Creative Arts, Design and Media
These courses are suitable for students who want to establish working careers in the arts, or who want to achieve a high level of proficiency in a particular discipline. They are, in the main, practical, studio-based programmes designed to produce graduates who go on to be independent working artists or members of the creative industries.
Programmes are available at undergraduate and postgraduate level for the study of drama and performance, fine art (specialisations offered include drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, print-making, ceramics, gold and silversmithing, photomedia, jewellery design, and performance and installation) as well as graphic design, product design, and fashion and/or textile design.
There are also courses available in communication design (including advertising), animation and interactive media, games design, and new media design; as well as in practical media courses including journalism (print, broadcast, and new media) and film and television.
Admission to these courses (at undergraduate and postgraduate level) is based primarily on a student’s talent and potential, rather than on their academic background, and a portfolio of work or audition material is usually required in order to apply. Each university has slightly different requirements for portfolios – please make sure you check what needs to be included with a Study Options advisor before making your application.
Please note that students aiming to enrol in undergraduate programmes in any of these areas are not required to complete an Art Foundation course before applying. Many fine art and design courses in Australia and New Zealand are four years long, rather than three. The first year serves as a general introduction in which students get to experience and experiment with all the different studio disciplines before choosing which area they want to take as their specialisation in years two, three and four.
Facilities available for students studying the creative arts in Australia and New Zealand are excellent. Fine arts students gain a strong understanding of studio methods and techniques through studio-based practice via small group tuition, while journalism and film and television courses use specialist studios with state-of-the-art equipment to give students real-world experience.
Please note that if you wish to take any of these as academic subjects, where study would be based on analysis and theory rather than practical work, you would usually take them as a major within a Bachelor or a Master of Arts.