MA in Visual Communication Featured Image

Universities United Kingdom Royal College of Art Courses MA in Visual Communication

MA in Visual Communication
at Royal College of Art

London, United Kingdom

Tuition Fee £ 32,000
Country Rank#123
Duration12 Months
Score IELTS: 6.5

Program Overview

At the heart of your experience with us in Visual Communication is the shared commitment to ‘conversational practice’. By this we mean a practical and discursive approach to making. We see communication as essentially, a conversation to form bridges, to connect people and to exchange ideas.

You will be joining our community of critical thinkers and makers, leading the way in social practices. We have a long history of approaching the making of work through the collaborative, cooperative and compassionate ethos of listening, respecting and (un)learning. You will be introduced to a rich dialogic learning experience, where the conversation takes place between us, you, your peers and your audiences. Together, through a discursive inquiry and exchange, we will explore what it means to both speak and listen.

The dynamic nature of communication technologies continues to redefine not only how we make and consume information, but also how we connect to each other. We welcome students to our programme who will challenge the order of things, consider the multiplicity of perspectives and embrace complexity. Situated at the forefront of critical experimentation, you will seek to forge fresh connections between criticality, radical thinking and making. By harnessing your creative and critical abilities, you will explore new vocabularies for our contemporary times, speculate on new realities and collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to create transformative movements that invite activism & change.

Whilst you may come to Visual Communication from one of the familiar disciplines, such as Graphic Design, Illustration, you might also have a more experimental and expanded approach or come from a less conventional background. In visual communication, you will develop the critical and conceptual tools to enable communication and connections across disciplinary boundaries. Our Interdisciplinary environment will offer you a comprehensive understanding drawn from diverse geographies, rich cultural contexts and multiple intellectual and creative fields of study, enabling you to adapt to new subject areas and to situate your work in environments beyond the studio.

Course Content
Term 1

In term 1, you will study the Expanded Fields unit. By unsettling existing models of knowledge and production you will begin to expand and transform your working methods. You will develop a critical framework through a thematic lens in relation to your own lived experience, motivations, and practice.

Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in the College-wide unit. This unit aims to support students to meet the challenges of a complex, uncertain and changing world by bringing them together to work collaboratively on a series of themed projects informed by expertise within and beyond the College. These projects will challenge you to use your intellect and imagination to address key cultural, social, environmental and economic challenges. In doing so, you will develop and reflect on the abilities required to translate knowledge into action, and help demonstrate the contribution that the creative arts can make to our understanding and experience of the world.

Term 2

In term 2, you'll study the Serious Play unit. Through technical workshops, discussions, lectures, critical-making and play you will explore the relationship between theory and practice. You will be encouraged to explore hybrid ways of making borrowing from other disciplines to forge fresh connections. By the end of this unit you will Dismantle, Disrupt & Reconstruct an experimental attitude to making and thinking, re-framing what you do and why you do it.

The Exchange and Engage School-wide unit allows you to work alongside students within and across the School.

Term 3

In term 3, you'll study the Situated Practice unit. Here we ask you to focus on locating and establishing yourself and your work in the external contexts in which you seek to engage and connect your practice to emerging critical discourses. You will enact the critical frameworks, methods and tools you have developed through the programme within a self-directed research project, supported by tutorials and student-led forums. We are not isolated; we are all connected. What will you add to this conversation? How will you disseminate your work? by the end of this unit you will have a Situated Practice that will have been tested though your Independent Research Project.
Entry Requirement
Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world. The selection process considers creativity, imagination and innovation as demonstrated in your portfolio, as well as your potential to benefit from the programme and to achieve high MA standards overall.

You will normally have completed a first-degree undergraduate qualification in a related subject or be able to evidence equivalent professional experience in related fields.

All candidates are required to submit an online portfolio of work to be assessed by the programme’s senior staff team. Candidates should create an online portfolio that best reflects their abilities, experience and interests. The portfolio must follow College guidelines for uploading work such as using the College application site and giving a brief description for each piece of work.

Candidates are selected on the basis of a body of work that demonstrates an advanced understanding of the subject and sufficient technical skill to realise intentions, evidence of commitment to the subject, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, the ability to collaborate, to engage in debate and respond to criticism, and the ability to engage in sustained and consistent study.

Portfolio requirements

Your portfolio is a showcase of your work as an artist or designer and can be made up of images, videos or writing examples. Your portfolio helps us to better understand your application and allows you to show evidence of your ability and motivation to undertake a given programme.

Generally, we’re looking for you to demonstrate your:
- Creativity, imagination and innovation
- Ability to articulate the intentions of the work
- Intellectual engagement in areas relevant to the work
- Technical skills appropriate to the work
- Potential to benefit from the programme
English-language requirements

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic score of 6.5 with a 6.0 in the Test of Written English (TWE) and at least 5.5 in other skills. Students achieving a grade of at least 6.0, with a grade of 5.5 in the Test of Written English, may be eligible to take the College’s English for Academic Purposes course to enable them to reach the required standard.
Fees & Scholarships
Overseas and EU - £32,000*

Cost Of Studying At Royal College of Art

Interest rates as low as 8.9% ^*

250K+

Students Assisted

800Cr+

Loan Amount Disbursed

5000+

Loans Sanctioned

Check Loan Eligibility

MA in Visual Communication at Royal College of Art