Performance

Performance as an academic and practical discipline encompasses the full range of live and recorded creative practice, from theatre and dance to music, live art, and interdisciplinary work that crosses conventional genre boundaries. It is concerned with what happens when people come together in real or mediated space, and with the craft, critical understanding, and professional awareness that serious creative practice demands. Studying performance at degree level means developing both as a practitioner and as a thinker, learning to reflect on and articulate what you are doing and why.

At the University of the West of Scotland, this four-year full-time programme develops your skills across the range of performance disciplines, building technical competence and creative ambition within a supportive and professionally connected learning environment. You will explore performance practice in its breadth, engaging with contemporary and traditional forms, and you will develop the professional mindset and industry awareness that sustain careers in the creative sectors. The typical entry tariff is 136 points.

Graduates of performance programmes pursue careers as professional performers in theatre, film, television, music, and dance, as well as in arts education, community arts, arts management, and applied theatre contexts. Many develop plural, portfolio careers that combine performance with teaching, facilitation, directing, or artistic producing. The creative confidence, interpersonal skills, and capacity for sustained effort that performance training develops are also valued in sectors beyond the arts, including communications, education, and health.

Further study at postgraduate level or in professional conservatoire settings is a natural route for those who want to develop a specialised practice.