
Automotive and Transport Design BA (Hons)
Coventry, United Kingdom
DURATION
3 up to 4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Introduction
Develop skills and knowledge that will enable you to create innovative and visionary concept designs for all forms of transport.
Course Overview
High-tech cars, yachts or flying machines, unleash your vision and learn to create innovative design solutions in a range of styles and media. Explore purpose, usability, materials, ecology, desirability, technological feasibility, and professional constraints with input from experienced staff and industry collaborations.
- Design realisation is supported by generous making spaces and technology so that you can create physical, or digital models of your designs.
- The transport design industry is evolving rapidly, and therefore employability assumes a pivotal role in defining our course content and practices.
- Our mission is to connect your passions and skillsets with your career aspirations, empowering you with the essential attributes to exceed your own expectations. The collaborative nature of our teaching and learning is deeply influenced by both industry practices and the latest research.
Why you should study this course
- This course aims to develop your understanding of the latest developments, drivers, and practices of the automotive, transport and mobility designer beyond merely illustration and styling.
- Shaped by students, staff and industry collaborators - this course is closely aligned with the automotive and transport industry. Constant updates keep the course at the forefront of industry developments, preparing graduates to be future-focused and equipped with the skills needed to make meaningful contributions in their chosen fields.
- The learning environment is international with students typically coming from many parts of the world working together on global design solutions. We offer exciting international opportunities and project work collaborations.
- You may choose to take the opportunity to extend your degree with our study abroad scheme. Previous students have had the opportunity to experience and learn in China, India, the USA, and Colombia.
- We have a very large alumni network who take a great interest in active students and who may offer opportunities in the form of teaching, collaborative industry projects, internships, and graduate employment.
Collaborations
We have an active collaboration with Nanjing University of Science of Technology, (NJUST), China. You may have the opportunity to work with students on their courses online on special projects, helping to improve your worldview of design.
Coventry University works together with a range of companies to provide you with experiences to enhance your study. This may include projects to placements. In the past, our collaborators have offered competitions, portfolio surgeries, speaker events and workshops. The scope of involvement may change from year to year and varies from provider to provider. Our collaborators may include:
- Aston Martin
- Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)
- Contechs
- Autodesk
- Gravity Sketch
- Tevva
- Avant
- Vital Auto
Admissions
Curriculum
Year One
In your first year, the curriculum is shared across related courses allowing you to gain a broad grounding in the discipline before going on, in your second and final years, to specialist modules in your chosen field.
Modules
- Design Exploration
- Design Visualisation
- Design Enquiry
- Design Reflection
- Design Context
- Design Experience
Year Two
In your second year, you will continue to develop the skills and knowledge you’ve learnt. We do this by embedding the following four principles into the curriculum and developing your:
- Technical skills – digital fluency, backed with the right academic knowledge
- Study skills – to be an adaptive, independent and proactive learner
- Professional skills – to have the behaviour and abilities to succeed in your career
- Global awareness – the beliefs and abilities to be a resilient, confident and motivated global citizen
You will develop more advanced knowledge and skills to do with: design innovations, designing for the future, and investing design work, amongst others.
Modules
- Professional Development
- Design Innovation
- Design Futures
- Developmental Actions
- Design Investigations
- Industrial Design
Placement Year
There’s no better way to find out what you love doing than trying it out for yourself, which is why a work placement2 can often be beneficial. Work placements usually occur between your second and final year of study. They’re a great way to help you explore your potential career path and gain valuable work experience, whilst developing transferable skills for the future.
Modules
- UK Work Placement
- International Study/ Work Placement
Final Year
Your final year aims to bring you to the level to enter the world of work by consolidating your knowledge and skills from your first and second years.
Modules
- Concept Creation
- Design Project - Select
- Design Portfolio
- Design Presence
- Design Delivery
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Employability is a major strength of the course. The curriculum aims to embed industry interactions (such as short work experience, client projects, and industry-aligned/inspired briefs) to offer the best preparation possible to help students obtain graduate employment and achieve their career aspirations.
Students graduating from this course have traditionally enjoyed good employment in a range of design-specific roles and this course allows students to change direction during their studies. This is important to a rapidly changing automotive and transport design environment, and the roles and transferable skills inherent in the professions and associated enterprises (e.g., start-up businesses, consultancy, and research). This further improves students' chances of focused graduate employment.
The course has been designed to respond in an agile way to feedback and interaction with our contacts and industrial collaborators.
Career opportunities in automotive and transport design are vast and varied. You could start your own business, or become a design consultant, modeller, illustrator, CAD professional, design manager or marketing professional. Graduates have found opportunities in automotive exterior and interior design, lighting systems design, clay and ‘hard’ modelling, digital modelling and surfacing, 3D visualisation and animation, colour and materials design, user interface design, lifestyle products and design research.
Career-focused activities are embedded in the curriculum and delivered in close partnership with the Talent Team. The Talent Team work closely with the course to offer CV and portfolio guidance, professional practice internship support, employability support and graduate support, and a comprehensive range of workshops.
Where our graduates work
Previous graduates have gone on to work for a number of prestigious companies. These include:
- Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls Royce
- General Motors, GMCVW, Audi, Porsche
- Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda
- SAIC/MG
- Geely (Lynk&Co, Lotus, Volvo, LEVC)
- Sunseeker, Winch Design, RWD,
- BSA, Royal Enfield, BMW
- Kiska, Ariel, AVANT, Astheimer, Vital
- Simba-Dickie Toys