Program Overview

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Overview

The Illustration MA is part of the School of Art and Humanities MA Art & Design Suite, an innovative approach to postgraduate taught education that brings together disciplines from across art and design to produce a collaborative programme of courses that foreground the shared practices, processes and values of art and design in the 21st century.

Illustration creates a deep emotional connection in the telling of stories and communication of ideas to a global audience. Illustration is made up of many different creative processes and inhabits a multitude of contexts.

The Masters course provides an opportunity for you to hone your professional approaches to the discipline for different commercial and artistic platforms. Illustration offers traditional as well as increasingly innovative spaces for image makers as the scale of what we illustrate and where evolves. Our course offers continuing students or graduates from creative art and design subjects with an opportunity to enhance their knowledge, creative skills and employment prospects.

Our course aims to enable you to:

• Critically appraise the importance of social, ethical, technological and cultural dimensions of illustration as applied to your personal practice and that of others.
• Evidence advanced knowledge and understanding of illustration and its current and emerging global applications such as, but not limited to, authorial practice, visual communication, children’s’ books and graphic novels.
• Systematically plan, negotiate and implement topical research to substantiate a coherent body of advanced illustration practice.
• Contribute to the principles and processes of illustration in supporting innovation within commercial or creative industries.
• Evidence awareness and relevance of your work in relation to professional standards in illustration practice such as, for example, maintaining an online portfolio and demonstrating an ability to work across a range of platforms such as print, web, animation and multimedia.

Our course aims to encourage you to push the boundaries of your illustration practice with the development of innovative and imaginative concepts and ideas relevant to a range of situations, artefacts and products. We will introduce you to a variety of platforms and contexts within which illustration sits, enabling you to experiment, expand, progress and communicate your ideas through different forms and processes, both digital and analogue.

Key Information

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally:

• An Honours degree (2:2 or above) in a relevant subject or an equivalent professional qualification.
• Alternative qualifications and/or significant experience may be accepted, subject to approval.
• International students with qualifications in 'creative' or 'practice' subjects should submit a digital portfolio (pdf) of work with their application.
• All suitably qualified applicants are normally invited in for an informal chat with a portfolio or considered for admittance under alternative arrangements.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent.

Start dates

• 22 September 2025
• 12 January 2026

Duration

1 year full-time

Course Detail

• Modules
  • Research Methods and Project Proposal
  • Creative Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Creative Studio
  • Professional Platforms Art and Communication
  • Illustration Major Project
• Teaching and Assessment
  • The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, practical workshops and a programme of design projects.
  • Your module specification/course handbook will provide full details of the assessment criteria applying to your course.
  • Feedback (usually written) is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks – unless the submission was made towards the end of the session in which case feedback would be available on request after the formal publication of results.
• Teaching excellence
  • Our teaching staff rank first in England for the proportion with higher degrees and teaching qualifications, as well as being top five for those holding doctorates.
  • We are second in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 24 since 2008.
  • We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award, recognising the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers.

What can I research?

Research plays an important role in informing all our teaching and learning activities. Through research our staff remain up-to-date with the latest developments in their field, which means you have the opportunity to benefit and develop knowledge and skills that are current and highly relevant.

For more information, visit the Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture (CEADA)

Facilities

The University of Huddersfield offers a range of facilities to support your studies, including:

• Virtual Reality Lab
• Barbara Hepworth Building
• Mac suite
• Photography studio
• Phidias Lab for VR
• Library
• Group work facilities

Fees and Finance

• Tuition Fees - full-time: In 2025/26 the full-time tuition fee for UK postgraduate students on this course will be £8,900 (Band 2).
• Materials: You will need to cover the cost of manufacturing and printing your work during the course. The approximate cost of these items in recent years has been approximately £500. However, given the nature of the Masters course, where your own project design is the driving focus for specific outcomes, these costs are approximations only.

Important information

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is essential that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons:

• Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on
• Changes to your course after you enrol as a student
  • Changes to option modules
  • Major changes

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.