Degrees: More Choice, New Specialisms
We are very pleased to announce that following successful review panels on Tuesday and Wednesday, the OCA has secured validation of six new degrees from the University for the Creative Arts. These degrees are:
BA(Hons) Fine Art
BA(Hons) Drawing
BA(Hons) Graphic Design
BA(Hons) Illustration
BA(Hons) Music
BA(Hons) Moving Image
These six new degrees double the number of undergraduate programmes offered by the OCA and mean students will both have opportunities for greater specialisation and also to choose to study in areas which have not previously offered full degrees. Some of the new programmes represent the first time that degree study by open learning has been offered in the UK (for example, Moving Image) and we believe the Music degree is a global first.
Many of the level one courses which make up the new degree pathways exist already and the degrees will be open to enrol in November for self-funding students. (Unfortunately students wanting to take out student loans to study these degrees will need to wait until September 2016). There will be opportunities for some existing students to transfer to the new degrees, particularly if they are relatively early in their studies with the OCA.
For those of you not familiar with how degrees are approved, the process is that the OCA produces detailed documentation describing each of the degrees and all of the courses units within them. This preparation has taken nearly 12 months. The documents are then reviewed by a panel comprising staff members at UCA and experts appointed by them from other universities. The panel interviews existing students and the the OCA presenting team is then questioned in detail. In addition to approving the degrees the panel commended the professionalism of the OCA team (which comprised Programme Leaders Carla Rees, Caroline Wright, Christian Lloyd, Doug Burton and Matt White) and the quality of OCA course materials. A ringing endorsement.
It will take us a short while to update the pages on our main oca.ac.uk website to provide all the necessary information on these degrees, but we have this in hand. Please bear with us, it is a major undertaking, but the news was too good to keep to ourselves.
Gareth Dent
Principal
16 thoughts on “Degrees: More Choice, New Specialisms”
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Oh this is certainly exciting. Congratulations. Hope I can switch from the painting to the Fine Art pathway.
Fantastic news, well done to all!
I’ve been studying with OCA for eight years now (the end is in sight, honestly!!) and there have been some huge changes in that time – but I’m not sure if this isn’t the most amazing of all of them! Congratulations and very well done to everyone involved!
Stan, I have also been studying with the OCA for eight years … and the end is not in sight !!
The end is in sight for me too, I am aiming to finish Jan/Feb and will be assessed in July. I feel privileged to have been part of the OCA journey over the last 8 years and hope that the new degrees will give lots of opportunities to current and future students. I know I certainly felt much more enthused when the BA (Hons) Textiles was validated. This gave me a clear direction and I feel I have been able to study my subject in depth.
Success like this requires a vision; well done OCA and Gareth for imagining and articulating that vision so well.
Excellent news 🙂
Stop it, stop it, stop it!! Seriously, there’s two on there that I would love to do. Have to get this other one out the way first! Well done. Echoing what people have said above, the way OCA has developed since I started with you—it’s breathtakingly exciting!
Really good news! Congratulations for all these huge and brilliant changes made these past years.
Congratulations all – exciting news!
Great news. Congratulations to all involved.
That’s all good stuff! Well done everyone.Great to offer so much choice for distance learning .
Great news… and the MA?
The MA was revalidated for a further five years and the quality of the teaching and learning was commended. On any other day this would be big news, but it slipped my mind!
That’s another great piece of news also. Just reminded me – we don’t seem to get much news on the MA and how students are getting on. There don’t even seem to be any blogs either. The only one I know of is Rob Brisco’s.It would be good if more publicity/information could be given about the MA if only to encourage more students to apply.
Catherine, you make a good point, and we hope MA students will appear more regularly on WeareOCA from now on. The course team were delighted that the MA was re-validated and to receive a commendation was the icing on the cake. We hope this will encourage more OCA BA students to apply, we currently have two studying on the MA.