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Fashion Marketing BA(Hons)

2023-24 (also available for 2024-25)

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Places available in clearing. Find out more.
Places available in clearing. Find out more.

Start date

18 September 2023

Duration

3 years full-time
4 years inc. placement year

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About the course

Reasons to study

  1. Real-world experience: previous students have delivered exciting live projects for brands such as Coach, L.K. Bennett, Topshop, and Primark.
  2. Build vital industry experience by undertaking a work placement either in the UK or internationally.
  3. 86% student satisfaction rating (NSS 2022).

Fashion Marketing BA (Hons) takes a broad view of everything that goes into the creation, communication, and consumption of fashion marketing and brands that directly reflects fashion industry practice.

Why study Fashion Marketing?

  • Develop your understanding of how the fashion industry works to build up awareness and excitement about fashion as we explore mediums such as social media, digital advertising, press articles and adverts.
  • Use our resources and our inter-disciplinary environment to personalise your learning and develop a wide range of skills to help you become a confident player in the exciting fashion industry.
  • Share modules with students on other fashion courses, enabling you to develop a broad understanding of the industry and the opportunities within it before focusing on your specialism of fashion marketing.
  • Work on an exciting range of industry-focused projects to help build your brand awareness and marketing skills.

The Fashion Marketing BA(Hons) course will help you develop the skills and knowledge you need within the highly competitive global fashion market. The dynamic environment of marketing provides diverse, challenging and exciting opportunities in roles such as marketing, branding, advertising, PR and event planning.

Course detail

Core modules:

Introduction to Critical and Contextual Studies

In this module the history, theory, and culture of fashion and costume will be used to contextualise contemporary industry practices. This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of the development of fashion and costume. It will give you foundation knowledge about the history of fashion and dress, and the key cultural, political, social and economic contexts of clothing and the global fashion industry. The module will cover the development of fashion and the fashion industry, identifying the key people, institutions, events, performances and influences that have informed its evolution as a creative and commercial sector. The module will also examine the relationship between fashion, costume, and society, and their connections to other creative and commercial disciplines. It will also consider the positive and negative cultural, economic and environmental impacts of design, manufacturing, and consumption in both human and environmental contexts, in the UK and globally. The module will provide you with a foundation understanding of fashion, costume and their contexts, allowing you to develop critical insight into these industries. The module will support you in developing a critical vocabulary and the means through which to communicate your ideas. It will help you develop your academic skills, including writing, and help you embed critical and contextual material into your chosen course pathway.

Fashion Professional Development

This module aims to develop your understanding of industry appropriate digital design software applications, and to develop your appreciation of creative and commercial professional practices within the fashion industry. This module will also introduce you to the value of planning and the development of briefs for the design and production of digital communications which are universally applicable within the fashion industry. Design software will be used to create, and publish information with specific consideration to image editing, layout and typography in a variety of digital and online communication media. Projects will cover design processes and production issues and through these, you will gain an appreciation of the inter-relationship between client, designer and the uses and applications of different design media. The module will also give you an opportunity to reflect on and enhance your fashion industry professional practice by introducing you to Personal Development Planning (PDP). PDP is a structured and supported process in which you will reflect on your own learning and achievement, and develop personal, academic and professional skills to support your growth as a student and as a fashion professional.

Creative Fashion Industry

This module aims to provide an introduction to the fashion industries from concept through development, realisation and communication of the product or service to end of life scenario. The multi-faceted and global character of fashion will be explored through the elements of the fashion value chain; design and development, production and the supply chain, marketing and public relations, retail and distribution. These elements will be considered through their application within forward-thinking fashion brands. The module provides a theoretical framework and the practical tools to develop your fashion practice. There will be opportunities to understand how fashion continually evolves; through digital commerce and communications, technological developments and the increasingly important role of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Fashion Practice

This module aims to introduce you to foundation knowledge and skills relevant to your professional practice within the global fashion industry. It will cover the fundamentals of the theory and practical application of buying management, brand marketing and creative direction within contemporary fashion organisations. Fashion organisations and the fashion industry will be viewed and examined from the perspectives of international consumers, manufacturers and retailers. The module will examine the diverse and dynamic nature of processes and activities within the fashion industry and how they are managed within fashion businesses. These will be contextualised and made relevant to your named degree pathway. In particular, students will be introduced to and encouraged to engage with the practice of fashion buying management, fashion brand marketing and fashion creative direction.

Entry requirements

To find out if you’re eligible to start this course in September 2023 and get more information on how to apply, please see our Clearing pages or call our Clearing Helpline on 0333 987 900001484 472777.

If you’re interested in studying this course in September 2024, please view the 2024-25 course information.

In addition to the academic entry requirements, you will also need:

As a centre of creative excellence, we look forward to hearing about your own creative experiments and ambitions through a discussion of your portfolio at interview.

Read our guidance on developing your portfolio and what to expect from your interview.

Placements

The course offers an optional one-year (36 weeks minimum) work placement after the second year, either in the United Kingdom or internationally. This will give you the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience and insight into your chosen career path and open up your graduate employment prospects. Our Placement Unit and academic staff have excellent industry links and can support you in applying for and finding your placement(s), and you will be supported during your placement year through scheduled visits from academic staff.

Students from our suite of fashion courses have previously taken up placement opportunities with companies including J Barbour & Sons, Jimmy Choo, Hobbs and Temperley.

Alternatively, if you are a student from within the UK, you may consider starting your own small business by applying for unique Enterprise Placement Year in conjunction with the University's Enterprise Team. The Enterprise Placement year immerses you in real-world fashion entrepreneurship, and you will benefit from bespoke business advice, mentoring, and networking sessions. Students from our suite of fashion courses set up their own brands in vintage resale, jewellery and sustainably sourced fashion products.

This is an exciting and innovative course option that could lead you and your business idea to the very top of British fashion. You can find out more about the Enterprise Placement Year here.

You can find out more information on placements here.

A placement is a great opportunity to explore your chosen industry, to understand the sector, network and make valuable contacts, whilst developing your skills, knowledge and experience. A placement is a chance to get involved, to put theory into practice and to work alongside professionals.

Photo of Steph Bower, Placements officer for SAH

Stephanie Bower, Placements Officer

Student Work

A gallery of work by our Fashion Brand Marketing students and graduates. Click on each image to find out more.

Your career

This course aims to help you to develop the skills needed for roles such as marketing, fashion journalism, fashion PR, advertising and promotion, both in the UK and abroad.

Reflecting industry practice is at the heart of this degree, and as such you will work collaboratively as well as individually on a variety of projects; in the past, for example, students have delivered exciting live projects for brands such as Coach, L.K. Bennett, Topshop, and Primark. Enriching your learning will be a series of field trips to exhibitions and other appropriate cultural and commercial events; these will complement your studies and inspire your ideas.

*Percentage of our undergraduate students from these subject areas go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2019/20, UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

80-92% Graduates employed*

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

We will always try to deliver your course as described on this web page. However, sometimes we may have to make changes as set out below.

Changes to a course you have applied for

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment.

Cancellation of a course you have applied for

Although we always try and run all of the course we offer, we may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants to ensure you have a good learning experience. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will contact you to discuss other suitable courses with us we can transfer your application to. If we notify you that the course you have applied to has been withdrawn or combined, and you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

We will always try to deliver your course and other services as described. However, sometimes we may have to make changes as set out below:

Changes to option modules

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have a range of options to choose from and we will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes

We will only make major changes to the core curriculum of a course or to our services if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change in this context is a change that materially changes the services available to you; or the outcomes, or a significant part, of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), classes, type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum.

For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators; to meet the latest requirements of a commissioning or accrediting body; to improve the quality of educational provision; in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback; and/or to reflect academic or professional changes within subject areas. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but this may not always be the case. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation with affected students. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

Termination of course

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed and we will notify you as soon as possible about what your options are, which may include transferring to a suitable replacement course for which you are qualified, being provided with individual teaching to complete the award for which you were registered, or claiming an interim award and exiting the University. If you do not wish to take up any of the options that are made available to you, then you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the course without liability to the University for future tuition fees and you will be entitled to a refund of all course fees paid to date. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by a framework of regulations, policies and procedures, which form the basis of your agreement with us. These include regulations regarding the assessment of your course, academic integrity, your conduct (including attendance) and disciplinary procedure, fees and finance and compliance with visa requirements (where relevant). It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to abide by them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan, where you will also find links to the full text of each of the regulations, policies and procedures referred to. You should read these carefully before you enrol. Please note that this information is subject to change and you are advised to check our website regularly for any changes before you enrol at the University. A person who is not party to this agreement shall not have any rights under or in connection with it. Only you and the University shall have any right to enforce or rely on the agreement.

Equal opportunities

The University of Huddersfield is an equal opportunities institution. We aim to create conditions where staff and students are treated solely on the basis of their merits, abilities and potential, regardless of gender, age, race, caste, class, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, family responsibility, trade union activity, political or religious belief, or age. Please visit our website to see our Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy

Data protection

The University holds personal data on all enquirers, applicants and enrolled students. All such data is kept and processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Legislation. The University’s Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notices are available on the University website.

Students’ Union membership

Under the 1994 Education Act, students at all UK universities have the right to join, or not to join, the Students’ Union. There is no membership fee. If you choose not to join you have the right not to be disadvantaged; however, you are not entitled to vote, take part in elections, or hold any office. The following arrangements apply in order that non-Union members are not disadvantaged: Non-members are welcome to take part in the activities of Affiliated Clubs and Societies on payment of the appropriate subscription. However, they may not vote or hold office in the society or club. Union members may be offered a discounted subscription. Non-members are free to use Union facilities on the same basis as members. Welfare, catering and shops are available to non-members as well as members. Union members may be offered a discounted price.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.