Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design
Course information for - 2025 entry
Offered at 2 locations
- Duration
- 3 years full-time or equivalent part-time
- CRICOS Code
- 040344M
- Fees (first year)*
- $28728
- Start dates
- February 2026, July 2026, February 2027, July 2027
Overview
ACU’s Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design tailors a blend of studio-based fine art, graphic design, and art history. Combining form and function, this dynamic course allows you to embrace and expand your creative passions while learning industry-based insights and real-world skills. You don’t need an extensive portfolio to apply, and you won’t go through a gruelling audition process.
With dedicated studios and workshops, learn how to harness your individual style and develop your skills as a graphic designer and contemporary artist through real-world studio practice and industry placements in the creative industries.
You’ll have the opportunity to study art history overseas, at the Venice Biennale, in Paris or at our Rome campus, developing local and international networks and expanding your global outlook.
Benefit from hands-on, project-based learning and exhibit your skills to the public in the ACU gallery space throughout your studies, culminating in a final year graduate exhibition which will showcase your work and curating skills at a professional standard.
Enhance your creativity and develop skills and capabilities working across a broad range of mediums, including drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Push creative boundaries and be supported by dedicated educators who are art historians, designers, and curators, and who exhibit their work nationally and internationally.
In your final year you’ll complete a major project in your chosen area and take part in the graduate exhibition showcasing your artwork, catalogue design, events management, and curating skills.
Graduates of this course can pursue further study with a Master of Teaching degree.
Professional experience
You will be required to complete a Professional Practice unit and a 105-hour Industry Internship.
The Professional Practice unit gives you the opportunity to explore some of the diverse career outcomes available to you as a visual arts and design graduate. It emphasises the importance of being an enterprising, socially responsible professional among your networks and communities of practice within the creative industries.
The Industry Internship requires you to volunteer in any area across the creative industries that interests you. This may include: facilitating creative workshops for community groups, volunteering in a museum or gallery, or working with graphic and web design companies or publishers.
Professional recognition
Graduates of this course may be eligible for membership of the following professional bodies:
- Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA)
- Australian Print Council
- Australian Net Art and Technology (ANET)
- Australian Sculptors Association
- Craft Australia
- International Council of Museums (ICOM)
- International Association of Art (UNESCO) (only available to NAVA members)
- National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
- Potters Society
- Victorian Artists Society (VAS)
- Victorian Ceramic Group.
Careers
Our graduates have pursued careers in creative industries including:
- administrator
- advertising
- art conservation
- art creative director
- art gallery manager
- art theory research assistant
- art therapist (with further training)
- art writer
- book illustrator
- curatorship
- events coordinator
- film-maker and editor
- graphic designer
- visual artist
- teaching (with further study)
- theatre and set designer
- visual merchandiser
Course details
Course structure
To complete the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design, a student must complete 240 credit points (cp).
Course map
Graduate statement
AQF framework
Exit Points
A student who has successfully completed the requirements for the Diploma in Visual Arts and Design may exit from the course with that qualification.
Entry requirements
An applicant must also comply with the Admission to Coursework Programs Policy that includes meeting a minimum ATAR requirement.
International applicants need to meet the English Language Proficiency requirements as defined in the Admission to Coursework Programs Policy.
To be eligible for admission to the course, an applicant must have completed the following prerequisites at year 12, or equivalent:
| State | Prerequisites |
|---|---|
New South Wales | Assumed knowledge: 2 units of English (any) (Band 3). Recommended studies: Visual Arts for study in Visual Arts. |
Victoria | Prerequisite: Units 3 and 4 – a study score of at least 25 in English (EAL) or 20 in any other English |
Disclaimer: The course entry requirements above are for 2025 Admission. Refer to your relevant Tertiary Admission Centre website for future years' entry requirements.
View transparency admission information
International applicants
If you’re an international applicant you’ll need the equivalent of an Australian Year 12 Certificate.
Find the equivalent qualification for your country
You’ll also need to comply with the Admission to Coursework Programs Policy , including the English Language Proficiency requirements.
If you’re an international student completing one of the following qualifications, you will need to apply for admission through your local Tertiary Admission Centre (TAC) and be assessed on your performance in these studies (i.e. your ATAR or equivalent):
an Australian Year 12 qualification (either outside or in Australia)
an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma
a New Zealand National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 3.
Adjustment factors
If you’re currently completing Year 12 you may be eligible for adjustment factors that can boost your rank and help you get into your desired course.
Adjustment factors may be applied to your TAC application if you study particular subjects, attend schools geographically close to our campuses or in certain regional areas, apply as an elite athlete or performer or meet certain other criteria.
Inherent requirement
There are essential components of a course or unit that demonstrate the capabilities, knowledge and skills to achieve the core learning outcomes of that course or unit. You will need to be able to meet these inherent requirements to complete your course.
Learn more about inherent requirements for your course and how they affect you
Pathways
Further study
Graduates with bachelor degrees may be eligible for entry into honours courses or to a range of postgraduate coursework programs, eg graduate certificates and graduate diplomas and, through these qualifications and/or with relevant work experience, to master’s degree programs.
Fees
Course costs
- Unit fee: $3591
- Average first year fee: $28728
- Estimate total cost: $86184
The Tuition fees quoted above are for commencing students in the current year who undertake a normal full-time load. The Unit Fee is based on a 10cp unit. Fees are reviewed annually.
Tuition fees for continuing students may increase by up to 3 percent each year for the minimum duration of the course as provided on your electronic Confirmation of Enrolment (eCOE). Students who continue to study beyond the minimum duration will have the relevant annual commencing rate applied to their fees for subsequent study periods.
Payment options
You should be able to concentrate on getting good marks instead of worrying about how you’ll pay your fees. We have a number of options that can help you ease the financial burden, including government assistance, scholarships and income support.
Scholarships
You could be eligible for one of the hundreds of scholarships we award each year to help students from across the university with the cost of studying, accommodation or overseas study opportunities. Some of our scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit, but these aren’t just for the academically gifted; ACU also recognises excellence in community engagement and leadership. We also offer a range of scholarships for those who may be struggling financially or who have faced other barriers to accessing education.
How to apply
International applicants
Direct application
Apply nowInformation on the application procedure
International students undertaking an Australian Year 12 qualification should apply through the relevant tertiary admissions centre.
Deferment
Yes. See Defer your offer.
Students with a Student Visa will need to complete the program in minimum duration, study at least one subject on-campus each semester and must not undertake more than 33% of the program online.
Staff Profile
Dr Penelope Trotter
Lecturer (Visual Arts), Creative Arts (VIC)
Dr Penelope Trotter is a Visual Arts lecturer in Art History, Video Art, Drawing and Painting, a feature writer for fine art journals and a multi-disciplinary visual and performance artist. Key interests in her feature articles are about identity theory, conceptual performance art and painting. In her own practice her most prominent exhibitions have been performance installations based on and about fantasy fulfillment in relation to identity theory and activism. Her most prominent performance works have concerned themselves with the concept of withheld knowledge created by historical phantoms, exploration of measures required to reclaim this knowledge, and an overriding desire to effectively become the "Other.” With her creative roots stemming from growing up and studying art in Tasmania, Penelope Trotter also uses her skills in painting and drawing for her most recent body of work that is concerned with speaking to the preservation and appreciation of our environmental heritage.
Assoc. Prof. Victoria Carruthers
Senior Lecturer (Art History), National School of Arts and Humanities
Associate Professor Victoria Carruthers is Senior Lecturer in modern and contemporary art history and theory at the Australian Catholic University. Her research explores the intersections between art, literature and music across visual cultures from 19th century to the present day. She completed her doctoral thesis on the art of the late American surrealist Dorothea Tanning and has published several articles on her practice. Before coming to art history, Assoc. Prof. Carruthers studied opera (performance) and musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and completed a BA in literature and philosophy and a Masters by thesis on Shakespeare's late plays.
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