Critical Perspectives
Through a series of lectures, discussions in seminar sessions and written pieces, you’ll examine the meaning of contemporary practice and methods of working, alongside students from the MA Fine Art course.

Together, you’ll learn about the range of theoretical and critical debates which have impacted significantly on recent contemporary practice. As well as understanding how these relate to political and social contexts, you’ll also consider the materials you use, and how they might be placed in wider culture.

Exploratory Practice
You’ll be testing out and trying ideas, methods and materials to expand your breadth of knowledge and fields of interest. We will be expecting you to show your curiosity, experiment, take risks and be daring.

You'll develop a true sense of what materials and tools you want to use, and why, and the enquiries you want to follow, and why. You will discover the joy of your craft, not only in the practice of photography and theory, but also in the conception and research of your ideas.

Research and Development
In order to truly understand how research is completely embedded in your practice, you’ll develop the skills to exhaustively research particular methods, approaches, theories and practices, to further your experimental work.

You'll also thoroughly explore the photography industry and its subsidiaries on a global scale, in order to better prepare you for professional practice or other careers. 

International Exchange (optional)
Thanks to the course's connections with a range of world-leading international institutions – including in India, Sweden, Spain and the USA - you will have the opportunity to undertake a period of study abroad. This is ideally taken in term two of year one or term three of year two.

Advanced Practice
In a continuation from your study in Year one, you'll build upon your research and critically evaluate this as well as your own practice, honing your skills as you develop the concept for your Final Project. You’ll be expected to come up with a ground-breaking project concept, which will sustain you throughout the year.

You'll also complete a work placement, which you will have researched in Year One.

Final Project
The Final Project is the culmination of your studies and should fully demonstrate the skills and passions you’ve developed. You can choose to submit a practice-only Final Project, a theory-only piece, or a combination of both.

If you are submitting a practice-only Final Project, it should achieve a resolution to previous project units and demonstrate evidence of advanced conceptual, theoretical and technical capability over an extended period of self-directed study. A theory-only Final Project provides you with the opportunity to undertake a sustained piece of research which demonstrates your intellectual and theoretical grasp of your enquiry, while the combination enables you to submit a body of practice work in conjunction with a shorter written piece.

International Exchange (optional)
Thanks to the course’s connections with a range of world-leading international institutions – including in India, Sweden, Spain and the USA - you will have the opportunity to undertake a period of study abroad. This is ideally taken in term two of year one or term three of year two.

Tuition fees
The course fees for 2020 entry are:

UK and EU students (full-time):

- Year one: £5,330
- Year two: £4,610

International fees per year (full time):

- International students - £10,830 (standard fee)
- International students - £10,390 (full early payment fee)

Additional course costs
In addition to the tuition fees please see the additional course costs for 2020 entry.

To support all of our current students and our recent UK and EU alumni to progress to the next level of study, we have developed a new range of fee discounts across a range of courses.

• Read more about fee discounts

Our course has a number of connections with similar institutions worldwide, including art and design institutes and universities in India, Pakistan, USA, Sweden, France and Spain.

Professional contacts and regular industry lectures are integral to this course, and enable you to learn from photographers and artists talking about their professional practice. Our photographic industry links include: Metro Imaging; Genesis; Simon Roberts Studio; Association of Photography; The Royal Photographic Society; The Martin Parr Foundation; Fotofusion Gallery; Finnish Museum of Photography; Lagos Photo Festival; Dillon + Lee Gallery, NY; Impressions Gallery; Photography and the Archive Research Centre; Tate Modern; Fotogallery Cardiff, and Autograph ABP.

Recent guest lecturers include:

• Martin Parr
• Val Williams
• Sarah Pickering
• Helen Sear
• Joy Gregory
• Susan Lipper
• Ewan Spencer
• Eileen Perrier.

Graduates from this course work in a wide variety of related careers, including:

• PhD and research
• Editorial, fashion, documentary and fine art photography
• Advertising
• Editing and curatorial posts
• Gallery and project management
• Writing
• Teaching
• Technical support.

You may want to undertake further study or research to specialise even more.