Photography (Top-up)

Why study this course

This is a top-up version of our Photography BA (Hons) degree. A top-up degree is the final year (Level 6) of an undergraduate degree course and is for those who have a foundation degree, Higher National Diploma or equivalent qualification, or those wishing to study the final year of their degree in London.

This innovative Photography BA degree is taught in the heart of London's art and media hub where you'll find inspiration all around you. You'll develop essential digital and analogue photography skills alongside moving image expertise, as well as learning about professional practice, exploring links with other art forms and discovering the history and aesthetics of photography through practice and theory.

More about this course

This forward-looking and progressive Photography BA course will help you to develop an understanding of the diverse range of photographic practices and opportunities open to you. It is centred around each individual constructing a unique and personal creative identity and understanding how to make the most of this within diverse professional contexts.

As well as developing your individual creative practice and portfolio, you'll build up a wide array of professional and transferable skills needed for a career as a professional photographer or associated professions, ranging from being a curator, picture editor or art director to a photographer’s agent, producer or retoucher. The degree covers 35mm, medium format both digital and analogue photography as well as large format analogue practices, and is taught at one of the UK’s very few art schools equipped with both colour and black-and-white darkroom facilities.

The course not only enables you to build excellent industry standard photographic skills and theoretical knowledge to support and extend your creative vision, but also helps you apply these to moving image work as well as more adventurous and experimental outcomes on the margins of traditional practice.

You’ll be supported by our team of experienced tutors, all of whom are active practitioners carrying out commissions and or regularly showcasing their work nationally and internationally.

You could have the opportunity to take part in both national and international study visits, where you'll learn to apply knowledge to live briefs and other work-related scenarios. Alongside regular, publicly accessible university exhibitions of on-going work, you'll be encouraged to exhibit your own work with London based and national art groups, London Met has strong links with several art groups including Alternative Arts, Photomonth Festival, Four Corners Film and Photography, London Independent Photographers and the Uncertain States group.

You’ll also have access, and the chance to contribute, to the East End Photography Archive at London Met's School of Art, Architecture and Design.

Want to experience university life in the world's greatest student city (QS 2025)? Then look no further.

London Metropolitan University is proud to be ranked first in the UK for the difference it makes to students’ lives (Guardian University Guide 2026). Dedicated to preparing graduates for the ever-changing job market, their courses are modern and vocational, with an emphasis on teaching transferrable workplace skills. Whether you're an artist or an engineer, you'll receive career-relevant teaching from industry experts, with clear paths for progression.

You've also got the best of both worlds – a buzzing campus community, and the excitement of life in London. There's always plenty going on at London Met for you to get involved in. You can meet like-minded people at a society, by becoming part of a sports team, or engaging in volunteering.

Register your interest now, to unlock the experience of a lifetime at London Met.