Applicants should have:

• Honours degree; OR
• Evidence of experiential learning equivalent to a degree; OR
• 3 years relevant professional experience.

For the part-time mode you'd need to be working in a design-related profession. Your research interests, professional experience and personal goals are more important than the quality of your portfolio.

English language requirements

All classes are conducted in English. If English is not your first language you will be asked to provide evidence of your English language ability in order to apply for a visa, enrol, and start your course. The English language requirement for entry for this course is:

IELTS Academic 6.5 or above.

For further information visit the English Language requirements page.

What we look for

• Interest in and understanding of history, culture, and/or arts and design;
• Reflexive and critical thinking;
• Experience of collaborative work;
• Self-motivation, ambition, and interest in research.

Selection criteria

Applicants will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• A BA qualification or equivalent level of skills and knowledge in their discipline;
• A Personal Statement and Study Proposal;
• Self-motivation, ambition and a commitment to the postgraduate programme;
• A readiness to engage in collaborative and reflective practice, and in externally-targeted action research;
• A readiness to engage with students from a very wide variety of cultural, educational and professional backgrounds.

MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries is aimed at graduates with a suitable background in any creative discipline. This includes all the established areas of design, but also the fine arts, performance art, curation and art business, journalism, advertising and marketing, management, economics – and potentially also science and technology.

We are looking for talented, ambitious and open-minded students who enjoy working with others, but who are also capable of planning and completing a self-directed major project. Above all, we are looking for creative thinkers who wish to channel their talents in order to achieve their personal goals – and are ready to accept the challenge of a student-centred curriculum in which they are able to define and pursue their own programme of study. Our cohort reflects this recruitment policy, and represents a very broad cultural, educational and professional mix.

Our students come from all over the world and we celebrate and include their diverse cultural knowledge in our quest to create alternative paradigms. Students draw on each other’s professional and diverse cultural experience to provide critical and constructive insights that open up new ways of thinking and doing.

Selection criteria

Applicants will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• A BA qualification or equivalent level of skills and knowledge in your own discipline;
• A Personal Statement and Study Proposal;
• Self-motivation, ambition and a commitment to the postgraduate programme;
• A readiness to engage in collaborative and reflective practice, and in externally-targeted action research;
• A readiness to engage with students from a very wide variety of cultural, educational and professional backgrounds.

Students graduating from MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries have taken up employment in almost every part of the creative sector in the world economy. Our alumni have diversified to become actors, architects, broadcasters, creative managers, entrepreneurs, film-makers, inventors, journalists, musicians, social innovators, web designers – and academics. Many have also moved on to PhD programmes. Others have returned to – or entered for the first time – fields such as advertising, curation, exhibition and museum design, film and television, fashion design and retailing, graphic design, marketing, product design, public relations, publishing (both print and digital), and web design.

The course has links with outstanding practitioners across the spectrum of the creative sector. These include: architecture and interior design; advertising and branding; design against crime; film; fashion design; furniture and textile design; graphic and communication design; the music business; photography; product design; museums and galleries; television.

Numerous leading international companies and institutions have been collaborators with, or sponsors of, MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. These include: AiG; The Big Issue; Calvin Klein; Camberwell College of Arts and Design; Cosmopolitan; Camden Council; Cranfield University; The Design Museum; Dolce & Gabbana; Gloss Interior Design; Ideo; Jam Design; Kingston University; Nokia; Pentagram; PKF International; RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects); St Lukes; Swatch; Tangerine Design – and many others.