Program Overview

---

Fine Art MA/MFA at UCA Canterbury

Overview

The Fine Art MA/MFA course at UCA Canterbury is designed to advance your studio practice through expert teaching and specialist facilities. The course fosters a strong sense of community and group responsibility within the studio, creating a space to work that is informed, critical, and supportive.

What You'll Study

The course content may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

Integrated Pre-Masters (if undertaken)

Our Integrated Pre-Master's course will prepare you for postgraduate study by improving your academic and creative skills before your degree begins. You'll build a portfolio of work while exploring your subject specialism and benefit from personal development tutoring that will support your academic growth and help refine your specialism.

Term One

• Experimental Studio: This unit is designed to encourage you to take an experimental approach to your studio/post-studio practices. You will be challenged to engage in new processes, methods, and ideas outside of your immediate comfort zone to develop advanced and evolving contributions to your practice.
• Research Contexts: Exploring the design, construction, and expression of art practice as a process of research, in this unit you will be introduced to critical research methodologies which you can then employ in your independent research enquiries.

Term Two

• Studio Practice: You will use this unit to develop styles and approaches articulated at postgraduate level aligning your aims within your own practice. You will consider appropriate theory and themes in contemporary art practice and how it might inform the work that you wish to create.
• Professional Contexts: Focused on professional development, this unit engages students with professional contexts through opportunities and/or projects developed with partner organisations. Through group work and individual research, within this unit students will establish and develop a sense of their position in relation to their identified subjects, interests, and practice areas. This unit also includes the opportunity to develop a creative business start-up or collaborative practice project.

Term Three

• Major Project: As the culmination of your studies, you will be able to undertake a sustained, in-depth, and critically informed research inquiry. You will define your practice through a substantial body of work and an understanding of how it sits in relation to others — identified industries and/or professional contexts, collaborators, readers, and audiences.

MFA – Advanced Practice (if undertaken)

The extension of your degree to an MFA means studying this Advanced Practice unit in addition to the units listed above. This unit is dedicated to developing, extending, and furthering your professional practice. Through advanced research methods, you will have to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, confidence, and originality that you have developed as a curatorial practitioner. You will be supported in preparing PhD applications, curating exhibitions, organising public events, and seeking external platforms to work with artists and engage audiences.

Specifications

• Course Information 2025/26 entry
• Course Information Annex for Integrated Pre-Masters 2025/26 entry
• Student Regulations

Fees and Funding

UK

• MA Course: £10,500 (2025/26, full-time), £5,250 (2025/26, part-time, year 1)
• MFA Course: £7,000 (2025/26, full-time, year 1)

EU

• MA Course: £10,500 (2025/26)
• MFA Course: £7,000 (2025/26, year 1)

International

• MA Course: £18,000 (2025/26), £17,500 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - Sept & Jan), £8,750 (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - May)
• MFA Course: £11,700 (2025/26, year 1)

Entry Requirements

Standard Requirements

• A good honours degree or equivalent qualification in a related discipline
• Relevant work experience, demonstrating your ability to study at postgraduate level

Postgraduate Requirements

• Integrated Pre-Masters Course: A recognised bachelor degree or 3-year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject
• Masters Course: A good honours degree or equivalent qualification in a related discipline

English Language Requirements

• IELTS test scores (or equivalent from other UCA-approved English tests)
• Master's Degree (MA/MSc/MFA/MBA/MArch/MMus): 6.5 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section
• Pre-Master's (13 Weeks): 6.0 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section
• Pre-Master's (30 Weeks): 5.5 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section

Facilities

• Large purpose-built studios and flexible project spaces
• Workshops for plaster and rubber casting, glass casting, slumping, fusing, and enamelling (kiln), ceramic bisque and gloss firing, low melt metal casting, and carving (wood, stone, and polystyrene)
• Machinery to create artwork in wood, metal, and plastics
• Printmaking studio with relief and block painting, plate or stone lithography, and intaglio and screen-printing

Opportunities

• Industry links
• Careers
• Further study

Staff

• Dr. Michael Lent, Programme Director of Fine Art
• Steffi Klenz, Reader in Photography
• Dr. Silke Panse, Reader in Film, Art & Philosophy
• Professor Andrew Kötting, Professor of Time-Based Media
• Professor Jean Wainwright, Professor of Contemporary Art and Photography, Research lead for (FACP)
• Greig Burgoyne, Subject Lead BA Fine Art / Yr3 Pathway Leader

Apply Now

Please use the following fields to help select the right application link for you:

• My location: UK/International
• Select entry year
• Select study option

Apply

Related Courses

• Art Writing MA/MFA at UCA Canterbury
• Curating MA/MFA at UCA Canterbury
• Fine Art MA/MFA at UCA Farnham
• Photography MA/MFA at UCA Farnham