BA (Hons) Modedesign

"Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details."

Why choose this course?

You want to immerse yourself in studio practice

You want the freedom to design. You want to see your ideas come to life. You’re highly motivated and want to develop your unique style. We’ll set you broad assignment briefs which means you can bring your personality, your identity, and your culture into the heart of your designs. We’ll encourage you to work independently whilst being on hand to offer support. At Herts, you’ll join an inspirational and collaborative community. You’ll have the technical facilities to explore your creativity. Be curious... now is the time to take risks. Our studios have everything you need. You’ll have access to mannequins, sewing machines, cutting tables, and metres upon metres of fabric. You’ll use Computer-Aided Design to visualise and test your ideas. We’ll support you to create an inspirational collection. To promote your designs. Every step of the way you’ll benefit from our expertise and experience. We’re rated TEF Gold, which makes us one of the best universities for teaching and support. You know you can thrive in the right environment, so do we. We want you to feel right at home in our studio. This is your place. Your space to create.

You want to study fashion culture

You want to study art and design philosophy. You want to explore the evolution of fashion through culture, technology, and innovation. Perhaps you want to study gender stereotyping and the role of social media? You’ll extend your knowledge of expressive and functional fashion. Delve into ethical issues facing the industry. What is the true cost of fast fashion? We’ll encourage you to investigate how society responds to and influences the fashion world. You’ll critically approach a variety of topics as you delve into case studies. You’ll research, evaluate, and analyse texts. Most importantly, we’ll encourage you to form your own views. You’ll become a critical thinker who’s ready for the next design challenge. Inspire your creations with impassioned thought-provoking research.

You want to build a reputation as a designer

You’ll benefit from our team of talented technicians, industry experts, and guest speakers. We collaborate with leading brands and designers. These include F&F, Ellesse, and Sadie Williams. his means you’ll gain a range of opportunities including work placements and employment. You’ll work on live industry projects. Plus, there’s even the chance to win sponsorship. We’re a member of the British Fashion Colleges Council, which means you can compete in prestigious competitions. In your final year, you’ll have the chance to exhibit your work to industry leaders at Graduate Fashion Week. Could you become a finalist or win an internationally recognised award? Some of our graduates already have. In fact, two of our 2020 graduates won a week’s residency at a fashion house in London. With all this opportunity to be seen by the right people, you’ll have everything you need to launch a meaningful career in fashion.

What's the course about?

In the first year, you’ll learn core design and production skills. You’ll practice hand rendering techniques to produce technical drawings. You’ll visualise your designs with 2D and 3D technology. You’ll become competent in fitting and pattern cutting. We’ll teach you how different fabrics behave and the best way to construct garments. Together, we’ll explore the history of art and design. You’ll understand fashion in a wider social context. What are the issues facing the industry? With fashion, there’s always much more than meets the eye. You’ll visit fashion houses to gain insights from industry experts. You’ll research case studies. You’ll gain strong inquiry and analysis skills. We’ll explain industry-relevant language, so you’ll feel confident to write essays and design proposals. You’ll develop photographic, presentation, and portfolio skills. This is the first step on your journey to create a professional design portfolio.

In the second year, you’ll improve your technical design skills. Get stuck into sketching, drawing, and illustrating. We’ll teach you advanced pattern cutting techniques using 2D and 3D technology. We’ll teach you new ways to construct clothes. Get creative on a deeper level. Develop your own visual identity and design signature. We’ll teach you fashion communication techniques. You’ll study branding and promotion in print and social media. We’ll set you ‘live’ assignments from our industry partners. You’ll design functional and commercially viable fashion. You’ll design for real people, real shapes, real sizes. We’ll encourage you to enter your work in international competitions. You’ll create engaging and inspiring portfolios. You’ll expand your research into the theory behind fashion. What informs current design practice? We’ll encourage you to debate. To form your own judgments and present a compelling argument. You’ll have two opportunities this year to take a work placement. What will you discover?

Between your second and final year, you will have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for a year. This will not only give you an amazing experience to talk about, but you’ll also boost your cv. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too.

In the third year, you’ll produce your contemporary collection or equivalent. You’ll embrace traditional, new, and emerging technologies to produce unique designs. You’ll work with a greater level of independence to create a professional portfolio. Be expressive. Inventive. We’ll teach you how to communicate a visual identity. To develop your brand. You’ll produce marketing and promotional material. Your designs won’t speak for themselves. But you can. We’ll encourage you to initiate work placements. To immerse yourself in a business. Benefit from industry mentorship. You’ll also pursue a detailed inquiry into an aspect of design culture that fascinates you. You’ll examine it from a historical, economic, and technical viewpoint. You’ll produce a critical essay on a topic of your choice. Your research will inform your concept. You can create fashion that responds to social, cultural, and environmental challenges. What will your contribution to fashion be? We’ll help you get your designs seen. To promote your work. You could enter your collection in the prestigious Graduate Fashion Week held at the Truman Brewery in London. This is your chance to prove you’ve got what it takes. That you’re a designer in the making.

Your main campus is College Lane

This is where the creative arts, science, and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists, and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.

This course includes the options of:

• Work placement
• Study abroad

At the University of Hertfordshire, we see your potential, we hear your ambitions and we support your futures. From the moment we meet, we will set you on a path to achieving your goals. We will drive you forward, we will actively guide you every step of the way. You may not be confident or you may have questions – but we believe in you and we will help you find the answers. You may have a goal that you want to achieve – we can help focus you. You may want an experience – we can get you some. Here at Herts, there are many pathways to success, so let us empower your future, and take you all the way. This is your platform, your opportunity to succeed – so what are you waiting for?

Prepare to succeed

Show employers what you’re made of. We’re big on placements – and for good reason. Research tells us that over 70% of employers prefer students with work experience. That’s because placements aren’t just an excellent way to put what you’ve learnt into practice, they also show employers what you’re like as a person – with all those attributes like ambition, teamwork and a can-do attitude. To make sure our students get that work experience advantage, we’ve developed strong links with businesses and organisations here and internationally. These have allowed us to build valuable placement opportunities, from short-term experience to full-year paid placements, into many of our courses. What’s more, you won’t have to pay fees during the year you’re on placement.

Passport to success

Many students at Hertfordshire have the chance to study or work overseas – for a semester, a summer or even a whole year. Studying or working abroad is a great way to immerse yourself in a new culture, broaden your horizons and create many unforgettable memories. We have partnerships with many universities across the world, including in the USA, Canada, Latin America, Africa, China, Korea, Japan, Australia, and across Europe. The cost of living in many countries is lower than in the UK and you’ll still be eligible for any grants or loans you’d get if you were studying here. Most students also pay no tuition fees during the year away and may be eligible for one of our scholarships to help with living and travelling costs.

Learn from the best

We like to think our teaching is a little different. Not only are our academics experts in their respective fields, but everything they teach is shaped by businesses and industry, giving you the subject-specific and transferable skills for an exciting career. Alongside your core subject, you’ll also be able to pick up other qualifications to help you stand out to employers. From mentoring to Microsoft qualifications, City & Guilds awards to getting your pilot’s licence, there’s a tonne of ways to build an impressive CV.

Key Facts

• TEF Gold : Our teaching is among the best in the UK.
• 170 : Study abroad at one of over 170 universities in 40 countries around the world.
• National Rankings : 4th Economics 7th Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management 10th Engineering: Electronic and Electrical.
• Number 1 for Games : TIGA Games Industry Award 2019.
• 96.5% of students in employment or further study within 6 months.
• Award-winning : Employment mock assessment centre simulation (Institute of Student Employers).
• Career enhancing experience : Our students have undertaken placements at companies including KPMG, Tesla Motors (UK), Microsoft and GSK.

Learning and teaching

Whatever your background, wherever you are from, we believe that higher education can be a transformational experience.

We develop graduates who are capable, creative and enterprising. Through engaging with employers and professional bodies who contribute to the development of our curriculum and our status as one of only 20 University Enterprise Zones, we transform the lives of our students.

We offer the flexibility, opportunity and community students need to succeed. We achieve this by:

combining traditional teaching methods with digital resources including our online student network, StudyNet teaching courses that are designed with the input of business and professional bodies giving students the chance to learn about employability through listening to the experience of our alumni organising networking events where staff, students and graduates can meet offering a vibrant multicultural campus by increasing the proportion of international students on campus giving students the option of studying at one of our partner universities overseas supporting students in their learning and living offering students valuable work experience in research, business or industry before their final academic year.

Vision

Our vision is to transform lives. This means whatever your background, wherever you are from, we will drive your potential, powering you to succeed.

We are committed to having a positive transformational impact on every member of our university community, and to share our successes with the community around us.

Our strategy

We support a diverse range of students, staff, businesses, researchers and members of the community. What they all share is the desire to make the most of the opportunities in front of them. Our strategy will enable us to power their potential and achieve their goals.

Students, businesses and the local community are all motivated by the same thing. Finding ways to make the most of the opportunities in front of them, by tapping into their individual or collective potential. Powering Potential is embedded in our philosophy. This means – to transform lives, we not only find potential, but we also harness it and drive it.

Key strategic themes

Students, businesses and the local community are all motivated by the same thing. Finding ways to make the most of the opportunities in front of them, by tapping into their individual or collective potential. Powering Potential is embedded in our philosophy. This means – to transform lives, we not only find potential, but we also harness it and drive it.

Offering opportunity

We offer every student the opportunity to succeed, with varied and well-signposted routes into university and clear pathways through study. We support students to achieve to the best of their ability and will support them in preparing for global opportunities after graduation. We will use our links in business, our research expertise, and our global outlook, to transform lives.

Building community

We are a diverse and welcoming community with a global reach and a common purpose, to transform lives, which we will work together to achieve. Through communities of learning, exploration and knowledge, we celebrate diversity and share our passions. We want all our students and staff to find their communities here. We are engaged as a Civic University in our region, supporting schools, colleges and students. We will share our knowledge, culture, research and resources with businesses, the professions and the wider community.

Embracing flexibility

We will respond flexibly to the challenges and opportunities ahead. Flexible modes of study will support our students to succeed and allow them to engage with a greater range of opportunities in education, extra-curricular activities and work experience. We want our students to follow their interests and passions to transform their lives and to be empowered by a choice of pathways that take them to the next stage and open doors to the future.

Our values

We provide opportunities to attract, retain and develop individuals. We are building a diverse and inclusive community and we respond with flexibility to the challenges of the changing world. Our values underpin everything we do. We are friendly, ambitious, collegiate, enterprising and student-focussed.