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Product Design with Foundation Year at Sheffield Hallam University - UCAS

Course options

2025 - 2026
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Sheffield Hallam University has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

Open days

15Feb
Sheffield Hallam University - undergraduate applicant open day
Undergraduate
22Mar
Sheffield Hallam University - undergraduate applicant open day
Undergraduate
27Apr
Copy of Sheffield Hallam University - undergraduate applicant open day
Undergraduate

Course summary

Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information. Course Summary

  • Learn the creative, practical and digital skills needed to become a professional product or service designer
  • Put learning into practice with leading product design brands and the opportunity to take a placement year
  • Collaborate with practising designers with a diverse range of experience and professional networks
  • Challenge convention as you learn how to contribute to a more sustainable future
If you don't meet the entry requirements for our BA (Hons) course, or you’d like extra preparation before starting degree-level study, we recommend you join the foundation year – which has been designed to encourage exploration and experimentation. This course prepares you for an exciting career as a globally minded product or service designer. Through real-world projects and exploration of new materials and processes and systems, you’ll be equipped to identify and respond empathetically, sustainably, and collaboratively to creative opportunities and challenges. This course also allows you to specialise in and receive a different named award – Product Design (Service Innovation) – through focused project work in your final year. How you learn At Sheffield Hallam, all our courses are designed to engage you with the world and challenge you to think in new ways. You’ll get to collaborate with others, and you’ll be taught in a supportive environment where you can thrive. This foundation course brings together students across all our art and design courses as one creative community. You’ll work and learn together in a dedicated studio space and have access to our top-class facilities. Based in our bespoke studios, workshops, and digital spaces, you’ll become part of a dynamic and collaborative learning community. Together, you’ll undertake creative adventures, explore possibilities, and challenge conventions. You’ll engage with live creative design projects supported by external clients and industry professionals – and you’ll have opportunities to enter national and international design competitions. We take a holistic and person-centred approach to assessment to support your creative growth while respecting the diverse ways people learn. Key themes Your foundation year will help you get to grips with University life as you study alongside a creative community of Art and Design students. Expect to be hands-on in the studio, learning through doing as you explore the creative process with collaborative projects, workshops and field trips. This course focuses on insight-driven design for future-facing products, services and experiences. We recognise the responsibility we have as creators and agents for environmental sustainability. You’ll learn to be globally-minded designers, seeking out future challenges, challenging convention and embracing creative risks. In our studio-based collaborative learning community, you’ll explore both the feasible and the conceptual, the highly technical to the hand-made – from individual products to product-service systems. You’ll gain the skills to identify and respond to future needs and opportunities using industry-standard design strategies and digital technologies. Through engaging design projects, you’ll gain key skills, techniques and principles – such as design for sustainable manufacture, new and emerging digital technologies, creative research methods, and principles of colour, material and finish. As the course progresses, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the ecological, social and economic factors that all designers must consider when designing for diverse audiences and contexts. In the final year you’ll develop your own insight-driven, individual creative design project/s closely aligned to your own interests, skills and personal career aspirations.

Modules

Important notice: The structure of this course is periodically reviewed and enhanced to provide the best possible learning experience for our students and ensure ongoing compliance with any professional, statutory and regulatory body standards. Module structure, content, delivery and assessment may change, but we expect the focus of the course and the learning outcomes to remain as described above. Following any changes, updated module information will be published on this page. You will be able to complete a placement year as part of this course. See the modules table below for further information. Year 1 Compulsory modules Foundation Projects — Developing Creative Practice | Coursework (100%) Foundation Skills & Methods | Coursework (100%) Year 2 Compulsory modules Design Essentials: Skills, Techniques And Principles | Coursework (100%) Design Interactions: Products, Services And Experiences |Coursework(100%) Year 3 Compulsory modules Future Now: Collaboration In Action | Coursework (100%) Professional Design Practice: Client Engagement | Coursework (100%) Sustainable Design Practice: Responsible Design | Coursework (100%) Elective modules Study Abroad - Creative Industries | Coursework (100%) Year 4 Optional modules Placement Year Final year Compulsory modules Graduating Designer: Launching Your Career | Coursework (100%) Strategic Innovation: Developing Your Specialism | Coursework (100%)

Assessment method

Coursework

How to apply

29Jan

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Please select a course option – you will then see the application code you need to use to apply for the course.

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Foundation

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

We may also accept you, if you have limited qualifications but can show evidence of ability and a genuine commitment to studying Art and Design.

Please click the following link to find out more about qualification requirements for this course

https://www.shu.ac.uk/Courses/Art-and-design/BA-Honours-Product-Design-with-Foundation-Year/Full-time/

Additional entry requirements

Portfolio

If your application is successful you will receive an email inviting you to submit your portfolio by email and submission details by an online google form. The portfolio helps us understand whether we are able to offer you a place on the course you’ve applied for. Your UCAS statement and portfolio provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your creative experience, potential ability and enthusiasm for the course you’ve applied for. Visit out portfolio review guidance: https://www.shu.ac.uk/Visit-us/Selection-events/Portfolio-Reviews-for-Art-and-Design

Other

Please note that this information is subject to change without notice by Sheffield Hallam University.

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)6If English is not your first language, you will need an IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills or equivalent.

If your English language skill is currently below IELTS 6.0 we recommend you consider the Sheffield Hallam University Pre-sessional English course, which will enable you to achieve an equivalent English score.

Please click the following link to find out more about English language requirements for this course

https://www.shu.ac.uk/Courses/Art-and-design/BA-Honours-Product-Design-with-Foundation-Year/Full-time/

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students

There is no data available for this course. For further information visit the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

Channel Islands £9535 Year 1
Republic of Ireland £9535 Year 1
England £9535 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9535 Year 1
Scotland £9535 Year 1
Wales £9535 Year 1
EU £17155 Year 1
International £17155 Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

Our tuition fee for UK students on full-time undergraduate degree courses in 2025/26 is £9,535 per year (capped at a maximum of 20% of this during your placement year). These fees are regulated by the UK government and therefore subject to change in future years. We are currently reviewing our tuition fees for the foundation year stage of this course following the Government announcement of fee changes for some foundation year courses and will confirm fees as soon as possible If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found at https://www.shu.ac.uk/study-here/terms-and-conditions-and-student-regulations under student fees regulations. Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2025/26 is £17,155 per year. During your placement year you will pay a reduced fee of £1,200. Please refer to our website for up-to-date information on costs and fees: https://www.shu.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate/fees

Sponsorship information

Scholarships, discounts and bursaries may be available to students who study this course.

Product Design with Foundation Year at Sheffield Hallam University - UCAS