Hand Embroidery BA (Hons)
Subject and course type
- Fashion, Fashion Promotion and Product Design
- Undergraduate
This highly-specialist Hand Embroidery BA (Hons) course is taught at the prestigious Royal School of Needlework (RSN), based at Hampton Court Palace. The average intake is just 20 students per year, enabling a high level of student / tutor contact time.
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Practise unique embroidery techniques using the RSN's specialist studio spaces
All students have the unique opportunity to access and engage with the RSN's extensive collection of historic textiles and paper-based materials.
As an adjunct to the physical materials collection, students engage with digital collections as part of their learning to make comparative analyses of objects. We are also proud to offer an annual lecture programme of visiting speakers, which contributes further to the contextual learning environment.
Onsite teaching for this course takes place in studio spaces using the RSN specialist art and design library, IT suite and handling collection. Offsite learning occurs through a bespoke series of visits to galleries, exhibitions and collections, online tutorials and opportunities to follow hand embroidery techniques online.
Student work
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Francesca Lim, RSN Degree Graduate
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Livia Papiernik-Berkhauer, RSN Degree Graduate
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Abigail Noronha, RSN Degree Graduate
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Carys Atkinson, RSN Degree Graduate
Why choose this course
Throughout this course, we encourage learning through making. To achieve this, this course is designed to connect theoretical and practice-based learning through thematic projects and learning opportunities.
The hand embroidery techniques taught in the first and second year at the Royal School of Needlework are completely unique; no other provider in the world offers the same standard of teaching and learning.
Studio-based learning is by project, with individual and group tutorials and reviews enabling the individual views and knowledge of each student to be valued equally. Students also have the opportunity to challenge their creative ideas and individual outcomes through our supportive tutorial feedback process.
We encourage students to become creative problem-solvers and share their knowledge and expertise through participation in external enhancement projects. Students are also expected to engage with experimental approaches to visual research and design to inform their theoretical and creative practice.
A programme of tutorials, lectures and seminars facilitates experiential learning through the investigation of objects, materials, making and creative risk-taking. Throughout the course, our specialist technical team guides students through the materials, processes and equipment necessary to build their specialist knowledge.
Attendance is full time and all students may be required to engage with weekend and evening work throughout the academic year.
Visit our Hand Embroidery BA Instagram to see some of the great work our students and graduates are achieving.
The Royal School of Needlework
This highly-specialist Hand Embroidery BA (Hons) course is taught at the prestigious Royal School of Needlework (RSN), based at Hampton Court Palace.
Founded in 1872, The Royal School of Needlework is the international centre of excellence for the art of hand embroidery.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
Practical studio modules are delivered through thematic projects and workshops which are tailored to each specific group. Project themes are reviewed annually to ensure the programme maintains its contemporary context. Projects allow individual students to explore their own creative response to a specific question or theme of enquiry.
All students are introduced to methods of reflective practice and critical analysis. Contextual studies are taught through a critical engagement with the material culture of hand embroidery, through workshop sessions, lectures and seminars.
Practical studio modules are delivered through thematic projects and workshops which are tailored to each specific group.
Project themes are reviewed annually to ensure the programme maintains its contemporary context. Projects allow individual students to explore their own creative response to a specific question or theme of enquiry.
Year 1 (Level 4)
First year study is experiential; building upon skills and processes to equip you with the vocabulary to develop your own personal creative voice. Teaching and learning styles may vary according to the module content: however thematic projects ensure that skills learned are transferable across modules.
Core modules
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Year 2 (Level 5)
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This module will provide you with the opportunity to advance and develop a personal response to your own hand embroidery practice. You will be expected to take risks and challenge accepted practice. This module will enable you to define the professional context for your practice, and to experience making work that is experimental, resolved and professionally finished.
You will complete a portfolio / collection within a designated timeframe and to a professional standard. There will be the opportunity to develop professional/transferable skills to enhance your graduate attributes and support your emerging career choices. You will have the opportunity to enter works into external competitions during this module. Evidence of this must be referenced in your final portfolio.
You will critically evaluate and reflect on your own personal development as a means of developing your creative practice to explore problems beyond your discipline. This module will develop your graduate attributes, and the Future Skills Explore Learning Outcomes are delivered in this module. This will enable you to further develop your professional skills, including interdisciplinary collaboration, in preparation for your/their future employment.
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Year 3 (Level 6)
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Attend an Open Day at the RSN
Visit the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace – the perfect way to experience the setting where you would undertake your Hand Embroidery BA (Hons) degree.
Future skills and career opportunities
Graduates from this course go on to work in costume creation and high-end bespoke fashion design or heritage preservation and craft.
Our Future Skills programme is embedded within the Hand Embroidery BA (Hons) course curriculum and throughout the whole Kingston experience. As the demands of modern employment continue to evolve, Future Skills will play a role in shaping you to become a future-proof graduate.
The programme aims to provide you with the skills most valued by employers, such as problem-solving, digital competency and adaptability. As you progress through your degree, you'll learn to navigate, explore and apply these graduate skills, learning to demonstrate and articulate to employers how future skills give you the edge.
Work placements are actively encouraged but not mandatory. Although, it is the responsibility of individual students to source and secure such placements at times which do not impact on their learning. Through participation in this professional context, students are encouraged to reflect upon their own personal experience of working in an applied setting and focus on key aspects of this experience to inform both their theory and practise.
Employability and work-based learning is embedded within the programme, at each level of the course. Students learn from established practitioners and, from their first day onsite, embroidery becomes their future career. Find out more from the Royal School of Needlework's website.
Links with business and industry at Level 4
At Level 4, students have the opportunity to participate in external competitions to build their awareness of the potential application of embroidery to design. They develop transferable skills and learn the challenges of working to an external timescale and design brief.
Previous examples have included The Worshipful Company of Glovers – Glove Competition and working with artists Musson+Retallick to create embroidered illustrations for a hot air balloon installation in Thamesmead. Level 4 students have also worked to create bespoke embroideries for London Fashion Week for E. Tautz menswear.
Students work to create digital portfolios throughout the programme to showcase their practice and level of attainment. At Level 4, students start to compile their own CV and prepare an introductory letter to potential employers for summer placement opportunities. By working with our technical team, students develop an awareness of materials, suppliers and costings.
Links with business and industry at Level 5
At Level Five, students develop more advanced professional skills through working on high profile design competitions and with external clients. Opportunities for live projects are embedded in the curriculum when possible. Recent examples include Bradford Textile Society and Society of Dyers and Colourists where students have received named awards and commendations. Students have also had the opportunity to make work for external exhibitions, including the Fashion & Textile Museum for the Royal School of Needlework 150th Anniversary and the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.
This advanced level of practice supports the student to make informed choices as to the potential direction of their practice at Level 6. It also reinforces transferable skills, such as timekeeping and quality of finish.
Links with business and industry at Level 6
By Level 6, students are directing their practice towards a defined context as indicated by their proposal and outcomes for the RSN Graduate Collection module.
The module RSN Graduate Portfolio is focussed on their intended career route, through the creation of an expanded portfolio of experimental and technical hand embroidery sampling. This outcome provides the student with a showcase of their creative ability and in a format to present to a future employer.
The theoretical module, Professional Practice in Context, enables the student to present an in-depth body of research. This will explore the context for their practice alongside the preparation of a bespoke graduate employment plan / report. They will also produce an artist statement, costing and pricing, business models and develop their professional communication skills to prepare them for interviews and presenting their work to a new audience.
At Kingston University, we're not just keeping up with change, we're creating it
For more information on how Kingston prepares you for the future job market, visit our Future Skills page.
Teaching and assessment
Scheduled learning and teaching on this course includes timetabled activities including lectures, seminars and small group tutorials. It may also include critiques, project work, studio practice and performance, digital labs, workshops, and placements.
Outside the scheduled learning and teaching hours, you will learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, preparing for and completing your work for assessments. Some independent study work may need to be completed on-campus, as you may need to access campus-based facilities such as studios and labs.
When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. Each student engages with written reflective practice to compile an agreed action plan with their tutor.
A course is made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits. You must pass a given number of credits in order to achieve the award you registered on, for example 360 credits for a typical undergraduate course or 180 credits for a typical postgraduate course. The number of credits you need for your award is detailed in the programme specification which you can access from the link at the bottom of this page.
One credit equates to 10 hours of study. Therefore 120 credits across a year (typical for an undergraduate course) would equate to 1,200 notional hours. These hours are split into scheduled and guided. On this course, the percentage of that time that will be scheduled learning and teaching activities is shown below for each year of study. The remainder is made up of guided independent study.
- Year 1: 67% scheduled learning and teaching
- Year 2: 42% scheduled learning and teaching
- Year 3: 33% scheduled learning and teaching
The exact balance between scheduled learning and teaching and guided independent study will be informed by the modules you take.
Your course will primarily be delivered in person. It may include delivery of some activities online, either in real time or recorded.
All modules have a formative and summative assessment point.
Feedback and feed-forward take place using several formats – including weekly tutorial forms which introduce you to reflective practice and hone your time management key skills.
Studios are open from 9am and all taught sessions commence at 10am prompt. Formal taught workshops run from 10am to 4pm.
Attendance is full time for a minimum of four days per week. All students may be required to engage with weekend and evening work throughout their academic year.
There is an average intake of 20 students per year, enabling a high level of student / tutor contact time.
Fees and funding
| Fee category | Annual Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | £9,535* |
| International | |
| Year 1 (2026/27): | £21,400 |
| Year 2 (2027/28): | £22,300 |
| Year 3 (2028/29): | £23,200 |
The tuition fee you pay depends on whether you are assessed as a 'Home' (UK), 'Islands' or 'International' student. In 2026/27 the fees for this course are above.
Please see the Royal School of Needlework course page for further details on tuition fees, bursary awards available and additional costs to be aware of.
For courses with Professional Placement, the fee for the placement year can be viewed on the undergraduate fees table. The placement fee published is for the relevant academic year stated in the table. This fee is subject to annual increases but will not increase by more than the fee caps as prescribed by the Office for Students or such other replacing body.
* For full time programmes of a duration of more than one academic year, the published fee is an annual fee, payable each year, for the duration of the programme. Your annual tuition fees cover your first attempt at all of the modules necessary to complete that academic year. A re-study of any modules will incur additional charges calculated by the number of credits. Home tuition fees may be subject to annual increases but will not increase by more than the fee caps as prescribed by the Office for Students or such other replacing body. Full time taught International fees are subject to an annual increase and are published in advance for the full duration of the programme.
Eligible UK students can apply to the Government for a tuition loan, which is paid direct to the University. This has a low interest rate which is charged from the time the first part of the loan is paid to the University until you have repaid it.
| Fee category | Annual Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | £9,535* |
| International | |
| Year 1 (2025/26): | £19,500 |
| Year 2 (2026/27): | £20,300 |
| Year 3 (2027/28): | £21,100 |
The tuition fee you pay depends on whether you are assessed as a 'Home' (UK), 'Islands' or 'International' student. In 2025/26 the fees for this course are above.
Please see the Royal School of Needlework course page for further details on tuition fees, bursary awards available and additional costs to be aware of.
For courses with Professional Placement, the fee for the placement year can be viewed on the undergraduate fees table. The placement fee published is for the relevant academic year stated in the table. This fee is subject to annual increases but will not increase by more than the fee caps as prescribed by the Office for Students or such other replacing body.
* For full time programmes of a duration of more than one academic year, the published fee is an annual fee, payable each year, for the duration of the programme. Your annual tuition fees cover your first attempt at all of the modules necessary to complete that academic year. A re-study of any modules will incur additional charges calculated by the number of credits. Home tuition fees may be subject to annual increases but will not increase by more than the fee caps as prescribed by the Office for Students or such other replacing body. Full time taught International fees are subject to an annual increase and are published in advance for the full duration of the programme.
Eligible UK students can apply to the Government for a tuition loan, which is paid direct to the University. This has a low interest rate which is charged from the time the first part of the loan is paid to the University until you have repaid it.
Scholarships and bursaries
For students interested in studying this course at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support.
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Please see the Royal School of Needlework course page for further details on additional costs to be aware of.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
Who teaches this course
This course is taught by a team of RSN-trained tutors plus a hand embroidery technician.
The RSN staff team holds nationally recognised accreditation within staff members' individual areas of expertise. Academic staff are recognised for the quality of their teaching and learning, as part of the Higher Education Academy and hold positions as External Examiners for other Universities.
The academic team has active researchers with established, internationally-recognised career profiles. The team brings strong research and industry connections to the teaching experience, which contribute to the external profile of the course.
Key information
The scrolling banner below displays some key factual data about this course (including different course combinations or delivery modes of this course where relevant).
