Bachelor of Fine Arts (Properties and Objects)

NIDA's BFA (Properties and Objects), marketed by the school under the name Props and Effects, is one of only a small handful of dedicated undergraduate degrees anywhere in the world for prop-making and practical effects, and the course leans hard into that rarity. Students spend three years building genuinely wide-ranging maker skills: metalwork, woodwork, mould-making and casting, scenic art, puppetry, electronics, 3D modelling and digital fabrication, alongside costume jewellery and architectural model-making, entered by interview and a project portfolio rather than academic ranking alone.

The pitch is less about theatre alone than about the broader entertainment and events industries that need designer-makers who can build physical and digital objects to a brief, on a deadline, at production quality. Theme parks, film and TV art departments, opera and large-scale events all draw on this skill set, and the course is structured to make graduates employable across that whole range rather than only in a theatre workshop.

An industry placement is built into the degree, so students leave with a maker's CV that includes work outside NIDA's own walls as well as within them, a meaningful difference from props training folded into a general design degree.