Advertising and Design, MA

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures, the United Kingdom

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Study options for this course

The award	How you will study	Study duration	Course start	Domestic course fees	International course fees
MA	Full-time	12 months	September	GBP 15250 per total	GBP 30250 per total

About Advertising and Design, MA - at Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

The MA Advertising and Design programme gives students the opportunity to prepare for careers in advertising and well as correlated fields in communication design. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the programme is supported by three pillars: Design, Research, and Business.

The Design pillar approaches the elaboration of communication campaigns as a design process, providing a framework for its development, as well as equipping students with an understanding of design principles across specialised areas such as graphic, typographic and digital design.

The Business pillar is offered in collaboration with the Leeds University Business School - a top 100 business schools worldwide - and introduces students to essential knowledge in consumer behaviour and media planning, enabling them to develop effective communication strategies based on market insights and brand positioning.

Finally, the Research pillar focuses on skills that are valuable to both academia and industry. Students will explore primary and secondary research methods, seamlessly integrating those into the design process, informing and evaluating their production using both quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, students will have the option to expand those skills further by working on dissertations or research papers.

Assessment employs diverse approaches tailored to evaluate academic, professional, and digital literacies. Assessment components in design modules reflect authentic professional practices, incorporating industry briefs and student competitions. Criteria for assessments are flexible, accommodating individual skills and career choices. Exams and reflective reports evaluate theoretical comprehension and critical thinking applied to design processes. Students have the option to pursue an academic-focused dissertation or an industry-focused final project, both supported by a research-led approach.

Upon completion of the program, students will have acquired a wide range of skills, including evaluating market trends, analysing brand positioning, and formulating objectives and strategies to address communication challenges. They also develop the ability to generate creative concepts, design effective solutions, and conduct research to inform and reflect on design outcomes.

Specialist facilities

The School of Design offers excellent facilities and technical support for developing your creative skills. We have a range of dedicated spaces where students can work independently. We also have a number of practical workshops, studios and specialist facilities: Sculpture Studio; 2D Art Studio; Fashion Design Studio; Knit and Weave Studio; Photography Studio; Digital Print workshop; Laser cutting and 3D Print workshop; Printmaking Workshop; XLab for Immersive Technologies and 3D workshop. We provide access to a team of excellent technicians across the full range of skills who can help you to realise your work to reach its potential.

The School also provides a range of other support to enhance the student experience and prepare students for the workplace: free dedicated software; a wide range of technical induction programmes; free access to Linked-in-Learning Tutorials; free cameras and video recorder on loan; supporting a Degree Show; external promotion; Visiting Speakers, who are well known figures from industry or other institutions around the world. 

Learn more about Advertising and Design, MA - at Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

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Entry requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any components

Student reviews of Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

Find out what students say about Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

Caroline Mwape Phiri-Lubwika - MA Applied and Professional Ethics (Online Learning)

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

I chose to study my course because you can apply it across different careers. I believe that each and every person needs to step up in terms of being professional in their work and in their careers; it is something very close to my heart.

I am a journalist by profession, and ethics is at the core of the media industry. I train upcoming journalists in Botswana and I also do children’s reporting, so issues of ethics are very pertinent; not only to me personally but to the profession that I stand for.

How would you describe your experience of studying at Leeds?

Studying online gave me the rare opportunity to study and take care of my family at the same time. It was good that I could concentrate on raising my family while also continuing with my professional work, I must say I gained all round!

I have studied online before - I did distance learning with the University of South Africa, where I did my BA in Communications Science - but this was at another level. What kept me going were the group discussions, which gave me an opportunity to interact with students from across the world, and the tutors coming in to give their opinion.

I decided to come to Leeds in person for my graduation and I was so excited because my dreams have turned into reality. It was so friendly and lovely that I felt like I’d been there before, even though it was my first visit to the campus.

Aakriti Jain - MA Global Fashion Management

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

After working in fashion as a designer, I realised that I am more suited for the managerial side of this industry. I had all the knowledge and experience I needed to become a designer but I needed to learn more about how that organisation works. With that in mind I started looking for universities who were offering a fashion management course which will help me to gain and enhance the required skills. UK was always my first choice for pursuing my masters because of the successful and booming fashion industry here along with the cultural diversity. University of Leeds offers that exact course which I had been looking for. The combination of subjects that this course provides is extremely unique. It has the perfect blend of business and fashion studies. Other than the course that the University of Leeds offers, the city also has a very warm and welcoming atmosphere for students.

What aspects of the course do you enjoy the most?

Here is the best part of this course, it is so well integrated and connected to all the subjects and you need to apply the knowledge gained from one subject into the other. You can literally see the various parts that you study coming together as one. It pushes you to think differently yet practically.

Ting Zeng - MA Linguistics and English Language Teaching

What made you want to apply to your course and to Leeds?

During the process of learning English and French I found many similarities and differences between these languages and my native language, Chinese. This made me curious about the amazing world of linguistics. In addition to this, my own experience of learning English has shown me that learning a language is not just about memorising vocabulary and grammar rules; it involves a systematic process. One field of linguistics, language acquisition, deals with this process, which increased my interest in studying English language learning from the perspective of linguistics, instead of from the perspective of education. Leeds is one of the few universities in the UK to have a course that combines these two areas.

What aspects of the course do you enjoy the most?

My favourite part of my course is the way it gives you critical reading skills. The major difference between postgraduate and undergraduate study is that postgraduate courses require you to think deeply and broadly, so that you can design your own research project to investigate a new or old problem which hasn’t been solved.

Developing these skills not only helped me to gain a lot of ideas about my essay and dissertation, but also enables me to read clearly, carefully and critically in my everyday life. When I am reading newspapers and magazines, for example, criticality helps me to avoid being misled by the words and opinions of others.