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This innovative and dynamic MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries offers you the opportunity to develop key employability skills and extend your expertise in your chosen field of creative practice. Combining focused study in your chosen specialism with essential training to develop the high-level transferable skills needed for success in the commercial creative industries, this course allows you to become the master of your own career development.
Award:
MA
Mode of Study:
Part-time
Duration:
24 months
Location:
The University of Bolton
Start date:
20/09/2021
Realise your potential You are unique and we want to help you gain the skills and self-belief to showcase your worth and realise your potential. The University of Bolton's MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries course focuses on helping you learn to compete with confidence for your dream job or build your own successful business from the ground up. We’ll guide you as you gain a strategic blend of academic, analytical, creative and professional skills. As a graduate of this course, you’ll possess an impressive all-round combination of creative practice, commercial awareness and business-relevant knowledge. Overall, this course offers you the opportunity to develop projects in your specialist area of creative practice coupled with essential skills development for business and leadership that will take your CV to the next level.
Gain the skills and confidence to achieve your career ideals The creative industries are highly competitive so we want to help you stand head and shoulders above the crowd. Throughout the programme, we’ll use tried and tested, research-informed coaching and training methods to support your development of key skills that are highly relevant to the creative industries. These will range from postgraduate-level skills in research, problem-solving, professional presentation and synthesis to interpersonal and business-relevant skills such as innovative thinking, collaboration, leadership and project management, the effective use of technology, public speaking and professionalism. Together, these will help you to develop your profile in your chosen creative industry and ensure your work reaches your desired audience.
Pursue your own creative practice Our expert team will support you to develop your unique body of creative work, express your creative style and refine your practice. We’ll support you as you learn to design, plan and deliver projects that are as individual as you are. We’ll guide you as you set and achieve your own personal, academic and professional goals, helping you to develop and demonstrate an original and distinctive approach to your specialised creative area. We’ll work to stimulate your creative thinking and enhance your professional practice through a challenging programme of study which promotes critical self-awareness.
Strengthen your understanding of context To use your knowledge to best effect, you need a sound understanding of context. To inform your creative practice, you’ll explore historical and contemporary concepts and theories relevant to the creative industries and artistic practice during this course. In addition, you’ll also need an in-depth understanding of the commercial and professional creative industries environment you wish to join. This course will help you identify the creative practice, employability and transferable skills you’ll need to gain entry to your chosen field and support you to develop those very skills.
Mastering your vision You’ll have the opportunity to independently plan and deliver a professionally relevant project at master’s level. This is known as the Professional Dissertation and may take a variety of forms such as a large-scale technical or creative project that results in an online or physical exhibition, a live project working with industry or in the community, an event or a publication. For many students, this is the most exciting element of the course and the culmination of their studies. It will allow you to demonstrate the full range of your skills and knowledge and impress potential employers, clients or collaborators.
An ideal course for graduates and professionals of creative industries This course should appeal to (but is not limited to) graduates and professionals in areas such as Animation, Art and Design, Creative Writing, Dance, Fashion, Fine Art, Games Art and Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Media, Performance, Photography, Special and Visual Effects, Textiles and Surface Design.
Would you prefer to complete your studies more quickly? We also offer this course by full-time study with a duration of 12 or 18 months. To complete your studies in 12 months, please visit our MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries course search web page for details and to apply. Alternatively, to study this course full-time over 18 months, please visit our MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries: Extended course search web page.
Want some reassurance or advice? Speak to one of our advisors. Email us at admissions@bolton.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1204 903 394.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
The MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries offers named postgraduate routes for practice‐based areas including Art and Design, Creative Writing, Dance, Games Art and Development, Live Events, Media, Performing Arts, Special Effects, Theatre, and Visual Effects. Additionally, it’s an excellent option if you’ve been working in a relevant field gaining degree-level knowledge through experience and self-study rather than formal education. This master’s aims to expand the knowledge and expertise you’ve gained through your undergraduate or professional work and pave the way for you to achieve your ambitions.
The creative industries are among the fastest growing sectors in the UK economy (Creative Industries Federation, 2019). As a region, Greater Manchester has over 500 cultural organisations, and is the largest digital, tech and creative cluster outside of London. This master’s degree aims to prepare you effectively for employment in the creative industries so that you’re best able to exploit the varied opportunities offered by this exciting and innovative sector.
As well as building your creative practice, we’ll support you to identify and develop the personal and business skills that are most highly-valued in your chosen area of the creative industries. Not only will this help you get established early on in your career, but you’ll also be primed to take on leadership roles and you’ll have the lifelong learning, problem-solving and decision-making skills needed to adapt to the challenges you face throughout your career.
You are a creative talent and the MA (Specialist Title) for Creative Industries aims to hone your skills ready to achieve success in the commercial world of the creative industries. Inspired by the graduate training programmes of major companies, this programme helps you develop high-level employability and transferable skills and apply them to your chosen creative industry. This training is skilfully combined with the project-oriented creative education you would normally gain through a more traditional creative practice master’s degree.
As a graduate of this MA, you'll be well prepared to seek employment or promotion, or become self-employed using the enterprise and innovation skills you’ve developed as part of the course. You'll possess the knowledge needed to submit financial/budget applications or business plans and to prepare and launch various projects. How you use your skills will depend on your chosen area(s) of creative practice and your personal interests and ambitions. However, you can rest assured that you'll have the confidence, knowledge and skills to drive forward in your career or enterprise development.
On successfully completing the course, you’ll be invited to continue your education via the MPhil and PhD degrees that are available at the University of Bolton.
Graduates can also use the qualification as a stepping-stone into a range of other careers. For some of these roles, both relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. Some of these careers include:
For the 2020/21 academic year, tuition fees for Home students are £9,250 (full-time and pro-rata for part-time). For international students, the fee is £12,450. This course is one of our Career Development Master's - Game Changers degree programmes. Generous bursary schemes are being offered for these courses. Please see our Scholarship and Bursaries web pages.
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2021/2022 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for ‘Home’ fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for ‘Home’ fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance eligibility 2021/2022 policy on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student’s course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
Click here for more information on our 2020 Master's Bursaries.
For details of how to apply for this course, please choose your status from the options below:
You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:
You should have to hand:
Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference
Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.
Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.
If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions@bolton.ac.uk
Apply online: University of Bolton MA (Specialism) for Creative Industries - 20 September 2021
As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.
We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.
Our team of academic and professional staff will use a variety of teaching and learning strategies to help you gain and develop appropriate concepts, knowledge and skills. You can expect practice-based enquiry, self-directed study, lectures, seminars, tutorials, presentations and work-based learning. Scheduled sessions will be held in the evening, allowing full-time and part-time students to study together and offering opportunities for those working in professional/industrial environments to present live case studies.
It’s important to realise that the time spent with a tutor during formally scheduled activities is only a small part of the learning time identified for a module. You’ll also be expected to spend a significant amount of time in guided independent study, such as general background reading, preparing for seminar activities and working on assignments. We are committed to supporting you throughout your learning journey. Over time, our guidance will purposefully become less structured and prescriptive. This will encourage you to develop confidence and independence in your studies and take responsibility for managing your own learning time as you increase in autonomy.
The assessment strategy for the programme is designed to help you achieve the overall aims of the curriculum, as well as the learning outcomes for individual modules. As well as assessing your achievement, it helps to organise and develop your learning. Assessment feedback can help you develop your skills and an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses.
The types of assessment you’ll be required to complete fall into two general categories: formative and summative. Formative assessments help in learning and developing knowledge and skills. Summative assessments, on which grades are allocated, reflect the quality of the learning that has been achieved. Formative assessment will take place via tutorial discussion, group workshops including peer and tutor review, and guidance on work in progress. Formative feedback will be provided face-to-face via discussion, online or in written form. Summative assessments consist of both practical and applied theoretical work. These will include a range of assessments including practical projects, written work, presentations and portfolios.
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
Level | Assesment method |
---|---|
Level one | Coursework 67%, Practical exams 33% |
Level | Learning activity |
---|---|
Level one | Guided independent study 80%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 20% |
Disclaimer
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
The academic staff detailed above teach across a range of courses in this subject area and may not teach on this course specifically.
postgrad@bolton.ac.uk
+44 (0)1204 903045
mohammed.abdel-haq@bolton.ac.uk
N.Shaw@bolton.ac.uk
+44 (0)1204 903317
enquiries@bolton.ac.uk
+44 (0)1204 903903
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton
The University of Bolton