international student portfolio guide for btec / HND / BA (hons)

Guidelines for international students preparing a portfolio for interview, or submitting a digital portfolio and application direct to the faculty

There is often the opportunity for International students to attend interviews organised by the University in their country of residence or even in the UK. The University would highly recommend this method of application. Alternatively applicants may send a portfolio and completed application form by post as a hard copy or digital file. Below are some ideas to consider when preparing a portfolio for application

What is a Portfolio?

A broad term, a portfolio is a body of work presented in a form appropriate to the individuals practice. All students applying for practically based visual courses will be required to submit a portfolio

A portfolio is evidence of completed projects as well as work in progress

A portfolio should showcase both experience and ability

A portfolio can include paintings, drawings, photographs, three-dimensional work, time based work and anything else relevant to the area of practice. The portfolio can also be presented in digital format.

A portfolio can include work that was done as part of a course, as part of work experience or even in recreational time

What size should the portfolio be and how should it be presented?

Work should be ordered so that it is easily navigable, presented chronologically, by project or other logical method

The amount of work in a portfolio doesn’t matter as long as it contains a good representation of the candidate’s strongest pieces and can be easily viewed.

As a general rule 20 good quality pages should suffice.

Arrange the work in a logical sequence so that each piece of work leads easily to the next. This can help both the candidate and interviewer if attending an interview session, or the person looking at the work if submitting direct to the University

If attending an interview the ideal portfolio is one that is easy to open, not too full, and allows easy navigation

For digital portfolios ensure that 2d and 3d work is photographed well, giving a sense of scale and that it is properly annotated.

If you are submitting a digital portfolio with more than one page, it should be contained within one PDF file or PowerPoint file. For any moving image submission such as computer animation or video, this should be ideally in QuickTime format. If you are emailing your portfolio file, you must limit the file size to 5MB.

Digital portfolios are acceptable if attending interview.

Ensure that each individual piece of work is presented thoughtfully.

If including photographs ensure they are properly mounted or annotated. If they are an important part of the process or final outcome, present them as such

What should the portfolio contain?

The portfolio should contain a selection of work representative of the individual NOT everything they have ever done.

Avoid the temptation to include too much. It is much better to have a dozen good, varied pieces about which are easy to talk, than twenty or thirty indifferent drawings.

The portfolio should have a good beginning, middle and end. Think carefully about the way it is ordered
 Remember there may not have time to present the whole portfolio if attending interview, consider which work is most important. Make the portfolio easy to read if sending it directly to the University

Examples of ideas generation and the creative development are essential

Try to illustrate knowledge and capability concerning basic artistic skills and topics not just finished projects  

Evidence of pure drawing ability is extremely valuable, e.g. life drawing, observational work etc.

If attending an interview can 3 dimensional works be included in the portfolio or is it better to photograph these pieces?

This is dependant on the subject area, if intending to study three-dimensional design it is probably more important to bring the actual pieces along…………However, this is not always possible, in which case good documentation is a useful as an alternative.

If photographing an object try to depict a sense of scale, texture, material, colour and context

Should sketchbooks be included?

Yes. Sketchbooks or notebooks are a great way of providing evidence of research and are useful in showing ideas development. Sketchbooks are an excellent way of demonstrating the process and not just the end product. 

Try to avoid sketchbooks with only a few sketches and masses of empty pages. Only include them if they add another useful dimension.

Sketchbooks are equally important if applying digitally. Pages can easily be photographed and inserted in to a presentation.

Should work be included that is not specific to the subject area of interest?

A wide variety of work and experience is certainly advisable

Consider whether the work demonstrates skills that are relevant to the chosen discipline e.g. use of colour drawing ability, 3d realisation skills

…finally

The interview isn’t designed to trip candidates up, It’s to see how you think visually.