Animation BA (Hons)

Study level: Undergraduate
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The BA (Hons) Animation course at Coventry University is for storytellers and artists who want to bring life to their creations through the application of movement.

Year of entry

Location

Coventry University (Coventry)

Study mode

Full-time
Sandwich

Duration

3 years full-time
4 years sandwich

Course code

WW27

Start date

September 2025

Available through Clearing

We recognise a breadth of qualifications and relevant experience and may be able to consider your portfolio or other examples of your practice-based work even if you do not have the required points. Speak to one of our advisers today for more information. Your portfolio and/or practice-based work will be reviewed by the Course Director who will make a final decision.*
*Applicant offer decisions are final and there is no right of appeal.

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Course overview

From the outset, this course gives you the opportunity to create a highly creative portfolio relevant to your chosen area of creative practice.

Other benefits include the following:

  • The course cultivates a form of teaching where students experiment, exercise and practise. Our students explore, experiment and design with both analogue (drawing and primary visual research) and digital technologies and generate outcomes in 3D and 2D.
  • The Animation team fosters inclusivity in character development and narrative, drawing upon the traditions of cultures from around the globe, both contemporary, historical and mythological, with considerations of race, age, gender, disability and variety of body type.
  • Our graduates could expect to work as 3D animators, 2D animators, riggers, modellers, character designers, environment artists, story boarders, animation directors, writers and comic artists.
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Rated Gold Overall

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023

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5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

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Top 5 Student City in England (Coventry)

QS Best Student Cities Index 2025

Why you should study this course

  • Professional practice is a key component of the course with scope to undertake placements and briefs that respond to the needs of the creative industries, both in the UK and abroad2.
  • A flexible approach enables you to individually develop your creative practice and portfolio towards a wide range of potential career paths.
  • Opportunity to develop skills and experiment with a wide range of technology and traditional media.
  • Teaching staff are industry experienced practitioners and/or research active. Staff have worked for a wide range of clients and on major arts funded projects. Staff bring this experience into the teaching environment through practical teaching activities and project work that is core to the curriculum - it also helps to maintain currency and professional alignment to course content. Staff maintain a continuous relationship with industry and have a significant and growing portfolio of collaborative and industry-focused projects that inspire student research and development activities (staff may be subject to change).

Art and Design Graduate Showcase 2024

The Coventry Degree Showcase is an annual event to celebrate and showcase our graduating students’ work.


What you'll study

This course has a common first year.

The common first year enables you to work alongside students doing similar courses to you, to widen your knowledge and exposure to other subject areas and professions. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with other students, so you can share your insights and experience which will help you to develop and learn.

If you discover an interest in a specific subject you have studied, upon successful completion of your first year, you could swap degrees with another course in your common first year (subject to meeting progression requirements).

Common first year courses

  • Animation BA (Hons)
  • Digital Media BA (Hons)
  • Games Art BA (Hons)
  • Games Design and Development BA (Hons)
  • Visual Effects (VFX) BA (Hons)

In the first year, the curriculum is shared across related courses allowing you to gain a broad grounding in the discipline before going on, in the second and third years, to specialist modules in your chosen field.

Modules

In year two, you will continue to develop the skills and knowledge you’ve learnt. We do this by embedding the following four principles into the curriculum and developing your:

  • technical skills – digital fluency, backed with the right academic knowledge
  • study skills – to be an adaptive, independent and proactive learner
  • professional skills – to have the behaviour and abilities to succeed in your career
  • global awareness – the beliefs and abilities to be a resilient, confident and motivated global citizen.

We aim for you to develop more advanced knowledge and skills to do with: character design, creature creation, and modelling, amongst others.

Modules

There’s no better way to find out what you love doing than trying it out for yourself, which is why a work placement2 can often be beneficial. Work placements usually occur between your second and final year of study. They’re a great way to help you explore your potential career path and gain valuable work experience, whilst developing transferable skills for the future.

Modules

Your final year aims to prepare you for the world of work by consolidating your knowledge and skills from years one and two. You could also work on a large final project in an area of your interest, with the support of a mentor.

Modules

We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.


How you'll learn

Teaching contact hours

As a full-time undergraduate student, you will study modules totalling 120 credits each academic year. A typical 20 credit module requires a total of 200 hours study. This is made up of teaching contact hours, guided and independent study.

Teaching hours:

Teaching hours vary each semester, year of study and due to module selection. During your first year you can expect 15-18 teaching hours each week. You will also have the option to attend optional sessions including time with a progress coach or to meet with staff for advice and feedback. As you progress through your studies, teaching hours may reduce.

Guided and independent study:

Throughout your studies, you will be expected to spend time in guided and independent study to make up the required study hours per module. You'll be digging deeper into topics, review what you've learnt and complete assignments. This can be completed around your personal commitments. As you progress through your studies, you'll spend more time in independent study.

Online learning:

As an innovative university, we use different teaching methods including online tools and emerging technologies. So, some of your teaching hours and assessments may be delivered online.


Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods may include:

  • portfolio
  • presentation
  • coursework
  • project
  • composite assessment
  • artefact.

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.


International experience opportunities

We aim to encourage students to broaden their horizons by taking advantage of either study abroad or placement opportunities2. The art and design course teams work hard to ensure that students have the opportunity to widen their cultural understanding and feed their creative research through travel. Previous students have gone on study trips to Lisbon, Barcelona, Paris and Copenhagen. These experiences often underpin independent projects and allow you to gain confidence in travelling abroad.

Please note that all international experience opportunities may be subject to additional costs, competitive application, availability and meeting applicable visa and travel requirements are therefore not guaranteed2.


Entry requirements

Clearing places available on this course

See if you have enough points (UCAS tariff 2025)

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Additional requirements may apply

Typical entry requirements:


Fees and funding

Student Full-time Part-time
UK, Ireland*, Channel Islands or Isle of Man £9,535 per year Not available
EU £9,535 per year with EU Support Bursary**
£19,850 per year without EU Support Bursary**
Not available
International £19,850 per year Not available

If you choose to study this course with a professional placement2 or study abroad year, you will need to pay a tuition fee3 to cover your academic support throughout your placement year. Students commencing their professional placement in the academic year 2027/28 will pay £1,500 if they are paying UK fees, or £1,800 if they are paying international fees.

For advice and guidance on tuition fees and student loans visit our Undergraduate Finance page and see The University’s Tuition Fee and Refund Terms and Conditions.

The University will charge the tuition fees that are stated in the above table for the first Academic Year of study. The University will review tuition fees each year. For UK (home) students, if Parliament permits an increase in tuition fees, the university may increase fees for each subsequent year of study in line with any such changes. Note that any increase is expected to be in line with inflation.

If you choose to study this course with a professional placement, the University will charge the tuition fees stated above for those on a placement during Academic Year 2027/28. The University will review professional placement tuition fees each year. For UK (home) students, the University may increase fees for each subsequent year of study, but such that it will be no more than 5% above inflation.

For international students, we may increase fees each year, but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation. If you defer your course start date or have to extend your studies beyond the normal duration of the course (e.g. to repeat a year or resit examinations) the University reserves the right to charge you fees at a higher rate and/or in accordance with any legislative changes during the additional period of study.

We offer a range of International scholarships to students all over the world. For more information, visit our International Scholarships page.

Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them. Find out what's included in your tuition costs.

The following are additional costs not included in the tuition fees:

  • Any optional overseas field trips or visits: £400+ per trip.
  • Any costs associated with securing, attending or completing a placement (whether in the UK or abroad).

*Irish student fees

The rights of Irish residents to study in the UK are preserved under the Common Travel Area arrangement. If you are an Irish student and meet the residency criteria, you can study in England, pay the same level of tuition fees as English students and utilise the Tuition Fee Loan.

**EU Support Bursary

Following the UK's exit from the European Union, we are offering financial support to all eligible EU students who wish to study an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree with us full-time. This bursary will be used to offset the cost of your tuition fees to bring them in line with that of UK students. Students studying a degree with a foundation year with us are not eligible for the bursary.


Facilities

Coventry University is home to superb facilities4 and our fantastic new Delia Derbyshire Arts and Humanities complex provides fantastic new learning spaces. With access to industry-standard software, workshops and studio environments, you’ll gain practical experience through a mix of in-house assignments, self-initiated tasks, national and international competition opportunities, project briefs and concept visualisation briefs2.

We have a thriving studio culture with dedicated workspaces for all students in purpose-built studios with permanent exhibition displays, supported by wide-ranging technical facilities in both traditional and new technologies. In our Media Loan shop, you will have access to a range of photographic and media resources4.

Hyperstudio

The Hyperstudio is designed to be an experimental space where staff, students, community, and industry can collaborate to solve real world problems. It is a cube with high-speed connectivity and power, that is both a making and showing space into which an array of physical and digital technologies can be brought to support project needs.

Immersive media studio

The immersive media studio is a studio space designed to allow design, collaboration and testing of immersive experiences that combine audiovisual elements in diverse ways. It is centred on performance capture and high-end XR capabilities and includes capability for immersive audio integration.

Hacklabs: Electronic and Digital

The two hacklab spaces are experimental spaces on the bleeding edge of emerging technologies and processes where students and staff can be guided in their exploration of new and emerging practices in an array of fields. A library of resources such as sensors and other physical computing solutions, and software for experimentation will be available.

Facilities are subject to availability. Access to some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) may vary from those advertised and/or may have reduced availability or restrictions where the university is following public authority guidance, decisions or orders.


Careers and opportunities

Graduates could be expected to work as animators, graphic novel artists, environment artists and storyboard artists as well as pursuing careers in teaching and study at postgraduate level. In the past, graduates have returned to share their experiences and advice as visiting lecturers and have continued to support the next generation of Animation students.

After studying, students go on to work in the following areas: advertising, comic books, tv and film production, children’s picture books, artists, art direction, games art and animation, teaching and study at postgraduate level.

Further study

You can choose to continue your studies at Coventry University with the Illustration and Animation MA.

You may be entitled to an alumni discount on your fees if you decide to extend your time with us by progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate study.

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