Goldsmiths, University of London, Department of Design Masters Degrees

The Department of Design is dynamic, contemporarily engaged and forward thinking. The College’s interdisciplinary intellectual climate affords the Department the unique opportunity to draw upon a wealth of critical, theoretical and creative perspectives, which in turn shape the distinct – and often radical – design practices, educational programmes and research that are pursued.

Design has a huge influence on the way we live. In an increasingly uncertain world – facing, for instance, climate change, globalised consumerism and social fragmentation – designers need to think more deeply, critically and creatively about their activities than ever before. Appreciating this, we have developed contemporarily engaged and future-sensitive postgraduate programmes that cultivate versatile, pioneering design practitioners, critically aware of their responsibilities to the environment and of the ethical dimension of their activities in influencing social processes and cultural formation.

We produce graduates of consistently high calibre, many of whom have become leaders in the creative industries in a number of countries, including China, Japan and Korea. Our students have won numerous awards (including UK Young Designer of the Year and Eco-Designer of the Year) and their shows have attracted positive attention in the media and achieved great acclaim in the design community. A number of graduates are now working in top London design consultancies (Fitch, Thomas Heatherwick Studios, Imagination, Pentagram) and major UK companies (John Lewis Partnership, Eden Project, Harvey Nichols).

All members of academic staff are research active, which enables the Department to remain at the cutting edge of both theory and practice and consequently keep its educational programmes current. We are renowned for important research in sustainability, design education, interaction design, critical practice, user experience, materials, design thinking and futures, and our research received the top mark awarded to a design department nationally in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). In the RAE 2008, assessors noted that 'there are world-leading outputs in each of the three groups identified in the submission that demonstrate a significant contribution to debate and discourse within their fields'. The Department was also praised for its 'dynamic' environment and 'well-developed and well-articulated research strategy'.

The reputation of the Department is further established through the exemplary work of its design practitioners, who produce internationally acclaimed commercial and exhibition work.

Facilities

The Department of Design has a suite of general manufacturing workshops for modelling and making, in a broad range of rigid, flexible and mouldable materials (including a laser cutter and a starch modeller). There is a dedicated computing suite enabling 2D, 3D, media, multimedia and CAD/CAM design works. All students also have individual studio space.