MA in Museum and Gallery Studies
Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 up to 2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Request earliest startdate
TUITION FEES
GBP 10,900 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* there is no application deadline for postgraduate courses
** home full-time: ยฃ10,900 | international full-time: ยฃ18,700
Key Summary
Introduction
Why choose this course?
This course offers experience working alongside professionals in museums and galleries in the context of a scholarly, critically informed programme of study. Students explore contemporary issues and practices, including those relating to collections, exhibitions and audiences today. All students have the chance to compete for our annual awards in Community Engagement and Outstanding Creative Practice.
Research projects in museums and galleries enable you to develop and pursue your own interests and gain valuable skills in critical analysis and creative practice.
Reasons to choose Kingston University
- This course is taught in partnership with external institutions such as the Museum of London, the National Maritime Museum, the V&A, the Estorick Collection and the Freud Museum, London.
- You will participate in live projects, exhibitions and cultural events. For example, our work with Brooklands Museum contributed to a nomination for the Art Fund's Museum of the Year, the biggest prize in the UK museum world.
- Kingston University's own museum and gallery, Dorich House Museum and the Stanley Picker Gallery, offer an exciting range of opportunities to students.
Discover Museum and Gallery Studies
In this course you'll re-imagine the relationships between academy and profession, exploring the implications and applications of this approach to accepted ideas of academic museum studies and museum practice.
This degree engages artistic, urban planning, architectural and design practices as offering alternative creative approaches to museum study and practice. Our genuinely interdisciplinary approach to creative practice is one of the unique features of our curriculum.
We aim to offer a more sustainable place-based approach to our understanding of museums, museum practices and their academic study, and further open the museum up to the world in an ethical engagement towards more-than-institutional futures.
Gallery
Admissions
Curriculum
What you will study
The course examines contemporary issues and practices, including those relating to collections management, interpretation, audiences and exhibition. You will study taught modules covering critical analysis and creative practice, and conduct research around the broad themes and subjects addressed by each module. As well as working with our own in-house museums, Stanley Picker Gallery and Dorich House Museum, we work with four external institutions each year to develop real-world museum projects.
You'll take five core modules, working on live projects with our partners. Four of the modules are worth 30 academic credits each and the major project is worth 60. The course totals 180 credits.
Students can choose to complete a professional placement by opting to study for an additional year. This is not a compulsory part of the course which can be completed either with the placement year or as a single year.
Year 1
You will study a series of taught modules that are concerned with issues of critical theory and analysis, research methodologies and creative practice. You will be expected to conduct research around the broad themes and subjects addressed by each module. This research will allow you to tailor your own path of study according to your particular interests and future aspirations.
Core modules
- Ideas and Institutions
- Learning and Experience
- Exhibition and Encounter
- The Challenge of Change
- Major Project
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Core modules
- Professional Placement
Please note
Optional modules only run if there is enough demand. If we have an insufficient number of students interested in an optional module, that module will not be offered for this course.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
After you graduate
We have an extensive network of alumni who have successfully completed this course. Graduates have progressed to roles at prestigious organisations in the UK and around the world, including the Tate Gallery, Natural History Museum, V&A, National Gallery, Ministry of Stories, British Council, Imperial War Museum, National Trust, Strawberry Hill House, Ben Uri Gallery, Museum of Brands, Madame Tussaud's, Brooklands Museum, National Maritime Museum, Museo Andino de Historia, Arte y Cultura Viva Peru, William Morris Gallery, Baldwin Gallery, National Museum Prague, Kingston Museum, London Postal Museum, Churchill War Rooms, English Heritage, Historic Royal Palaces, London Bus Museum, Sir John Soane Museum, Wallace Collection, Museum of London and The Barbican.
Students have also progressed on PhD studies at University College London, Sheffield Hallam University and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Links with business and industry
Several of the modules in this course are developed and assessed in partnership with museums, galleries and other practitioners. This will include visiting lecturers who are leading practitioners in their field.
Previous partner institutions for this course have included Brooklands Museum, English Heritage, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the Salisbury Museum, the Museum of Futures, the Museum of London, the National Maritime Museum, Turner's House and the V&A.