MDes Design Futures
London, United Kingdom
Master degree
DURATION
2 weeks
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
19 Jan 2026*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 39,200 **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* as the RCA received a high number of applications we encourage you to apply as early as possible to secure your place on your programme
** overseas and EU - full-time
Key Summary
Our free in-person open days are the perfect way to experience what studying at the RCA is like. Opening times: 7 February 2026 - 10am to 4pm (UK time)
Take your career and practice to the next level
Transform the world and your career through the potential of Design
The RCA is proud to launch a new Design Futures MDes programme for the start of the 2023/24 academic year.
In an era of turbulence for people, planet and nature, how we navigate our future is more critical than ever.
The Design Futures programme is designed to enable you to work across all the disciplines and beyond, to build future-shaping knowledge and skills, address the challenges we face, envision and then navigate towards a preferred future through design-led interventions. It will allow you to ask the ‘big questions’ about disruptive innovation, ethics for design, design resilience, shared values, future forecasting and design for safety.
Design Futures is focused on professional development and action, identified and implemented through research methods and strategies.
The programme is aimed both at postgraduate students and career changers, and offers a balance between core knowledge, elective and collaborative work and a self-defined research project – enabling you to choose your own areas of interest, while developing the skills to implement your ideas. It will take a ‘burst-mode’ approach to teaching and learning.
Within the overall credits of electives on offer, you'll have the opportunity to further define your learning journey by choosing electives in areas such as Design Safety, Design Resilience, Design Ethics or Design Innovation.
Please refer to the programme webpage for the most accurate and up-to-date information about the programme, its structure, modules and any updates or changes.
Students from over 70 countries come to the RCA. We welcome applications from talented, creative individuals from all over the world. Many are from backgrounds you might expect such as art, design, architecture, communications, media and humanities. Others come from disciplines as broad as engineering, social sciences, technology, toolmaking, medicine, business, law, physics, life coaching, economics, teaching, music, etc. The list is endless. What RCA students share is the potential, commitment and ambition to make change in the world through art and design.
The MDes Design Futures at the RCA equips you with research, strategic and entrepreneurial design skills to address complex social and environmental challenges through futures thinking. You immerse yourself in core units on research methodologies, complex systems and envisioning futures before developing your own independent research project grounded in ethical and resilient interventions. Alongside a wide range of electives including design resilience, ethics and innovation, you learn to visualise alternative futures, engage people in debate, and shape purposeful change through design practice and foresight.
Programme structure
Term 1
In Term 1, you take Research Methodologies, which provides a toolkit of methods to tackle diverse and challenging future-focused issues.
You also take Complex Systems, which introduces concepts such as leverage points, wicked problems, causal loops, and systems thinking.
During this term, you'll also choose one school-wide elective and one college-wide elective, enabling you to engage with cross-disciplinary approaches from across the RCA.
Term 2
In Term 2, you take Envisioning Futures, combining futures methodologies with advanced digital and analogue design techniques to explore speculative, multi-scenario futures.
You also work on your Independent Research Project: Proposal, developing your research question and planning your future project.
During this term, you'll also choose one school-wide elective and one college-wide elective, enabling you to engage with cross-disciplinary approaches from across the RCA.
Term 3
In Term 3, you take Independent Research Project: Realisation, where you deliver a body of work that explores your chosen future scenario or design question, supported through tutorials, seminars, and critique.
The Royal College of Art is the world’s leading postgraduate art and design university, providing students with unrivalled opportunities to develop their practice, build their networks, enhance their career and to deliver art and design projects that transform the world.
For 11 consecutive years, the RCA has been ranked as the world’s number 1 art & design university in the QS World University subject rankings (2015-2025) - attracting artists, designers and communicators from across the globe.
The RCA Career Progression Bursary
Eligible Programmes: MFA Arts & Humanities, MFA Communication, MDes Design Futures, MRes or MEd Creative Education
Eligible fee status: Home fee status - mid-career and no links to RCA. Preference to be shown to:
- Over 50s
- People returning after a career break
- Career changes
- Parents returning to work after parental leave
- Applicants with a disability
Value:
What types of jobs to graduates go on to?
The RCA has consistently produced world leaders in the fields of creative endeavour – acting as a launchpad for the careers of major international figures.
Our alumni shape the world – whether founding their own studios and brands, pushing the boundaries of possibility through their start-ups or taking on impressive roles with global companies across a wide range of disciplines.
What if they want to start their own business?
Our creative students have ambitions of being their own boss and making their own decisions, so launch their own enterprises or studios either soon after graduating or any some time employed in industry. Many did not intend to start their studies considering themselves entrepreneurs but discovered an idea during their studies with their fellow students that they believe would make a successful business. InnovationRCA – the College’s centre for student and graduate enterprise and entrepreneurship – supports students and recent graduates to transform compelling ideas into successful businesses, providing incubation, intellectual property and commercialisation support.