Photography MA

Course overview

Enhance your skills, broaden your scope and refine your style as a photographer on our MA Photography degree course at UCA Canterbury.

This course will encourage you to be bold, both in your work and the way in which you display it. You will be encouraged to speculate, experiment and add complexity to your projects, using our extensive facilities to help you realise your ideas.

We also focus on the dissemination, exhibition and publication of photographic work, as well as covering critical theory and reading and writing about the image.

With a balance of support that will develop your practical skills and foster a high standard of diverse critical approaches, you will respond to the diverse field of contemporary photography and explore practices of representation that engage with the still and moving image, as well as performance and installation.

Your studies will be supported by a number of internationally renowned staff in a department that encourages experimentation. This will help you to establish yourself as a rounded professional who can formulate ideas in a sophisticated framework, whilst also communicating impactfully with others, both visually and verbally.

Wherever your career aspirations lie - from fashion to fine art, editorial to curation - we place a strong emphasis on publication, empowering you to find creative ways to disseminate your work beyond the academic context.

Course entry options

Select from the options below to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

What you'll study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

Integrated International Pre-Masters (if undertaken)

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Pre-Masters year, which is based at UCA Farnham.

On this course you’ll prepare for postgraduate study with a mix of online and face-to-face learning that will give you the study skills required to complete a Master’s, and you’ll also improve your English for academic study.

Term one

You'll be introduced to the University and the technical workshops and facilities available to you. The first term includes a range of lectures and seminars and you’ll start to explore your creative practice.

Contemporary Debates and Creative Enquiry
This unit introduces you to a range of research methods and tools appropriate to an advanced level of study in creative disciplines, as well as outlining key issues and debates in contemporary visual and material culture. It is designed to enable the use of advanced study skills to prepare students for the development of your MA project.

Exploratory Practice
This unit is concerned with the exploration of creative practice in order to inform the detailed development of your project proposal. The unit provides a structured framework to allow you to investigate the potential of methods, ideas and themes in your discipline.

Term two

During term two you begin developing your MA project, evaluating and testing out the aims of your proposal over a sustained period of self-directed study.

Innovation and Development
In this unit, you'll begin to develop your MA project over a sustained period of self-directed study as you begin to work more independently as a researcher and practitioner. Within this development stage of the course, you are expected to deepen and extend the critical understanding and articulation of your research. You are encouraged to challenge the relationships between photography, technology and representation, exploring the latest developments both theoretical as well as practical in photography, fine art and the wider media culture.

Term three

In the third term of the course, you'll apply the knowledge gained through your research to create a final body of work.

Resolution and Presentation
In this unit, you'll apply the knowledge gained through your research in the Innovation and Development unit to undertake the resolution and finalisation of your final body of work. In this final part of the course, you'll combine an ability to define and produce a form of completed work as well as locate their project within a professional context. You are encouraged to develop the final production of your work in the form that is most relevant to the work: for example, an exhibition, a book dummy, website, a performance or dynamic time-based work.

Fees and additional costs

Tuition fees - 2023 entry

UK students:

Integrated Pre-Masters course - £10,500
MA course - £10,500

EU students:

Integrated International Pre-Masters course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)
MA course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)

International students:

Integrated International Pre-Masters course (30 weeks) - £17,500
Integrated International Pre-Masters course (15 weeks) - £8,750
MA course - £17,500

Additional course costs
In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials. These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Further information
For more detailed information about our course fees and any financial support you may be entitled to please see our fees and finance pages.

The fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only. Costs may increase each year during a student’s period of continued registration on course in line with inflation (subject to any maximum regulated tuition fee limit). Any adjustment for continuing students will be at or below the RPI-X forecast rate.

Fee discounts and scholarships

To support our students and 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

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Arthus Chen, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Lauren Rogers, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Qifeng Xu, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Ruizhi Chen, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Savvas Argyrou, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Tim Veness, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Tsz Yau Tsang, MA Photography, UCA Rochester_

Vaidehi Gupta, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Ziyuan Yang, MA Photography, UCA Rochester

Career opportunities

Industry links

Our MA Photography course enjoys extensive links with a number of photographic, media and fine art professionals, curators, publishers, specialist printers and book designers. These connections enrich your experience through visiting lecturer and seminar programmes.

In the last three years, speakers on the course have included photographers and other creative practitioners such as:

Ori Gersht
Zed Nelson
Sarah Pickering
Eva Stenram
Katja Mayer
Chiacomo Brunnelli
Chris Coekin
Harry Borden
Jim Mortram

Additionally, creative professionals and industry links for our course include:

Benedict Burbridge, editor of Photoworks
Stuart Smith, book designer at Smith-Design
Karen McQuaid, senior curator of The Photographer's Gallery
Jennifer Thatcher, art critic for Art Monthly and Art review
Jean Wainwright, curator and art critic for Art Newspaper and Tate Audio Arts
Terry King, specialist printer
Emily Pethick, director The Showroom
Robert Shore, writer and editor of Elephant Magazine
Edward Dorrian, organiser of Five Years
Aron Mörel, independent book publisher
Bruno Ceschel, independent publisher ‘Self Publish Be Happy’
Nick Clements, photographer and publisher of Men’s File Magazine
Fred Mann, gallerist

Careers

Our postgraduate degree prepares you for your career through professional practice units, talks by visiting artists and portfolio reviews with figures from across the photographic industry. Career opportunities include:

Freelance photography
Fine art
Fashion
Advertising and editorial
Post production/digital imaging
Picture editing and research
Curating
Image, arts and community arts management
Gallery administration.

Graduates of MA Photography have gone on to win the Jerwood Photography prize; to exhibit their work in The Photographers' Gallery, Photofusion, ArtSway and the Geffyre Museum as well as publishing their outputs in different venues ranging from The Sunday Times Magazine to monographs with Dewi Lewis Publishing.

Further study

We also encourage you to apply to national and international competitions and residencies. Recent graduates have met with success at the PhotoforumPasquArt in Switzerland and Emergent Lleida, Spain. Alumni have also gone on to study for PhDs and to teach in many different national and international institutions at a range of levels.

Our course provides an excellent platform for you to connect with your subject, or to further your teaching career at an advanced level. It also helps prepare you for progression to an MPhil or PhD.

Explore our Gradshow

Visit our grad show site to see the incredible work created by our graduating students

Visit the Gradshow website

Angus Fraser

"Doing the MA felt like a natural next step for me, both personally and professionally. I had already gained considerable 'real-world' experience and I wanted to return to my studies in order to see what new directions my work could go in. The creative freedom that the course encouraged enabled me to explore different styles and approaches."

Entry requirements

UK entry requirements

MA course

An honours degree or equivalent qualification in the subject or a related discipline

and/or

Relevant work experience, demonstrating your ability to study at postgraduate level.

Consideration will also be given to applicants who can make a strong case for admission in relation to a particular project and can demonstrate their potential to satisfactorily complete the course.

International and EU entry requirements

Check the equivalent qualifications for your country and the English language requirements:

Non-UK equivalent qualifications

English language requirements

Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.

MA course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course
A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject.

Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?
You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:

Portfolio requirements

MA course
MA course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course

For these courses, we’ll need to see your visual or written portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to upload your portfolio online via your Applicant Portal – further information will be provided once you have applied. If you would prefer to meet the Academic Team in person for a review of your work on campus, this can also be arranged for you.

More portfolio advice