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Postgraduate

Graduate Diploma Fashion Design Technology (Low Residency)

Female model in white dress with rose petals on her eyes.
Joao Maraschin | Graduate Diploma Fashion Design Technology | London College of Fashion | University of Arts London
College
London College of Fashion
Start date
September 2024
Course length
1 year (30 weeks)

The Graduate Diploma Fashion Design Technology is a one-year intensive course enabling students to develop skills required for postgraduate study or entering the industry. With experimentation central to the course, students are introduced to diverse approaches to research, leading towards a greater sense of integrity and identity in their designed outcomes. We have open briefs with negotiated outcomes aimed to suit students’ individual creative fashion practice.   Students will need to have access to studio space and professional machinery to engage fully with the course.

Applications suspended 2024/25

Recruitment has been suspended for 2024/25. Discover more undergraduate courses at UAL.

In-person course

You can study a version of this course in-person.

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.

The negotiated approach to the briefs based on individual interests and practice facilitates a variety of postgraduate destinations including but not limited to fashion design, artefact, costume, critical thinking, and sustainability within fashion across various MA courses at UAL and beyond. Please note: This course will run at Level 6, which is equivalent to the final year of BA (Hons) degree, and is a preparatory course for students who want to study at postgraduate level.

Why choose this course at London College of Fashion

    • Critical thinking: The course emphasises the development of broad perspectives, leading to an informed sense of agency within your practice through a low residency mode of delivery
    • Orientation through diagnosis: We welcome students from diverse creative undergraduate educational backgrounds and support them in finding their direction through a diagnostic approach to fashion.
    • Educational opportunities: Graduates have gone on to MA study, including Fashion Design in Menswear and Womenswear, Artefact, Costume, Future thinking (MA Fashion Futures), Creative Pattern and Garment Technology at institutions including LCF, CSM, Chelsea, and Wimbledon, in addition to the RCA, Westminster, Kingston, Goldsmiths, FIT New York and Aalto Helsinki.
    • Industry Expertise: Where appropriate the Course invites varied visiting industry professionals with a range of perspectives to inform creative discussions at different stages in the year. Previous visiting professionals include Richard Kilroy, Julie Verhoeven, Louise Gray, Claire Barrow, Emma Greenhill, James Buck, and Luke Brooks (Rottingdean Bazaar), Peter Jensen, Gabrielle Miller amongst others.
    • Industry Progression: Graduates are well-positioned to gain employment in varied industry roles in the area of design, technology, and future thinking.
    • Sustainability and Climate Emergency: The course helps students develop conscious practice; to draw on their own values, backgrounds and vision for the future, to gain a clearer understanding of how they can create something of worth to themselves and the world, grounded in sustainable thinking.

Course overview

Graduate Diploma Fashion Design Technology provides you with an opportunity to explore and develop ways of working broadly within expanded fashion design practices. 

You will need to have access to workshop or studio space, equipment, and software relative to your chosen area of study and focus.  This will enable you to make full use of the low-residency mode of study.   The course is full-time and will require you to manage your time and resources to meet the learning outcomes.

Experimentation will be at the heart of the work you do whilst on the course, allowing you to contribute to fashion discourse and bring a sense of integrity to each project.  Within the Diagnostic and Development Project, time will be spent examining various ways of approaching design briefs and the different ways to research, promoting diversity within your work.  Through unpacking the traditional design process and considering new ways of conceptualising the journey, applying sustainability, diversity and identity models you will be provided with the tools to uncover your own design aesthetic.   Combining studio practice with theory is a necessity and not seen as two separate areas. This will be applied through the Fashion Practice and Critical Contexts unit and throughout the course.  The final unit, Negotiated Major Project, allows you to develop a specialist approach to fashion practice and create a set of outputs that guide you towards a postgraduate course, industry or an enterprise destination.

Work will be submitted digitally via our VLE platform with extensive evidence of 3-D outcomes demonstrated through photography and 3-D technology where relevant.

The course applies a genderless approach to the design process. Time spent exploring experimental processes can be applied to any relevant muse or consumer. The course fosters a peer learning and collaborative working environment through group working, peer review sessions and team working.

You will progress from the course with a portfolio and realised design work to support future development. Some students study on the Graduate Diploma to further their knowledge and skills before moving into industry or starting their own enterprise. Others use this study opportunity to prepare for MA progression within the Design and Technology programme at LCF, and other institutions within UAL and beyond. Students from this course progress onto MA programmes within UAL including MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear, MA Fashion Design Technology Womenswear, MA Fashion Futures, MA Costume Design for Performance, MA Innovative Fashion Production, MA Fashion Artefact, MA Textiles, MA Art and Science and MA Pattern and Garment Technology. Graduates from the full residency mode of this course have also gone on to study MA at other institutions including FIT New York, RCA, University of Westminster, Aalto Helsinki, Glasgow School of Art and Kingston University.

You will leave the course with an understanding and confidence in conceptualising and realising your ideas as fashion outputs.

Climate, Social and Racial Justice

We are committed to ensuring that your skills are set within an ethical framework and are working to embed UAL’s Principles for Climate, Social and Racial Justice into the course.

Course units

Block 1 (Weeks 1-15) 

Diagnostic and Development Project (40 Credits) 
Fashion Practice and Critical Contexts (20 Credits) 

Block 2 (Weeks 16-30) 

Negotiated Major Project (60 Credits) 

Course structure 

The information outlined is an indicative structure of the course. Whilst we will aim to deliver the course as described on this page, there may be situations where it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, for example because of regulatory requirements or operational efficiencies, before or after enrolment. If this occurs, we will communicate all major changes to applicants and students who have either applied or enrolled on the course. 

Webpage updates

We will update this webpage from time to time with new information as it becomes available. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact a member of the course team. 

Course Units: 

The Diagnostic and Development Project 
Creative fashion design relies on a deep, personal understanding of research that should originate from a multitude of sources and inspirations. To become an innovative designer within the industry requires the ability to take this information and respond by taking risks and alternate paths throughout the design process and beginning to understand what may make you different. This practice-based unit aims to observe and challenge your use of both existing and unfamiliar methods of the research, design and technical processes to help inform your values as a designer. Through the introduction of different approaches to research and design this unit will encourage an experimental and reflective approach to understanding a design brief centred around fashion product. 

Fashion Practice and Critical Contexts 
The fashion industry is a field of cultural production that circulates highly symbolic objects across many overlapping and interconnected spaces of production and consumption. To work in this field requires a high amount of reflexivity and a tacit understanding of the aesthetic, social and political contexts in which fashion is produced. This unit affords you the opportunity to explore fashion in its cultural and historical contexts and to develop a theoretical underpinning to inform your design practice. You will learn how to apply academic and visual research methods in order to make sense of current issues in fashion practice and how to contextualise them through cultural and critical theory. 

Negotiated Major Project 
This final unit will consolidate the critical, conceptual and experimental thinking developed within block one. It presents the opportunity for you to devise, explore and realise a personal and in-depth practice-led fashion outcome. You will be expected to propose and critique your intentions for the project and justify any potential innovation within the context of the fashion industry, in relation to both what you produce and how you present it. 

The project will be led by continuously developing your sense of aesthetic that critically reflects on your likes and dislikes as a practitioner whilst also providing the opportunity to explore and realise the challenges of your chosen brief. Visual research methods will be explored in relation to your studio practice giving you the ability to present a professional and self-directed project with appropriate fashion related outcomes. Your work will evidence your ability to construct, direct and organise an overall professional outcome. By evaluating and reflecting upon your own learning and skills you may direct this project towards postgraduate progression, entering the industry or considering personal enterprise. 

Learning and teaching methods

The following teaching and learning methods are employed to support the integrated achievement of the course outcomes: 

Remote:

  • Online lectures. 
  • Online seminars. 
  • Online workshops and practical demonstrations. 
  • Online individual and group tutorials. 
  • Online critiques.
  • Online peer critiques. 

Residential:

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Studio workshops and practical demonstrations
  • Individual tutorials
  • Critiques
  • Peer citiques
  • Online briefings

Staff

Please return to this section for more information about staff teaching this course later in the academic year.

Fees and funding

Home fee

£12,700

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.

Home fees are currently charged to UK nationals and UK residents who meet the rules. However, the rules are complex. Find out more about our tuition fees and determining your fee status.

International fee

£25,060

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.

Home fees are currently charged to UK nationals and UK residents who meet the rules. However, the rules are complex. Find out more about our tuition fees and determining your fee status.

Scholarship search

Entry requirements

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

  • An Honours degree or equivalent academic qualification;
  • Professional qualifications recognised as equivalent to an Honours degree;
  • 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)

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

  • 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 but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

English Language Requirements

IELTS level 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Please check our main English Language Requirements .

Selection criteria

The course seeks to recruit students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and welcomes applications from mature students.

The course team seeks to recruit students who can demonstrate:

  • The potential to develop their practical and critical abilities through academic study
  • Critical knowledge of a subject area
  • A capacity for intellectual inquiry and reflective thought
  • An openness to new ideas and a willingness to participate actively in their own intellectual development
  • Initiative and a developed, mature attitude to remote independent study

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

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)
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

We are not recruiting for this course for entry in September 2024. Discover more undergraduate courses at UAL.

Read more about deadlines

Apply to UAL

Application form coming soon.

Apply now

Application deadline

Deadline

Round 1:

13 December 2023 at 1pm (UK time)

Round 2:

3 April 2024 at 1pm (UK time)

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)
Decision outcome
End of March 2024
End of June 2024

We are not recruiting for this course for entry in September 2024. Discover more undergraduate courses at UAL.

Read more about deadlines

Apply to UAL

Application form coming soon.

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Apply with a UAL Representative

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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

All of our undergraduate courses offer career development, so that you become a creative thinker, making effective contributions to your relevant sector of the fashion industry.

LCF offers students the opportunity to develop Personal and Professional Development (PPD) skills while studying through:
  • An on-course work experience or placement year. Please note, this is not available on every course; please see the Course Details section for information about work placement opportunities.
  • Access to to speaker programmes and events featuring alumni and industry.
  • Access to careers activities, such as CV clinics and one-to-one advice sessions.
  • Access to a graduate careers service
  • Access to a live jobsboard for all years.
  • Advice on setting up your own brand or company.
Graduates who wish to continue their education at postgraduate level can progress to suitable courses within the College, the University or elsewhere.

Career paths

The Graduate Diploma in Fashion Design Technology is located within the Graduate School at LCF. This course prepares graduates for suitable MA courses within the Design and Technology programme at LCF, including MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear, MA Fashion Design Technology Womenswear, and MA Pattern and Garment Technology.

Graduates have previously secured places on MA progressions within UAL and LCF, CSM, Chelsea and Wimbledon in addition to the RCA, Westminster, Kingston, Goldsmiths, Aalto Helskinki, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

Alternatively, graduates of this course will be in a position to gain employment in varied roles within the international fashion industry in the area of design and technology.