| Code | Faculty | Department |
|---|---|---|
| 01130103 | Faculty of Humanities | Department: School of the Arts |
| Credits | Duration | NQF level |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum duration of study: 4 years | Total credits: 494 | NQF level: 08 |
This programme focuses on the main disciplines in fine arts, ie painting, sculpture, graphic printmaking, drawing and new media, as well as on the theories and concepts of art. Graduates qualify as professional artists. The programme is aimed at the promotion of aesthetic awareness and the broadening of visual, critical and creative thinking. The programme also incorporates art management, art communication and marketing, digital training and the use of a wide range of artists materials, media and techniques.
Important information for all prospective students for 2025
The admission requirements below apply to all who apply for admission to the University of Pretoria with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) and Independent Examination Board (IEB) qualifications. Click here for this Faculty Brochure.
Minimum requirements | |||
Achievement level | |||
English Home Language or English First Additional Language | APS (Grade 11) | APS (NSC/IEB completed) | Additional art requirements: |
5 | 30 | 28 | An A4 portfolio must be submitted. This will be evaluated along with a UP competency test with practical and theoretical components. Successful applicants must pass with at least 60% in each of the following components:
|
* To retain admission, you must obtain an APS of at least 28 in the NSC.
Admissions for the Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts programme will take place in July, September and Ad-hoc.
Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
Applicants currently in Grade 12 must apply with their final Grade 11 (or equivalent) results.
Applicants who have completed Grade 12 must apply with their final NSC or equivalent qualification results.
Please note that meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission.
Successful candidates will be notified once admitted or conditionally admitted.
Applicants should check their application status regularly on the UP Student Portal at click here.
Applicants with qualifications other than the abovementioned should refer to the International undergraduate prospectus 2025: Applicants with a school leaving certificate not issued by Umalusi (South Africa), available at click here.
International students: Click here.
Transferring students
A transferring student is a student who, at the time of applying at the University of Pretoria (UP) is/was a registered student at another tertiary institution. A transferring student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance. Students who have been dismissed from other institutions due to poor academic performance will not be considered for admission to UP.
Closing dates: Same as above.
Returning students
A returning student is a student who, at the time of application for a degree programme is/was a registered student at UP, and wants to transfer to another degree at UP. A returning student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance.
Note:
Closing date for applications from returning students
Unless capacity allows for an extension of the closing date, applications from returning students must be submitted before the end of August via your UP Student Centre.
Departmental selection is necessary prior to admission to this programme. Although Art as a Grade 12 subject is not a requirement, a candidate must be able to demonstrate his/her creative potential and commitment to the chosen field of study. Candidates are therefore required to submit a portfolio of work for a merit selection review and, if invited, undergo a series of selection processes and be interviewed by a selection committee. Contact the coordinator for more information.
The Dean may approve exceptions to these promotion requirements on the recommendation of the head of the department.
The degree is awarded with distinction to a candidate who obtains at least 75% in BKK 400 and in VKK 401.
Minimum credits: 128
To be promoted to the second year of study, a student should pass the following modules: BKK 101, VIT 101, VKK 111 and 121.
Module content:
Find, evaluate, process, manage and present information resources for academic purposes using appropriate technology.
Module content:
Apply effective search strategies in different technological environments. Demonstrate the ethical and fair use of information resources. Integrate 21st-century communications into the management of academic information.
Module content:
This module intends to equip students to cope more confidently and competently with the reading and understanding of a variety of texts, to apply these skills in a variety of contexts and to follow the conventions of academic writing.
Module content:
This module equips students to understand and use a range of discipline-specific terminology; apply the strategies of critical and comprehensive reading to their own academic literacy; apply the conventions of academic writing to their own writing, using the process approach, to produce intelligible academic texts and use the correct referencing technique as required by the faculty.
Module content:
Foundations of visual culture
This module introduces art and visual culture theory using a wide range of texts and ideas. The module gives students wide exposure to visual discourses and includes a variety of visual culture examples e.g. artworks, advertisements. These discourses may include: exploring what visual culture is; modes of analysis; introducing terminology such as ideology and myth; dealing with selected periods from history contextually; introducing cultural icons and themes from popular visual culture.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
During the first year, students will explore a range of 2D, 3D and digital mediums and processes as practiced in various studio modalities, including graphic printmaking, painting, sculpture, drawing and digital laboratories. The subject will develop students’ technical abilities and artistic expression related to ideas, formal aspects, materials and techniques through the processes of conceptualisation, observation, visualisation, materialisation, documentation, representation and presentation of artworks. Students are introduced to Fine Art research approaches and methods. Through themed projects and self-study, students will explore critical concepts and methods in historical and contemporary art practices.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
This module offers occupational related preparation by familiarising students with art institutions and the art industry; and by providing skills in the promotional aspects of their personal art practice. Students will conduct site visits and research, reflect and report on the local art industry, its institutions and communities as codified practices. Opportunities will be provided for students to evaluate and investigate a specific facet of the local arts and culture environment through conducting interviews and contextual research. Students will be introduced to ethical matters in the discipline and will be orientated towards a community art engagement. Further, the module provides guidance on preparing self-promotional documents and opportunities to enhance social and networking skills.
Module content:
Images across media: current issues
This module presents an introduction into the ways in which images appear across media in contemporary visual culture from a specific African perspective within the global. This is done by means of exploring key modes, themes, genres, platforms and visual texts. Among the media and mediums that may be covered are photography, art, graphic design, advertising, film, documentaries, video, digital and social media.
Module content:
Taalkundekomponent: Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse taalkunde
Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse taalkunde met die klem op skryfvaardighede.
Letterkundekomponent: Inleiding tot Afrikaanse literatuurstudie
Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse literatuurgeskiedenis, -kritiek en -teorie.
Module content:
Taalkundekomponent: Fonetiek en fonologie
Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse fonetiek en fonologie. Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse taalkunde.
Letterkundekomponent: Afrikaanse populêre kultuur
Inleiding tot kultuurstudie: ʼn Oorsig oor populêre fiksie, musiek en films in Afrikaans.
Module content:
This introduction to social anthropology introduces basic themes of the discipline including ritual, religion, marriage and sex. It combines classic studies with recent scholarship, and asks the ‘big question’ about human society and human cultures that offer challenging perspectives on the world we live in.
Module content:
This module builds on the ethnographic and theoretical themes introduced in APL 110, asking particular questions about how we may think about the relationship between the local and the global; indigenous and universal; public and private; the real and the possible.The module continues in the vein of APL 110, in that it explicitly encourages students to understand the society in which they live through a series of critical anthropological perspectives.
Module content:
*Alternative evening classes - 2 discussion classes per week Introduction to Literature in English (1)
This module introduces the study of literature by examining a number of texts representing different genres (poetry, prose, drama). The texts studied here will be mainly from the pre-twentieth century era and may include texts written in English from both Africa and other parts of the world. The aim of this module is to equip students with the critical and analytical skills required for a perceptive reading of poetry, novels and plays.
Module content:
*Alternative evening classes: 2 discussion classes per week
Introduction to Literature in English (2)
This module introduces the study of post-nineteenth century literature by examining a number of texts representing different genres (poetry, drama, prose). Texts will be from both Africa and other parts of the world. By the end of this module students should have the background and analytical skills to perceptively read modern and contemporary poetry, novels and plays.
Module content:
Introduction to Philosophy
The two semester modules at first-year level introduce students to four main subfields of philosophy, namely metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy and ethics. This module introduces students to two of these subfields, namely epistemology and metaphysics with reference to the work of a range of scholars from Africa and the rest of the Global South as well as from Asia and the West. Students will become acquainted with the nature of philosophical reflection by exploring a number of classical philosophical themes in each subfield. Throughout the module there is an emphasis on developing those critical thinking, reading and writing skills that are required in Philosophy, while students become acquainted with the power of critique as judgment and discernment.
Module content:
Introduction to Philosophy
The two semester modules at first-year level introduce students to four main subfields of philosophy, namely metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy and ethics. This module introduces students to two of these subfields, namely political philosophy and ethics and the emphasis is on texts by African and Western scholars. Students will become acquainted with the nature of philosophical reflection by exploring a number of classical philosophical themes in each subfield. Throughout the module there is an emphasis on developing those critical thinking, reading and writing skills that are required in Philosophy, while students become acquainted with the power of critique as judgment and discernment.
Module content:
What is religion? The functions of religion. Studying religion. Perspectives on religion. Common concepts and key terms in various religions will be dealt with - also generic dimensions and aspects. The interdependence of religion, culture and society.
Module content:
The occurrence of religion in societies. Types of religion. Primal religions. Christianity, Judaism, Islam. A variety of religions will be addressed: capita selecta will be made from Christianity; Hinduism; Buddhism; New Religions; New Age; main developments in the world and South Africa.
Module content:
This module is a general orientation to Psychology. An introduction is given to various theoretical approaches in Psychology, and the development of Psychology as a science is discussed. Selected themes from everyday life are explored and integrated with psychological principles. This module focuses on major personality theories. An introduction is given to various paradigmatic approaches in Psychology.
Module content:
This module introduces the student to a basic knowledge and understanding of the biological basis of human behaviour. The module addresses the key concepts and terminology related to the biological subsystem, the rules and principles guiding biological psychology, and identification of the interrelatedness of different biological systems and subsystems. In this module various cognitive processes are studied, including perception, memory, thinking, intelligence and creativity. Illustrations are given of various thinking processes, such as problem solving, critical, analytic and integrative thinking.
Minimum credits: 126
To be promoted to the third year of study, a student should pass all the core modules prescribed for the second year of study.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
During the second foundational year, students will continue with their exploration of a range of 2D, 3D and digital mediums and processes as practiced in various studio modalities, including graphic printmaking, painting, sculpture, drawing and digital laboratories. The subject will enhance students’ intermediate technical abilities and artistic expression related to ideas, formal aspects, materials and techniques through the processes of conceptualisation, observation, visualisation, materialisation, experimentation, documentation, representation and presentation of artworks. Students will discover process-orientated research methods through their practice. Through themed projects and self-study, students will explore critical concepts and methods in historical and contemporary art practices and interpret their significance to their own work.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
This module offers occupational related preparation by providing opportunities for students to participate in art education, community engagements and the art industry. Further, the module will provide opportunity for students to: Develop the promotional and entrepreneurial aspects of their personal art practice through creating marketing material and proposal writing; Develop their research, teaching and communication skills through peer teaching; Foster independent learning through a self-study component in a hybrid learning environment; Develop foundational skills in ethics; Participate in orientation towards a community engagement project; and apply skills and knowledge through curatorial practice or similar codified art practices.
Module content:
Gender, sexuality and visual representation
Introduction to the representation of sex, gender and sexuality in visual culture. Gender theory and terminology related to feminism, masculinity studies and lbgtq theory (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered, queer) are unpacked. Themes and issues in gender and identity politics such as the male hero, the nude in late 19th century art, the femme fatale, hysteria, androgyny and transsexuality are dealt with. Sexuality and gender issues across a range of visual cultural such as soaps, sitcoms, artworks, advertisements, fashion, music videos and films are addressed.
Module content:
Visual (Post)colonialisms
This module investigates aspects of Africanness, Afrocentrism, multiculturalism, transnationalism and the African diaspora and studies a cross section of work including traditional art, tourist art and the hybrid aesthetics of contemporary African art and visual culture. The module also focuses on the ideology of imperialism and colonialism and its influence on art and visual culture from the nineteenth century onwards. The influence of postcolonial thinking on the deconstruction of the ideology of colonialism is highlighted with reference to landscape and memory, the exotic and primitivism in South African visual culture.
Minimum credits: 120
To be promoted to the fourth year of study, a student should pass all the core modules prescribed for the third year of study.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
This module will focus on the integration of skills and knowledge acquired thus far, with emphasis on finding a synthesis between ideas, materials, process and theory through a studio-based research approach. Opportunities are provided for students to hone their artistic expression with a focus on experimentation towards their final year of study. Through lectures, consultations and self-study, students will explore concepts and methods in historical and contemporary art practices and their application within personal art practices. Studio projects will gradually merge into a continuous investigation of a self-motivated theme that is grounded in a theoretical understanding of concepts and methods in art. Students will reflect and write on their practice; different modes of presentation will be utilised to provide opportunities for critical reflection and debate.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
This module offers occupational related preparation by providing an opportunity for students to conceptualise, research, develop and manage a real world application of skills and knowledge within the broader creative and art spheres. Students will apply procedural and conceptual knowledge through their participation in a community engagement project. The module will hone students’ skills in the entrepreneurial, managerial and promotional aspects of their personal art practice. An opportunity for an internship within the creative or educational sector will provide insight into a selected professional art practice.
Module content:
Post/Modernities: Contemporary discourses
This module investigates Modernism and Postmodernism as the dominant aesthetic, discursive and visual paradigms of the 20th and 21st centuries. Key concepts in these discourses and counter-discourses are highlighted and explored, such as the creation of modern subjectivity, the beautiful and the sublime, the avant garde, the metaphysics of presence, originality, authorship, hermeneutics, the “language turn”, différance and the so-called “end of art”. Theorist may include: Kant, Heidegger, Derrida and Foucault.
Minimum credits: 120
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
Guided independent artistic research at honours level and specialisation within a studio modality/medium to demonstrate professional attributes. Opportunities are provided for students to develop a coherent and creative body of work through experimental and process-orientated studio-based research practice. Students will apply advanced skills of conceptualisation, visualisation, materialisation, documentation, representation and/or presentation, to determine a self-motivated project that is grounded in a theoretical understanding of concepts and methods in historical and contemporary art. Students will reflect and write on their practice; different modes of presentation will be utilised to provide opportunities for critical reflection and debate.
Module content:
*Requires departmental selection
This module focusses on developing students’ critical competencies and research skills. Students are familiarised with the broader streams of contemporary thinking in Fine Arts and critical approaches to form linkages between contemporary and historical art discourses and practices within both international and local cultural paradigms. Opportunities are provided for students to hone their analytical skills through conducting research into such discourses within art practice and theory. The module provides opportunities to develop competencies in research methodology; reading and writing skills; and critical, creative and generative thinking skills through class discussion, critical engagement, and written argumentation.
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