DEGREE GUIDE

Design

What do Design degrees involve?

Design degrees teach you how to approach complex problems creatively, developing solutions that might be physical products, digital experiences, services, or spaces. Unlike degrees that focus on one specific area of design, these programmes are deliberately interdisciplinary, encouraging you to work across different mediums and explore what design can be rather than committing to a single specialism. You will study core design practice (sketching, prototyping, digital tools, and model-making) alongside design theory, history, and ethics. Many courses include modules on user research, interaction design, service design, and speculative or futures-oriented design, giving you a broad toolkit for tackling real-world challenges. Industry-led briefs and live projects feature heavily, and most programmes include a placement opportunity. By the final year, you will develop a self-directed project for a public degree show. These degrees suit students who are curious about design as a whole and want to explore broadly before narrowing their focus.

Example
Modules

Studio Practice: Work on design projects across different mediums, developing your creative thinking and building your own approach to design through hands-on, project-based learning.

Design Contexts: Study the history and theory of design, exploring how cultural, social, and environmental factors have shaped design thinking and practice over time.

Understanding People: Learn user research methods such as observation, interviews, and testing, and use the insights to inform your design decisions.

Common Degree Names

💼 Placement years are available at many universities, giving you a full year of professional experience in design consultancies, creative agencies, or in-house design teams.

🌍 Study abroad opportunities are offered at some universities, with partner institutions in Europe, the US, and beyond.

BA (Hons) Design
BSc (Hons) Design
BA (Hons) Design Innovation
MDes Design (Integrated Masters)

A design research workspace showing stick-figure persona sketches with bio profiles, an affinity diagram board with sticky notes clustered under pain points, motivations and ideas, an open notebook with user observation bullet notes, a small audio recorder, and design research books on a wooden desk by a window.

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Design degrees are broadly creative but interdisciplinary, meaning you won't always need one specific subject. However, a strong creative portfolio matters as much as (or more than) your grades, because admissions teams want to see evidence of visual thinking, creative problem-solving, and an interest in how design works.

Subjects that strengthen your application:

Art, Art & Design, or Fine Art — widely preferred or expected, as these demonstrate creative skills, visual awareness, and experience working through a design process
Design & Technology or Product Design — excellent preparation, showing hands-on making skills and an understanding of materials and manufacturing
Graphics, Photography, or Textiles — strong supporting subjects that demonstrate visual communication and creative development
Any other subject — many Design courses have no strict subject requirements, so a strong portfolio can outweigh your subject choices. Subjects like English, Sociology, or Psychology can be useful because design increasingly draws on understanding people and communication

✨ A Foundation Diploma in Art & Design is a very common and strongly recommended route into Design degrees. Many students complete a Foundation year to develop their portfolio and explore different areas of design before choosing their degree. At some universities, it is the expected pathway.

⚠️ Note for students: Unlike more specialist design degrees such as Product Design (where some universities prefer or require Design & Technology) or Design Engineering (where Maths and Physics are often needed), interdisciplinary Design degrees tend to be flexible about subject combinations. What matters most is your portfolio and your ability to think creatively about design.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diploma in Art and Design — the most directly relevant vocational route, widely accepted across Design programmes
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside relevant A-level subjects
T Levels in Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing or Craft and Design — accepted at some universities, though not all Design courses have confirmed T Level entry yet, so check individual course requirements
UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design — accepted at UAL and many other universities as a standalone qualification or alongside other Level 3 qualifications
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with at least two IB Higher Level subjects (ideally three) alongside your Career-Related Study; an Art & Design pathway would be directly relevant

Always check specific course requirements, as portfolio expectations vary between universities.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses ask for:

GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or equivalent such as National 5s or MYP

📘 GCSEs (or equivalent) in Art, Graphics, Design & Technology, or Photography can be helpful for building early skills, but they are not essential for most Design degree applications.

🔍 Work Experience

You don't need work experience to apply for Design. If you're looking for practical ways to explore the field, designing and making things — whether physical prototypes, digital models, or solutions to everyday problems — is the most valuable thing you can do. Engineering competitions or design challenges are also worth exploring. If you have a school placement to fill, a design studio, product development company, or manufacturing workshop gives you useful context for how design ideas become real products.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What have you noticed about how the designed world works around you, and what would you change? Reflect on things you've made or redesigned, whether physical, digital, or experimental, and what you learned from the process. Think about designers or projects that inspire you and why. Design degrees reward curiosity across different areas of design rather than early specialisation, so show that you observe, question, and respond to design challenges in everyday life. Admissions tutors want to see that you think like a designer, not just an artist.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design

A very common route into Design degrees. This one-year course helps you develop your portfolio and explore different design disciplines before applying for the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Art & Design)

Accepted by many universities offering Design degrees. Your portfolio will usually carry as much weight as your grades, so check individual universities for their portfolio expectations.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Design degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Design is a flexible, interdisciplinary degree where you choose which areas of design to focus on. The interests below cover the range of pathways available. Your own combination of interests can help guide which strands of the degree might suit you best.

Visual Art, Craft & Design: The degree explores what design can be across different mediums. You'll work on projects ranging from physical products and digital experiences to services and systems, developing creative thinking and practical skills through an interdisciplinary approach to design.

Games, Apps & Interactive Design: If you choose to focus on interaction and experience design, you'll design digital interfaces, map user journeys, and create interactive products, developing UX and UI skills central to how people engage with apps and digital services.

Students who thrive in a Design degree are often motivated by

Engaging with People and Cultures

You're energised by working closely with people to understand what's really going on for them: talking, listening, asking questions, spending time, picking up on what isn't being said directly. That might be interviewing someone for a piece of research, sitting with a client who's trying to work something out, exploring a community you've not been part of, or working alongside people from a different culture. The energy comes from the engagement itself, not just from reading or thinking about people.

Making and Crafting

You love hands-on work: building, shaping, or creating physical objects. Whether it's working with tools, materials, or your own hands, you're happiest when you can see and touch what you've made. The process of turning raw materials into something finished gives you a deep sense of satisfaction, and you'd rather make something than just talk about it.

Sharing Your Work with Others

You take pride in showing what you've created to others, whether that's exhibiting artwork, demonstrating an invention, publishing writing, or presenting project results. The moment when someone else experiences or responds to your work gives you a buzz. You create with an audience in mind, even if that audience is small.

Practical Problem-Solving

You're energised by finding fixes to real-life issues, whether they're mechanical, technological, or social. You're motivated by problems you can see, touch, or experience directly, and you get satisfaction from solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. You'd rather build a prototype than write a report about one.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

Curiosity and Learning

You're energised by the activity of learning itself: diving into a subject you've never explored, watching documentaries, taking apart how something works, or constantly asking "why?" The process of learning gives you energy, not just the outcome. You don't just want the answer; you want to understand how things connect, why they matter, and what's underneath the surface explanation.

What makes Design click for the students who love it?

One kind of design was never going to be enough for them: one project is an object, the next a screen, a space or a whole system. The range is the point, and they love never having to choose. They are endlessly curious about why things are the way they are and how they might be better, and they enjoy working out how people live before they settle on anything. The satisfaction is watching a rough idea become a finished thing and putting it in front of people to hear what they make of it.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy coming up with creative ideas and then figuring out how to make them actually work — not just imagining things, but solving the practical problems too?
Do you like tackling problems that don't have an obvious answer — where you have to think around the challenge and try different approaches before something clicks?
Are you drawn to expressing ideas visually — through sketching, making things, or designing on screen — rather than just writing or talking about them?
Do you prefer learning by making — getting hands-on with tools, materials, and technology rather than just studying ideas in theory?

Careers an Accounting degree could lead you to

Design

What do Design degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers an Accounting degree could lead you to

Example
Modules