Bachelor of Design (Fashion & Sustainability) and Bachelor of Applied Business (Fashion Marketing)

This double degree at Collarts pairs fashion design with business and marketing. You graduate with two qualifications: a Bachelor of Design (Fashion & Sustainability) and a Bachelor of Applied Business (Fashion Marketing). It runs five years full time, which is longer than a standard three-year bachelor because you're completing the requirements of two awards.

What you actually study

On the design side you work through garment construction, pattern making, textiles, and sustainable practice, how clothes get made, what they're made from, and how to reduce the waste and environmental cost that come with the industry. The business side covers marketing principles, consumer behaviour, brand management, retail and merchandising, and the commercial realities of getting product to market. The two halves feed each other: you learn to design with an eye on what sells and to market with an understanding of how the product is actually built.

How the degree is structured

Australian bachelor degrees are built from units of study, each carrying a set number of credit points, and you need a set total to graduate. Collarts runs its academic year across trimesters, so you'll typically take fewer units at a time but study across more of the year. A double degree means a bigger credit load than a single bachelor, that's where the five years comes from. Expect studio and workshop subjects alongside lecture and tutorial-based business units. Details of the unit sequence and credit points are set out in the official course information.

Work-integrated learning

Fashion is a portfolio industry, so the course leans on practical work: studio projects, industry briefs, and placement or internship units where you spend time inside a fashion business, agency, or retail operation. You finish with a body of work, garments, campaigns, a brand project, that you can show employers and clients rather than just a transcript.

Who it suits

This suits someone who wants to make things and also wants to run the business side. If you're set on pure design, a single design degree may be enough. If you're set on pure marketing, a business degree is more direct. The double is for people who want to move between both, designing a range and then building the campaign around it, or working in a fashion brand where you need to understand production and profit as well as aesthetics. It's also a route into founding your own label, where you'll be doing both jobs yourself.

Studying in Australia

Collarts is based in Melbourne, which has a concentrated fashion, retail and creative industries sector and a calendar of industry events and markets. As an international student on a Student visa you can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream lets eligible graduates stay and work after finishing. English proficiency is required for entry, IELTS Academic 6.0–6.5 overall is the common undergraduate standard, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the university's own English programmes accepted as equivalents. The Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the Student visa itself. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register. Confirm current entry requirements, unit structure and fees on the official page before applying.

• Fashion designer or assistant designer with a label, manufacturer or private-label retailer
• Product developer or garment technologist working between design and production
• Fashion marketer or brand coordinator in a retail group or agency
• Social media and content producer for fashion and lifestyle brands
• Visual merchandiser or retail buyer's assistant
• Sustainability or ethical sourcing coordinator for apparel businesses
• E-commerce and digital marketing coordinator for online fashion retailers
• Founder of your own fashion label or small design business

Australian employers in these areas include fashion labels and wholesalers, department stores and large apparel retailers, marketing and creative agencies, online fashion platforms, and the textile and manufacturing sector. Melbourne in particular has a dense cluster of fashion businesses, showrooms and creative studios.