Performance and Professional Practice (top up) – BA (Honours)

At a glance

Develop your artistic and professional skills in the performance arts, and gain an honours degree that can open doors for you in your career. It is designed for people who have a foundation degree or equivalent qualification in the performing arts who want to convert it to a degree.

Key points
• Offers you the chance to convert previous qualifications into an honours degree.• Work across a range of performance related subjects such as music and drama.
• Take a work-based module that enables you to gain professional skills.
• Perform in a group-based production as part of the course.

What is performance and professional practice?
We all perform to one extent or another on every day. We are all adept at changing our behaviour to suite different circumstances, and at changing roles. This taking of roles in many ways can be seen as a performance.

Some people also perform as a profession and the variety of ways in which this can happen is expanding. For example in many jobs people need to stand in front of a room full of people and speak. This course considers how you might expand and utilise your performance skills to seek employment as a professional actor or musician, but also as a facilitator, a presenter, a communicator and in many other ways.

If you have a foundation degree, equivalent qualification in performing arts, or enough experience to take a year of study at this level, this degree allows you to graduate with a full BA (Honours) degree.

You work with students and lecturers from a range of related subjects in drama, music performance or music technology. In this exciting multidisciplinary environment you develop in your chosen area by building on your performance skills, your ability to work independently and your ability to work as part of a team.

You build your academic research and writing skills, such as in performance law. You also do a work-based module with a local agency or group, and apply your specialist skills in professional settings such as education and community arts.

Options can be chosen from a range of subjects including community arts, music and film. You receive study support from professionals and employers in the cultural industries as well as your tutors.

Core modules include group performance and productions, individual professional development and independent study, and performance and the law. A further specialist option can be selected from arts in the community, music in film, or stars of stage and screen.

Key areas of study
You complete a performance module, which builds on key performance skills, but you can then choose whether to follow a more academic path through a dissertation or practical path by choosing final show. If you choose final show, 50% of the course is practical.

You also complete a placement with a professional body, during the issues in professional development module. Placements hosts have included professional theatres, recording studios, radio stations, film companies, post-production companies, therapeutic organisations, colleges and schools.