Postgraduate
Develop your critical insight into the contemporary creative landscape.
As an MA student at Plymouth College of Art you will join our Postgraduate Centre, an active, cross-disciplinary community of makers and thinkers.
Our postgraduate programmes invite you to explore and refine your creative practice by critically engaging with the cultural, technological and economic changes that are shaping our world.
At the Postgraduate Centre at Plymouth College of Art, you will find yourself at the heart of a distinctive kind of creative and collegial community – an art school run by artists and designers, for artists and designers – a space of thinking and making, and your open threshold to an international network of arts and cultural, commercial and industrial practitioners, businesses and institutions in which we engage, exhibit, curate and publish widely.
Our dynamic, cross-disciplinary postgraduate community offers a rich environment that provides critical and technical expertise in a range of disciplines. Our postgraduate students develop exposure within their field and refine their practice in a space that fosters experimentation and reflective engagement with issues that are shaping the world we hold in common.
We know that the arts, design and media generate significant cultural and social change out of the artefacts, experiences and services they create. Our postgraduate programmes will give you critical insight into the contemporary creative landscape and empower you to work effectively from your carefully chosen place within it. Our postgraduate programmes are structured to encourage debate, exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. This is achieved through a combination of cross-disciplinary and specialist teaching and a dedicated base used by all MA cohorts and alumni – the Postgraduate Centre.
Our Expertise
Throughout your study, the focus is upon making, so that your creative practice is always at the centre of the research that you undertake and you will be encouraged to engage with Plymouth College of Art’s research culture as well as with academic communities across the world.
Our Masters programmes include opportunities to reflect on the technological, economic and cultural shifts that affect all contemporary making practices. We support a wide range of practice-based research with a particular focus on sustainable, technological, global and community futures. Our research staff have specialist expertise in the following areas:
- Global critical curatorial practices.
- Entrepreneurship for creative practices.
- Sustainability for creative practices.
- Materials-led investigation.
- Fine art, design, media and craft specialist practices.
- Creative education across the age continuum.
- Socially-engaged art and ‘Social Practice’.
MA & MFA Programmes
Our taught postgraduate programmes provide you with core Masters-level training in specialist disciplines, research methods, critical thinking, ethics, project design, professional codes and conceptual frameworks, and an opportunity for negotiated study using outstanding workshop facilities.
At every stage in your development, you will be supported by the academic and technical expertise of staff who are industry-active practising artists and innovators in their specialist fields.
We offer the following programmes:
- MA 3D Design Crafts
- MA by Research
- MA Ceramics
- MA Creative Education: Making Learning
- MA Disruptive Design
- MA Drawing
- MA Entrepreneurship for Creative Practice
- MA Fine Art
- MA Glass
- MA Illustration
- MA Jewellery
- MA Painting
- MA Photography
- MA Printmaking
- MA Textile Design
- MA Visual Communication
- Master of Fine Art (MFA)
- MA study takes place over one year full-time, or two years part-time (October - September)
- MFA study takes place over nine months full-time, or 18 months part-time (September - July).
The course fees for students beginning their postgraduate study programme in 2020 are listed below. We also offer a 15% discount on fees to all college graduates applying for 2020/21. If you have studied a Short Course at Plymouth College of Art you are also entitled to a 10% discount on postgraduate fees.
- MA Programme
- Full-time UK and EU students: £7,800 per year
- Part-time UK and EU students: £4,300 per year
- International Students: £14,800*
- MFA Programme
- Full-time UK and EU students: £5,200 per year
- Part-time UK and EU students: £2600 (i.e half those shown for full-time students)
- International students: £9,870.*
*Excluding costs for international students who need a pre-sessional English course and ongoing in-year English language support.
Alongside a portfolio and personal statement we ask for the following:
- MA Applicants normally hold a 2:1 or above in a related undergraduate discipline, although we also accept applications based on equivalent professional knowledge and/or industry experience.
- MFA Applicants normally hold a recent MA or 180 level 7 credits in an art, design, crafts or media discipline or equivalent industry/professional experience.
- MA Delivery combines self-directed study with taught delivery. A full-time student would need to commit at least four days per week to their MA study. A part-time student should commit at least two days per week to study.
- MFA study is by independent practice with access to our postgraduate community and regular opportunities for supportive dialogue and feedback by group and one-to-one tutorials.
Making Futures, 2017.
Alumni Progression Award
Did you know Plymouth College of Art graduates are offered a discount of 15% on Masters programme fees? The Alumni Progression Award is available to all alumni, regardless of when they studied with us previously. The discount applies if you studied on one of our pre-degree, foundation or undergraduate programmes.
For more information please email hello@pca.ac.uk
Find out more
Throughout the year we invite prospective students to explore the college and hear from staff, students and alumni at an Open Event. If you're considering an MA or MFA application we recommend signing up for a future online or in-person talk. To see a full list of upcoming dates please visit our What's On page.
You can also download our latest Postgraduate Prospectus and Portfolio & Interview Guides below.
For further information email postgraduate@pca.ac.uk. We will answer your question or put you in touch with a programme leader so that you can gain information on a specific MA programme.
