Bachelor of Arts - Fashion Buying with Design (Honours) (with placement year)

This specialist degree programme covers the roles and responsibilities of a fashion buyer and designer, while developing a strong business sense within this fast-paced, competitive industry.

Fashion buying requires both strong commercial understanding as well as theoretical knowledge. This course will prepare students for a diverse range of roles within the global fashion industry by developing in-depth design and buying expertise, and by gaining knowledge of the product lifecycle and critical path, current trends, selection, costing and promotion.

Students learn about garment design, pattern cutting, prototyping, construction, and computer-aided design (CAD), while investigating materials, embellishments and technical approaches.

At DMU they place a strong emphasis on nurturing professional practice through personal development planning which encourages students to reflect on their progress and achievements and identify areas they wish to develop and improve, as well as guided research and critical reasoning and offer students the option to specialise in design in years two and three.

DMU is ranked in the Top 10 for Fashion and Textiles in the UK, according to The Guardian University Guide 2020 and DMU was named best in learning experience in 2019 by The Business of Fashion, the internationally renowned website which assesses the world’s top programmes.

Key features

• Meet and learn from successful practitioners in the fashion industry. Produce innovative designs for them and discuss your ideas.
• Gain industry-specific knowledge of the design process, from market analysis and trend prediction to pattern cutting, manufacture, assessing fit, and garment success.
• Explore what makes a successful product and become confident with technical specifications, sourcing decisions and planning.
• Take part in the one-year UK or global placement schemes. Fashion Buying with Design students have gained experience at Tommy Hilfiger, O'Neill, Marks & Spencer, Next, George, Joules, G-Star, River Island, The Global Brands Group, and at supply bases. Many of our graduates have gone on to work for these international brands and suppliers.
• 100% of Fashion Buying graduates from summer 2017 are in work or further study after graduating (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) 2016-17).
• Take advantage of international opportunities through the DMU Global programme. Students have visited Hong Kong, New York, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Porto.
• Study in the award-winning Vijay Patel Building, where well-equipped design workshops and photography studios enable students to explore their design potential while making and testing products.

• Minimum Level of Education Required: 1-Year Post-Secondary Certificate
• Min GPA: 60.0%
• English Proficiency Requirements:
  For direct admission, applicant must be from an English speaking country or meet either of the following English test scores:
  • Min TOEFL iBT: 60 (Min Listening: 7.0, Min Reading: 8.0, Min Speaking: 16.0, Min Writing: 18.0)
  • Min IELTS overall: 6 (Min Listening: 5.5, Min Reading: 5.5, Min Speaking: 5.5, Min Writing: 5.5)
  • Min PTE overall: 50
  Applicants interested in applying for direct admission, but are yet to complete an acceptable language test, can do so, but must provide valid results before receiving a final offer letter.
  For conditional admission, you are required to provide English proficiency scores:
  • Min TOEFL iBT: 32 (Min Listening: 2, Min Reading: 2, Min Speaking: 11, Min Writing: 11)
  • Min IELTS overall: 4.5 (Min Listening: 4, Min Reading: 4, Min Speaking: 4, Min Writing: 4)
  • Min PTE overall: 29