Digital Creativity BA (Hons)*
 Digital Creativity (Major).jpg)
UCAS Code: Combined Honours only – see combinations tab|Duration: 3 years |Full Time|Creative Campus
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
This Digital Creativity course helps students blend traditional art with modern technology. It covers fields like gaming, graphic design, music, and dance. The course shows how artists use new digital tools. They find fresh ways to express creativity, called ‘Creative Convergence’. It aligns with the teaching and research interests of staff in Music, Performance, Visual Arts, and Computer Science.
You will learn to use various technologies and complete assessed projects. These projects may include motion capture, haptic feedback, interaction design, data sonification and visualisation, animation, sound design, and coding for creative purposes.
Practical seminars will serve as labs where you can experiment with these technologies and build your skills. You will work towards a unique practice suitable for the digital creative sector. Lectures will give you a theoretical base. This will help you critically position your work. Student-led discussions in tutorials will support this learning. The lecture content will also enhance your understanding of practical applications. In your first year, you will meet key practitioners and explore how digital technologies expand the creative potential of traditional art forms.
Course structure
Teaching on this course takes place through lectures attended by the whole year group, as well as seminars and tutorials in smaller groups of up to 10 students. You will also have the opportunity for weekly one-to-one meetings with your tutors, alongside field trips and activities related to your subject.
For the Digital Creativity element of your combined honours degree, you will have around 6 teaching hours per week in your first year, reducing to around 5 hours in your second and third years. In addition to these teaching hours, you are expected to dedicate approximately 14 hours per week to independent study.
Assessment and feedback
Across your three years of study, assessments are designed both to ensure you meet the required learning outcomes and to prepare you for professional practice. These include practical projects such as building an online portfolio, written assignments that develop your ability to explain your creative process, and research projects to strengthen your academic skills.
You will receive written feedback on your work, with the opportunity to discuss this in more detail with your tutor.
Curriculum overview
The syllabus will include training on systems widely used in creative practice, starting from programming languages supported by hardware platforms such as C++ for Arduino & Python for Raspberry Pi, visual/object-oriented programming environments such as Max/Max4Live, Pure Data, Processing, TouchDesigner, and OpenFrameworks, and proprietary software suites aimed at designing sound, visuals, and interaction, such as Reaktor, Isadora, Resolume, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Training on hardware design will concentrate on understanding circuitry and instil students with the ability of compiling systems out of components aimed at expanding existing microcontroller and microprocessor platforms, such as those developed by Adafruit.
Assessment of learned skills for each platform will be project-based, with students devising creative outputs, and developing systems that can facilitate the functionality of each project.
Beyond the technical training, students will learn about key theories and historical developments of technologically facilitated arts, including seminal and contemporary practitioners and works, and philosophical debates on the ethics of technology. Finally, students’ professional development will be reinforced through learning about funding sources, major art research and support centres, and developing a bespoke profile for their practice.
Year One
Introduction to Digital Creativity 1 (Semester 1)
This module introduces the theoretical and practical foundations of computational arts. It expands the concept of digital creativity through a lecture on the historical development of software and digital hardware in artistic practice, highlighting the work of key practitioners and technologists. Building on this theoretical grounding, students develop their own creative projects during practical seminars, producing outcomes in their chosen medium.
Introduction to Digital Creativity 2 (Semester 2)
This module introduces the main programming languages and their applications across different software and hardware platforms, taught through a problem-solving approach linked to each student’s creative projects. Outcomes are presented with a focus on the technologies used, with assessment based on students’ ability to analyse and understand the user experience design evident in each project.
Year Two
Explorations in Digital Creativity 1 (Semester 1)
This module focuses on collaboration, helping students understand how to work effectively with practitioners from different disciplines. Theories of collaboration are introduced in lectures, while practical workshops provide opportunities to explore a range of digital creative platforms and develop hybrid audience–performer experiences. Students will also gain brief experience within a professional digital creative context and begin to specialise in areas of practice ahead of their third-year research project.
Explorations in Digital Creativity 2 (Semester 2)
This module continues software and hardware training, with students designing systems in response to briefs set by tutors and partner practitioners. Assessment is based on both the final outcomes and written reports explaining the logic behind each design approach. Alongside this, students will prepare for their dissertation through writing and research tutorials, developing topics for their final-year project.
Year Three
In the final year, students demonstrate their proficiency in a range of performance technologies and apply them in creative, original ways. This culminates in either completing a placement within an arts organisation or leading a major performance project of their own design. Alongside this, students undertake an independent research project on a topic of their choice.
Final-year projects are curated to reflect professional practice, with opportunities to collaborate with second-year students and external practitioners. These projects involve the design of technological systems and require evidence of project management and administration skills, including liaising with partners and exploring funding opportunities.
The dissertation showcases research and reflective analysis skills, drawing on both practice-based and practice-led methodologies.
Entry requirements
| A-Levels | BBC |
|---|---|
| UCAS Tariff Points | 112 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications. |
| BTEC | DMM |
| Access to HE | 112 Tariff Points |
| IB | 26 points |
| Irish Leaving Certificate | 112 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
| Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
| T-Levels | Merit |
| Subject Requirements | A creative subject to the equivalent of A Level is required. An A Level in computer science would also be beneficial. All applicants are required to submit a digital portfolio of your work. |
International entry requirements
| Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
|---|---|
| IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirementspage. |
Careers
Digital Creativity is a rapidly expanding field of employment on regional, national, and global scales, encompassing various domains such as games, installations, and large-scale performance events, concerts, and shows. Career prospects within this dynamic field are diverse and substantial. Consequently, graduates of Digital Creativity will find themselves engaged in a wide array of impactful career pathways.
The assortment of course combinations available provides enhanced potential for various career trajectories. Within the creative industries, students will be well-positioned to pursue employment as freelance creative technologists, production designers, and designers of immersive experiences. Beyond the creative sector, graduates will benefit from their deep understanding of digital tools and their ability to utilise these in a wide range of applications.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
All students will be encouraged to uptake work placements with a regional digital creative company.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
Students will be expected to have access to basic equipment such as computers able to support the taught software platforms.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2026/27 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is only available as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: