COURSE CURRICULUM

The MA Design programme with Advanced Practice provides an interdisciplinary and professionally focused learning experience that develops advanced creative, research, and leadership skills for careers across the design and creative industries. The Advanced Practice module allows students to build upon their existing knowledge and experience through opportunities that align with their career ambitions while developing solutions to real-world business challenges through reflection, critical thinking, and practical action. Design Approaches: Innovative and Emerging Themes encourages students to explore transformative trends, future opportunities, and emerging areas of design while developing a distinctive personal design narrative through projects, exhibitions, workshops, and collaborative design events. Design Approaches: Making, Methods and Impact focuses on the development of advanced design methodologies and individual creative approaches through experimentation, live projects, competitions, and external opportunities that strengthen both practical skills and professional portfolios. The Integrated Practice module promotes entrepreneurial thinking, collaboration, and empathetic design methods by enabling students to work in teams on projects that address complex challenges through diverse perspectives and value-driven solutions. Students develop prototypes, products, services, and systems before presenting their ideas to expert panels, gaining valuable experience in pitching and professional communication. The Masters Project provides an opportunity for an extensive independent study tailored to individual interests and career goals, allowing students to create substantial outputs such as exhibitions, publications, campaigns, artefacts, and digital projects that demonstrate their creativity and professional vision. Research Through Future Practice strengthens students' understanding of social, political, environmental, and technological issues through practical design research supported by theoretical, historical, and speculative perspectives. By integrating critical thinking, contextual awareness, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovative problem solving, the programme prepares graduates for leadership roles in fields such as UX and UI design, graphic design, interaction design, creative direction, design consultancy, entrepreneurship, and design education within a rapidly changing global design landscape.