…of which part 1 is here.
So, having made some initial estimates, it looks to be between £10,000 and £18,000 over the two years of a Foundation Degree. Then if you want a BA, there’s Year 3, which should add another £5-9,000 minimum. So we’re talking in the region of £15-27,000 and that’s without travel, accommodation, living expenses. Are you shocked?
I know I must have missed things, and immediately I save the Excel file to web, there’s something else. I could add all sorts of bits of equipment, batteries, chargers, filters, processing chemistry and whatnot, but some of these can be borrowed at some colleges, whilst at others, film processing is free and film is provided. Oh and there is the cost of producing a portfolio and a final show, each of which could add another £500 – £1000 to the totals, but you’d do those anyway, wouldn’t you?
Not included in the spreadsheet are commutes, lunches, clothing: all that you’d have to pay for anyway, unless you were completely under- or un- employed.
Tell me what’s missing, what is different at your course, what you think is too expensive etc, and I’ll redo it, but on the whole that looks to be a pretty reasonable first attempt. What d’you think?
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9 Comments
Well I’m pursuing the budget route to a BA. Talking in terms of academic fees alone, I’ve completed an HND. That involved 2 years study. I enrolled as a parttime student which was 1/2 the cost of fulltime at £590/year but managed to study fulltime anyway. I’ve paid £100 to the Open College of the Arts for them to recognise this as accumulated points toward their degree programme and I now plan to study two further modules in order to top up the HND to a BA. The cost of each of these modules is £550 plus £100 assessment.
Overall cost £2580. Watch this space. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sounds good to me.
Depends on what you’re looking for though. I’m after tuition to substantially upgrade my technical skills, although I am wondering whether 2 years of concentrated study using exemplars and practice wouldn’t have been better than what I’m trying to do now.
Yes, please keep me posted!
My HND was a taught course. I think its swings and roundabouts which is better out of the HND and Foundation Degree. I think increasingly the latter seems to be gaining the upper hand. From what I’ve seen of the work coming out of the Newcastle Foundation Degree it seems like an excellent course. At my college the HND has now been superceded by the Foundation Degree but I suspect that the content is remarkably similar. My impression is that the foundation degree is generally less prescriptive and has a higher critical contact which, with hindsight, would have suited me better. That’s easy to say now. When I started out I was very commercially focused and just wanted to aquire the technical skills and move on. Now I’d appreciate the critical aspects more. The technical skills are overrated … not that I know it all by any means.
Make no bones about it. If time and money had allowed I would have relished studying the traditional route, by attending fulltime for a 3 year BA course.
Funny you should say that. John Kippin, leader of the Photography MA at Sunderland Uni said exactly the same thing to me only last week: that I would have been better off doing a BA from scratch.
I agree, FD and HND seem pretty much the same thing now.
Hi…
I couldn’t fin the part one…
Hello Paulo, it’s here
and the spreadsheet is here.
Thanks… I got it. That is a lot of money, anyway…
Good Luck!
Paulo
That’s a lot of money for something that isn’t even an undergraduate degree (or from a University)… MUG!
As a very recent graduate to the BA (Hons) Photojournalism course at Swansea Met, I have time and time again complained at the lack of support and recognition that Photography students recieve. Now as the Education minister made clear they want more working class backgrounds into the institutions and me being one have come out with debt resembling some of those figures above.
At the NUJ ADM I was sent as a student delegate to see how I could benefit from them, they were suprised I couldnt afford the full fee after I had spent countless pennies on cameras, paper, business cards, 300+ on exhibition, postcards, travel to shoot, portfolio, portfolio printing…so on. Then on rent and food. A freelance photography speaker got on the stand and spoke of their problem of pricing within the industry, but what about us.
Just to finalise this to show you to extent of how much we students pay for I do have an appeals application form to my University in front of me stating that the amount I had to find to do my course directly contributed to why I had a lower grade. Having countless visual diarys and theory work doesnt seem to matter aparently. I did have a part-time job also. If my printing paper was of less standard because of money problems it was marked down for example. I am very annoyed, upset and angry that these courses are not up there with the highest.
Stephen Sidlo
stephensidlo.blogspot.com
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