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MA Textiles

Terry Donaldson, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham overlay icon close
Terry Donaldson, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham

Course overview

Our MA Textiles course, based at UCA Epsom from 2023, will develop your individual research into textile art, culture, craft and design, enabling you to combine your experience of textiles practice with a personal project.

You will be encouraged to challenge yourself, to explore and transform your own work using new materials, processes, techniques and ideas to emerge with a renewed sense of personal vision.

This fresh perspective and sense of self will aid you as you embark on your career as a freelance design professional, curator, gallery director or textile designer.

You'll benefit from our links with established artists and designers drawn from a multi-national cohort. Our team comprises eminent professors, visiting scholars, academics and associate lecturers, experienced practitioners, designer-makers, artists and researchers who work in the industry, produce commissions, regularly exhibit and are published internationally.

The course programme includes opportunities to work on live projects with established galleries. The content of lectures and seminars focuses on professional practice, and you can expect to hear from high profile guest speakers from art, craft, industry and design practices.

We have a long list of alumni who have extablished their own practices as designer-makers, practice as textile artists, and work in education as academics and researchers. 

Course entry options

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

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Textiles
MA

A one-year course of advanced study for furthering your research skills and specialising within your discipline.

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Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2023
Duration
1 year full-time
Entry requirements

Honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in the subject/related discipline
and/or
Relevant work experience

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Textiles
MA with Integrated International Pre-Masters

A year-long preparatory course of study to ready you for your Master’s in the UK, developing your English speaking and writing together with your specialist skills, research acumen and confidence in working autonomously.

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2023
Duration
2 years full-time
Entry requirements

A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject

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Textiles

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Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements

 

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Textiles

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Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
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Textiles

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Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
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Textiles

Apply now Submit an enquiry
Campus
Start date(s)
Duration
Entry requirements
What you'll study

What you'll study

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

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

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.

Theory and Analysis
Through the development of critical reading, observation, handling and thinking deeply about projects, artefacts and contextual research, you’ll challenge and confirm your own practice.

Exploratory Practice
Through this unit, you’ll begin to develop your practice into a form of enquiry, with a questioning, analytical and interrogative approach to your work, enabling you to become a self-sustaining reflective practitioner.

 

 

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.

Reflective Practice
Reflective practice is one of the most important concepts for a creative practitioner. It enables you to become your own best critic, allowing you to develop and progress your practice independently. The work undertaken in this unit should begin to address the research questions you refined and explored in Exploratory Practice.

Although you won’t have yet concluded your research project, your work should be considerably more resolved and establish a clear line of enquiry - through materials, concept and context. You also have the opportunity to complete a period of professional practice during this unit.

 

 

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

Major Project
This is the culmination of your studies and will form an exposition of the central ideas and concepts developed throughout your course. As such, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Chaeeun Kim, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Hermione Thomson, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Geraldine Lewis, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Kendall Clarke, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Laura Adburgham, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Beth Town, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Hermione Thomson, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Elena Sparke, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Janet Pullen, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Jennifer Sutton, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Kate-Lucy Cottam, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham Clare Spender, MA Textiles, UCA Farnham

Facilities

As well as dedicated studio spaces we have - three, 9m long screen-printing tables; individual dyeing labs; materials exploration area; Indigo vat and rust dyeing space; chemical mixing rooms and finishing areas with industrial steamers, baking cabinet and heat presses; computerised and George Wood Dobby looms, Countermarch and table looms; industrial cone and skein winders and frames for finishing woven textiles; well stocked cloth and yarn shops; access to specialist facilities across the School of Craft and Design.

View 360 virtual tour

Textiles studios, UCA Farnham

Career opportunities

Career opportunities

As part of this course, you'll have access to well-established industry connections. These include:

  • The Crafts Council
  • Royal School of Needlework
  • Farnham Maltings
  • Selvedge Magazine
  • Nuno Corporation
  • The New Ashgate Gallery
  • Melin Tregwynt Woollen Mill

Recent guest lecturers include:

  • Rachel Kelly, wallpaper designer
  • Yosi Anaya, textiles designer
  • Dr Jane Harris, textiles designer

Our course will equip you with a host of valuable and transferable skills. Upon successful completion, you may decide to become self-employed, or forge a career within the craft and design industries. These offer a variety of career opportunities, including:

  • Freelance design professionals
  • Self-employed designer-makers
  • Textile designers
  • Public art practitioners
  • Textile conservationists and curators
  • Arts educators and teachers
  • Textile stylists
  • Fashion buyers and retailers
  • Gallery directors.

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.

The International Textiles Research Centre (ITRC), based at UCA, offers an exciting staff and student research culture developing collaborative relationships with major cultural institutions, networks, galleries and museums around the world.

The International Textile Research Centre

Explore our Gradshow

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

Visit the Gradshow website

Our Staff

Sharon Ting

Sharon Ting

Programme Director Textiles
Louise Anderson, Senior Lecturer Textiles

Louise Anderson

Senior Lecturer in Weave
Diana Harrison staff profile picture

Diana Harrison

Senior Lecturer Textiles (Print)
Prof Lesley Millar

Professor Lesley Millar MBE

Director of the International Textile Research Centre, Professor of Textile Culture
Beverly Ayling-Smith

Dr Beverly Ayling-Smith

Associate Research Fellow
Beverly Ayling-Smith
Beverly Ayling-Smith

"The great thing about doing an MA is the artistic freedom you experience, which encourages you to take risks with your work and deeply question your decisions, from both a creative and theoretical perspective."

Entry requirements

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.

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:

    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

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