Design (with Advanced Practice) MA

Program Overview

---

Design (with Advanced Practice) MA

Overview

Master the future of design with our MA Design degree. Join our MA Design programme to expand your creative horizons and immerse yourself in an interdisciplinary studio environment where investigation, insight, and process come first. Blend future thinking with design research, critical-making and entrepreneurship to shape your personal design narrative and become a leader in impactful change-making.

Course Structure

Core Modules

• Advanced Practice
  • Undertake an opportunity that builds on your existing knowledge, skills, and experience and supports your future career interests and aspirations.
  • Learn how to develop solutions to real-world business problems and enhance your personal and professional knowledge, skills, and behaviours through reflection, critical thinking, and action.
• Design Approaches: Innovative and Emerging Themes
  • Explore transformative themes and develop a distinct design narrative to thrive in evolving contexts.
  • Engage in projects on emerging themes, unlocking new opportunities with innovative applications and enhancing your skills through participation in interdisciplinary events like exhibitions, workshops, and design jams.
• Design Approaches: Making, Methods and Impact
  • Engage in experimental and thematic projects to develop advanced design methods and individual approaches.
  • Refine your practice through continuous reflection, placing your work within contemporary contexts.
  • Enhance your portfolio and deepen your knowledge by working on live briefs, external competitions and open calls to enhance your portfolio and deepen your knowledge.
• Integrated Practice
  • Build your confidence in integrating diverse approaches and evaluating abilities within entrepreneurial, value-oriented design activities.
  • Focus on empathetic methods and authentic teamwork through a group-defined project.
  • Work through key design stages to build collaborative dynamics and specify opportunities that engage diverse perspectives.
  • Pitch your ideas to an expert panel, presenting pathways to realisation for products, services, or systems with prototypes and visualisations.
• Masters Project
  • Unleash your vision as you dive into a major, in-depth, individual study tailored to your discipline and career aspirations.
  • Take full ownership of your project, from idea to execution.
  • Create artefacts, exhibitions, publications, campaigns, and digital works either from scratch or significantly developing your own previous work.
  • Integrate all your learning into a substantial body of work that showcases your vision as a creative practitioner.
• Research Through Future Practice
  • Explore the intricate social, political, environmental and technological interconnections through hands-on design making.
  • Leverage historical, theoretical, and speculative perspectives to enrich your work and captivate audiences.
  • Through project-based methods, you combine personal reflection, theory and practice to achieve transformational change.
  • Integrate research methods, critical thinking, contextual awareness and interdisciplinary investigation in a dynamic studio environment.

How You Learn

This programme enables you to build progressively on your knowledge and experience. At MA level it is vital that you take an active role in structuring your own learning, and engage with the relevant methods and underpinning theories of your discipline.

Teaching and learning is a student-centred, activity-based process which integrates the content, sequence and development of student learning. You develop your knowledge, skills and practice with the support of appropriate teaching and learning strategies.

We use a variety of methods including tutorials, seminars and workshops – this enables key learning principles to be applied to your day-to-day interactions. Individual support, provided by a personal tutor, is an intrinsic aspect of the learning and teaching strategy.

How You Are Assessed

We use a variety of assessment methods throughout the modules, as specified in the module handbooks. These are primarily in-course assessments, where you submit work during the module rather than sit timed exams at the end.

The modules are generally project based and primarily assessed through appraising a portfolio of work, often accompanied by a verbal presentation. Design work is largely developmental – you are assessed on the process you use to achieve your solutions as well as the result, so it is essential that you provide clear evidence of your development work.

Entry Requirements

Applicants are normally expected to have at least a 2.2 UK honours degree, or equivalent qualification. A range of degree subjects are acceptable including subjects related to arts, design or other creative discipline.

We also consider relevant experience or equivalent qualifications. Applicants are normally required to present a portfolio of work.

Students with a degree awarded outside the UK must also meet the University's minimum English language requirements.

Non-EU international students who need a student visa to study in the UK should check our web pages on UKVI-compliant English language requirements. The University also provides pre-sessional English language courses if you do not meet the minimum English language requirement.

Employability

Work Placement

There may be short-term placement opportunities for some students, particularly during the project phase of the course.

Career Opportunities

As a graduate you have the opportunity to go on to a range of design-related employment, develop new enterprise propositions or receive project funding to take your ideas to market.

You can work across a broad range of design-related employment requiring specialist digital knowledge and skills. Further study at doctoral level is also an option.

Information for International Applicants

Qualifications

International applicants - find out what qualifications you need by selecting your country below.

Fees

Full-time

• Fee for UK applicants: £5,417.50 a year
• Fee for international applicants: £10,000 a year

Part-time

• Not available part-time

Choose Teesside

• Stand out from other job applicants with your higher level qualification, specialist knowledge and expanded networks.
• Improve your project management, critical thinking, research skills, time management, presentation skills and teamwork.
• The median salary for working-age postgraduates (£45,000) was £6,500 more than for working-age (those aged 16 to 64) graduates (£38,500) in 2022.
• Study in our friendly town-centre campus with £280m of recent investment.
• Study at Europe's first Adobe Creative Campus and develop your creative and digital skills.

Program Outline

---

Degree Overview:

---

The program is designed to develop students' skills in research, critical thinking, and problem-solving through:

• Exploring various design disciplines, from fashion to industrial design.

• Encouraging playful and fictional approaches to design through workshops and connections with international events and research projects.

• Interacting with a diverse range of staff with internationally recognized profiles in research and practice.

• Addressing real-world problems through the development of creative solutions.

---

Outline:

---

The program consists of four stages:

• Stage 1: Students begin with a group research project, analyzing information from diverse sources to develop awareness of the subject from multiple perspectives.
This stage focuses on research, project work, and opportunities for co-working and collaboration.
• Stage 2: Students refine their professional skills and build expertise in research through various initiatives and activities.
They learn to apply critical thinking and problem-solving to tackle creative challenges.
• Stage 3: This stage enables students to enhance their learning through practice.
They can choose between a research internship within the University or a vocational internship in the industry.
• Stage 4: Students complete a substantial major project, supported by regular tutorial contact and studio interaction.
This project allows them to demonstrate their design knowledge and skills.

These include:

---

Core Modules:

• Advanced Practice in Science, Engineering and Design
• Critical Thinking and Theoretical Contexts
• Design Integration
• Design Practice
• Enterprising Leadership and Project Management
• Innovation by Design
• MA Design Major Project
• Research Methods

---

Advanced Practice Options:

• Research Internship
• Vocational Internship

---

Assessment:

Most modules use in-course assessments, where students submit work during the module rather than sit exams at the end.

---

Assessment typically involves:

• Portfolios: Showcasing developed design work with critical reflection and analysis.
• Presentations: Delivering presentations to industry experts or peers to demonstrate mastery of key concepts.
• Written reports: Providing critical analysis and research findings related to projects or topics.

---

Teaching:

---

Core principles include:

• Active and cooperative learning: Encouraging collaboration and engagement in the learning process.
• Flexible and negotiated assessment opportunities: Tailoring assessment to individual learning contexts.
• Providing resources aligned with program outcomes and needs: Ensuring access to relevant materials for effective learning.

This diverse approach fosters a dynamic learning environment that caters to different learning styles.

---

Careers:

---

Potential career paths include:

• Design roles requiring advanced digital knowledge and skills.

• Further study at the doctoral level.

• Developing new enterprise propositions or receiving project funding to take ideas to market.

• Working across a broad range of design-related fields.

---

Other:

Students are also encouraged to participate in workshops introducing specific skills, followed by independent learning, project work, and critiques. They gain a valuable edge in the competitive design industry and possess the capability to create innovative solutions for real-world problems.

---

Tuition Fees and Payment Information:

---

UK Applicants:

• Full-time: £4,770 per year

---

International Applicants:

• Full-time: £10,000 per year

---

Payment Information:

• More details about fees: Link to more information about fees is provided in the text.
The link itself is not provided, but it can be found in the source text.
• More details about fees for international applicants: Link to more information about fees for international applicants is provided in the text.
The link itself is not provided, but it can be found in the source text.