Program Overview
MA Design: Expanded Practice
Overview
This is a radical post-disciplinary programme for practitioners who want to push the boundaries of what design can be and do. The programme is structured around thematic areas of investigation (Studios) which situates you – the practitioner – in a particular field of study and reference.
Length
15 months full-time
Department
Design
Studio Structure
The Studio offering will be tailored each year to the skills/expertise of applicants and in response to the changing nature of the design field and the world around us. Studios for 2024/25 are:
- Communication & Experience
- Fashions & Embodiment
- Speculation & Techniques
- Interactions & Experiments
- Spaces & Participation
- Culture & Ecologies
What You'll Study
The programme runs for 15 months over five 10-11 week terms and is full-time (this means a minimum of 4 days per week). It is largely delivered through project briefs (both working in groups and individually), which allows an experimental and exploratory design process.
The projects open up opportunities for you to work collectively on research projects, external industry briefs and wider design research themes. Through this process, you'll evolve a design practice that is progressive but also thoughtful, critical and grounded in the complex realities of the world.
Throughout your projects you'll benefit from the input of experienced practice-based staff, as well as world-class visiting practitioners.
These projects are all part of three interconnected modules that make up the MA Design Expanded Practice programme:
| Module title | Credits |
|---|---|
| Studio Expanded Practice | 120 credits |
| Design Transfocality | 60 credits |
| Extended Study | 30 credits |
Teaching
The activity for the MA will operate across both the main New Cross campus and our satellite campus, currently in Deptford (a 10-minute walk from Goldsmiths).
The programme is taught through a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshops/labs, individual tutorials, and project briefs. You’ll also be expected to undertake a significant amount of independent study.
Assessment
Formative assessment will take place through regular tutorials, critique sessions and project presentations. Formative assessment allows students to reflect on their progress and decide areas for focus and/or improvement. Formative assessment and feedback will be facilitated by a range of department staff, as well as through peer review and inter-Studio discussion.
Summative assessment will take place at the end of each module. The nature of the submission will vary according to the structure and focus of the module and the modes of practice relevant to each individual Studio. Examples of summative submissions might be: oral and visual presentations, written work (essays and reports), projects and reflective portfolios.
Studio Overview
You should motivate your application through a first and second choice from this set of Studios:
Communication & Experience
This Studio focuses on investigation and communication, acknowledging a clear interdependency between 'content' (that being investigated) and 'container' (the exploration of the means of communication). Following a process of critical engagement with socio-cultural-political-curatorial concerns, we encourage the exploration of new formats and languages of communication using all means and media, through an interplay of space, performance, objects, film, sound, gaming, activism, language etc. The work we support seeks to engage with the public – not as an audience, but as co-respondents, co-authors and co-conspirators.
Fashions & Embodiment
This Studio facilitates conversations between making and unmaking, global and local, ethics and aesthetics, object and system, bodies and clothes. We challenge accepted boundaries and perceptions to explore fashion as a mode of collective agency. This requires questioning the relationship between fashion and consumption and generating knowledge and approaches that foster the transformative capacities of fashion and dress. We aim to broaden and reposition fashion practice through rethinking the relationships between garment, image, text, body and context to explore innovative ways of thinking, making and doing fashion.
Speculation & Techniques
This Studio investigates ways in which we can understand our history, present and future through temporal entwinement encompassing products, technologies, infrastructures and architectures. The Studio's mission is to understand how these entities can be understood and contrived through process, method, practice and ‘ways of doing’. In this studio, ‘Speculation’ is understood as a fundamental act present in all forms of practice. It is an investigation of ‘what might be,’ drawing directly from other practice-based disciplines such as literature and film, but including the approaches of performance, theatre, music etc.
Interactions & Experiments
This Studio explores inventive approaches to design and design-led research. We understand that the doing of design is connected to the making of the social world. We develop experiments that explore the interconnectedness of the designed social world, focusing on interactions between people and non-humans, such as technologies, infrastructures, policies and animals. We then work within these interconnected relationships to develop new interactions through material responses, and through this bring about new approaches to designing. To support this, we draw on material from design research and science and technology studies (STS). We activate our ideas in collaboration with specialists and in response to practical activities, field trips, seminars and workshops.
Spaces & Participation
This Studio looks at design as a situated practice that can activate and transform complex sociopolitical networks. Making use of intersectional and post-colonial theories, in combination with hands-on methods and practices (counter mapping, activism, public engagement, film, installation, sound and performance), we address the structural inequalities intrinsic to the production of everyday life.
Culture & Ecologies
This Studio considers the role of design (as both an outcome and a practice) in the formation of cultures, or ‘worlds’. Considering ‘ecologies’ as the messy collections of – and interdependencies between – matter, artefacts, and species grounded in particular spaces and timeframes, the studio supports designers to critically reevaluate the socio-cultural-material systems of which we are a part.
Careers
Graduates of the MA Design Expanded Practice can expect to enter a wide range of careers. You'll be equipped with the necessary expertise to develop a personal professional practice where you can expect to operate in roles such as:
- Individual designer/researcher
- Designer/maker
- Creative technologist/practitioner
- Freelance consultant
You may decide to develop and manage your own business, creative studio or design projects after graduation.
You could also get involved in researching or designing for an organisation, entering into journalism or writing, or progressing further in academia.
Skills
Some of the skills you'll develop during the Masters include:
- The ability to creatively and critically engage in debates relating to contemporary design culture
- The ability to conduct design research
- The ability to produce designed outcomes
- Creativity
- Initiative and invention
- The ability to question and critique theoretical perspectives
- Entrepreneurial skills
- Practical and technical design-making skills
- Communication skills
- Planning and organisation
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Networking skills
Entry Requirements
You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class in a relevant/related subject.
If you don't have a related undergraduate degree we also welcome those who have significant practical experience in a design-related field: you will be judged on the relevance of your previous work experience and on your art and/or design work. We will also consider applicants who do not have a design-related background but who have engaged in research either in academia (as students or academics) or at work.
We expect a high standard of achievement in design or other creative practice, and competencies in the use of equipment used to produce design work (IT and/or manufacture workshop skills).
You need to present, in portfolio and at interview, evidence of evolved critical and creative thinking in design.
International Qualifications
We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.
If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme.
How to Apply
For the MA Design: Expanded Practice, you apply directly to Goldsmiths using our online application system.
To complete your application, you will need to have:
- Details of your academic qualifications
- The email address of your referee who we can request a reference from, or alternatively a copy of youracademic reference
- Copies of your educational transcripts or certificates
- A portfolio (see below)
- A completed****Application Brief (Word)**
Portfolio
Applicants with a design background
Your portfolio should show five relevant projects (including sketches, process, experiments, and iterations), and include a short piece of writing in which you explain and reflect on your selection (500-1,000 words). Please upload this as a single PDF titled ‘Portfolio’. You will additionally need to complete and upload the .
Applicants with a non-design background
Please give extra attention to your personal statement which should be a short piece of writing (500-700 words) on a topic relevant to the programme (use this as an opportunity to articulate your views on topics that align with your chosen studio).
Applicants who don't come from a creative background should evidence any creative output including: writing, video, poetry, music, drawing, photography or any handcrafted, handmade items. This selection will provide a space to showcase creative treatments of your interests. This should be titled ‘Creative Document’. You will additionally need to complete and upload theApplication Brief (Word).
Personal Statement
Please complete the personal statement template in our online application system. You must complete these specific sections during the application process – please do not upload a general document in the personal statement section. The sections are as follows:
- Intellectual rationale for choosing your programme (MA Design: Expanded Practice)
- Previous academic background in relation to your programme choice
- Other experience that contributes to your programme choice
- What are your long-term academic goals and how will this programme help you achieve these?
- Any other information you feel to be relevant?
In your personal statement, you should list your first and second choice of Studios.
Fees and Funding
Annual Tuition Fees
These are the PG fees for students starting their programme in the 2025/2026 academic year.
- Home - full-time: £13600
- International - full-time: £28150
If your fees are not listed here, please check our postgraduate fees guidance or contact the Fees Office, who can also advise you about how to pay your fees.
It’s not currently possible for international students to study part-time under a student visa. If you think you might be eligible to study part-time while being on another visa type, please contact our Admissions Team for more information.
If you are looking to pay your fees please see our guide to making a payment.
Funding Opportunities
Explore the Goldsmiths scholarships finder to find out what funding you may be eligible for.
If you are a UK student you may be eligible for a postgraduate loan.
Meanwhile our Careers Service can also offer advice on finding work during your studies.
Paying Your Fees
Please note that as the MA Design: Expanded Practice is a 15-month programme. This will have implications for paying your fees if you are applying for a postgraduate loan to help fund your studies. The postgraduate loan instalments will be spread over a period of two years, with the final two loan instalments being paid after you complete your studies.
If you are planning to use the postgraduate loan to help pay your fees, you need to be aware that all tuition fees will need to either be paid at enrolment in September when you start your programme or via direct debit instalments, but these instalments will not be aligned with your loan. The full fee value will be due by the end of the third term (July) of the programme, prior to payment of the second year of postgraduate loan payments. Find out more about paying your tuition fees.
Additional Costs
In addition to your tuition fees, you'll be responsible for any additional costs associated with your course, such as buying stationery and paying for photocopying. You can find out more about what you need to budget for on our study costs page.
There may also be specific additional costs associated with your programme. This can include things like paying for field trips or specialist materials for your assignments. Please check the programme specification for more information.
