MA Visual Communication

Foundation years/Year 0 courses: Foundation years (sometimes called Year 0 courses) are designed for students who don’t meet the entry requirements for a particular degree course, and enable them to develop their learning to an appropriate standard in preparation for Year 1 of the degree.Foundation degrees: If your qualifications are slightly below those required for direct entry onto a Bachelor’s degree, Foundation degrees may offer an alternative route to a full undergraduate degree.Higher National Certificates/Higher National Diplomas: Higher National Certificates (HNC) and Higher National Diplomas (HND) are vocational qualifications which often include practical elements as well as theory. It is often possible to ‘top up’ these qualifications to a Bachelor’s degree through further relevant study.Certificate/Diploma in Higher Education: These are similar to HNC and HND qualifications in terms of levels of study achieved. They can potentially be ‘topped up’ to a full Bachelor’s degree in a related subject area.Bachelor’s degree: This is a full undergraduate degree qualification. Bachelor’s degrees normally take three or four years to complete on a full-time basis - they can also be studied part-time.

Whether you’ve already taken the first steps in your career, or have a good degree but want to focus your knowledge into a specific field, Birmingham City University offers a broad range of flexible full-time and part-time postgraduate courses, research degrees and professional development programmes that help you go further.We are a large and vibrant institution, providing a stimulating and dynamic educational environment for all of our students. Situated in the UK's 'second city' and catering for over 4,500 postgraduate students (around 23,500 including undergraduates), we are rightly seen as an educational powerhouse both nationally and abroad. As an institution we have a long-standing and distinctive focus on research, professional training and creative practice.