Up to 8 students are accepted for the course each year. In the first year of the course, design students spend their time developing the technical, creative and analytical skills which will be required of them in their subsequent years at the Academy. This is achieved through intensive study with a high number of contact hours with staff. There are quite high demands made on the student through the setting of design projects which involve working out of scheduled class times. They may also be required to assist more senior designers on production work.
Formal studies are limited to specialist subjects and the supervision of a major design project.
The creation of a folio is given high priority at this stage. The Academy produces over 20 productions per year in the form of musicals, plays, opera, contemporary and classical dance and television drama. These give the design students the chance to gain a wide range of design experiences. The productions vary in scale from small workshop productions with limited labour and material budgets to large scale mainhouse productions with significant budgets. All design students get an equal opportunity to experience designing sets and costumes for both large and small scale productions across a wide range of performing art forms.