Rochelle Saunders: MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise
Rochelle Saunders, a student on the Arts and Cultural Enterprise master's course, discusses how flexibility in when and where she studies has made all the difference to her postgraduate experience.
Postgraduate study
Expand your creative horizons as part of Europe's largest postgraduate art and design community.
Ranked number 2 in the world for Art and Design (QS World University Rankings 2020), UAL is home to more than 2,400 postgraduate students working across the fields of art, design, screen, communication, fashion, media and performing arts.
Our 6 world-renowned Colleges form a creative network of artists, designers and innovators. Postgraduate study at UAL allows you to grow creatively and professionally within an inspirational community.
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00:09 Postgraduate courses, as with all of our courses, are focused – they have a course philosophy, they have a really clear identity. It’s first of all important that you research the courses and think about the content, think about that philosophy, and think about whether that is in tune with what you want to do, but also the experience that you have.
00:35 A postgraduate applicant needs to be very clear on the course they’re applying to – it’s much more specialised.
00:43 A master’s degree in design is not only about the design, but also you need to write, you need to read, you need to produce…
00:52 We would be looking at your educational background and we’d be trying to assess what is that educational focus, and what transferable skills can we think about from that time.
1:05 Often, less is more. So in terms of the type of work we look at for BA, there might be lots of it, whereas for postgraduate, there might be slightly less but it will be much more refined and much more sophisticated.
1:16 There’s much more meaning and depth to my postgraduate portfolio.
1:23 Many students who don’t have an art or design or a portfolio-based background, and who are looking to do an MA in a portfolio-based subject, find it very difficult. This is because they don’t have those rudimentary, more fundamental skills that begin to be applied to a discipline. So that’s where we have a graduate diploma, to get yourself ready to apply your visual capacity to the right discipline.
1:48 In a sense, what you start with is a research question. You’re basically stating “What am I going to do?” and “What am I going to investigate?” I would say you’re asking yourself a question: “What am I trying to investigate and how am I trying to do this?”
2:06 For my study proposal, I had proposed both working in sustainable fashion and exploring avenues within that, which I am currently still doing to a huge extent – especially with London College of Fashion’s networks and opportunities, they’re a huge advocate for that and they have lots to tap into there.
2:21 It’s good to put a lot of thought into what your project’s going to be about. Then they will steer you, and of course it will develop in different ways.
2:29 The next area in a study proposal is about the context. So you’re trying to contextualise what it is that connects you to that area. So you’re asking, “What am I trying to investigate and who informs that investigation?”
2:46 I would very much expect that within your study proposal there is referencing of your contemporaries within your discipline, be that from sustainable fashion, or architecture. You will be building on the work that has previously been done by other people, and how you reference that ethically and appropriately is incredibly important within your portfolio.
3:10 Just maturing as a person I think, coming in as an adult and knowing what you like, what you want to study, and your direction, is really important.
3:18 If you’re applying for a postgraduate course and you didn’t do the degree in that subject, we still welcome you. We still want to see creative, ambitious, talented people. If you’re applying for a different postgraduate course, hopefully you’ve done your research – hopefully you know that that’s the right course for you, hopefully you know that this is the subject area you now want to move into. So how do you show that in a portfolio?
3:40 If you’re applying to a postgraduate course but your undergraduate has been a very different experience, we want to see where your perspective has been informed about that course. So if you are a textile student, but you’re looking to do womenswear, we would want to see elements of womenswear within your portfolio. But we would expect you to be led by your textile approach. When you’re tailoring your folio for the course you want to do, you can’t lie, you can’t make up skills you’ve not got, but you can certainly apply your skills in a unique way to what the discipline is that you want to do.
4:14 Postgraduate study really allows you to focus a lot more on a specific area and really grow that talent. So it’s about questioning “Why do I want to do this and what areas do I want to explore?” – and then trying to incorporate that into your portfolio.
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Postgraduate portfolios
UAL tutors, staff and students discuss postgraduate study at UAL and talk about what makes a great postgraduate application.
How to apply
We explain the stages involved in applying for a postgraduate degree at UAL.
International students
Find information on fees, immigration and visas or speak to one of our representatives in your country.
Research degrees
Find out more about our PhD and MPhil degrees and join a community of over 250 research students at UAL.
Funding your postgraduate degree
Tuition fees
Find out the tuition costs for all of our postgraduate courses, including MA, PGCert, PGDip and GradDip. The fees for our MBA and MSc courses can be found on the relevant course page.
Postgraduate Master's loan
Eligible students can now apply for a loan of up to £11,222 to help pay for their Master's degree. Repayments don't start until you're earning at least £21,000 a year.
Scholarships and bursaries
UAL offers a wide range of scholarships, bursaries, awards and hardship funds for students applying for postgraduate taught Master's courses.
Progression discount
If you're a final-year undergraduate student at UAL or have graduated from one of our courses in the past, you may be eligible for a £1,000 discount on tuition fees for our Master's courses.
Postgraduate life
Post-Grad Community
Become part of our university-wide community of postgraduate students and gain access to networking, social events and project funding opportunities. #create #connect #collaborate
Student support and wellbeing
From counselling and health advice to disability and dyslexia support, we're committed to creating an inclusive environment by removing the barriers that many students face.
Careers and Employability
Whether it's helping students to find internships or providing one-to-one advice, UAL’s dedicated careers service is here to support all our students in making a living doing what they love.
Accommodation
UAL has rooms available for postgraduate students across our London-based halls of residence while our Accommodation Services team provide advice and guidance for those looking to rent privately.
Meet our students
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Maja Quille: MA Drawing
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Emily Mulenga: MA Fine Art
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Anna Tsuda: MSc Creative Computing
After completing her undergraduate degree at UAL, Anna decided that an MSc in Creative Computing was the next step in building her career as a user experience designer.
Thomas De Lacey: PG Cert Fashion: Buying and Merchandising
Having worked part-time at Burberry, Thomas learned about buying and merchandising as a potential career path in fashion. Returning to study to undertake a postgraduate course has enabled him to gain the business skills he needs.
Shraddha Mithinti: MA 3D Computer Animation
Shraddha, an MA 3D Computer Animation student, talks about balancing study and part-time work and how London has influenced her postgraduate experience.
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