ Level 2 Functional skills in Maths and English Writing and or Reading
- Skills for Life Level 2 in Numeracy/English
- Higher Diploma in Maths/English
- Functional Skills Level 2 in Maths/English
- Northern Ireland Essential Skills Level 2 in Communication or Application of Number
- Welsh GCSE in Maths
- Welsh GCSE in Numeracy
- Wales Essential Skills Level 2 in Communication or Application of Number
A Levels
- Minimum number of A Levels required: 2
- Is general studies acceptable? Yes
- Average A Level offer: BBC
- Are AS level awards acceptable? Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
- Maximum AS Level points accepted: 20
T Levels
- T Level requirements: 112 UCAS Tariff points in a relevant subject
BTEC qualifications
- National Certificate (RQF): Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
- National Extended Certificate: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
- National Diploma (RQF): Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
- National Diploma subjects / grades required: D*D* is required if no other level 3 qualifications are taken
- National Extended Diploma (RQF): Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
- National Extended Diploma subjects / grades required: DMM is required if no other level 3 qualifications are taken
Access to Higher Education Diploma
- Access to Higher Education Diploma acceptability: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
- Further information: At least 15 Distinctions and 30 Merits, or any other combination that equates to 112 UCAS Tariff points
International Baccalaureate
- International Baccalaureate: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
- Additional information: 112 UCAS Tariff points from IB Composite parts, or in combination with other Level 3 qualifications
Welsh awards
- Welsh Baccalaureate: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
Irish awards
- Irish Leaving Certificate: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
- Grades / subjects required: 112 UCAS Tariff points and a maximum of 20 UCAS Tariff points from Ordinary Level
OCR National acceptability
- National Certificate: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
- National Diploma: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
- National Extended Diploma: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
NVQ
- Are Level 3 NVQs acceptable? Acceptable when combined with other qualifications
Alternative qualifications considered
UCAS Tariff points accepted from the Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design, and Art, Design and Media).
Applications are welcomed from mature and non-standard applicants, who will be considered on an individual basis. These applicants should demonstrate potential and motivation and/or have relevant experience.
International applications will be considered in line with UK qualifications.
Short-listed applicants will be invited to attend interview and will be required to provide a portfolio (portfolio guidance) that represents your work.
Reduced Offer Scheme
Interview and portfolio required
IELTS6.0 (minimum of 5.5 in each component) or equivalent English language proficiency test.
International entry requirementsPlease Note: All international qualifications are subject to a qualification equivalency check.
Can this course be deferred?Yes
Is a DBS check required?No
Application and selection
Securing your place at LJMU
- An enthusiasm for Art & Design based subjects
- Capable of discussing Art & Design issues
- The ability to analyse and reflectively criticise
- Visual awareness
Assessment of suitability to the course will be include a review of a portfolio of work (portfolio guidance) and interview.
The University reserves the right to withdraw or make alterations to a course and facilities if necessary; this may be because such changes are deemed to be beneficial to students, are minor in nature and unlikely to impact negatively upon students or become necessary due to circumstances beyond the control of the University. Where this does happen, the University operates a policy of consultation, advice and support to all enrolled students affected by the proposed change to their course or module.
Further information on the terms and conditions of any offer made, our admissions policy and the complaints and appeals process.