BA (Hons)

Fashion Promotion

Fashion promotion is more than clothes - it shapes the industry's impact on culture and society. Learn brand communication through words and images. Become a hybrid creative, combining strategy, ideation, and visualisation for impactful campaigns across retail, print, digital, and phygital spaces.

How to apply Apply Through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us

Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    WN25

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,535*

  • International students

    £15,850*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • UCAS Code

    WNF5

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £9,535*

  • International students

    £15,850*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

Fashion Promotion is where fashion, marketing and media meet. Study for a career in this fast-moving industry where technology, culture and trends provide the inspiration for advertising campaigns and iconic communications.


We make a difference in practice, not just on paper. Our courses are designed by people who offer jobs - and taught by people who have real work experience.


DESIGNED FOR

Study skills prized by fashion employers. Learn to build a brand, navigate media, understand consumer behaviour and use digital tech for campaigns. Fashion Promoters create multidimensional campaigns for physical, print, and digital media, making fashion a powerful tool for expression and change.

Career Paths

  • Creative director
  • Social media and content co-ordinator
  • Digital marketing executive
  • Public relations executive
  • Campaign manager
  • Influencer
  • Fashion journalist

Skills taught

  • Written and image-based content creation 
  • Photography, video, and editing
  • Graphic design
  • Consumer psychology
  • Collaboration

Course Highlights

Industry experience

Extensive placement opportunities and live industry briefs prepare you for the world of work from day one.

Brand partnerships

Unique to Wales, our Size? Syllabus project nurtures budding creative talent with briefs from streetwear brands.

Future skills

We future-proof graduates by teaching problem-solving, digital literacy, collaboration, and communication skills.

Outstanding facilities

Level up with professional photography equipment and design software in our dedicated studios and workshops.

Outstanding survey results

Top 10 for fashion and textiles, 2024 The Guardian UK Good University Guide. 92% of USW BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion students were satisfied with their course. (NSS 2024)

Module Overview

Gain a thorough grounding in the fashion industry and the core skills and concepts you’ll need to promote fashion effectively. Refine your technical skills and identify your specialisms before building a portfolio and gaining real-world experience that primes you for career success.

This year boosts your understanding and approaches to learning. Experience a mix of theory and practical classes, learning branding, consumer psychology, styling, and visual communication, including creating photoshoots and concepts for advertising campaigns.

Introduction to the Fashion Industry

Look into fashion's history, design, production, marketing, and cultural impact. Explore the dynamic world of clothing and trends, from creation to consumer.

Consumer Psychology and Trends 

Study how thoughts, emotions, and behaviours influence buying decisions. Trends include sustainability, ethical consumption, e-commerce growth and personalisation. 

Fashion Styling

Learn how to create compelling and cohesive looks and convey a desired aesthetic or message through curating and combining outfits, makeup, accessories, and visuals.

Visual Communication for Fashion

Explore how information, ideas, and emotions are expressed through images, graphics, and design. Learn how to engage audiences using visual cues and creativity.

Fashion Branding

Understand how brands resonate with consumers and foster loyalty through design, marketing, and storytelling, and how a brand’s identity, values, and perception shape the market.

Fashion Studies 1*

Explore the cultural, historical and societal significance of clothing and trends, examining design, production, consumption, lifestyle and the interplay between fashion and identity. 

*Part of this module can be studied through the medium of Welsh

The second year is designed to level up your theoretical and practical skills in fashion media, PR, writing, digital photography and video. You’ll gain industry experience through your work placement and consider the sandwich year that boosts your career prospects.

Fashion Industry Experience*

Get hands-on experience, develop professional skills, and establish industry connections as you undertake a 70-hour placement at a company that lights your fire.

Fashion Media and PR

Discover how to manage brand image through media and communication, exploring how to enhance visibility, create narratives, and engage audiences across many platforms and events.

Fashion Photography and Video

Learn more than camera skills; master creative direction and planning to catch the essence, style and emotion of clothes and products through compelling visual narratives.    

Marketing Communications for Fashion

Craft persuasive messages to promote clothing brands through advertising, social media, PR, and events. Explore how storytelling drives engagement and loyalty.

*Part of this module can be studied through the medium of Welsh

Campaign Management

Learn to create digital marketing campaigns using strategic thinking. Define objectives, frameworks, and metrics to launch successful campaigns.    

Fashion Studies 2

Take a deeper look into clothing and trends’ cultural, historical, and societal significance, with opportunities to research and write about issues you’re passionate about.

Employment and experience diploma

The sandwich year bridges the gap between theory and practical application, enhancing your understanding of your chosen field and opening doors to future employment.

The third year is the most specialised and academically demanding. Students engage in advanced coursework, projects and live briefs. The Major Fashion Project allows students to demonstrate their mastery of their preferred specialism by applying their skills and research to an original brief. The dissertation allows students to explore complex topics and cutting-edge research in their field. During the third year, students also engage in career and entrepreneurial workshops to prepare for post-graduation plans and careers. 

Major Fashion Project

Conceptualise, develop, and execute a project involving substantial research and creative efforts, demonstrating your interests, skills and knowledge to boost job prospects. 

Live Agency Brief

A live brief set by a fashion brand, challenging you to conceptualise, design, and execute a fashion project based on current industry trends and demands. 

Fashion Industry Futures*

Prepare for graduation and your entrepreneurial future as you assemble your portfolio, develop ‘brand you’ and explore career opportunities.

*Part of this module can be studied through the medium of Welsh

Fashion Studies 3

Think big as you develop an ambitious dissertation project with in-depth research and original findings on a specific topic that you’re passionate about.

Co Lab (Collaboration and Innovation)

In this project, pool your skills and creativity to design and create a collective fashion campaign, celebrating your achievements as you prepare for graduation.

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Modules are created with industry input, meaning you learn the latest skills and knowledge sought by employers. This degree is assessed entirely through coursework. You'll gain theoretical grounding via lectures and practical workshops. Hands-on experience includes live projects in our top-notch facilities, industry collaborations, and internships. Assessments are diverse, covering theoretical understanding and practical skills through presentations, reports, portfolios, and creative projects. This comprehensive approach shapes you into a well-rounded fashion communicator, ready to make a commercial impact.

Teaching Staff

Our teaching team brings a unique blend of industry experience and academic excellence. Their breadth of expertise means they not only provide outstanding academic support, but also help you navigate the industry, identify your strengths and interests, and pursue your goals. Our course leader has spearheaded famous campaigns and been Head of Creative at household names in a twenty-year career. Our team also includes marketing and photography specialists who develop your skills, while another course lecturer has a PhD in Cultural and Critical Theory, enriching your learning across critical, cultural, historical, and creative storytelling.

Placements and work experience

Employability and enterprise are embedded within our curriculum. Live briefs and industry collaborations enable you to develop the skills, knowledge, experience, behaviours, relationships and graduate attributes required to achieve and succeed. After the second year of study, you can engage in a year-long work placement supported by the Careers Team and lecturers. During this time, you’ll work in a professional setting related to your interest in the fashion industry, gaining practical experience and often earning a salary. Typical placement roles include content creation, visual merchandising and styling.

Facilities

All manner of top-notch facilities, spaces and equipment help you develop your practical skills. We have a range of photography and fashion design studios, as well as extensive styling wardrobes and five mock shop windows. You’ll have full access to creative software such as Adobe Suite. You can source high-spec cameras, lighting equipment and more from our extensive media loans department, and our library gives you access to major fashion publications. Based at The Atrium in Cardiff, you’re at the heart of one of the UK’s creative hubs, with endless opportunities for collaboration with students on other creative courses.

Equipment

At our Cardiff Campus we have a vast range of equipment that you will be trained to use as part of your course. To help support your studies we have a Media Loans facility that allows you to hire the equipment, at no cost, for you to then use for your assignments and practical work.  We have both basic and high-end film and photography cameras, portable lighting and sound equipment as well as a range of professional studio recording microphones, instruments and associated equipment to use in our music studios or on location. The team of technical officers and instructors are also available to help you with any queries and technical issues.

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Our varied course offers various career paths in fashion. You might drive brand awareness as a marketer, brand strategist, or PR specialist, or take a hands-on role as a social media content creator, stylist, or visual merchandiser. You could also oversee a team as a creative director. The course introduces you to various specialisms and prepares you for your chosen role. Our alumni work at companies like Reef, Boden, BBC, Fashion Revolution, Harper’s Bazaar, Primark, Peacocks, Next, Dazed, John Lewis, and Alexander McQueen.

Careers support

You’ll have access to our careers and employability support team throughout your studies when and after graduation. This includes one-to-one appointments with faculty based career advisors either in person or via video-call. We have a collection of online resources designed to help you explore career options, and tools to help you apply for job applications and interviews. The course aim is to make you ‘industry-ready’. We co-create and revalidate our modules with industry partners so our course reflects the latest industry developments and employer requirements, making sure our students are up to date with this fast moving industry.

Industry partners

Thanks to our teaching staff’s connections and our ideal location, we have strong links with industry. Brands such as Size?, Oxfam, Cowshed Communications, LUSH, Next, and Hiut Denim enrich our course by helping to develop modules, providing guest speakers and delivering live briefs. Our students enjoy placements nationally and locally in the marketing, retail and creative departments of brands and agencies across Wales and West of England’s creative industry. We’re also members of The British Fashion Council.

Sandwich years

A sandwich year enables you to apply the knowledge gained during your degree to real-world work situations. You’ll equip yourself with a transferable skillset and gain invaluable work experience that will help you to stand out to potential employers in future job applications. A sandwich year also provides a fantastic opportunity to network and, if you impress your employer, you may even find you have a job waiting for you when you graduate. Many employers like to take on dedicated employees as showcased via a sandwich year placement scheme.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

UCAS points: 96 (or above)

Typical qualification requirements:

  • A Level: BCC
  • BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Merit Merit
  • Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate: Grade C/B in the Skills Challenge Certificate and BC - CC at A Level
  • Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 104 UCAS tariff points.

Additional requirements include:

The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.

Selection for this course is based on a suitable application. If you do not meet the entry criteria you may also be required to attend an interview to help us assess your suitability for the course.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£9,535

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£15,850

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£15,850

per year*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Bursaries Cost of Living Support

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

  • Materials in Year 1: £50
  • Years 1 and 2: Sourcing, printing and finishing of outcomes: £0 - £100
  • Year 3: Research and printing costs: £0 - £500

  • Years 1 and 2: £50
  • Year 3: £350

Media Loans

You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.

Media Loans

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

“I DID MY SECOND-YEAR INDUSTRY PLACEMENT AT COWSHED COMMUNICATION, WHO WE WORKED WITH ON A LIVE BRIEF IN FIRST YEAR. THE INTERNSHIP WENT SO WELL THAT THEY ASKED ME TO STAY ON AFTER GRADUATION!”

Ananya Dcruz

Top ten in UK for assessment in Fashion and Textiles (Guardian University Guide 2024).

  • Fashion and Textiles at USW is 7th in the UK and top in Wales for Teaching Quality (Guardian University Guide 2025).

92% of our BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion students were satisfied with their course (NSS 2024).

  • Fashion and Textiles at USW is 7th in the UK and top in Wales for Teaching Quality (Guardian University Guide 2025).


How to apply

All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)

Advanced entry

If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.

International admissions

International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
 

Life at USW

Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.