Masters Degrees (Craft)

On this MA you will learn to think about your craft in new ways, understand research as a craftsperson and become increasingly expert in your chosen practice and profession.

Based within a thriving art college environment at the university's central Brighton Grand Parade campus, you will learn from experienced professionals in a welcoming atmosphere that allows craftspeople to discuss and develop their ideas as a community.

You will develop both your creative skills and your ways of thinking. You will work with people who understand craft both as a profession and as a personal expression. Your options within this specialist course can include extensive work with a wide range of materials and professions, with expert provision across metal, ceramics, polymers, wood and more.

Throughout the course you'll be doing research and experimentation using innovative thinking and approaches to craft practice. To get your masters degree, you'll demonstrate both how you work and how you think as a craftsperson, with an extended essay and craft-in-context modules allowing you to develop your ideas around your own practice and the wider context of your craft.

Our MA strives to help you towards exemplary creative output. Through exploration of the traditional discipline categories to the evolution of future interpretations and directions, you will be encouraged to fully engage with what the craft scene is today.

Why study with us?

• Professional opportunities across the craft industry, with options in business and entrepreneurial practice, community outreach and work placements

• Lecturers who are dynamic and active researchers, creative designers, craft practitioners and leaders in their fields – both nationally and internationally

• Departmental expertise in a range of materials and professions, including furniture, ceramics, jewellery, product, polymers and metals

• Cross-disciplinary exploration of sustainability, craft heritage, material experimentation, and environmental, medical and digital technologies

• Fully equipped workshops in wood, metal, ceramics, polymers and composites, with digital technologies supported by a highly skilled team of technical demonstrators

• Department that recognises, nurtures and demonstrates craft's role in and capacity for cultural, social, economic and environmental benefit

Syllabus

While focusing on the physical act of making, the Craft MA also covers the theory of craft, allowing practitioners to conceptualise and contextualise their practice with deeper insight. The history, theory and traditions of craft form a core component in every module, and are delivered through lectures, presentations and studio discussion groups.

Modules:

Craft Practice
Craft in Context
Research Skills and Training
Creative Enquiry
Masters project

Options:

You will be able to choose from a range of modules from across our arts and humanities courses. Options include:

Sustainable Design Presents
Political Economy of Globalisation
Professional Entreprenurial Development
Fine Art: Mentoring
Historical and Critical Studies Dissertation
Professional Entreprenurial Development
Professional Experience with Industrial Placement

Careers and employability

After completing the course successfully, you will be able – as a master of your craft – to take opportunities across the craft professions, either in your own practice as an entrepreneur or in the use of craft for social and community engagement. Craftspeople find these opportunities in a range of fields including fine arts, design, museum curation, teaching, prop making and interior design. The course also provides a route into academia, teaching and research.

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This specialist course has been rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted for 14 years with particular highlights being the high quality school placements, excellent partnerships with museums, galleries and the wider arts community and the managements and quality assurance of the programme.

Because the course has been built around partnerships with primary, secondary and special schools, museums and galleries, community groups and artists, it offers you the opportunity to gain a PGCE in Secondary Art, Craft and Design Education with Qualified Teacher Status.

It will prepare you to become a highly effective practitioner, able to make a significant contribution to education and equipped to teach pupils across the range of art, crafts and design.

You’ll spend the majority of your time in two contrasting secondary school placements, with the remaining time at Northumbria University or at sites including museums, galleries, studios and workshops.

Thanks to our exclusive partnership with the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, you’ll also have access to BALTIC’s extensive library and archive.

Learn From The Best

This course will encourage you to challenge and develop your own personal philosophy and pedagogy by learning from a wide field of experienced practitioners.

Our delivery team include senior schools leaders, outstanding subject specialist teachers, research active lecturers, professionals from galleries, museums and creative organisations, artists, makers and designers.

They all model the attributes of an outstanding subject teacher and will encourage you to pursue and develop your own personal areas of expertise and interest by harnessing your prior experience and practice.

The majority of teaching staff are partners in external organisations including schools, museums and galleries across the North East, with a breath of expertise in arts, craft and design education. They include staff from our partner, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

Teaching And Assessment

The course has two main components; school based placements in two contrasting schools and an arranged timetable of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials enrichment days, studio days and project days.

The arranged timetable explores four main areas: professional knowledge and generic educational practice; art education practice and knowledge; art education skills and knowledge; and art education research, theory and philosophy.

You’ll also get the chance to customise project briefs, co-design enrichment opportunities and address art, craft and design subject knowledge and skills gaps, plus undertake a primary placement and have placements in post 16 education to explore the transition stages.

You’ll be assessed using a variety of strategies including written assignments, presentations and reflective professional portfolios. You’ll also undergo in-school assessment of your professional conduct and the planning and teaching of lessons.

This assessment enables you to have the maximum impact on pupil progress and demonstrate that you meet the requirements to be awarded a PGCE and Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) aligned to the Teachers’ Standards 2012.

Module Overview
TE6674 - Professional Studies: Art, Craft and Design (NC, 30 Credits)
TE6675 - Professional Placements: Secondary Art, Craft and Design (NC, 30 Credits)
TE7055 - Contemporary Issues & Practice in Art and Design Education (NC, 30 Credits)
TE7056 - Inquiry of Current Issues in Art Education (NC, 30 Credits)

Learning Environment

You’ll spend a minimum of 120 days, which will be the majority of your time, in two contrasting secondary school placements. They will be carefully matched to your individual academic and professional requirements, making sure you get great opportunities based on your needs.

You’ll also spend a significant amount of time at BALTIC and in our partnership museums, galleries and schools where you’ll be guided and mentored by experienced teachers and senior leaders.

Your training will include access to specialist art equipment including kilns, studio based equipment and materials – both on campus, and also across the partner organisations that you train in.

On top of that, you’ll be able to tap into our well-established network of subject-specialist, dedicated link tutors, all experienced senior leaders in arts education in secondary schools. They will ensure you make the best possible progress and are well prepared for your transition into teaching.

Digital learning is integrated and embedded into the course, from e-learning platforms to digital communication and presentations, and you’ll also use our e-learning portal, social networking platforms, digital communication tools and collaborative tools.

Research-Rich Learning

Arts education is an area rich in ongoing research, which is strongly reflected in the content of this course.

Our members of teaching staff come from a wide range of backgrounds and have a diverse range of research interests and expertise.

Prominent and key research areas include arts education; craft education; how arts can improve health and wellbeing; being an artist teacher; creative and cultural sector partnerships and collaborations. Other topics covered include ceramics in education; education in museums and galleries; quality assurance in schools; and creativity in education.

These fascinating areas are all explored and applied across and throughout the breadth of teaching on this course.

Give Your Career An Edge

Graduates from this course enjoy a consistently high employment rate and many students secure a position even before graduation.

This programme has outstanding recruitment, regularly recording excellent employability for its graduates. In 2015, 95% secured a job within three months of graduation and 100% within six months of graduation.

The vast majority of students who study this course go into secondary arts education, but those who don’t often choose to work in educational roles in museums and galleries or have gone on to successfully work in international arts education and administration.

Most of our recent graduates are based in the UK but some are tapping into the growing demand for outstanding graduates with a PGCE in schools across Europe and the Middle East.

Your Future

Many of our former students have told us that this course was transformative for them, both professionally and personally, providing long term impacts on their careers, with many jumping up the career ladder to middle and senior leadership.

Many graduates also decide to return to the programme to support our trainee teachers by guest lecturing, mentoring and developments research in arts education through the programme.

Becoming a secondary art teacher has the potential to be a hugely satisfying professional choice, and you’ll be able to make an immeasurable impact on students throughout the lifetime of your career.

The course carries a consistent record of delivering fantastic opportunities for progression after completion, with high employability levels and overall year-on-year outstanding satisfaction from students.

Your placements in two contrasting school settings aim to provide you with the best possible all-round experience of teaching at secondary level, which will stand you in excellent stead when it comes to applying for teaching roles.

If you decide to continue your studies, successful completion of this course means you could carry 60 credits forward towards a full or part time Masters degree at Northumbria making it cheaper and quicker.

With an excellent national reputation and plenty of choices and opportunities on this programme to make it a really personalised experience, your professional career in arts education can really take off.

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Summary

This MSc programme is suitable for engineering, mathematics, and physical sciences graduates who wish to specialise in the analysis, design and performance of yachts, small craft, and other high-performance vessels. Engineers from the world-renowned Wolfson Unit for Marine Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics contribute to the teaching of this programme. No prior specialised knowledge of the discipline is required and an introductory module called Fundamentals of Ship Science is provided in the programme.

Modules

Compulsory modules: Fundamentals of Ship Science; MSc Research Project; Yacht and High Performance Craft; Marine Law and Management; Sailing Yacht and Power-craft Design; Marine Safety and Environmental Engineering

Optional modules: further module options are available

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The Master of Fine Arts in the Book Arts Program began in 1985, and emphasizes the art and craft of making books by hand. We are located in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, School of Library and Information Studies, at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; a verdant, traditional campus located on the banks of the mighty Black Warrior River.

Visit the website https://bookarts.ua.edu/

The program leading to the M.F.A. in the Book Arts degree is a 60-credit hour course of study comprising four basic areas: printing/publishing, bookbinding, papermaking, and the history of the book. These areas do not work in isolation. Connections between them are made as often as possible. Our emphasis is on the book as an integrated unit, although there is opportunity for a student who wishes to pursue a specific interest in one or more of these areas after the initial general year of study. We are interested in developing craft skills based on historical principles and techniques, and the artistic expression that follows.

The M.F.A in the Book Arts Program develops book artists who have well-honed technical knowledge of the various facets of contemporary bookmaking, and who have an understanding of the historical evolution of the book including its materiality, and the role of the book in society. Courses explore the reconciliation of modern sensibilities with historic craft. It is to be remembered that the M.F.A. degree, and the 2.5-3 years leading to it, is a starting point in what is a lifelong process of acquiring skills and sensibilities in the art and craft of making books.

We accept up to eight new students each year. Our students are highly motivated, and come from various undergraduate backgrounds and work experiences. We have four graduate assistantships available yearly, on a competitive basis, plus three Windgate Fellowships.

The general goal for the M.F.A. program is to develop professional artisans who are technically proficient in the book arts and cognizant of the historical background in which these various crafts evolved and of the professional environment in which our graduates will work. To reach this goal, the school has created the following two specific goals and enabling objectives.

1. To provide students with an education that inculcates craft skills required for proficiency in the book arts, and that develops a sound foundation for the aesthetics and methodology of these arts:

a. Provide each student with fundamental technical skills in each of the crafts comprised by the book arts

b. Ready each student to apply these skills and techniques in the marketplace

c. Provide advanced technical skills in each student’s area of professional specialization

d. Create in each student a desire to acquire and upgrade skills beyond the formal program

e. Provide and reinforce in each student an appreciation for the aesthetics of the crafts

f. Facilitate the choice by the end of the first semester of an initial professional specialization in either printing or binding

g. Maintain a faculty whose members are recognized leaders in their fields

2. To enhance the professional status of artisans engaged in the book arts:

a. Acquaint students with the heritage, responsibilities, trends, and standards of the profession

b. Instill in students a concept of the interrelationship of the book arts

c. Enlist faculty to assist the book arts community by helping to establish standards, by supporting professional organizations, by offering continuing educational opportunities, and by serving as consultants and lecturers

d. Encourage faculty to publish and exhibit original works whenever appropriate

e. Encourage faculty to conduct research and disseminate findings to practitioners and teachers in the book arts community

Applicants are required to submit either the general portion of the Graduate Record Examination or the Miller Analogies Test in support of the application for admission. Ideally, prospective students should submit a portfolio of their work (in their area of experience), and if at all possible be interviewed by the book arts faculty. For detailed information about the application process please see the Graduate School website (http://graduate.ua.edu/).

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This practice based course would suit those who wish to re-examine the direction of their previous studies or wish to explore some area of design related personal interest in depth. Applicants are required to produce an initial statement of intent which broadly outlines their intended programme of study usually (but not exclusively) concerning further exploration of a topic within the area of 3D Design or Visual Communication. Informal enquiries are welcomed and may be followed by an advisory interview to assist in the determination of this if required. Entry is generally through an undergraduate degree in an Art and Design discipline, although we encourage applicants with other relevant professional experience.

PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE

Semester 1
-Design Practice 1
-Research for Creative Design Practice 1

Semester 2
-Advanced Practice 2
-Research for Creative Design Practice 2/3

Semester 3
-Design Practice 3
-Postgraduate Project/Dissertation

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND ASSESSMENT

The course is essentially a practice based programme, so it is likely you will spend the majority of your time working in either craft workshops or design studios. Students taking a more theoretical approach are likely to spend more time researching, or away from the University examining design led commercial or manufacturing activity. The programme is made up of 'practice' modules, supported by core modules - Research and Creative Perspectives, providing the theoretical and contextual underpinning to each student's programme. These modules are delivered through a programme of lectures, seminars and tutorials and provide a forum for exploring and debating the contexts of contemporary design and craft practice.

Both practical and theoretical elements of the course will be assessed at the end of each module. At the final assessment point at the end of the course, students have the opportunity of putting on a public exhibition of their work.

FURTHER INFORMATION

UCLan’s MA Design course exists within the framework of the University modular scheme. Full-time study is based over 3 semesters, with 3 modules studied each semester. Each semester comprises a double 'practice' module and a single 'theoretical' module - Research and Creative Perspectives. Part-time study is based over 5 semesters. The programme concludes with the double Practice module - Final Project Realisation, bringing together all practical and theoretical aspects of the course, through a major investigation into a particular personal area of study, leading to final assessment presentation / public exhibition. The postgraduate dissertation allows students to develop a major piece of theoretical work supporting their practice. Throughout the duration of the course students are required to keep an ongoing 'Reflective Diary' that is used to record all lines of enquiry, development of ideas, critical reflection and analysis.

The Northern School of Design offers an MA in Design by full-time or part-time study. The course encompasses a diverse range of craft and design activities across the areas of Visual Communication and Applied Arts, and places particular emphasis on 'practice', whilst also exploring the academic issues that underpin designing and making. The course aims to develop students' intellectual and imaginative power through a programme of study which forms cohesion between theory and practice. Whilst offering graduates, practising artists and designers the opportunity to develop their individual interests, the course will be made up of students representing a range of subject disciplines. This opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences is seen as a key element of the study programme.

The MA is a taught programme with one day's tuition per week (currently a Friday) supplemented by private study by negotiation. A special feature of the course is the unique blend of practice and theory which underpins the student projects. The course is taught by tutors who are themselves professional design practitioners and play a prominent role in the University's research activities. We have well equipped studios and workshops, supported by highly skilled technical staff. Supporting the craft workshops and design studios, we have excellent suites of high spec computers for CAD, assignment writing and image manipulation. The University has excellent library / study facilities with a very extensive collection of design books and periodicals, together with many e-resources and support.

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Rooted in material investigation, this course allows exploration of ceramics through art, craft and design contexts. You’ll develop skills and knowledge through an exciting combination of material investigation and research. This will allow you to contextualise your practice in relation to current debates in art, craft and design and to develop an individual production strategy.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

You’ll receive specialised ceramics tuition from a dedicated team of academic and technical staff within the ceramics area, as well as from regular part-time lecturers and visiting practitioner/artists.You’ll be part of a lively ceramics community, based around comprehensive workshop provision and studio spaces. As postgraduate students, you’ll have the opportunity to extend and hone making skills in conjunction with developing your understanding of how a ceramics specialisation might relate to production in art, craft or design contexts.

MODULE STRUCTURE

In the first trimester, you’ll establish the direction of your creative practice through studio and workshop-based making. Research Methodologies will provide you with a strong sense of methodical purpose when thinking through and about your practise.

In the second trimester, you’ll negotiate a proposal for self-directed study. You’ll deepen your knowledge and understanding of debates in ceramics, situating the personal interests and concerns that inform your work within an appropriate contemporary context.

The final trimester comprises an individually negotiated and self-initiated body of work building on the knowledge and skills already acquired. You'll be supervised by tutorial through to completion.

For detailed information on modules and course structure go to: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-design-ceramics/

DISTANCE LEARNING ROUTE

Students may choose to take some or all of the modules on this course by distance learning. Teaching and tutorial support will be delivered via a combination of computer-based learning and campus visits, with assessment matched to your particular interests and needs.

TEACHING METHODS

You’ll receive specialised ceramics tuition from a dedicated team of academic and technical staff within the ceramics area, as well as from regular part-time lecturers and visiting practitioner/artists. Peer interaction across the school, along with the group dynamic within the course, is seen as critical to your learning experience. Lectures, seminars, group critiques and trips will also be central to your learning experience.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Practice modules are assessed through studio exhibition of work with a supporting statement; theory modules through written assignment and verbal presentation. The final Masters Project is assessed through exhibition and Evaluative Report. There are no written examinations.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Typical career destinations include:
• Exhibiting
• Ceramic design and museum work
• Arts administration
• Public art
• Research
• Teaching

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The Creative Writing programme at Glasgow has gained an excellent reputation amongst writers, agents and publishers. It is perfect for talented and aspiring writers who want to develop their craft, take risks in their work, and gain creative and critical skills; all as part of a supportive community of fellow writers. Skills gained in the study of Creative Writing may lead to career opportunities in literary and cultural fields such as editing, publishing and arts development.

Why this programme

◾Our dedicated teaching staff comprises successful and well-regarded writers who work in and encourage a variety of genres and forms.
◾We have strong links with literary agents and publishers, and an impressive number of our graduates are published and acclaimed authors.

Programme structure

The MLitt in Creative Writing is directed at those who are already engaged in writing. The programme’s clear three-part structure, focused on creative, critical and practical issues, distinguishes it from others offered in the UK.

The programme structure covers:

Semester 1
◾Creative workshops and guest speakers
◾Reading as a writer (Craft & Experimentation 1)
◾Copyright, publishing and the culture of reception (Editing & Publication 1)

Semester 2
◾Creative workshops and guest speakers
◾Experimentation (Craft & Experimentation 2)
◾Editing the twenty-first century: editorial project (Editing & Publication 2)

These courses have been developed to:
◾encourage you to experiment with a range of voices, techniques and genres alongside a consideration of major creative and editorial engagements from the modern through the contemporary period.
◾provide a space to undertake extended portfolios of creative and editorial work.
◾familiarise you with the writing context (audience, publishing in all its forms, the legal framework, modes of transmission); help you develop a critical understanding of diverse creative, theoretic and critical texts through consideration of major creative and editorial engagements in modern and contemporary writing.
◾and most importantly, to help you develop the discipline of regular writing by providing a stimulating workshop and tutorial environment in which writing skills can be acquired, discussed and honed.

Your portfolio, consisting of fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, or script-writing, is at the heart of the summative assessment.

Glasgow is a city known for its culture and our students are involved in festivals, events, radio and literary magazines.

Career prospects

Graduates have gone into writing, journalism, publishing, and many other professions.

Many of our students have gone on to become published authors. You can find a list of alumni on our Creative Writing subject pages. Others have been published in magazines and journals, or have had their work produced and broadcast on radio and television. A number of our graduates have won or been shortlisted for major prizes for poetry, short fiction and fiction including the Dundee Book Prize, Booker Prize, Bailey’s Women’s Prize, Orange Prize, Fish Short Story Award, Bridport Prize, McCash Scots Poetry Competition, Macallan and Canongate short story awards, Saltire Awards, Scottish Book of the Year Awards.

Positions held by recent graduates include Managing Director, Freelance Writer, Editor, Programme Manager, Author, Copywriter, Author and Community Arts Worker.

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Manchester Metropolitan University has a longstanding national reputation for providing high-calibre initial teacher training with over 20 Secondary specialisms available. The Faculty of Education has a well-established partnership with over 800 secondary schools and colleages across the North West region and beyond.

This PGCE covers all aspects of becoming an effective and successful teacher of art, craft and design in the National Curriculum as well as GCSE and AS/A level. Trainees benefit from excellent studio facilities and an art gallery featuring school and course-related exhibitions. There is a strong emphasis on individual art practice - trainees will be encouraged to share this with peers and pupils in schools.

A minimum of 120 days school-based practice training is combined with university-based training and periods of independent study. Trainees are supported throughout by university and placement mentors.

This PGCE is available via University led and School Direct routes.

We also offer an Assessment-Only route to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) aimed at experienced, but unqualified graduate teachers wishing to complete a formal qualification.

Features and benefits of the course

-State-of-the-art studio and gallery facilities at the Brooks Building in Manchester
-Experience in a diverse range of schools and colleges
-Choice of University-led, School Direct or Assessment-only routes to Qualified Teacher Status
-Opportunity to apply for four week enrichment experience overseas
-Course includes 60 Masters Level CATS points, or one third of a Masters degree
-Access to NQT alumni support in your first year of teaching
-Close links with our Educational and Social Research Institute

Placement options

School placements are central to the course. As intending teachers trainees begin by developing professional awareness, understanding and skills common to learning and teaching in a variety of settings. They begin to understand the inter-relationship between the school and its community.

Placements will be in at least two different schools or colleges and will range from inner city to rural settings, mixed and single gender schools, City Academies, Comprehensives and Selective Schools, 11-16, 11-18, sixth form and further education colleges.

Trainees also have the opportunity to apply for a four week enrichment experience overseas. These help to develop an international educational perspective and provide the chance to gain some teaching experience in an international school. Enrichment is in addition to PGCE units of study and opportunities may differ year on year, for example, in 2016 trainees were placed at British International Schools in Kazakhstan, Cyprus or Norway or public schools in Orleans, France.

About the Course

Trainees will be introduced to different models of critical engagement and be involved in a number of gallery education workshops at various stages in the course. You will explore the relationship between curriculum development and assessment for and of learning in art, craft and design and particular concerns, such as drawing for different purposes and needs. In addition you will follow a series of workshops that embrace a range of art, craft, design and new media disciplines. You will be shown how to apply resulting insights in your teaching to the benefit of your pupils.

Much of your work will be undertaken in lecture-related seminars and small scale activity groups where the emphasis is on personal and professional development within the context of shared experiences and mutual support.

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Literature at Brighton is framed by an awareness of contexts and the social production of texts. As a product of this culture, the Literature MA offers a distinctive combination of practice-based literary studies and critical textual analysis. One of the original aspects of the course lies in its approach to marrying critical approaches to literary studies with an awareness of writing as a creative and critical practice. This course enjoys a distinct identity in its pronounced focus on the practice of writing as a craft, one best understood through both engaging in practice and studying the practice of others. Combining critical, experimental, historical and philosophical approaches in and beyond academia, the study of textual practices - the questioning of representations, tensions and innovations - forms a discursive framework around which understandings of the place and function of writing in contemporary society take place. Core modules address texts, theories and cultures, practising rhetoric and location-focused literary studies: option modules offer experience in the emerging fields of twenty-first century literature, gender and performance, literature and conflict, American fiction and poetry, Victorian journalism, screenwriting and writing as a creative craft. Founded on the belief that good writers also make good readers, the Literature MA makes the necessary connections between critical and creative approaches to the discipline in the twenty-first century.

Areas of study
The course is structured around essential core modules, a research skills module and the dissertation. Options allow you to explore areas of personal interest in literature and further afield in the arts.

Practising Rhetoric
Rhetoric and rhetoric studies offer a distinctive third way between creative and critical approaches to the theory and practice of writing, and enables students to see their own and others writing within a long and valued tradition on the form, place(s) and functions of effective communication. Students are encouraged to assess and analyse a wide variety of genres and modes of writing (from conventional literary texts to political speeches and advertisements), and to practice their own writing in critical, creative or professional outputs through placing language use and affect as central to their writing and speaking practice.

Cultural Theory
This core module offers an advanced introduction to the field of cultural theory and its application to literary texts. Based around close readings of key texts, the course critically interrogates central cultural concepts and thematics in the work of key cultural theorists working in the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. More generally, the course aims to examine and assess the nature and purpose of cultural theory in the contemporary world, and does so by tracing theoretical shifts and reconceptualisations of culture in relation to social, political, and geographical contexts.

Writing the City
This module uses Brighton as a case study to move from a local to a global understanding of the relationship between texts and contexts, literature and location. The module is a celebration and critical review of representations of the city, as well as a space to consider some familiar and some lesser-known cultural responses. Examining representations of cities as well as work from their communities of writers and artists, students are encouraged to theorise texts in terms of space and place as well as reframe political topographies and geographies. Developing students? understanding of the ways in which texts engage with socio-cultural contexts and enter into dialogue with representations of the past, present and future, the module will encourage critical and creative reflection on student experience of the city and promote their active role in (re)presenting location in literature.

Research Skills and Training
Studies are framed around the broad question what is research?, and seeks to place the student?s own practice and academic work in this context. Having considered the value of research into the arts and culture a series of seminars and workshops will introduce students to the key research methods. These will be discussed throughout in the context of the student?s own plans for research. As these discussions develop students move towards direct consideration of a research proposal which will in turn form the basis of the assessment.

Dissertation
The dissertation is the culmination of the degree and provides an opportunity for students to explore their research in a focused and organised fashion through a project of their own design. Building upon the learning students have benefited from throughout the programme they will be encouraged to develop their thinking on the dissertation. The intention is for students to develop a reflexive and critically engaged dissertation that makes a genuine contribution to debates in literature.

Options
Students can choose literature options and from across the faculty?s disciplines including performing gender, the ethics of fiction, creative writing, screenwriting and humanities.

Syllabus
Three literature core modules
Practising Rhetoric
Cultural Theory
Writing The City
Two research modules
Research Skills and Training
Dissertation
Two options
Students may choose from literature option modules:
Twenty-first Century Literature
Performing Gender
American Poetry in Twentieth Century History
The Ethics of FictionLiterature and Conflict
Knowing Through Writing
Victorian Journalism
Screenwriting: Craft and Creative Practices
And/or from a suite of wider subjects including:
Holocaust Memory
Gender, Family and Empire
Visual Narrative
Critical and Media Concepts

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This course is studio-centred, integrating both design and craft practice where social responsibility, integrity and professional practice are placed at the heart of MA study.

We encourage active research defined by hands-on project work with community, in close partnership with local councils, organisations and communities beyond Manchester School of Art, highlighting how this network supports and informs our design and craft practice. This route calls students to question the ways in which, designers cooperate, collaborate and contribute to society.

Exploration of both hands-on and digital innovation is encouraged in the development of design, making and communication practices. There is access to an extensive range of material and CAD/CAM workshop facilities and opportunities to experience a diverse range of creative cultures, including related design and craft disciplines such as Graphic and Fashion Design.

Design Network

Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Lab is part of an innovative design network — a community of staff and students exploring design ideas in a discursive, cross-disciplinary studio environment. Critically informed practical designers, the group works experimentally, inspired by new insights and possibilities.

While studying towards a particular qualification at MA/MFA level, students experience their subject in the broader context of contemporary design practice.

Specialist Environment

Dedicated spaces for the postgraduate community have been developed to enable the postgraduate community to flourish. These spaces, for thinking and practice, are located centrally within the School of Art, allowing easy access to an extensive range of workshops where the combination of traditional and state of the art equipment opens up a world of exciting possibilities.

Course Content

The MA Design: Lab is made up of four units totalling 180 credits.

The programme is designed to help you acclimatise to the challenges of MA level research and practice, enabling you to identify and describe a clear direction for your postgraduate design study.

You will be encouraged to develop design propositions that encompass key design issues and have complexity and ambition, taking full consideration of the relative contextual drivers.

You will also be encouraged and supported to extend your experience in the professional sphere either through a practical project, research context, exchange, work experience, or other negotiated professional set of interactions with an external partner, groups of students and creative industry.

Towards the end of the programme you will undertake a major project to consolidate your past research and practice into fully realised collections, pieces, proposals, business plans, or exhibitions – what ever means is appropriate to the work. You will also have developed a strategy for the continuation of your practice located and contextualised to the profession or discipline.

If you choose to progress to MFA Design: Lab award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.

This award is focussed on the continuation of your practice aligned to the research and selection of appropriate public or professional venues and platforms to disseminate a significant body of work. You will be required to produce work for a public audience in the most relevant and appropriate form along with any implicit publicity and dissemination material.

Resources

We have developed a dedicated postgraduate area occupying an entire floor of the main School of Art building, offering an exciting space to be, both intellectually and practically. The centre is located in the newly refurbished Chatham Tower with studios, design laboratories, seminar rooms and extensive workshops that form the nucleus of this vibrant, cross-disciplinary learning environment.

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Programme description

Led by a professional playwright, this unique programme focuses on the practical exploration of the theory and craft of writing for performance. It explores how a script is written to be interpreted by the key creative artists in theatre and how that script plays out in space and time in front of an audience.

Through seminars, tutorials, workshops and professional master classes (led by some of Europe’s leading playwrights and theatre artists), you will develop an understanding of live performance theory, self-motivation and the focus necessary to work as an independent artist within the theatre industry.

Edinburgh has a buzzing theatre scene and the programme draws on this to culminate in a public, professional reading of your work in progress at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Programme structure

The programme will be taught through a combination of seminars, workshops, independent study, one-to-one supervision and professional master classes. There will also be regular theatre visits.

A central component of the programme will be development workshops with professional actors and established directors, focusing on your own work. You will also work with the performing artists-in-residence, who will offer workshops in each semester. Over two semesters you will take three compulsory courses and one option course.

On completion of these courses, you will produce a major piece of performance writing, supported by one-to-one supervision and development workshops, to be given a professional reading at the end of the programme.

Compulsory courses:

The Craft of the Playwright I
The Craft of the Playwright II
Time and Space of Performance

Option courses may include:

Theatre, Performance, Performativity
Cinema Auteurs 2
Shakespearean Sexualities
Theatre, Performance and Performativity
Shakespeare Adapted

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this programme will:

be introduced to and become skilled in a range of applied methods for the development and structuring of dramatic script for live performance
develop a knowledge and understanding of writing for different kinds of performance contexts from the single-authored play to devised work
develop a knowledge and understanding of the theory, methodology and practice of writing different genres from tragedy and comedy to political theatre
develop self-motivation and the focus necessary to work as an independent artist within the theatre industry
develop their critical skills as readers of their own and others’ work and as creators and consumers of live performance
develop a familiarity with the professional development and production processes of live performance and how these impact on the making of script

Career opportunities

This highly practical programme allows you to forge valuable links within Edinburgh’s performing arts community. You may choose to use the research skills you have developed to pursue advanced study, or seek a role within the theatrical field.

The transferable skills you gain from your studies, such as communication, research and project management will be valuable to your career development whatever path you choose.

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The course includes traditional elements for a postgraduate programme in Creative Writing, such as writing workshops, intensive tutorial-based supervision and a range of guest speakers. In addition, the MA provides both literary context and practical professional experiences. The Workshop Space: Craft and Pedagogy examines how and why we workshop. It explores questions of authority, taste and trust. You will lead part of a writing workshop and devise writing exercises for your fellow writers. While it provides a strong literary context for students, the literary material is examined and analysed from a writer’s point of view. The module Working as a Writer offers practical, independent experience. Students can pursue either publications or design, implement and complete an independent creative project with an outside organisation.

The modules we currently offer are:
-Writing Workshop I: Creative and Critical Processes
-The Workshop Space: Craft and Pedagogy
-Writing Workshop II: Creative and Critical Processes
-Working as a Writer
-Creative Writing Dissertation

Why choose this course?

The MA in Creative Writing offers a range of distinct creative practices and theoretical approaches. It aims to develop professional skills in the area of Creative Writing by giving students the opportunity to implement their creative practice more broadly in professional settings. With up-to-date, relevant skills, understanding and knowledge, graduates of this MA will be prepared for employment in a variety of fields, such as working creatively with organisations, professional writing and other related professions. The MA can be taken as a one-year full time course or a two-year part-time course.

Teaching methods

Writing workshops are the primary mode of delivery for the programme, led by experienced Creative Writing professionals. The workshops focus on craft, art and developing students’ writing. Each student will have a supervisor and regular tutorials will supplement their workshop-based sessions. A guest lecture series provides further professional contexts for the students.

All modules except the Dissertation are 30 credits. The Dissertation is 60 credits. Part time students will take the People and Places and Working as a Writer modules in the first year and the Writing Workshop I and Writing Workshop II modules in their second year. The Dissertation will be completed in semester C of their second year.

Structure

Modules
-Creative Writing Dissertation
-People and Places: Writing Communities
-The Writing Workshop 2: Creative and Critical Processes
-The Writing Workshop1: Creative and Critical Processes
-Working as a Writer

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Our MA Textiles course is constructed around the development of individual research into textile culture, craft and design. It will enable you to combine previous experience of textiles practice with a personal project.

As a student on our course, you'll be encouraged and supported through the process of exploration, interrogation, transformation and resolution. You'll question your own conventions of making, challenge your own assumptions about your work, innovate with materials, processes, techniques and ideas, and emerge from the postgraduate experience with a renewed sense of personal vision.

Our course team are practising researchers, involved in a range of textile practices, exhibiting and publishing internationally, including Professor Simon Olding and Professor Lesley Millar MBE. You'll benefit from our links with established artists and designers drawn from an international cohort, studio-workshops and galleries, as well as with the Craft Study Centre. This is a purpose-built museum, research centre and gallery dedicated to crafts based at our Farnham campus.

On this course you'll be taught through tutorials, lecturers, seminars and critiques support the development of your research and practice. As part of the course you're expected to undertake some form of professional practice, such as a live brief, competition, application for a residency, funding or a work placement.

Industry Partners

As part of this course, you'll have access to well-established industry connections. These include:
-The Crafts Council
-Royal School of Needlework
-Farnham Maltings
-Selvedge Magazine
-Nuno Corporation
-The New Ashgate Gallery
-Melin Tregwynt Woollen Mill

Recent guest lecturers include:
-Rachel Kelly, wallpaper designer
-Yosi Anaya, textiles designer
-Dr Jane Harris, textiles designer

Careers

Our course will equip you with a host of valuable and transferable skills. Upon successful completion, you may decide to become self-employed, or forge a career within the craft and design industries. These offer a variety of career opportunities, including:
-Freelance design professionals
-Self-employed designer-makers
-Textile designers
-Public art practitioners
-Textile conservationists and curators
-Arts educators and teachers
-Textile stylists
-Fashion buyers and retailers
-Gallery directors

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Introduction

MA Dramatic Writing is a new course, exploring new models of training for dramatic writers in the UK. The course brings together ten Masters who have led on dramatic writing training in the UK: Ola Animashawun, Stephen Jeffreys, Caroline Jester, Fin Kennedy, Kate Rowland, Philip Shelley, Nina Steiger, Jennifer Tuckett, Steve Winter, and John Yorke. The course offers the best training in craft in the UK, industry commissions, partnerships and mentorship, collaboration with actors, directors, designers and animators, and the opportunity to work on your own major projects. Our aim is to help nurture the next generation of leading writers.

Content

MA Dramatic Writing aspires to be at the forefront of dramatic writing training in the UK.

We attempt to achieve this via exploring how best to train dramatic writers in the UK, by providing:

The best possible training in craft

Industry collaborations, projects and partnerships which supply our students with connections, industry training and experience and access to new and leading ideas

Via collaboration with other Drama Centre courses which give our students with connections to actors, directors, designers and animators in their peer group which we hope they will continue to develop throughout their careers.

The course brings together 10 Masters who have led on the training of Dramatic Writing in the UK and offers regular industry commissions, collaborations and partnerships, offering students a chance to build up connections and experience and to explore and be a part of new ideas developing in the dramatic writing industry.

The course aims to cover all of the skills you will need to pursue a successful and sustainable career as a writer.
In Unit One, students learn craft in all five forms of dramatic writing (theatre, television, film, radio and digital media) and take part in industry commissions and projects.

In Unit Two, you will have the opportunity to pursue your own portfolio of work, exploring and developing your voice and vision as a writer and working in a way which replicates working practices in the industry.
Via this structure, our aim is to provide students with the skills, experience, connections, credits and portfolio of work they need to go on to pursue successful and sustainable careers as writers.

The course is also dedicated to exploring the best possible training of dramatic writers in the UK and staff and changing commissions and projects offer an exciting opportunity to work with the professionals and on the projects who are currently leading the way in the industry.

Our aim is for our graduates to go on to work in and become leaders and/or a part of the dramatic writing industry both in London, regionally and internationally.

Structure

The Course is of 60 weeks in duration, arranged across two academic years that consist of 6 terms of 10 weeks.

MADW is credit rated at 180 credits and is comprised of two Units:

Unit 1 (60 credits) for the first 20 weeks of the Course

Unit 2 (120 credits) that runs for the remaining 40 weeks.

Both units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from your mark for Unit 2 only.

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Run in partnership with Sky, the largest pay-tv broadcaster in the United Kingdom.

-Unique 12 month course,
-Run in partnership with Sky, the largest pay-tv broadcaster in the United Kingdom
-Prepares you to work in a multicamera studio environment
-Work as a Vision Mixer, or a Camera/ Lighting or Sound specialist.
-Includes a six-week internship with Sky and some of the modules are taught at Sky Studios.
-Sky also guarantees to employ at least one graduate of the course each year.
-Unlike other schools, all production costs are met by the School.

We welcome EU/EEA Students. Course fees charged at UK rate.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course commences in January each year. This intensely practical and pioneering course aims to prepare students for a successful future in multi-camera studio entertainment production. Students are taught by NFTS staff and visiting Industry Professionals and have hands-on experience of a variety of studio roles as well as in their specialisation.

Students will apply for, and be accepted onto the course in one of three craft specialisations:

I. Cameras and Lighting
Practise the core skills of TV studio camera operators, positioning the camera, framing and focus. Learn to use broadcast cameras in a multi-camera studio, repositioning and changing shot as the director demands while the vision mixer cuts and mixes the show. Learn to develop shots, moving with artists or in sympathy with music to create dynamic and exciting television. Begin to light simple interviews and more complex multi-camera lighting techniques. You’ll need a passion for pictures, quick reactions, clear and proactive thinking with excellent co-ordination and a good sense of musical rhythm.

II. Vision Mixing
Train on sophisticated broadcast vision mixing consoles, build and realise complex live visual effects to the director’s brief. Using these high-end production tools, Vision Mixing is like editing - but in real time! Cut, mix and wipe between cameras, pre-edited clips and other video sources live. Learn how to mix a variety of genres from situation comedy to fast paced entertainment and music shows adding digital effects and captioning in real time. You’ll need to be logical, quick thinking, calm under pressure and have an excellent feel for timing and rhythm, both dramatic and musical.

III. Sound (in a broadcast studio environment)
Sound carries the story, sets the mood and the tempo. It provides the enabling structure against which TV pictures can shine. Good sound is essential to a TV programme. Learn how to choose and place microphones for the best results for a variety of shows including live music. Train to use ‘Fisher booms’ - in great demand for sitcoms and soaps - to pick up drama dialogue. Mix studio sound in real time using sophisticated broadcast desks. Enhance the show with spot effects, music cues and audio processing to create atmosphere and energy. Learn how to manage TV comms including studio talkback systems allowing key production team members to communicate and collaborate effectively. You’ll need to be a quick, logical thinker, have a ‘good ear’ and a passion for high quality sound.

These are the core disciplines of multi camera studio operations and people trained at a high level in these craft areas are hotly in demand.

CURRICULUM

Students will be exposed to the creative challenge of working across a range of entertainment programming, including: Situation Comedy, Magazine Shows, Talent Shows, Panel Shows, Game Shows etc.

The award focuses on developing students’ specific capabilities, in the following areas:
-The language of entertainment television so that they can work effectively within production teams
-A high level technical understanding of their chosen specialist area
-A critical awareness of the production workflow and the impact of multiplatform on production

Modules include:
-The Grammar of Television Entertainment
-Media Technology
-Music and Magazine Programming
-Chat Shows and Panel Shows
-Comedy

The six week internship at Sky is constituted of two distinct elements. Firstly the student will shadow a Sky Production Services member of staff working in their specialisation (Vision Mixer, Sound, Camera/Lighting). This will cement the students understanding of the wide range of professional practices and competencies associated with each role. Secondly, students will undertake a range of simulated exercises (designed by the NFTS with Sky involvement) to hone their craft and understanding on the Sky equipment.

At the end of the course, students will be well placed to work professionally in their chosen job role within broadcast production. They will also have a thorough understanding of the television production process encompassing everything from the creative to the technical and the business aspects.

Unlike other schools, all production costs are met by the School. In addition you will be given a cash Production Budget. NFTS students are engaged in more productions as part of the curriculum than any of our competitors.

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