Program Overview
The MA Design (Fashion) program at Sheffield Hallam University emphasizes interdisciplinary design, social innovation, and personal research. Students develop their skills in a collaborative studio environment, supported by specialists and practitioners, preparing them for careers as independent designers, industry professionals, or postgraduate researchers in the creative industries and beyond.
Program Outline
It aims to develop students' specialist skills and knowledge in a collaborative studio environment, encouraging them to innovate with materials, technology, and conceptual thinking. The program emphasizes personal research, allowing students to develop their own interests and ideas in a challenging and supportive environment. The program is led by design specialists, researchers, and practitioners who support students in expanding their practice and developing an independent and autonomous approach.
Outline:
The program is structured around a set of key principles: engaging with the world, collaborating with others, challenging students to think in new ways, and providing a supportive environment for them to thrive.
- Initial Modules: All postgraduate design students begin with modules focusing on gaining a critical understanding of design thinking, theoretical studies, research methods, and making practices.
- Subsequent Modules: Students then follow their own personal practice, supported by key specialist staff. They are encouraged to consider identified social and cultural contexts when positioning their creative outputs. The aim is to develop accessible and marketable products, services, interventions, and other forms or propositions.
Assessment:
The program utilizes a variety of assessment methods, including:
- Coursework: This is the primary assessment method, with a 100% weighting for all modules.
Teaching:
The program utilizes a variety of teaching methods, including:
- Immersive Learning: Students learn alongside peers in a studio environment.
- Practice-Based Research: Students engage in research through project work.
- Individual and Group Tutorials: Students receive personalized guidance and feedback.
- Lectures: Students attend lectures to gain theoretical knowledge.
- Seminars: Students participate in seminars to discuss and explore ideas.
- Constructive Critical Debates: Students engage in critical discussions to refine their thinking.
Careers:
The program prepares students for a variety of careers, including:
- Independent Design Practitioner
- Designer
- Design Manager
- Maker or Manufacturer
- Company-Employed Designer The primary intention of the course is for students to achieve their personal employment ambitions, whether as a design professional in the creative industries or in related areas such as research, retail, marketing, and education.
Other:
- Creative UK Membership: Students are members of Creative UK, a network representing and supporting the UK's creative industries.
- Live Projects: The program embeds an understanding of and dialogue with the creative industries and the world of professional practice beyond the postgraduate studio. Live projects are embedded into specific modules, and students are encouraged to seek industrial sponsors or collaborators for individual projects.
- Field Trips: Students have opportunities to participate in study trips and visits to design conferences and debates.
- Networking Opportunities: Students benefit from studying within a cross-disciplinary, vibrant, international, collaborative, and supportive postgraduate environment. They can work alongside the Design Futures consultancy and with researchers from the Art and Design Research Centre (ADRC). The program also has contacts with leading design agencies and organizations, museums, and practitioners, and encourages students to work collaboratively with them.
- Student Work: Fashion design students showcase their work at Graduate Fashion Week.
- Graduate View: A graduate of the program, Marie Stenton, states that the course was inspiring and thought-provoking, helping her establish her purpose as a designer and giving her the confidence to continue her research at the PhD level.
Tuition Fees:
Home students:
£10,310 for the course
International/EU students:
£17,205 for the Course
