MA in Creative Industries
Nijmegen, Netherlands
MA
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 Apr 2026*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
EUR 2,695 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Application deadline with scholarship: 31.01.2026| Final deadline for EU students: 01.07.2026| Deadline for EU students who want to get assistance with housing: 01.05.2026
** Institutional tuition fee EU/EEA: €14,084.00* | For non-EU/EEA students: €18,873.00* (*The institutional tuition fees are still subject to change)
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
In today’s dynamic media world, creativity and innovation are inseparably integrated with technology and globalisation. At Radboud University, we help you to develop a reflective, inquisitive and critical view of the creative industries and its relationship with economics and commercialism. We ask you to look beyond the promise of authenticity, the cry for value, or the quest for quality in the creative industries. But also, and most importantly, never to lose sight of its core; the heart of the creative industries is the cultural product or event. That is why in every course, in every debate, our starting point is the aesthetical and creative element. It’s about adding new value and significance to the creative industries.
In the Master’s specialisation in Creative Industries, we focus on the artistic product. We look at the wonderful new world where high fashion interacts with technological gadgets and where television series are gaining ground in cinema. You will also study our (post-)industrial society as a cultural phenomenon.
Master's programme in Creative Industries: something for you?
- Look at many areas of the creative industry: not just fashion, music, film and television, but also (social) media and education.
- We approach the creative industries with a strong focus on culture.
- A hands-on programme, with several assignments a week challenging you to develop the ‘soft skills’ to be successful in the labour market.
- We have close contacts with art and cultural organisations in and around Nijmegen.
Why study this programme
- We approach the creative industries with a strong focus on culture: we put the creative object, product or process itself at the centre of the study. This emphasis makes our approach unique in the Netherlands.
- We look at many areas of the creative industry: not just fashion, music, film and television, but also (social) media and education.
- We take a practical approach to this field by looking not just at the big players, like global conglomerates but also at small and medium enterprises, not forgetting the one-man/woman companies.
- Our programme is hands-on, with several assignments a week challenging you to develop the ‘soft skills to be successful in the labour market.
- We have close contacts with art and cultural organisations in and around Nijmegen. You can use these contacts to get a real taste of the industries you’re going to be working in.
Creativity is considered quite a desirable commodity in our contemporary culture. Creativity – economists and government officials maintain – is necessary to innovate, and innovation leads to economic prosperity. Yet, what does it mean to be creative? What are creative products?
The creative industries is a dynamic and complex field that changes rapidly due to globalisation and the continual development of new and exciting technologies. At Radboud University we look at many areas of the creative industry, such as:
- Fashion: Fashion is a commercial, creative and cultural industry producing and consuming material objects like textile and garments, but also more immaterial values like trends, images, meaning, desire, experience and (beauty) ideals. The glamour of fashion may lure us, but it is the most polluting industry after the oil industry. The field is dominated by incredible speed, rapid turnover, and high waste. Can the fashion industry retain its glamour, but become more sustainable?
- Media: The contemporary mediascape is dominated by global conglomerates that own companies in various industries, such as film studios, theme parks, television networks, sports and news channels, record labels, publishing houses and game developers. As a result, the industry has transformed into a cultural economy where only six ‘media giants' - including Disney and Time Warner - control 90% of everything we read, watch or listen to. We will look at how the media industry shapes both the form and the content of contemporary media productions.
- Education: Creativity and the so-called ‘21st Century Skills' in education are skills that are important for contemporary post-industrial societies. It is also people’s urge to learn and increase their ‘cultural intellect’ is also used to promote products. For examples, museums are becoming a lot more interactive to help visitors understand their content better.
Curriculum
Courses
The Master’s specialisation in Creative Industries is taught at the Faculty of Arts. It has a course load of 60 EC* (one-year). All the courses are 5 EC and the Master’s Thesis is 20 EC.
Provisional overview for prospective students
This overview provides an indication of the study programme of the academic year 2026-2027 and is aimed at prospective students. It is subject to change and no rights may be derived from it.
This Master’s helps you to develop the reflective, critical and curious attitude you need to succeed in this field of the creative industry. You will learn to come to grips with relevant research questions, but also with the methods to weigh those questions, put them in context and provide them with an answer. You will familiarise yourself with policy papers, business plans, scripts for the future, and advanced knowledge of the industries based on the creative product. You will also be able to assess future trends, especially where the industry is concerned. In short, you will have the skills you need to contribute to the development of a young and dynamic creative sector.
After your studies
The jobs you can find yourself doing after graduating from this programme are extremely varied. The scope of the creative industries is as diverse as it is vast and it’s constantly expanding, creating lots of new potential jobs. We therefore expect there will be more and more demand for people with an expertise in the creative industries.
Possible occupations
- Cultural policy-maker for the government
- Festival organiser
- Intermediary between arts organisations, public institutions, and businesses
- Consultant art education for an educational organisation
- Consultant ‘quality television’ for a national commercial television station
- Webmaster at a museum
- Programme organiser at a film festival