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V&A/RCA History of Design MA

UK

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What will I learn?

Join a Master’s programme jointly run by two world-leading centres of excellence for scholarship and creativity, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Royal College of Art (RCA). Develop advanced knowledge, skills and approaches from the perspective of design history.

Our research-led teaching and experiential methods inspire and train future leaders in the field. Alumni of the programme are working successfully in various positions across universities, museums, cultural organisations, design firms and media outlets, as well as in independent practice.

We see the history of design as interdisciplinary and future-facing. We offer ground-breaking tools and approaches for studying the history and material culture of design in everyday life, across a global geography from c. 1400 to the present. Our research and teaching ranges from the early modern to the contemporary, with particular expertise in the UK/Europe, North America and Asia, and transnational and global connections. Our programme is strongly committed to inclusivity, decoloniality and social and environmental engagement.

We combine scholarly excellence with risk-taking to forge histories of design and material culture that are public-facing and experimental. We draw on a global outlook, whether placing local histories in a comparative context or tracing global networks through material culture.

You explore topics as broad as fashion and textile history; histories of architecture; digital materialities; material histories of medicine, science and technology; the material culture of everyday life; histories and practices of making, craft and embodied knowledge; environmental history, ecologies of design and the Anthropocene; history of theatre and performance; social and political history in relation to design; decoloniality and social justice through design history practice; and global history through material culture.

Which department am I in?

School of Arts & Humanities

Study options

Full Time (1 year)

Tuition fees
£38,600.00 (42,05,709) per year
This is a fixed fee
Start date

September 2025

Venue

Royal College of Art

Kensington Gore,

Kensington and Chelsea,

London,

SW7 2EU, SOUTHERN ENGLAND, England

Entry requirements

For international students

Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world. The selection process will consider creativity, imagination and innovation as demonstrated in your application, as well as your potential to benefit from the programme and to achieve high MA standards overall. You should have a good first degree in an arts and humanities or an art, design, photography or performance practice background. If you have a different background, for example in the social sciences or professions, we encourage you to apply. We welcome applications from students of all ages, and view both prior academic and professional experience as valuable. If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic or UKVI 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.

*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.

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