Master of Arts - Design: Ceramics, Furniture, Jewellery
- 2 years
- Duration
- 22,175 GBP/year
- Price
- September
- Start
- June
- Deadline
- Master
- Degree
- Campus
- Format
- London / United Kingdom
- Location
Program description
The MA Design: Ceramics, Furniture, Jewellery programme at Central Saint Martins frames design as a process of transformation, exploring these evolving disciplines beyond traditional definitions to create hybrid practices that disrupt assumptions about craft and production. Your creative focus develops through structured research, ideation, exploration, and evaluation, expanding your skills intellectually, contextually, and practically while questioning ideas through teamwork and collaboration.
The course addresses the urgent challenge of sustainable and ethical production across all forms of manufacturing - from craftsmanship and hand‑made to factory production and contemporary technologies. It asks what the role of the ceramic, furniture, or jewellery designer should be in the twenty‑first century, challenging you to shape the future through engagement, reflection, and strategic awareness that complements your creative process and material knowledge.
Program structure
- Unit 1: Exploring the Landscapes
Unit 1 serves as an introduction to a new world of possibilities, exploring and interrogating diverse design and research methods relevant to ceramics, jewellery, and furniture designers. It orients your practice within the course, developing your contextual, critical, and research skills while integrating you into the postgraduate community and introducing you to college, university, and London's design resources.
- Unit 2: Dreaming Big
Unit 2 is divided into two sections - Speculative Futures and Materials Matters - focusing on reflectivity, contextualisation, and positioning in response to the design research directions developed in Unit 1. It builds your confidence and ambition by incorporating personal and professional development, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
The unit explores, interrogates, and reflects on diverse production and delivery methods for contemporary materials and digital practice, while engaging with emerging sustainability and ethical standards in global production.
- Unit 3: Moving on Up!
Unit 3 brings your project to a practical and critically reflective conclusion, demonstrating how you have specified, managed, implemented, and evaluated a Self‑Directed Design Project. It produces high‑level practice outcomes and evidences the value generated by your design process in diverse contexts, while encouraging you to plan your next steps beyond CSM through further personal and professional development.
The unit is designed to support your digital communication, networking, evaluation, and career development, enabling you to confidently present and embody your new professional persona. Please note that if you are required to retake a unit, you must pause further study until it is passed, which may impact student loans or visa status for international students.
Price
Tuition fee:
- 22,175 GBP per year*
*Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.
You may need to cover additional costs which are not included in your tuition fees, such as materials and equipment specific to your course.
Requirements for applicants
The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:
- An honours degree
- Or An equivalent EU/international qualification.
Exceptionally applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered.
The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:
- Related academic or work experience
- The quality of the personal statement
- The quality of the design research focus
- A strong academic or other professional reference
- Or a combination of these factors.
Each application will be considered on its own merit but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.
English language requirements
- IELTS (International English Language Testing System) level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking
About the university
The University of the Arts London (UAL) produces and encourages the creativity essential for a better future. Its colleges have been at the forefront of innovative education since 1842, creating work with a lasting impact on people and the planet, driven by curiosity, imagination, and purpose.
London is fundamental to UAL's identity, providing a vital context where the university connects and exchanges ideas with individuals from all walks of life. Globally, its creative network influences education, culture, business, and society.
Through innovative research and creative instruction, UAL's faculty and staff bring fresh perspectives to education. The university enables students to build the careers they desire by working with them at every level - from pre-degree to postgraduate, and from short courses to online learning.
UAL's colleges
Ranked second in the world for art and design, UAL comprises six distinct colleges:
- Camberwell College of Arts
- Central Saint Martins
- Chelsea College of Arts
- London College of Communication
- London College of Fashion
- Wimbledon College of Arts
Together, they form a community of creatives, innovators, trailblazers, and storytellers, united in their mission to reimagine the future.
Courses in the visual arts, animation, screen, communication, fashion, media, and performance are available at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
