Best art foundation courses

Looking for 2025/26. My daughter has no idea what to do post A levels, so exploring an art foundation to give more exposure and experience

Reply 1

aspalax

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by stainless-conver

Looking for 2025/26. My daughter has no idea what to do post A levels, so exploring an art foundation to give more exposure and experience

Usually you can do an art foundation at a local sixth form/college or sometimes at a nearby university. In my opinion, especially as Art Foundations are free if you start them straight after A Levels (<19 at entry), the best art foundation is one where you can save some money and not be paying accommodation fees. By all means go and visit some providers and look at their facilities etc. Ask some questions about what support they provide.
But I am generally of the opinion there's little point moving away from home for an art foundation year - it's unnecessary expense and you won't get student maintenance loan (if you do a FAD as opposed to an integrated foundation year), so it can be expensive.

Integrated foundation years often teach similar skills and will use a year's funding of tuition fees and maintenance loan, but sometimes are valuable for people if they are really worried about moving away from home (a slightly easier transition year into university life) or they didn't do the right A-levels.

This thread has some great advice and logistical answers about Foundation Diplomas vs Integrated foundation years.

Reply 2

Kingston Vee

Official Rep

Original post

by stainless-conver

Looking for 2025/26. My daughter has no idea what to do post A levels, so exploring an art foundation to give more exposure and experience

Art foundations are what I recommend to everyone who is thinking of doing a creative degree or is just a creative person and isn't sure what to study. As mentioned it is free if you're under 19 when you start so there are no costs. Going to a local one is best as you can commute from home, local universities offer them as do some colleges. I recommend having a look in your area and arranging some open days, in my opinion the ones at universities are typically better and if you wanted to continue on at that university for a degree it is much easier and the boundaries are much lower.

Doing an art foundation was the best decision I made and I still count the friends I made on there as my best friends even though I live cities apart now. It also made getting onto my degree at a separate uni so much easier as they prefer applicants that have done a foundation so most of my offers were unconditional. Its a low risk high reward course so I highly highly recommend : )))

Here's a link to the foundation course we have at Kingston to give you an example of what one might look like. You cover many different art practices on a foundation to help you find the one you're most interested in so it's quite a diagnostic process initially, and then you can specialise.

Hope this helps,

Vee (kingston rep)

Reply 3

StaffsRep Tee

Official Rep

Original post

by stainless-conver

Looking for 2025/26. My daughter has no idea what to do post A levels, so exploring an art foundation to give more exposure and experience

Hi there,

I'm Tee, an MSc Student and Student Content Creator here at the University of Staffordshire!

I came to UoS through Clearing back in 2022 and recently graduated from my undergrad course in Illustration. I didn't receive the desired grades after completing my BTEC in Art & Design at college, and this nearly led to me giving up on coming to university. I had spoken to my college lecturer, and she'd told me about UoS and applying through Clearing (which I wasn't aware of at the time) and encouraged me to apply. Then all of a sudden, September 2022 came along, and I was sitting in my first class!

I previously made some more detailed posts about my journey and experiences whilst being here, hopefully this'll give you a better view of how I've found being a student in Stoke-on-Trent and also what the Illustration course has to offer, as I also wasn't sure on what I wanted to do career wise!

What is it like applying to Staffs Uni through Clearing?
Career Opportunities for Illustration Students
University of Staffordshire: What is GradEx and the Degree Show about?

Just to ease your mind - it's completely normal to not know what to do, and there's plenty of others in the same boat. Although I didn't do a foundation year myself, I know many people who did before joining the Illustration BA course, and expressed how helpful they had found it in learning more about themselves and their creativity!

Here's a few course links if you wish to look more at what we offer here :smile:

UoS Art & Design BA with Foundation Year
UoS Illustration BA

I hope this is useful to you! Feel free to respond if you have any questions✨

Best wishes,
-Tee, UoS MSc Digital Marketing Management Student & Student Content Creator

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