Everything you need to know...
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What is the fee?
Home: £9,535 per year
International/EU: £17,155 per year (£1,200 for placement year) -
How long will I study?
4/5 Years
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Where will I study?
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What are the entry requirements?
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What is the UCAS code?
A009
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When do I start?
September 2025
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Placement year available?
Yes
Come to an open day
Visit us to learn more about our gold-rated teaching and why we were awarded the highest possible rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework.
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) Product Design, 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.
Creative UK membership
We are members of Creative UK, which means our art and design students are also members until they graduate. With 10,000 members in its network, Creative UK represents, champions and supports the UK’s creative industries, advocating on the issues that matter the most to creative communities.
View our students' work
View our gallery of student work and learn more about the exciting projects they've been working on this year.
How you learn
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.
You learn through:
- Studio practice
- Lectures and workshops
- Technical demonstrations
- Group and individual tutorial
- Reviews
- Guest lectures
- External visits and field trips
- Live projects
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.
Find out more about your foundation year.
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.
Course support
We’re a dedicated, qualified, and highly experienced teaching team, with world-leading research and recognised professional creative reputations, who take the time to get to know you.
Throughout your learning journey, you’ll experience a range of dedicated personal, academic and career development support, such as:
- Access to our Skills Centre with one-to-ones and online resources to help with planning and structuring your assignments
- Access to office and studio space, expert workshops, freelancing opportunities and a vast business network to tap into
- Industry-specific employability activities and careers support for up to five years after you graduate
The course develops strategies of attention, empathy, imagination, courage and resilience in the face of an uncertain future. Our course prioritises care as a critical activity – care for global human contexts and for the more-than-human world.
Course leaders and tutors
Mark Fisher
Course LeaderMark is a product designer, researcher and course leader on the BA Product Design course.
Applied learning
Your course has been designed to embrace real-world challenges and provide you with the practical skills and knowledge to be successful.
We do this by developing your expertise in collaboration with the professional creative and cultural sectors – with commercial and creative practitioners, commissioners, clients and arts organisations.
Work placements
You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a year-long work placement (25 weeks minimum) or multiple placements between your second and final years. This gives you valuable work experience to prepare you for your future career and allows you to graduate with an Applied Professional Diploma to add to your CV.
Previous students have secured placements with prestigious brands such as Design Futures, Morphy Richards, Lowe Alpine, BDP Lighting, Joseph Joseph and Mazda Europe.
Students can also apply for funding through the Turing Scheme to support a study exchange or placement outside of the UK.
Live projects
Take part in live projects where you work with external partners to respond to real-world challenges, projects and opportunities. These projects give you the chance to apply your skills in a professional setting and gain valuable feedback, exposure and networking opportunities.
Our students have worked with RAB, the NHS, Astro Lighting and 257 Product + Brand Development. You'll have the opportunity to pitch project outcomes to company representatives, and potentially receive payment for designs.
Field trips
We offer opportunities to go on study trips and visits in the UK and abroad – with free travel and accommodation for all mandatory field trips. These might include workshops, conferences or visits to practitioners’ studios, cultural institutions and special collections.
There’s also the option to enhance your studies further with our optional field trips. Recently, the course has visited the Venice Biennale and Berlin.
Networking opportunities
All our academic staff have industry experience – they won't just teach you professional skills, they’ll introduce you to their thriving design networks.
With a diverse set of guest lectures, you’ll hear first-hand advice from leading designers, curators and thinkers. We also organise an annual two-day employability event, allowing you to network with commercial partners and participate in one-to-one portfolio reviews.
Competitions and exhibitions
We’ll give you the support you need to enter national and international design competitions. These competitions can significantly impact your professional reputation.
Recent successes include the RSA Student Design Awards and four prizes awarded at the 2019 New Designers graduate exhibition in London, including the Joseph Joseph and 100% Design awards.
- RSA Student Design Awards 2023: All being well WINNER
- Bolt Burdon Kemp’s Design the Change competition WINNER
- The Habitat Future Design Award – Furniture, Product, Industrial and Spatial Design WINNER
At the end of your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to exhibit your work in our annual Future Now Festival of Creativity – to which we invite VIP guests, employers, businesses, influencers, friends and family, and the general public. The festival is widely attended and is hosted in the city centre. You’ll also be able to curate and exhibit your work on our online Gallery.
Future careers
This course prepares you for careers and future study in:
- Product design
- Service Innovation
- User experience (UX)
- Design consultancy
- Consumer insight and brand strategy
- Strategic innovation
- Entrepreneurship
- Digital visualisation
- Education
- Sales and marketing
Previous graduates from our course have gone on to work for:
- BBC
- Brompton Bikes
- Dyson
- Fosters + Partners
- Habitat
- Joseph Joseph
- Kenwood
- Lucid Group
- Monitor Audio
- names
- NESTA
- Panasonic
- Rolls Royce
- Ron Arad Associates
- Shark Ninja
- Stanley Black & Decker
- Thomas Heatherwick Studios
- Volvo
- Vtech Hong Kong
Where will I study?
You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.
City Campus
City Campus is located in the heart of Sheffield, within minutes of the train and bus stations.
City Campus map | City Campus tour
Adsetts library
Adsetts Library is located on our City Campus. It's open 24 hours a day, every day.
Learn moreLearn more about your department
Art and Design facilities tour - shared workshops
Take a look around the shared workshops in the Department of Art & Design at Sheffield Hallam University.
Equipment and facilities
You'll have access to a wide variety of facilities across the university campuses – including a 24-hour learning centre, Students’ Union, cafes and eateries, lecture theatres, exhibition spaces and more.
You'll be based in a fully equipped and purpose-designed studio, with state-of-the-art facilities, including:
- Industry-standard computer hardware and software
- Extensive workshops for soft modelling and prototyping
- Metal fabrication and fabrication (plasma cutting, welding, casting, bending and forming)
- A precision-metal workshop with milling machines and lathes
- Print, wood, plastics, metal, mixed media, casting and ceramic workshops
- CNC equipment including laser cutters, CNC routers (2D and 3D)
- An electronics and coding lab
- 3D printing (including SLA, FDM, SLS, Polymer and metal 3DP)
- 3D digital tools (including 3D CAD, FEA)
- 3D scanning (Artec Leo)
- Industry-grade spray painting and colour-matching facility
- Industry-standard XYZ CNC mills, DMG mill-turn lathes and EDM
- A structural-integrity laboratory for testing materials and components
Media Gallery
Entry requirements
All students
UCAS points
- 80
This must include at least 32 points from at least one A level or equivalent BTEC National qualifications (to include a relevant subject, such as Art, Design and Technology, Textiles or Graphics). For example:
• CDD at A Level with a grade C in a relevant subject.
• MMP in BTEC Extended Diploma in a relevant subject.
• Pass overall from a T level qualification with C from core
• A combination of qualifications which must include an A level grade C or BTEC grade M in a relevant subject and may include AS levels, EPQ and general studies
• Access to HE Diploma from a QAA recognised Access to HE course. Normally we require 15 credits at level 2 and 45 at level 3. At least 15 level 3 credits must be at merit grade or above from a QAA-recognised Access to HE course, or an equivalent Access to HE certificate.
You can find information on making sense of UCAS tariff points here and use the UCAS tariff calculator to work out your points.
GCSE
• English Language or Literature at grade C or 4
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.
We treat the foundation year as part of the Art and Design degree programme. Offers made to students will be for four years of study (or five years of study including a placement). This is made up of the foundation year plus one of our Art and Design degrees.
If 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.
Portfolio review
If your application is successful, you will receive an email inviting you to submit a link to your portfolio.
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 our portfolio review guidance.
Additional information for EU/International students
If you are an International or non-UK European student, you can find out more about the country specific qualifications we accept on our international qualifications page.
For details of English language entry requirements (IELTS), please see the information for 'All students'.
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
Foundation Skills & Methods
Year 2
Compulsory modules
Design Essentials: Skills, Techniques And Principles
Design Interactions: Products, Services And Experiences
Year 3
Compulsory modules
Future Now: Collaboration In Action
Professional Design Practice: Client Engagement
Sustainable Design Practice: Responsible Design
Elective modules
Study Abroad - Creative Industries
Year 4
Optional modules
Placement Year
Final year
Compulsory modules
Graduating Designer: Launching Your Career
Strategic Innovation: Developing Your Specialism
Fees and funding
Home students
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 in our terms and conditions under student fees regulations.
International students
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.
Financial support for home/EU students
How tuition fees work, student loans and other financial support available.
Additional course costs
The links below allow you to view estimated general course additional costs, as well as costs associated with key activities on specific courses. These are estimates and are intended only as an indication of potential additional expenses. Actual costs can vary greatly depending on the choices you make during your course.
General course additional costs
Additional costs for Sheffield Creative Industries Institute (PDF, 268.6KB)Legal information
Any offer of a place to study is subject to your acceptance of the University’s Terms and Conditions and Student Regulations.
