Bachelor of Arts - Animation (Honours) (Placement Year)

This sandwich route — recorded in the source as three years plus a placement year, wording preserved in the duration field — sends animation students into a salaried studio or content role between the taught levels, with the academic programme matching the standard degree across movement principles, 2D and 3D technique, and post-production.

The placement year addresses animation’s specific hiring problem: studios want people who have worked inside a pipeline, hitting shot quotas, taking supervisor notes and delivering to technical specification, none of which coursework deadlines fully replicate — and returning students visibly animate faster and iterate more calmly.

Applicants should note the source records this variant as three years plus a placement rather than a four-year integrated structure, wording preserved in the duration field, which in practice means the placement is arranged around the taught programme rather than embedded within it. Students should therefore confirm the placement-year fee arrangement in writing at offer stage. Recruitment runs through the second year with support from the faculty placement team, and the £17,300 taught-year fee applies across all three recorded September entry cycles.

Hosts range from animation and VFX studios through advertising and motion-graphics agencies to in-house content teams at brands and broadcasters, and students frequently return with produced, broadcast or published work that anchors the final-year reel far more persuasively than student projects alone.

Placement salaries of roughly £18,000–£21,000 pro rata offset much of the additional year, and studio retention into junior roles is common. Completion around 2030 sits within the 18-month Graduate Route settlement covering post-2026 applications, and dependants remain excluded on taught routes throughout the four years.