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Postgraduate

MA Service Design


College
London College of Communication
Start date
September 2024
Course length
1 year 3 months full time (45 weeks across a four-term model)

We develop and apply service design to a broad range of societal and business challenges, working across disciplines, with stakeholders and experts.

Applying for more than 1 course

You can apply for more than 1 postgraduate course at UAL but we recommend that you apply for no more than 3. Find out more in the Apply Now section.

Why choose this course at London College of Communication

  • We teach through live projects: We focus on collaboration for service design challenges facing the private, public and third sectors. The majority of projects are live and taught with involvement of multiple partners, clients, experts and stakeholders.
  • We are committed to ethical practices of design: We use approaches that go from the micro aspects of individual user needs to the macro aspects of larger systems including humans, organisations, society and ecology.
  • We are at the forefront of new developments in service design: We work in innovative areas such as policy and science, and in collaboration with high profile and industry-leading service design research projects at LCC, UAL and beyond.
  • We apply innovation processes: We engage with start-up and social entrepreneurship and use non-linear and agile ways of working. We engage critically with new technologies to identify opportunities for human-centred and socially beneficial applications.
  • We value making and design-based methods throughout the design process: We communicate service design processes and outputs to a wider public through designed artefacts, reports, videos, presentations and exhibitions.

Open Evenings

The next Open Evening for this course will be announced soon.

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Course overview

Service design is a human-centred discipline which focuses on:

  • designing services in the public or private sector
  • working in a participative, iterative and qualitative manner with all stakeholders
  • considering wider systems at play.

By developing and applying service design to a range of societal and business challenges, this course will enable you to work on live projects, collaborate with stakeholders, partners and experts across multiple disciplines, and use design at a strategic level.

This course is structured to guide you through the understanding and practice of service design, starting from current challenges at the local and user scale before progressing through to futures and systems levels.

What to expect

  • We value making and design-based methods throughout the course. From the very beginning, you’ll work collaboratively on projects using research and co-design strategies, evolving from team work in the first terms to developing more individual work towards the end.
  • You’ll undertake projects that tackle many of the social, corporate and environmental challenges facing the 21st century. You’ll develop the confidence to engage with stakeholders, and learn to analyse and apply the results through meaningful interventions.
  • You’ll end the course by completing a Major Project. Previously, these have ranged widely in terms of subject and geographical location – past examples include redesigning educational systems in India, creating games to facilitate conversations between relatives of transgender people, designing post-acceleration support programmes for technology start-ups, and designing digital services for refugee camp volunteers in Greece.
  • Practice and theory are embedded into everything that you’ll do: each practice-based project is underpinned by theory, and each theory-based assignment has an element of practice or research-through-design.
  • Your lessons will take the form of lectures, practical workshops, tutorial sessions, feedback sessions with experts, presentations and pitches, industry talks, museum visits and technical sessions.
  • MA Service Design is aimed at applicants from design disciplines who wish to broaden their understanding of innovation and design as a collaborative, interdisciplinary process. The course is also open to students with backgrounds in social sciences, business and innovation, and other related fields.

Mode of study

MA Service Design is offered in full-time mode and runs for 45 weeks over 15 months, with a break over the summer. You will be expected to commit an average of 40 hours per week to your course, including teaching hours and independent study.

Course units

We are committed to ensuring that your skills are set within an ethical framework, and we have worked to embed UAL’s Principles for Climate, Racial and Social Justice Principles into the curriculum and in everything we do. 

As part of this initiative, we’ve shaped our courses around social and environmental sustainability principles that ensure learning outcomes reflect the urgent need to equip you with the understanding, skills, and values to foster a more sustainable planet.  Our aim is to change the way our students think, and to empower you to work towards a sustainable future. 

Autumn, Term 1

User-Centred Project (40 credits)
Ways of Working (20 credits)

Term one will give you a detailed knowledge of core theory and skills in service design, collaboration and team-work, research methods and design innovation. You will be engaged in live projects working in groups and with stakeholders. You will also reflect on your practice and engage with the ethics of your project. You will use the skills and knowledge obtained to articulate design ideas, observations and solutions creatively, as well as demonstrate rigour and critical evaluation in your work. This term has a user focus and projects are based in the present or in the near future.

Spring, Term 2

User-Centred Project (continued)
Design Futures (20 credits)
Collaborative Unit (20 credits)

Term two will give you a critical view of the role of the designer in society. In Collaborative Unit you will work on larger system-level projects in multidisciplinary teams, and you will be able to apply your design thinking strategically to add value in new and challenging contexts. In Design Futures you will explore experimental methodologies for addressing futures, using speculative design and research-through-design. This term has a systems focus and projects are situated in the future in terms of outcomes or impact.

Summer, Term 3

Design Futures (continued)
Proposal Development (20 credits)
Major Project (60 credits)

Term Three builds on the knowledge and skills you have acquired and you will be encouraged to explore and gain expertise in your own area of interest, and apply this to the creation of an original design research project. You will develop your major project proposal on the basis of extensive research, investigation and a firm methodological approach.

Autumn, Term 4

Major Project (continued)

In Term Four you will continue with the development and production of your Final Major Project, where you will explore the context of the project, engage with stakeholders and run co-design sessions, identify key issues, design innovative services, and test your design outcomes. You will be encouraged to present your project through presentations, exhibitions, and design outputs in a variety of physical and digital media. You will be guided to appropriate research discourses, research methodologies, materials and media through which you can effectively communicate your ideas.

If you are unable to continue or decide to exit the course, there is a possible exit award. A Postgraduate Certificate will be awarded on successful completion of 60 credits, and a Postgraduate Diploma will be awarded on successful completion of the first 120 credits.

Learning and teaching methods

  • Lectures
  • Guest speakers
  • Seminars
  • Workshops
  • Masterclasses
  • Feedback sessions with stakeholders and experts
  • Group and individual tutorials
  • Technical sessions

Online Open Day

(recorded February 2023)

Course Leader, Hena Ali, gives an overview of studying MA Service Design at London College of Communication.

Graduate showcase

Explore work by our recent students on the UAL Showcase

  • Palate Palette
    Palate Palette, Chahat Gursingh, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Sharing Time
    Sharing Time, Yun-Jung Liang, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • HARMONY HAVEN
    HARMONY HAVEN, Rui Zhang, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Nudge: Family Stronger Together
    Nudge: Family Stronger Together, ChingYun Chen, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Playfully Circular
    Playfully Circular, Aniruddha Mahanta, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Hop4Action - Anticipatory Action through Play
    Hop4Action - Anticipatory Action through Play, Shagun Puri, 2023 MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL

Course playlist

What is service design?

MA Service Design students answer the question: what is service design?

Sampada Muralidhar

Student voices

Sampada's final project looks at making retail spaces more sustainable, here working Decathlon, the UK's largest sporting retail brand.

Yasmeen Bazian

Student voices

Yasmeen tells us about creating a service that connects exhibitors at the Art and Architecture Biennale with sustainable tools that help them to reduce waste.

Student work

  • Chutiwan-Boonyoiyad.jpg
    Chutiwan Boonyoiyad, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Jie-Meng.jpg
    Jie Meng, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL.
  • Qiang-Zeng.jpg
    Qiang Zeng, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL.
  • Wareesa-Lakanathampichit.jpg
    Wareesa Lakanathampichit, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Watanya-Sureechainirun.jpg
    Watanya Sureechainirun, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL
  • Yi-Duan.jpg
    Yi Duan, 2020. MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL. 2020
    MA Service Design, London College of Communication, UAL

Industry Projects

Course stories

Facilities

  • A close-up of the moveable type available in the Letterpress area.
    Image © Lewis Bush

    Printing and Finishing

    Discover our printing techniques, from Lithographic Printing to Print Finishing and Bookbinding.

  • Students using the computers in the Digital Space
    Student in Creative Technology Lab, 2020. London College of Communication, UAL. Photograph: Tim Boddy

    Creative Technology Lab

    A multi-purpose space that supports students with: Creative Coding, Physical Computing, Projection Mapping, Games, and Virtual Reality.

  • Student reading a book in between two bookshelves in the Library
    Students in the Digital Space. London College of Communication, UAL. Photograph: Alys Tomlinson

    The Digital Space

    The Digital Space is an open-plan, creative hub with computers set up with specialist software.

Staff

Associate Lecturers

Paul Sims

Visiting Practitioners

Francesco Mazzarella, Rob Maslin, Adrian Gradinar

Visiting Lecturers

Alex Nisbet, Designit

Thais Tozatto Maio, Livework

Bethany Frank, Engine Service Design

Joseph Hargrave, Global Foresight Manger at ARUP Foresight

Serena Pollastri, Lancaster University

Fees and funding

Home fee

£13,330

This fee is correct for 2024/25 entry and is subject to change for 2025/26 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

International fee

£28,570

This fee is correct for 2024/25 entry and is subject to change for 2025/26 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

Scholarship search

Entry requirements

MA Service Design welcomes applicants from a broad range of backgrounds, from all over the world. Applicants may have an Honours degree in a field relevant to design or may have other, equivalent qualifications.

The course also welcomes students with good degrees from social science, business and other backgrounds, those who have previously worked in the industry, or those with relevant experience in non-traditional backgrounds, as well as those already within employment.

Your educational level may be demonstrated by:

  • Honours degree (named above);
  • Possession of equivalent qualifications;
  • Prior experiential learning, the outcome of which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required;
  • Or a combination of formal qualifications and experiential learning which, taken together, can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required.

APEL - Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning

If you do not meet these entry requirements but your application demonstrates additional strengths and alternative relevant experience, you may still be considered. This could include:

  • Related academic or work experience
  • The quality of the personal statement
  • A strong academic or other professional reference
  • OR a combination of these factors

Each application will be considered on its own merit. We cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

English language requirements

  • IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent) is required, with a minimum of 6.0 in each of the four skills.

All classes are taught in English. If English isn’t your first language, you will need to show evidence of your English language ability when you enrol. For further guidance, please check our English language requirements.

Selection criteria

All applications will be considered by the course team who will decide on your suitability to join the course. They will look at your qualifications and transcript (or projected results), your personal statement, portfolio, major project proposal, and any previous work experience.

Offers will be made based on the following selection criteria:

  • You understand the field of service design, or similar areas such as experience design or innovation.
  • You are open-minded and motivated to explore service design at a high level, and enthusiastic for the subject.
  • You are willing to work across disciplines and professional boundaries, and in mixed teams, to explore the future of the subject.
  • You are ready to study at postgraduate level and to engage critically with your work and the work and research of others.
  • You demonstrate skills in one or more of the following areas: design (any design field), research (in particular user research or other research with people), project management, innovation, social entrepreneurship, or other relevant field.

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

Digital portfolio and video task deadline

Round 1:

16 January 2024

Round 2:

16 April 2024

Decision outcome

Round 1:

End of March 2024

Round 2:

End of June 2024

Round 1
Round 2
Deadline
13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)
3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
Digital portfolio and video task deadline
16 January 2024
16 April 2024
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

All applications received by 3 April will be treated equally. If there are places available after this date, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

Read more about deadlines

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

Digital portfolio and video task deadline

Round 1:

16 January 2024

Round 2:

16 April 2024

Decision outcome

Round 1:

End of March 2024

Round 2:

End of June 2024

Round 1
Round 2
Deadline
13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)
3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)
Digital portfolio and video task deadline
16 January 2024
16 April 2024
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

All applications received by 3 April will be treated equally. If there are places available after this date, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

Read more about deadlines

Apply to UAL

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Find your representative

How to apply

Follow this step-by-step guide to apply for this course

Step 1: Initial application

You will need to submit an initial application including your personal statement, CV and study proposal.

Personal statement advice

Your personal statement should be maximum 500 words and include:

  • your reasons for choosing the course
  • your current creative practice and how this course will help you achieve your future plans
  • any relevant education and experience, especially if you do not have any formal academic qualifications.

Visit our personal statement page for more advice.

CV advice

Please provide a CV detailing your education, qualifications and any relevant work or voluntary experience. If you have any web projects or other media that you would like to share, please include links in your CV. If English is not your first language, please also include your most recent English language test score.

Study proposal advice

Please provide a summary of your study proposal (1000 words)

It should:

  • outline your area of interest, field of study and the particular focus of your intended work
  • describe your rationale for why this is a valuable service design project
  • give an overview of your proposed approaches, methods and methodology, explaining how you plan to produce the project and an indication of any potential outcomes
  • demonstrate your ability to undertake this project to a postgraduate standard
  • include references and a bibliography if necessary (not included in the word count).

Please note, your proposal serves to inform your application and we understand that your ideas will develop and change throughout your studies.

Step 2: Video task and digital portfolio

We will review your initial application. If you have met the standard entry requirements, we will ask you to submit a video task and digital portfolio.

You’ll need to submit these via PebblePad, our online portfolio tool. Please submit your video task on the first page followed by your portfolio.

Video task advice

We would like you to submit a 2-3 minute video to help us learn more about you. When recording your task, please face the camera and speak in English.

What to include in your video task

  • Choose 1 project from your portfolio and explain how it challenged you and your understanding of service design.
  • Tell us how this experience inspired you to apply to MA Service Design at London College of Communication.

Read our guidance for how to submit your video task and which file types we accept.

Digital portfolio advice

Your portfolio should consist of recent work that reflects your creative strengths.

It should:

  • be maximum 20 pages
  • feature work from across maximum 6 different projects
  • include short descriptions and supporting materials to explain each project, such as the motivation, development, realisation and impact. If examples are from collaborative projects, also state your role and contribution.
  • demonstrate your engagement or involvement in a professional setting where possible. For example, through internships, voluntary work or freelance work.
  • include examples from professional projects or research based around a relevant topic if you are from a non-design background
  • demonstrate your enthusiasm for service design.

For more support, see our Portfolio advice and PebblePad advice.

Step 3: Interview

You may be invited to an interview following our review of your application. All interviews are held online and last 15 to 20 minutes.

For top tips, see our Interview advice.

You also need to know

Communicating with you

Once you have submitted your initial application, we will email you with your login details for our Applicant portal.

Requests for supplementary documents like qualifications and English language tests will be made through the applicant portal. You can also use it to ask questions regarding your application. Visit our After you apply page for more information.

Applying to more than 1 course

You can apply for more than 1 postgraduate course at UAL but we recommend that you apply for no more than 3 courses. You need to tailor your application, supporting documents and portfolio to each course, so applying for many different courses could risk the overall quality of your application. If you receive offers for multiple courses, you'll only be able to accept 1 offer. UAL doesn't accept repeat applications to the same course in the same academic year.

Visas and immigration history check

All non-UK nationals must complete an immigration history check. Your application may be considered by our course teams before this check takes place. This means that we may request your portfolio and/or video task before we identify any issues arising from your immigration history check. Sometimes your history may mean that we are not able to continue considering your application. Visit our Immigration and visas advice page for more information.

External student transfer policy

UAL accepts transfers from other institutions on a case-by-case basis. Read our Student transfer policy for more information.

Alternative offers

If your application is really strong, but we believe your strengths and skillset are better suited to a different course, we may make you an alternative offer. This means you will be offered a place on a different course or at a different UAL College.

Deferring your place

We do not accept any deferral requests for our postgraduate courses. This means that you must apply in the year that you plan to start your course and you will not be able to defer your place to start at a later date.

Application deadlines

For postgraduate courses at UAL there are 2 equal consideration deadlines to ensure fairness for all our applicants. If you apply ahead of either of these deadlines, your application will be considered on an equal basis with all other applications in that round. If there are places available after the second deadline, the course will remain open to applications until places have been filled.

Careers

There are numerous possibilities open to graduates from this course. You will find your new knowledge and skills useful for careers in industry, local authorities or non-profit organisations. Alternatively, you may decide to pursue an academic career.

MA Service Design alumni work as Service Designers, Design Researchers, Experience Designers, Design Strategists, User Centred Consultants, Participatory Designers, UX Designers, and Academics in private, public and third sectors. Students have also progressed to study at PhD level.

During the course, students have a number of opportunities to work directly with industry through live projects as well as particular engagement activities, such as acting as human centred design consultants for tech companies competing in the Ordnance Survey Geovation Challenge or organising events for the Service Design Fringe as part of the London Design Festival. As a result of these engagements, students will sometimes continue the activity in the form of consultancy or internships.UAL Jobs and Careers