
Overview
Take your education career to the next level
Key details
- 180 credits
- 45 week programme
- Full-time or part-time study
School or Centre
Next open day
- 2 Oct 2023
- Book or view all open days
Application deadline
- 11 Oct 2023
Develop strategies for working across diverse international learning environments on this Master of Education (MEd)
The MEd in Creative Education will enable you to develop the confidence to design, deliver and evaluate innovative creative education that is informed by a critical understanding of competing conceptual and policy perspectives. This will involve an exploration of new and emerging forms of creative education. A significant part of the MEd course will be delivered online.
The MEd draws on years of experience within the RCA of delivering an internal PG Cert in Creative Education programme that has supported over 100 students to review and renew their creative education practice. In recent years, this programme has received outstanding student feedback, with over 92% student satisfaction across the past two years.
Applications for the September 2024 intake are now open.
Explore further
Listen to the RCA Podcast Series 1, Episode 2: Creative education through uncertainty to hear from Chris Mitchell, Deputy Director of Academic Development, and how this form of education and the new MEd Creative Education can help people respond to the challenges of living with uncertainty.
Gallery
Facilities
The RCA has facilities at Kensington, Battersea and White City.
View all College-wide facilitiesA significant part of the MEd course will be delivered online.
What you'll study
A significant part of the MEd course will be delivered online.
What you'll cover
By the end of the programme, you should be able to:
- Define your values as a creative educator in relation to competing critical, conceptual and policy perspectives
- Critically evaluate your pedagogical strategies using the principles and methods of educational research
- Critically reflect on the public impact of your practice as a creative educator, and on their responsibilities as a practitioner
- Demonstrate how to translate your pedagogical principles into the design and delivery of effective creative education
- Develop strategies for working with others across a range of diverse national and international learning environments.
Programme delivery
The programme will operate three principal modes of delivery:
- Burst-mode learning, where you attend campus for intensive weeks of study, followed by synchronous/asynchronous online learning. For example, a 15-credit unit will involve one week of on-campus study.
- Blended learning, where you attend a regular pattern of scheduled teaching throughout the unit that is delivered both online and on-campus
- Online learning, where you attend a regular pattern of scheduled teaching throughout the unit that is delivered wholly online.
Programme structure
Term 1
In term one you'll take the unit Foundations of Learning, which explores the concepts and controversies of contemporary creative education. You will reflect on their experiences, knowledge and values, and locate your practice within a broader theoretical context.
You'll also take Making Pedagogies, which explores the pedagogical implications and possibilities of an education based on making, including a consideration of the materials we use, the processes that we employ and the spaces that we inhabit.
You'll begin the first part of Action Research: Proposal, which enables you to review and renew their own creative education practice through Action Research. In this first part, you'll develop a project plan and associated ethics application that provides a rationale for your chosen project, and outline how you intend to gather, analyse and present research data
You'll also choose a Cross-College elective from a selection offered across the RCA's MEd, MFA and MDes programmes.
Term 2
In term two you'll take Designs for Learning, a unit which gives you insight into and experience of designing inclusive creative education. It explores how to apply ideas in practice across a range of educational methods and modes, including discussion of campus-based, blended and remote learning.
You'll also take Education for Change, which supports you to design and deliver creative education that is focused on transformation. This will involve an exploration on how education can support people to navigate a complex, changing and an unpredictable world.
You'll complete Action Research: Project, where you'll conduct, analyse and present the project devised in the previous term's Action Research: Proposal, and reflect on how it informs your practice as a creative educator.
Finally, you'll choose another Cross-College elective from a selection offered across the RCA's MEd, MFA and MDes programmes.
Term 3
In the final term, you'll undertake an Independent Research Project. This unit enables you to bring together learning throughout the programme on an ambitious research project that concludes your degree. You will develop a research proposal and associated ethics application that provides a rationale for your chosen project, and which outlines how you intend to gather, analyse and present research data. You'll then conduct, analyse and present your research project.
Part time students take the same units over a two-year period.
Electives
All students will select elective units to determine their own journey through the programme, choosing from a range of electives that are available across all Schools and campuses, and online. The available electives may include:
Term 1
- Interventions (School of Communication, on campus)
- Digital Storytelling (School of Communication, online)
- Education for Change (Academic Development Office, online & blended options with mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Collaboration and Inter-disciplinarity as Method (Academic Development Office, online & blended options with mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Housing and Social Reproduction (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
- Mobility and Debility (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
- Design Innovation: Models and Life Cycle (School of Design, mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Design Ethics: Design for Good Practice (School of Design, online)
- Performing Practice (School of Arts and Humanities, on campus)
- Health and Care: Futures of Care (School of Arts and Humanities, online)
- Material Engagements: Embodied Practice (School of Arts and Humanities, on campus)
Terms 1 and 2
AcrossRCA (30 credits) (Academic Development Office, majority online, but some on-campus sessions)
Term 2
- Industry Embedded Project (School of Communication, online)
- Sound (School of Communication, on campus)
- Public Engagement as Method (Academic Development Office (MRes), mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Developing Research Proposals (Academic Development Office (MRes), mix of online
- Making Pedagogies (Academic Development Office (MEd), mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Capital’s Shadow (School of Architecture, mix of online and on-campus sessions)
- Milieu Milieu Me (The Economy) (School of Architecture, mix of online and on campus sessions)
- Design Resilience: Sustainability (School of Design, mix of online and on campus sessions)
- Design Innovation: Venture Creation (School of Design, mix of online and on campus sessions)
- Sites and Situations: Spatial Feelings (School of Arts and Humanities, on campus)
- Synthetic Encounters: Shapeshifting the Digital (School of Arts and Humanities, online)
Depending on demand and availability, not all electives will be available. Students will be asked for ranked preference and allocated to electives based on those preferences.
Requirements
What you need to know before you apply
Candidates are selected entirely on merit and applications are welcomed from all over the world.
The MEd in Creative Education will be suitable for:
- Art and design educators in Higher Education, Further Education and other educational contexts
- People aspiring to be art and design educators in Higher Education, Further Education and other educational contexts
- Art and design practitioners with an interest in education and/or community engagement
- People involved in community engagement and/or organisation
- People involved in museum and/or gallery education
- Educational developers
Applicants are welcome from those have successfully completed undergraduate, graduate diploma or postgraduate degrees and have an active interest in and engagement with creative education.
What's needed from you
Portfolio requirements
To apply, you will need to complete a Personal Statement between 400–600 words that addresses the following prompts:
- What informs your approach to creative education?
- What educational themes and/or challenges do you want to explore during your studies?
- What initial ideas do you have for your own educational research project(s)?
- What training and/or support would you need to realise your educational research project(s)?
- How do you think the programme will support your professional development goals?
Video requirements
As part of the application process, you must submit a video of no more than two minutes that answers the question ‘how do you like to learn?’.
The following prompts should help you develop your response:
- What motivates you to keep learning?
- What do you look for in a learning community?
- What do you look for in a learning environment?
- What examples best demonstrate this?
English-language requirements
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.
You are exempt from this requirement if you have received a 2.1 degree or above from a university in a majority English-speaking nation within the last two years.
If you need a Student Visa to study at the RCA, you will also need to meet the Home Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.
Fees & funding
For this programme
Fees
ees for September 2024 entry on this programme are outlined below. From 2021 onward, EU students are classified as Overseas for tuition fee purposes.
Home (blended learning)
Home (online)
Overseas and EU (blended learning)
Overseas and EU (online)
Deposit
New entrants to the College will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit in order to secure their place. This will be offset against the tuition fees for the first year of study.
Home
Overseas and EU
Progression discounts
For alumni and students who have completed an MA or MA/MSc at the RCA within the past 10 years, a progression discount is available for MFA, MDes, MArch and MEd study. This discount is £2,000 for full-time study, or £1,000 per year for two years of part-time study. This also applies if you have taken an MRes qualification between 2013 and 2023.
Scholarships
Scholarships
The RCA scholarship programme is growing, with hundreds of financial awards planned for the 2024/5 academic year. Examples of financial awards offered in 2023/24 are given below.
Sir Frank Bowling Scholarships
For: All programmes excluding short courses
Eligibility criteria: Home fee status; Black or Black British Caribbean, Black Or Black British African, Other Black Background, Mixed - White and Black Caribbean, Mixed - White and Black African
Value: Full-fee & contribution to living costs
Applying for a scholarship
You must hold an offer to study on an RCA programme in order to make a scholarship application in Spring 2024. A selection of RCA merit scholarships will also be awarded with programme offers.
We strongly recommend that you apply for your programme as early as possible to stand the best chance of receiving a scholarship. You do not apply directly for individual awards; instead, you will be invited to apply once you have received an offer.
More information
Additonal fes
In addition to your programme fees, please be aware that you may incur other additional costs associated with your study during your time at RCA. Additional costs can include purchases and services (without limitation): costs related to the purchase of books, paints, textiles, wood, metal, plastics and/or other materials in connection with your programme, services related to the use of printing and photocopying, lasercutting, 3D printing and CNC. Costs related to attending compulsory field trips, joining student and sport societies, and your Convocation (graduation) ceremony.
If you wish to find out more about what type of additional costs you may incur while studying on your programme, please contact the Head of your Programme to discuss or ask at an online or in person Open Day.
We provide the RCASHOP online, and at our Kensington and Battersea Campuses – this is open to students and staff of the Royal College of Art only to provide paid for materials to support your studies.
We also provide support to our students who require financial assistance whilst studying, including a dedicated Materials Fund.
External funding
There are many funding sources, with some students securing scholarships and others saving money from working. It is impossible to list all the potential funding sources; however, the following information could be useful.
Start your application
Change your life and be here in 2024. Applications now open.
The Royal College of Art welcomes applicants from all over the world.
Before you begin
Make sure you've read and understood the entrance requirements and key dates
More information about eligibility and key datesCheck you have all the information you need to apply.
Read our application process guideConsider attending an Open Day, or one of our portfolio or application advice sessions
See upcoming sessionsPlease note, all applications must be submitted by 12 noon on the given deadline.
Ask a question
Get in touch if you’d like to find out more or have any questions.
