• Apply critical, creative, and sensory skills to spatial, scenic and costume principles to create meaningful designs for performance contexts.
• Synthesise knowledge of current technologies, materials, methods, and techniques in the development, communication, and realisation of design concepts.
• Embrace collaboration and use effective verbal, written and/or visual strategies to communicate and exchange design thinking and technical information.
• Recognise the importance of curiosity and inform practice through knowledge of local, international, and historical perspectives, as well as personal experience.
• Apply innovative and entrepreneurial skills to develop leadership qualities and autonomous and collaborative practice.
• Recognise and articulate an empathetic and inclusive social, ethical, and cultural literacy, including sustainability, within design practice.

Students are at NIDA from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. During production terms students may also be required for rehearsals after hours and on weekends.

Additional time also needs to be allocated to library work, research, preparation for classes and private study. For this reason it is difficult for NIDA students to maintain regular part-time jobs. Studying at NIDA is a big commitment so students need to manage their time and resources carefully.

All NIDA Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees are three-year full-time courses.

2027 Semester Dates

Semester 1: 1 February – 18 June 2027
Welcome Week: 1 – 5 February 2027 (First years & MFA only)
BFA Teaching Period 1: 8 February – 9 April 2027
BFA Teaching Period 2: 26 April – 18 June 2027

Semester 2: 19 July – 19 November 2027
BFA Teaching Period 3: 19 July – 10 September 2027
BFA Teaching Period 4: 20 September – 19 November 2027

2026 Semester Dates

Semester 1: 2 February – 19 June 2026
Welcome Week: 2 – 6 February 2026 (First years & MFA only)
BFA Teaching Period 1: 9 February – 10 April 2026
BFA Teaching Period 2: 27 April – 19 June 2026

Semester 2: 20 July – 20 November 2026
BFA Teaching Period 3: 20 July – 11 September 2026
BFA Teaching Period 4: 21 September – 20 November 2026

Download the 2026 Student Calendar

Term dates exclude public holidays. View 2027 NSW public holiday dates.

Year One

• Design Studio
• Representation
• Dramaturgy and Analysis
• Production Techniques
• Story and Place
• Encountering Performance
• Winjara
• Performance and Ideas

Year Two

• Design Studio
• Dramaturgy and Analysis
• Production Techniques
• Film Studio
• Story and Place
• Staging Ideas: Experimental Art Movements and Practice
• Contexts of Performance
• Student Led Project

Year Three

• Design Practice
• Film Practice
• Professional Practice

In your final year, you will be placed with a design professional or professional arts company.

Download 2026 Course Overview

Our graduates have won numerous awards, including Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, AACTA Awards, APDG Awards, Green Room and Sydney Theatre Awards. They have designed for Cirque du Soleil, Bangarra Dance Theatre, as well as feature films from international studios such as The Amazing Spider Man, The Matrix, Romeo + Juliet, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 and 2, Watchmen, 300, Garden State, The Favourite, Game of Thrones, The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge!, True History of the Kelly Gang, 21 Grams, not to mention several Olympic Games and more.

Potential careers:

• Designer of set, production, costume, lighting, video and properties; art director or design educator in the arts, entertainment and creative industries, including for traditional performance, digital, immersive theatre and events

Entry is by merit selection.

General entry requirements for accredited courses are as follows:

• Have completed a Higher School Certificate or equivalent qualification at the end of high school for undergraduate courses.
• Be 18 years of age by 31 March in the first year of enrolment for domestic students in undergraduate programs.
• Be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Have skills and knowledge appropriate to the level and discipline into which the applicant is seeking to gain admission.
• Have an evidenced interest in the performing arts.

Applications are encouraged from domestic applicants who:

• Have previous higher education study.
• Have vocational education and training.
• Have work and life experience (having left school more than two years ago).
• Are recent secondary education applicants.
• Identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

Applications are encouraged from international applicants who:

• have successfully completed a Genuine Temporary Entry (GTE) interview.
• have completed the equivalent of a Year 12 or final year of high school qualification
• have an English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 7.0 with no band score less than 6.0 (IELTS 8.0 for BFA Acting).
• Are 18 years of age at date of enrolment for international students.
• Have skills and knowledge appropriate to the level and discipline into which the applicant is seeking to gain admission.
• Have an evidenced interest in the performing arts.

Recognition of Prior Learning is an assessment process that involves assessment of an individual’s relevant prior learning (including formal, informal and non-formal learning) to determine the credit outcomes of an individual application for credit.

NIDA may grant credit for:

• Formal study undertaken in recognised education institutions in Australia, including universities, colleges, TAFE and other post-secondary education institutions and for study at recognised overseas institutions.
• Credentialed courses provided by recognised professional bodies, employers and other authorities, where appropriate certification is available; and
• Prior learning, where such learning can be sufficiently evidenced.

The principles underlying the assessment of credit transfer/Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) applications are that the policy and procedures are:

• Aligned to the Higher Education Standards Framework and the Vocational Standards for RTOs.
• Designed to maintain the integrity and reputation of NIDA’s accredited courses for which credit or RPL is applied and support the collaborative nature of NIDA’s conservatoire training model.
• Consistent, equitable, transparent, and accountable.
• Based on processes of comparable standard and integrity to those used to assess the relevant subject.
• That students are not disadvantaged in achieving the expected learning outcomes for the course of study or qualification.

NIDA Recognition of Prior Learning Policy

Apply for RPL/Credit Transfer

Domestic students with overseas qualifications must supply certified translations of their qualifications.

We select students who:

• demonstrate commitment and motivation in relation to the arts, entertainment and related industries, to their chosen discipline, and to the course of study
• provide evidence of their capacity to work creatively and imaginatively
• demonstrate an aptitude to collaborate with peers as part of a creative process
• demonstrate a range of knowledge, skills, technical abilities and/or problem-solving techniques relevant to their discipline
• demonstrate cultural and contextual awareness
• articulate and communicate ideas clearly

Due to the volume of auditions carried out, we are unable to provide you with individual feedback. The decision of the audition panel is final.

It is not possible to defer an offer of a place at NIDA.

Domestic and international students are required to pay tuition fees by the due date each semester.

Domestic Students

Domestic tuition fees overview

Domestic students are Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and New Zealand citizens.

2026 Domestic Undergraduate Student Fee Schedule

2026 Domestic Undergraduate Commonwealth Supported Place Fee Schedule

International Students

International tuition fees overview

Fees and financial assistance vary for international students, please read full details here.

2026 International Undergraduate Student Fee Schedule

*The tuition fees are reviewed each year and if you enrol you are liable for the additional tuition costs if the tuition fees rise during the course of your enrolments.

** EFTSL – Effective Full-Time Study Load: indicates the relative study load of a subject against a full-time study load of 1.0 for an academic year. For consistency, the EFTSL have been rounded to 3 decimal places. This is not indicative of the full value of the EFTSL but represents an accurate load for fee calculations.

NIDA is committed to making its education and learning more accessible to the most creative and talented individuals across Australia with a range of scholarships aimed to remove financial barriers, providing students with the opportunity to study at NIDA while being relieved of some of the cost of living, relocating and study expenses.

NIDA scholarships are made available by the generous support of donors, sponsors, corporate partners, trusts and bequests, through the NIDA Foundation Trust, and enable a significant increase in financial assistance to ongoing and students commencing study in 2027.

Scholarships

The table below gives an indication of the educational backgrounds of the 2025 commencing undergraduate BFA peer cohort in all disciplines at NIDA.

It should be noted that as selection and admission to courses at NIDA is based on merit the statistics below may not be indicative of the educational backgrounds of commencing cohorts on a year-to-year basis.

L/N – Low numbers: the number of students is less than 5.