BA (Hons) History of Art with a Placement Year
Course options
Key Details
- Award
- Degree of Bachelor of Arts
- UCAS Course Code
- V35P
- Typical Offer
- ABB
- Contextual Offer
- BBC
- Course Length
- 4 years
- Course Start Date
- September 2025
Why you should choose us
Course Overview
Are you ready to study the history of art as a global phenomenon? This degree explores how people have created, displayed, and interpreted art, from prehistory to the present. Based in the world-famous Sainsbury Centre, you’ll become part of a unique community. We’re the only Art History Department in the UK located within Hista world-renowned art museum.
On this degree you’ll engage with thought-provoking art from around the world. You’ll examine objects and artworks. These include significant aspects of European art history. You’ll also explore the work of artists and material culture from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.
Through an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, our course examines how art is made, collected, and exhibited across different eras. Your learning is enhanced with a year on a work placement. You’ll gain invaluable experience and employability skills in a relevant area of your choice.
Our History of Art with a Placement Year course allows you to immerse yourself in the historic city of Norwich. You’ll study in the collections of the Sainsbury Centre, which was designed by Norman Foster. You’ll learn from world-leading experts. Among their specialism is the art of the climate crisis, postcolonial discourse, medieval visual cultures, photography, and the moving image. Other interests include museum and heritage studies, visual art and literature, modern and contemporary art, curation and exhibition making.
We’re part of an international network for the study and display of art. This includes the Sainsbury Centre, Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Among the benefits of the network is to enable you to connect with local and national museums. Our graduates have gone on to rewarding and exciting careers in the cultural, creative, and heritage sectors. We look forward to you joining our community.
Placement Year and Study Abroad
Want to graduate with professional experience? On this course, you’ll normally spend 9-12 months of your third year* in a placement, gaining invaluable work experience and employability skills in a relevant area of your choice. You’ll be expected to seek your own work placement and will be supported in doing so by UEA’s Career Central Service and your School. Support for you to find your placement will start early in the first year and will be tailored to the particular needs you’ll have at various stages of the process.
The field in which you’ll do your placement will depend on your own interests, and some of the preparatory workshops will help you have a clearer idea of what these are, what your values are, and which career they may lead to. History of Art graduates go into a wide range of sectors, and so placements can be done in fields such as heritage, business, the public sector, creative industries and many more. We'll, however, require that the tasks you’ll conduct as part of your placement meet the required learning outcomes and are complex enough to help you develop a range of skills that you’ll be able to translate and use during the final year of your degree and your post-graduation career.
*Placements may be shorter on some occasions, or take place during different years of the degree, but this has to be agreed by the Placement Director and Learning and Teaching Services.
Have a business idea? If you’ve an idea you think would make a great business, you may be able to turn your Placement Year into a ‘Year in Enterprise’*. Your idea (business plan, budget etc.), motivation and academic record would have to be assessed by our team. Should you be given the go-ahead, you could use the year to start your businesses in a structured and supportive environment, accessing numerous training courses and extensive mentoring.
*Note that if you’re studying with us on a Student Visa, you can’t currently undertake a Year in Enterprise due to Visa rules.
This version of the degree gives you the opportunity and support to greatly enhance your employability by securing and undertaking a year-long placement in the third year of your degree. Find out more about this exciting opportunity on our 'Placement Years in Arts and Humanities' page.
Study and Modules
Structure
You’ll begin your degree by studying art, artists, and the process of creating. You’ll engage directly with artworks first-hand in order to explore different techniques and visual effects and deepen your appreciation of their functions and meanings. You’ll be introduced to art history as a discipline before exploring some of its most significant aspects, beginning with the role of portraiture in shaping our identities. You’ll explore the collections of the Sainsbury Centre, and become familiar with how to critically engage with different kinds of art.
Compulsory Modules
Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
You’ll be taught by leading scholars in the field of art history and will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars and field trips.
Throughout this degree your learning activities will involve a combination of lectures, small group seminars and tutorials combined with independent learning. A representative week will consist of 15-20% class time, 40% work on assessments and 40% on independent learning.
Your seminar groups will very rarely have more than 18 students. This allows for plenty of dialogue between tutors and students. Teaching methods vary but most sessions are organised around investigation of particular topics supported by close analysis of artworks and texts. As you progress through your course you’ll expand your knowledge, skills and understanding as you become familiar with different art practices and techniques and become accustomed to reading diverse historical sources and art historical and critical texts.
In lecture modules, you’ll engage with a range of art-historical problems and methods. Your lectures will be delivered by members of staff from art history, anthropology, and archaeology, plus specialist guest speakers.
In your first year, you’ll be guided to prepare material for classes, which you’ll often later use as a starting point for an assessment. You’ll also be given the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of relevant presentation styles such as catalogue entries and exhibition reviews.
Assessment
You won’t sit any formal examinations. Instead, in each year you’ll be assessed on written coursework, usually in the form of essays, presentations, critiques, posters, exhibition catalogues to name only a few. Our assessment methods have been developed to measure your skills, but also to aid your learning.
In your first year, assessment will be aimed at cultivating the skills of close analysis and critical thinking you’ll need throughout the degree.
Structure
You’ll be encouraged to think about varied and fascinating museum object biographies and how art history interacts with anthropology and archaeology. In the spring semester, you’ll be invited to consider how your historical studies relate to contemporary debates about the status of art and the role of galleries and museums in the present. Alongside these lectures, you’ll choose from a range of optional modules through which you’ll develop more specialist knowledge of particular problems and periods.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 40)Optional B Modules
(Credits: 40)Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
As the course progresses, you’ll have the opportunity to explore more specialised topics that reflect the current research of those teaching the modules. Each year, as your knowledge and study skills become more advanced, you’ll be introduced to material that will encourage your own independent research on topics that interest you.
Assessment
In your second year, you’ll have more autonomy over the way you respond to your assessment prompts, devising your own essay topics and further developing your perspective as an art historian.
Structure
Your third year will be spent on your placement, providing you with the opportunity to experience the world of work while applying some of the skills and knowledge you’ve developed during your first two years of study.
Compulsory Modules
Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
You’ll spend your third year on a placement. You’ll be responsible for securing the placement, supported by UEA’s well-established connections throughout the UK and beyond. During your placement, you’ll be supported by a placement mentor, who will regularly monitor and review your progress with you, and you’ll have access to remote support from UEA, too, to make sure everything is going smoothly and that you’re getting the most out of your experience.
Assessment
You’ll be asked to reflect on your placement by, for instance, offering a self-appraisal of what you’ve learnt and demonstrating your broader commercial awareness of your placement’s sector.
Structure
In your final year of study, you’ll take three optional modules which involve close engagement with advanced topics in art history.
Our optional modules address topics such as identity, psychology, memory, materiality, decolonization, social inequality and injustice, ecology, climate change and sustainability from a broad range of historical and global perspectives.
You’ll also write a dissertation on a topic that has most sparked your interest, working closely with a supervisor to design your own research programme.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 60)Optional B Modules
(Credits: 30)Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
In the Spring semester of your final year, independent learning increases again in line with work towards your dissertation.
As you develop specialist knowledge in your final year, you’ll also begin work on a dissertation. This will enable you to refine your understanding of a particular topic and develop the independent perspective crucial to practicing art history beyond university.
Assessment
In your final year, your final assessment is your dissertation, a piece of independent research that you’ll carry out in the fourth year.
Entry Requirements
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
We welcome and value a wide range of qualifications, and we recognise that some students might take a mixture of different qualifications. We have listed typical examples that we accept for entry.
You should hold or be working towards the specified English and Mathematics requirements and one of the examples of typical entry qualifications listed below. If your qualifications aren’t listed, or if you are taking a combination of qualifications that isn’t specified, please contact Admissions.
- English and Mathematics
All applicants must hold or be working towards GCSEs in English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4 or grade C.
In place of Mathematics GCSE we can also consider Functional Skills Level 2 Mathematics.
We accept a wide range of English Language qualifications, please see our English Language equivalencies page.
- Contextual Offers
UEA are committed to ensuring that Higher Education is accessible to all, regardless of their background or experiences. One of the ways we do this is through our contextual admissions schemes.
- Typical UK Entry Requirements
A levels
ABB
Contextual offer: BBC
BTEC
Level 3 Extended Diploma: DDM
Contextual offer: DMM
Combinations of BTEC and A levels
Extended Diploma: DDM
Diploma: DD plus B at A level.
Extended Certificate: D plus BB at A level.
BTEC in Public Services, Uniformed Services and Business Administration are all excluded from our BTEC offers
Access to HE Diploma
Access to Humanities and Social Sciences Pathway. Pass Access to HE Diploma with Distinction in 30 credits at Level 3 and Merit in 15 credits at Level 3
T levels
Obtain an overall Pass including an A in the core of the T Level and a Distinction in the Occupational Specialism.Any subject is acceptable.
Foundation Year options:
If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our Foundation Year programmes such as - History of Art with a Foundation Year.
- Further Examples of Typical Entry Requirements
International Baccalaureate
32 points overall
Irish Leaving Certificate
3 subjects at H2, 3 subjects at H3
Scottish Highers
AAABB
Scottish Advanced Highers
BCC. A combination of Advanced Highers and Highers may be acceptable
- Deferred Entry
We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year. We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
We welcome and value a wide range of qualifications, and we recognise that some students might take a mixture of different qualifications. We have listed typical examples that we accept for entry.
You should hold or be working towards the specified English and Mathematics requirements and one of the examples of typical entry qualifications listed below. If your qualifications aren’t listed, or if you are taking a combination of qualifications that isn’t specified, please contact Admissions.
- English and Mathematics
All applicants must hold or be working towards GCSEs in English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4 or grade C.
In place of Mathematics GCSE we can also consider Functional Skills Level 2 Mathematics.
We accept a wide range of English Language qualifications, please see our English Language equivalencies page.
- Typical International Entry Requirements
We accept many international qualifications for entry to this course. For specific details about your country, view our information for International Students.
A levels
ABB
BTEC
Level 3 Extended Diploma: DDM
Combinations of BTEC and A levels
Extended Diploma: DDM
Diploma: DD plus B at A level.
Extended Certificate: D plus BB at A level.
BTEC in Public Services, Uniformed Services and Business Administration are all excluded from our BTEC offers
International Baccalaureate
32 points overall
- INTO UEA
If you do not meet the academic and/or English language requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO UEA offers progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree.
- English Foreign Language
Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):
-
IELTS: 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components)
We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.
Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.
If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study.
-
- Deferred Entry
We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year. We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.
Fees and Funding
Tuition Fees
View our information for Tuition Fees.
Scholarships and Bursaries
We are committed to ensuring that costs do not act as a barrier to those aspiring to come to a world leading university and have developed a funding package to reward those with excellent qualifications and assist those from lower income backgrounds. View our range of Scholarships for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates.
Course Related Costs
You may need to pay some small additional costs for optional field trips, which are subsidised by the department. You’ll also need to pay some costs for the field trip to Venice in the second year if you choose that option.
Please see Additional Course Fees for details of other course-related costs.
How to Apply
UCAS Hub is a secure online application system that allows you to apply for full-time undergraduate courses at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.
Your application does not have to be completed all at once. Register or sign in to UCAS to get started.
Once you submit your completed application, UCAS will process it and send it to your chosen universities and colleges.
The Institution code for the University of East Anglia is E14.
View our guide to applying through UCAS for useful tips, key dates and further information:
Employability
After the Course
You’ll graduate ready for a wide range of careers in the art world, the heritage industry, academia, art publishing, teaching, and business. You’ll be equipped with sought-after skills such as independent and critical thinking, time management, teamwork, organisation and research skills, public speaking and more. Your experience of studying in a world-famous art museum will give you an edge in the sector. You’ll also be well placed to study for a postgraduate degree either here at UEA or at another university. Our Careers Service is here to support you by advising with writing CVs and internships. In the department we work closely with the Careers Service to provide workshops and seminars with successful alumni.
Careers
Recent graduates have entered a number of fields, including:
- Museums and art galleries
- Commercial art galleries
- The heritage sector
- Publishing
- Journalism
- Teaching/lecturing
Discover more on our Careers webpages.