Fashion Studies Top Up BA (Hons)

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

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Degree

UCAS code: W236

BA (Hons) Fashion Studies Top Up, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 1 year
  • Pound 9250 per year

What makes this course different

Unique opportunities

Unique opportunity to specialise in any pathway: fashion, business, fashion design, fashion textiles or fashion marketing and communications.

Flexible learning

Opportunities to collaborate with other students and develop skills in various creative ways outside the course. Flexible access to university resources, such as the library and creative workshop spaces, with availability extending into evenings and weekends.

Travel opportunities

Optional fashion trips, visits, and events to enrich your learning experience. Networking opportunities and chances to connect with fashion industry professionals to enhance your career prospects.

Ranked 9th nationally

Our fashion and textiles courses ranked 9th nationally for 'satisfied with teaching' in The Guardian University Guide 2025.

The Guardian University Guide 2025

Course modules

You will start with a combination of classes introducing you to the world of fashion including Introduction to Fashion Business and Marketing, Fashion Portfolio and Theoretical Identity. For your Final Major Project, you can choose to enter the practice route of your fashion career aspirations through the development of a relevant portfolio website.

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

This fashion studies top-up course will provide you with everything you need to become a leader in the fashion industry, change your career path or start your own fashion business. You could go into a wide range of careers such as fashion design, clothing production, or marketing and retail. With a top up degree, the options are limitless.

Industry links

We have connections with the following art and fashion organisations: Art in the Docks, That Gorilla Brand, Crombie, Fashion Minority Report and Never Fade, Soho.

Graduate employers

Graduates from our fashion top-up course have gone on to join fashion organisations like Asos, work as freelancers in the industry, or set up their own fashion businesses.

Job roles

A fashion top-up degree can open doors to many exciting and rewarding careers within the fashion industry. By combining your passion for fashion with specialised knowledge and skills, you can position yourself for success in this dynamic field.

Typical roles which our fashion graduates have gone on to include: 

  • fashion designer
  • entrepreneur
  • creative director 
  • brand manager 
  • retail store owner/manager 
  • stylist
  • marketing executive
  • content creator
  • fashion writer or manager.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Further study

You could undertake further study in 

Rema Khatun
As a university committed to your career growth, we've curated dedicated Career Zones across all of our campuses with practical services tailored to your success. From internships, personalised coaching, and employability workshops to volunteering, mentoring, placements, and enterprise opportunities, we offer a diverse range of support."
Rema Khatun

Career Zone

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated career support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and the fashion industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future fashion career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and design facilities.

Career Zone

This digital platform provides you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with fashion industry experts
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and fashion industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you've mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top:

  • Work-based projects
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations
  • Support in starting a new fashion business
  • London on our doorstep

How you'll learn

Our ethos is "learning by doing" - you learn more through practice. Both luxury and marketing modules will be run with input from fashion industry professionals. Our fashion students have worked in roles such as buyers, assistants to campaign managers, fashion magazine journalists and PR managers. Their employers have included clothing and footwear companies like Marks & Spencer, Topshop, Alexander McQueen, Free People, and Adidas.

You'll study in our beautiful, waterside Docklands campus. Situated in east London's creative heartland, with its pop-up artistic stores and design trade fairs, it's a fashion hotspot guaranteed to inspire you.

Guided independent study

When not attending timetabled lectures or workshops, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve skills development through online study, reading journal articles and fashion books, working on individual and group projects and preparing coursework assignments and presentations. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, and specialist facilities, such as game labs, the library, the full Microsoft Office software, including MS Teams, and Moodle: our Virtual Learning Environment.

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support.

Dedicated personal tutor

When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of staff who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.

Workload

Apart from taught classes, you'll engage with your fashion studies through a lot of site visits, debates, guest speakers and live projects. We have an impressive list of guest speakers from some of the best fashion brands in the world. 

Our Fashion and Textiles department organises overseas trips every year. You'll be able to participate in a study trip to Paris during Premier Vision Week, giving you an insight into new fashion trends and technology.

Your timetable

Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week between 9.00am and 6.00pm. For undergraduate students, Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities, but there may be occasions when this is not possible. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

How you'll be assessed

We assess you via your presentations, essays, research projects and your final major project. You will always receive detailed feedback outlining your strengths and how you can improve. 

We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 15 working days, although you will receive immediate feedback following many of our face-to-face assessments.

Campus and facilities

Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by the School of Arts and Creative Industries.

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.

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Statistics for BA (Hons) Fashion Studies Top Up Degree, Full Time

Statistics for BA (Hons) Fashion Studies Top Up Degree, Full Time

What our students and staff say

Fashion
I enjoyed my time at UEL. I learned so much about the world of fashion from theories to practice during my industry experience. Our tutors were knowledgeable and approachable and had many connections which benefited our studies further. I had the opportunity to have my PR placement at Alexander McQueen and another one in New York. The tutors pushed us to work hard but it’s all worth it in the end."

Lucy Davies

BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing, graduate