Art & Design

This innovative, industry-facing MA allows you to work either in a cross-disciplinary way or in a specialist area of study, for example:

• graphic communication
• interior architecture
• interior design
• product design
• decorative interior crafts
• design for sustainable futures
• design marketing.

It prepares creative individuals for professional practice in the development of new business ideas, products, systems and artefacts, and provides a stimulating environment to support high-level enquiry into emerging and future aspects of creative practice, through individual and collaborative action.

Professional Preparation Master’s Scheme Award
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have recognised the excellence of MA Future Design at Teesside by offering a Professional Preparation Master’s Scheme Award to one full-time student every year from 2011-2013. This award is worth £8,845 (at 2011 rates) plus payment of course fees, provides a fully-funded opportunity to prepare for professional design practice to an advanced level. If you wish to be considered for this award you must first apply and be offered a place on MA Future Design and also complete the AHRC studentship application. The deadline date is in early July each year.
 AHRC studentship application (word -70kb)

What you study

Stage 1 involves professional skills development, research, project work and the opportunity for collaborative working. Stage 2 culminates in a feasibility study for a negotiated major project. Finally Stage 3 enables you to complete major project work, supported by regular tutorial contact and studio interaction.

How you learn

At MA level it is vital that you take an active role in structuring your own learning, and engage with the relevant methods and underpinning theories of your discipline. The use of a variety of methods, including tutorials, seminars and workshops, enables key principles to be applied to the day-to-day interaction between participants. Projects form the basis of the modules on your programme and provide a wide range of experience in various areas of the discipline.

An intrinsic aspect of your main study area and its supporting subjects is research. You need to find and make sense of a wide variety of information from books, newspapers, journals, magazines, websites, archives and many other sources, then analyse and discuss your findings to inform the creative process. Lectures and briefings are used to introduce topics and to impart key aspects of disciplinary knowledge, usually to larger groups. The development of practical and professional skills demands hands-on experience, informed by subject knowledge and critical understanding. Practical workshops are used to introduce specific skills, followed by independent learning, project work, tutorials and critiques.

Critical reflection is key to all successful problem solving and is therefore essential to the design process. You are expected to test and assess your solutions against design criteria which you develop in the light of your research.

How you are assessed

Various assessment methods are used throughout all of the modules and are specified in the module handbooks. These are primarily what we call in-course assessments, where you submit work during the delivery of the module rather than sit timed examinations at the end. Design modules are generally project based and primarily assessed through appraisal of a portfolio of work, often accompanied by a verbal presentation. Design work is largely developmental and you are assessed on the process by which you achieve your solutions as well as the result, so it is essential that you provide clear evidence of your development work.

Career opportunities

Graduates have the opportunity to go on to a range of design-related employment, develop new enterprise propositions or receive project funding to take their ideas to market. Further study at doctoral level is also an option.

Entry requirements

Applicants should normally have a good undergraduate degree in a design discipline, relevant experience or equivalent qualifications. Applicants will be interviewed.

For additional information please see the undergraduate and postgraduate entry requirements in our admissions section

More information

• Olivia Monaghan: MA Future Design Olivia Monaghan has plans to set up her own design business after excelling on her postgraduate course. (2mins)
• Art & Design
  More information and courses in Art & Design