Bachelor of Visual Arts
Our Bachelor of Visual Arts will set you up for an exciting and diverse range of creative professions. During your first year, you will study core art courses, methodology, and art history. You will then choose a studio discipline to develop your talent in your chosen passion. The eight studio disciplines include ceramics, electronic arts, jewellery and metalsmithing, print, photography, painting, sculpture and textiles.
Domestic
July
About the programme
Translate your creativity into an art career. Gain experience in a range of speciality subjects and discover where your artistic talent truly lies.
This degree will teach you how to become a creative maker, thinker and active agent in a local, national and global context. A qualification in the Visual Arts will allow you to find employment in a diverse range of professions such as practising artist, curator, art educator or researcher. A variety of roles within the digital and film industries would also be possible.
Gain technical, academic and personal skills which will be transferable to a wide variety of fields including education, design, management and marketing. This qualification provides a perfect bridge into further learning as you select from a range of subjects initially and then move into full specialisation, focusing your talents in your chosen field.
Study art at New Zealand's most established school of art and benefit from the nationally-unique range of workshop facilities and the excellent studio-based teaching. Flourish under the guidance of highly experienced lecturers who have national and international profiles and represent a diverse range of approaches and understandings.
July start date
Our July intake is an advanced standing intake. You will need to be eligible for 60 cross-credits to apply so that you can go straight into our semester two courses. Please email ebsART@op.ac.nz for more information about this option.
International
July
About the programme
Translate your creativity into an art career. Gain experience in a range of speciality subjects and discover where your artistic talent truly lies.
This degree will teach you how to become a creative maker, thinker and active agent in a local, national and global context. A qualification in the Visual Arts will allow you to find employment in a diverse range of professions such as practising artist, curator, art educator or researcher. A variety of roles within the digital and film industries would also be possible.
Gain technical, academic and personal skills which will be transferable to a wide variety of fields including education, design, management and marketing. This qualification provides a perfect bridge into further learning as you select from a range of subjects initially and then move into full specialisation, focusing your talents in your chosen field.
Study art at New Zealand's most established school of art and benefit from the nationally-unique range of workshop facilities and the excellent studio-based teaching. Flourish under the guidance of highly experienced lecturers who have national and international profiles and represent a diverse range of approaches and understandings.
July start date
Our July intake is an advanced standing intake. You will need to be eligible for 60 cross-credits to apply so that you can go straight into our semester two courses. Please email ebsART@op.ac.nz for more information about this option.
What You Study
You will study
In the first semester, you will gain experience in each of the studio disciplines listed below. This will be supported by visual arts courses in Studio Methodologies, and Art History and Theory that will introduce you to a range of key skills in art-making and research. In the second semester, you will extend your knowledge in two of these studio areas and continue with Art History and Theory. In the second year, you will specialise in a single studio subject, developing your core skills and techniques, experimenting widely and engaging with critical debates as you move towards more independent learning in your chosen area. You will also continue to study Art History and Theory, and Studio Methodologies. In your final year, you will extend your art practice into a sustained body of work for presentation in a public exhibition. The Studio Research and Professional Methodologies courses provide critical, historical and vocational contexts for the development of your studio project in your final year.
Specialist Studio Disciplines
Study Ceramics
We have the largest ceramics arts department in New Zealand with wood, salt, electric and gas kilns, electric wheels and online research facilities. You will benefit from an emphasis on hands-on experimentation in clay-making workshops which explore ceramics as a medium with its own language, skills and history.
Study Electronic Arts
Specialise in Electronic Arts, which inhabit a constantly shifting location in art and media practice. You may choose to explore 2D and 3D animation, film, installation, electronics, projection and online media and audio/video production. Through the study of contemporary practice, you will engage with media arts and reflect on their historical and contemporary position in the art world.
Study Jewellery and Metalsmithing
Develop your artistic eye and practical skills with the understanding that the fundamental reference for jewellery is the human body. Jewellery uses a visual language based on interaction, communication and contact, and may be expressive and intimate or aggressively provocative. Art, objects and adornment for the body use an unlimited palette from precious metal recycled materials.
Study Painting
Here is an opportunity to develop your artwork so it is relevant to today's society and to national and international contemporary practice. That is the focus of this specialty, although you will also be encouraged to investigate painting movements and methodologies in recent centuries.
Study Photography
Gain a solid foundation in the practical and theoretical components of black and white, colour and alternative photographic processes. Use and explore a range of equipment and techniques in our well-designed facility. Understand the principles and history of photography as you study different photographic approaches, such as the antiquarian, formalist, documentary, fabricated or manipulated.
Study Print
Our internationally-renowned Printmaking Department is well-established and is one of the leading departments of its kind in New Zealand. You will work and learn in its spacious studios and well-equipped workshops, designed to enable you to study and practice a comprehensive range of printmaking processes and related techniques. Experienced and award-winning staff members monitor these programmes, which help you research, explore and develop creative concepts.
Study Sculpture
Develop a sculptural language through studio workshops focusing on drawing, form and spatial analysis. This department is equipped to international standards with separate workshops for wood, metal and plastics fabrication, a modelling and casting studio and specialist facilities for ceramic shell bronze casting, metal forging, vacuum forming and spray painting.
Study Textiles
Major in textiles in a visual arts context, examining the value of cloth and its relationship to the body, different genders and classes, and material culture. The field of textile practice can encompass many approaches such as sculptural, 2D and site-specific artworks. We specialise in construction and a variety of print processes such as screen-print methodologies using pigment ink, dye, discharge and burnout applications, manual and digital embroidery and 3D sewing.
Qualification structure
Year one
|
Course |
Level |
Credit |
|---|---|---|
|
Studio Methodologies 1 |
5 |
15 |
|
Art History and Theory 1 |
5 |
15 |
|
Introduction to Studio Practices 1 |
5 |
15 |
|
Introduction to Studio Practices 2 |
5 |
15 |
|
Studio Methodologies 2 |
5 |
15 |
|
Art History and Theory 2 |
5 |
15 |
|
Studio Practice 1 |
5 |
15 |
|
Studio Practice 2 |
5 |
15 |
|
Year One Total |
|
120 |
Year two
|
Course |
Level |
Credits |
|---|---|---|
|
Studio Methodologies 3 |
6 |
15 |
|
Art History and Theory 3 |
6 |
15 |
|
Studio Practice 3 |
6 |
45 |
|
Studio Practice 4 |
6 |
45 |
|
Year Two Total |
|
120 |
Year three
|
Course |
Level |
Credits |
|---|---|---|
|
Studio Research |
7 |
15 |
|
Studio Practice 5 |
7 |
45 |
|
Studio Practice 6 |
7 |
45 |
|
Professional Methodologies |
7 |
15 |
|
Year Three Total |
|
120 |
Studio discipline areas
|
Studio |
Level |
|---|---|
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Ceramics |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Electronic Arts |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Jewellery and Metalsmithing |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Painting |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Photography |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Printmaking |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Sculpture |
5 |
|
Visual Arts Core Studio - Textiles |
5 |
Programme specific risks
You will complete Health and Safety checklists for specific hazards in your courses. During your study, you will use a range of technical equipment and chemical substances. If you have known allergies or reactions to materials, please indicate these in your application.
Further study options
This programme perfectly prepares you for further learning and you may go on to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Arts, a Master of Fine Arts or a Master of Visual Arts.
Workload
Your workload
A full-time programme entails five full working days (or the equivalent) for 32 weeks. Studios are open for extended hours for senior students.
Entry
Entry requirements
- Five years completed at secondary school with successful art units and portfolio OR
- NCEA Level 3
- 14 credits at Level 3 in each of three NZQA approved university entrance subjects, and
- 10 Literacy credits at Level 2 or above, made up of:
- 5 credits in reading and 5 credits in writing, and
- 10 Numeracy credits at Level 1 or above, made up of:
- specified achievement standards available through a range of subjects OR
- package of three numeracy unit standards (26623, 26626, 26627- all three required).
- OR equivalent qualifications and experience.
- Mature students with work and life experience are encouraged to apply.
- All applicants must submit a portfolio (see further information in the Portfolio and writing requirements section below).
- International students will be individually assessed to ensure they meet degree-level entry requirements and must have achieved the equivalent of Year 13.
English Language requirements
- If English is not your first language, you must provide:
- New Zealand University Entrance OR
- Overall Academic IELTS 6.0 with no individual band score lower than 5.5 (achieved in one test completed in the last two years), OR
- Acceptable alternative evidence of the required IELTS (see here for NZQA proficiency table and here for list of recognised proficiency tests).
If you need to improve your English Language skills, we offer a wide range of English programmes.
Selection process
All submissions are viewed by a panel of academic staff and applicants are accepted on merit based on an evaluation of a portfolio of art practice and evidence of academic skills. An interview may be required. Where the number of successful applicants exceeds the places available, a waiting list will be kept and applicants will be offered vacant places in waiting list order.
Portfolio and writing requirements
What to include in your portfolio
- We require examples of your artwork and the ways that you develop your ideas. Your examples need to show us your working processes and your ability to use a range of materials.
- If you have been working in the NCEA system, please send us twelve (12) examples of your finished works and of your working processes from your folders.
- If you have not been working in the NCEA system, please send us six (6) examples of finished work and six (6) pages of sketches or workbook pages.
- Please submit your portfolio digitally if you can. Please do not submit originals as we do not return application folders.
- If you have trouble submitting your portfolio digitally when you are applying online, please email student.administration@op.ac.nz
If you need to send us your portfolio in an A4 folder, please send it to:
Dunedin School of Art
Otago Polytechnic
Riego Street
Private Bag 9010, Dunedin
Again, please don't send us originals.
Thank you. We are looking forward to seeing your artwork.
Writing requirement
Please also include the following with your portfolio:
- An essay or written text (at least 300 words). You may include writing produced for any of your NCEA subjects or you may write a new piece on any topic of your choice.
- A double-spaced letter of not more than one page (300 words) explaining why you want to come to art school and what your experiences of art may have been to date. This may include all or some of the following:
> Why art is important to you, the community and the wider world
> Your expectations for your own future after your studies
> Art galleries you may be familiar with
> Artists whose work you may know
> Art skills you may have already gained.
Please contact artoffice@op.ac.nz with any further questions.
Don't meet the entry requirements?
No problem. We have a couple of pathway programmes that will help you build the skills and degree-level portfolio you need to apply for the Bachelor of Visual Arts.
New Zealand Certificate in Arts and Design (Level 4) - starting in February every year
- Develop your research skills, learn about creative processes and materials, and create your own art and design projects.
New Zealand Certificate in Creativity (Level 4) - starting in July every year
- Across a series of hands-on projects, you'll build your creative skills and identify your strengths and the areas that you enjoy the most. Courses include jewellery, textiles, and product design.
By studying both of these Level 4 certificates, you'll have the well-rounded skills you need to undertake degree-level study.
Want your existing skills recognised?
If you have extensive knowledge and skills due to practical experience in this area, please ask us about our recognition of prior learning process. You may have already gained credits towards this qualification and could achieve it in a shorter timeframe. Please email info@op.ac.nz or call 0800 762 786.
Fees
Domestic fees
International fees
Additional costs
The cost of materials, on top of those provided, vary according to individual projects.
Multi-year fees
The tuition fees shown above are approximate only. There may be a slight fee increase per year once Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) rules and guidelines are applied. These fees also don’t include additional costs or living costs.
Studylink
Domestic full-time students can apply for a student loan through Studylink.
Some support may be available for domestic part-time students if this programme offers a part-time study option.
Apply at the same time as you apply for your course (you can withdraw your application anytime).
Student Services Fee
For most students, your tuition fee shown above includes a Student Services Fee – also known as the Student Levy. This compulsory fee covers your access to the student services we offer. This cost is tailored depending on how you're studying.
The international tuition fee does not include your Student Levy. This will be calculated when you enrol with us.
Click below to find out more about the Student Levy costs and services provided.
Fees Free
The Government has announced that Fees Free for the first year of study or training will finish at the end of 2024. A final-year Fees Free policy will replace it, starting from 1 January 2025.
If you are a first-time tertiary learner in 2025, you may be able to get Fees Free for your final year of study or training. If you are eligible, you will need to apply for your entitlement through IRD from 2026 onwards.
For more information about the transition from first-year Fees Free or the final-year Fees Free policy, visit FeesFree.govt.nz.
Study Grants for international students
We have a range of Study Grants to support our international students.
