Vega : Bachelor of Arts in Creative Brand Communications

Creative Branding BA Evolved

We are proud to announce a ground-breaking innovation in the IIE BA Degree programmes at Vega. From 2018 we will deliver highly specialised BA Degrees in Graphic Design, Multimedia Design and Copywriting. This is of particular importance when entering the industry since your degree immediately reflects your specialisation in a particular field as opposed to the more generalised nature of a typical BA.

In the past we delivered a single BA in Creative Brand Communication in which you specialised in one of the above disciplines. However we have now evolved one BA Degree into three separate BA Degrees to give you the edge in the realm where your individual passion and skills lie. These are exciting times for those pursuing vocation-oriented studies at Vega: your degree immediately telegraphs to the industry exactly what type of creative brand communicator you are.

Although most students will have a clear idea of which of the three IIE BA Degrees they find themselves most at home, those whose talents span two or more of the disciplines will be given the opportunity to sample from all three before making a final decision. In other words, if you are not comfortable with locking into a commitment from day one, ample accommodation is made in the first six months of first year for you to find your feet on the most solid ground.

All students have unlimited access to www.lynda.com, the world’s foremost repository of interactive digital media training.

Bachelor of Arts in Creative Brand Communications

Copywriting – core discipline of the Bachelor of Arts

3 YEARS FULL-TIME | NQF LEVEL 7 | 360 CREDITS | SAQA ID: 58684

A unique discipline suited for those who love the big ideas, beautiful words and crafted narrative that are the backbone of exciting, original and memorable creative brand communication. If you are a gifted storyteller endowed with an unlimited imagination as well as the courage and conviction of killer concepts, this might just be the home you have long been seeking. The BA in Creative Brand Communication explores both style and substance in developing strong copywriting skills, covering the creative and conceptual writing and thinking instincts and exceptional crafting capabilities required to produce meaningful concepts and messages for creative brand communication solutions.

Because copywriters are big-picture thinkers who create integrated campaigns across a wide variety of traditional and digital brand contact points and media platforms such as radio, TV, print, outdoor, ambient, web, blog, online SEO, social media and more, talented copywriters are in great demand in the industry. Vega’s unique fusion of critical thinking; complex problem-solving; creativity, branding and marketing sets our students apart as strategic and entrepreneurial thinkers and leaders in industry.

Our philosophy is to unleash the inherent creativity and confidence of our students whilst enhancing their design, business, research and academic skills in an enriching and rewarding environment. Strong emphasis is placed on design research as students work in multi-disciplinary teams engaging in real-world brand challenges and agency briefs providing innovative solutions and strategic creative executions. Student work is showcased at our year-end exhibition, where industry representatives are invited to view the work and meet our students. This is followed by a month-long internship in a leading creative studio in the industry.

Entry requirements

A National Senior Certificate (NSC) with Degree admission- A minimum of 30% for English coupled with a minimum of 50% for four x DESIGNATED NSC subjects (This excludes LO which is a 10 credit subject); OR

A National Certificate (Vocational) (NC(V)) with Degree admission – A minimum of 60% in English on either First Additional Language or Home Language level AND Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy AND Life Orientation , with a minimum of 70% in the four vocational subjects is required; OR

A Senior Certificate (SC) (with endorsement) or equivalent; OR

Alternatively, a Higher Certificate, an Advanced Certificate, 240 or 360 credit Diploma in a cognate field may satisfy the minimum admission requirements to degree studies.

A National Senior Certificate with a minimum of 30% in the language of learning and teaching, coupled with an achievement rating of at least four (4) (50 – 59%) in four designated subjects; of which the subject Design can be substituted for one of the designated subjects. Such admissions would be regarded on the basis of Senate Discretionary admissions and will not constitute more than 10% of the cohort.

All candidates are required to submit a creative portfolio and successfully meet the creative portfolio criteria based on a review by a specialist panel and undergo an interview

General requirements for undergraduate degrees:

All applicants for The IIE undergraduate degree studies, including international students, are required to write the Academic and Quantitative Literacy (AQL) – National Benchmark Test (NBT), unless they:

have attained the age of 23 before or during the first year of registration; OR
have been admitted on the basis of mature age; OR
are accessing a degree with a higher certificate, 240 or 360 credit diploma or advanced certificate; OR
have previously been admitted to degree studies elsewhere; OR
have enrolled in the distance mode on a programme- the writing of the NBT AQL test is recommended, but not compulsory.

A student’s Academic Literacy (AL) score of the AQL – NBT is used for placement in student support programmes and does not replace the admission requirements for a specific degree programme.

The provisions of this section do not apply to qualifications in which Introduction to Scholarship A (ITSA) and/or Introduction to Scholarship B (ITSB) are modules which bear credits. In these cases normal assessment and completion rules apply.

For those qualifications in which ITSA/ITSB are not credit bearing modules any student who does not provide a verified AQL-NBT score of 64 or higher PRIOR to registration is automatically registered in these modules and will be billed for them where relevant. Any student who supplies a verified score of 64 or higher within three weeks of the start of the first semester will then be deregistered from these modules and the billing will be reversed. Students who complete ITSA and ITSB will receive a Short Learning Programme certificate for the modules.

The onus is on students to make use of the support available to benefit from these modules. The details of this support will be communicated by the campus or administrative team responsible for the student support on their qualification.