This part contains a practical guide to the goals and outcomes in art, media and design courses.

WHAT ARE BA HONOURS, MA AND PhD DEGREES?

What is an honours degree?

Typically, holders of an honours degree in fine art, design or media disciplines will be able to articulate and combine knowledge, understanding, attributes and skills in effective ways within the contexts of creative practice, employment, self-fulfilment and further study and research. As the authors of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)’s subject benchmark statement for art and design note, as an honours graduate, you will be able to apply, consolidate and extend your learning in various contextual frameworks and situations that take you beyond the field of art, media and design to engage with wide social and cultural issues (QAA 2008: 4.2).

An honours degree also confirms that the holder has acquired relevant technical knowledge and practical skills as outlined above, and will be able to employ materials, media, techniques, methods, technologies and tools associated with the disciplines studied with skill and imagination while at the same time observing good working practices.

What is postgraduate research and study?

Master’s degrees in art, media and design are awarded to students who have usually completed a bachelor’s degree and possess:

• advanced knowledge of a specialised body of theoretical and applied topics;
• a high level of skill in analysis, critical evaluation and professional application;
• the ability to solve complex problems and to think rigorously and independently.

Most master’s degree programmes require you to complete a master’s thesis or an extended research paper. Depending on the field, your master’s thesis may entail conducting a thorough analysis of a specific subject. Some master’s programmes offer alternatives to the master’s thesis, such as written exams or other written projects that are less rigorous than theses.

A doctorate of philosophy (PhD) is awarded to candidates who, having usually completed both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, can show that they have critically investigated and evaluated an approved topic. A PhD student:

• produces work resulting in an independent and original contribution to knowledge;
• demonstrates an understanding of research methods appropriate to the chosen field;
• presents and defends a thesis, by oral examination, to the satisfaction of the examiners. This written thesis may be supplemented by material in other than written form, such as an exhibition of visual artefacts.

Key criteria for such doctoral research are:

• It must be an original contribution to knowledge and/or understanding.
• It must define a series of research questions that will be addressed or problems that will be explored in the course of the research.
• It must define its objectives in terms of answering those questions or reporting on the results of the research project.
• It must specify a research context for the questions to be addressed or problems to be explored. The student must specify why it is important that these particular questions should be answered or why these problems should be explored, and also outline what other research is being or has been conducted in this area and what particular contribution this project will make to the advancement of knowledge, understanding and insight in this area.
• It must specify a methodology for addressing and answering the research questions. The student must state how he or she is going to set about answering the questions that have been set, or organise the matters to be explored.

These criteria entail the demonstration of certain academic abilities, including the ability to:

• undertake a systematic inquiry;
• apply methods appropriate to the subject;
• demonstrate an awareness and understanding of context;
• provide documentation and communication in a permanent form;
• demonstrate a sustained and contextualised logical argument;
• give a justification of actions in relation to process and product;
• produce a valid and original work of high quality.

WHAT IS PRACTICE-BASED POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH?

Practice-based postgraduate research projects in art, design and media are those that include as an integral part of their research and final presentation the production of original artefacts in addition to, or perhaps instead of, the production of a written thesis.

The nature of the relationship between the written component and the practice-based component in practice-based research is flexible, but involves students in approaches to systematic inquiry that may not be so centrally concerned with linguistic modes of signification – that is, with objective, conceptual, discursive, analytic skills. Instead, they may focus on dimensions to research that are practical, empirical, concrete and performative (involved in actions rather than analysis). These involve planning, acting, observing and reflecting, and practice-based projects invite ways of thinking that respond in an immediate fashion and are more fully immersed in a living, bodily and participatory context.

LEARNING GOALS IN ART, MEDIA AND DESIGN COURSES

Broadly speaking, the goals on any educational course involve and encourage the following:

• originality (your ability to act or think independently);
• imaginative learning (your capacities to observe and visualise, identify and solve problems, and make critical and reflective judgements);
• critical thinking (your ability to make decisions or judge what to believe or what to do in a reflective way);
• divergent thinking (your capacity to see many possible answers to a question and many possible ways to interpret a question);
• convergent thinking (your capacity to reduce problem-solving to a few similar ideas);
• process-learning (your ability to learn through a series of actions, changes or functions and to record these as part of the creative process that will lead to a final outcome);
• independent learning (your ability to explore possibilities in your own way without the direction or control of a teacher);
• active learning (your capacity to participate in academic activities through a willingness to question and discuss with your peers and teachers).

What is active learning?

In active learning, through project-based inquiry you develop the following skills:

• the capacity for independent learning;
• the ability to work with others;
• the ability to solve set problems in a creative way;
• the ability to identify and to redefine problems;
• the ability to raise and address appropriate issues.

Cultural context

Your understanding of the cultural context of your practice is essential. It provides knowledge of how your practice relates to that of others in society. This gives you a deeper understanding of originality and personal expression, and without such knowledge you would not have any sense of the nature of your own creativity nor that of the culture in which it is set.

In learning about the contextual setting of your discipline(s), you will also engage with the various related theories within historical, contemporary and cultural settings that inform that context. As a consequence, you will develop your own critical relationship with these discipline(s) (see Section IV and Section V).

Vocational context

You will also understand the broad vocational context within which your study sits, and the range of professional practices that inform it. You will:

• anticipate and respond to change;
• acquire knowledge of business systems and how to apply them;
• become skilful in public presentation of work;
• gain entrepreneurial skills and client/audience negotiation skills.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The outcomes of art, media and design almost always combine the conceptual and the practical. Along with the development of your cognitive abilities when learning, you will also produce material outcomes that require the application of practical skills. Some of these skills may be appropriate only to specific contexts, whereas others will have a generic or transferable use, often within a professional context.

As art, media and design students, you produce your work with an awareness of an audience and/or professional need. You also develop verbal and written communication skills as a result of interaction with your peers and tutors, both formally and informally, and by using the standard formats of reports, briefs, journals, essays or dissertations in relation to assigned work. You also learn to express, articulate and synthesise your knowledge and understanding.

Higher education in art, media and design aims to develop both subject-specific and more general knowledge, understanding, attributes and skills. These can be defined under three headings:

• cognitive: mental skills (knowledge);
• affective: feeling or emotional areas (attitude);
• psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills).

The authors of the QAA’s subject benchmark statement for art and design (2008: 4.1) declare that the principal aims of education in general are to:

• provide appropriate knowledge and understanding;
• develop necessary personal attributes and attitudes;
• provide mastery of the essential skills to equip and prepare you for continuing personal development and professional practice.

Individual levels of achievement in relation to learning outcomes are reflected in the final grade awarded.

The emphasis given to the following learning outcomes will vary according to the main discipline studied and the aims of the specific programme.

Subject-specific knowledge, understanding, attributes and skills

Subject-specific knowledge, understanding, attributes and skills are considered to be fundamental to the study and practice of your chosen discipline, and many of these things you will learn are also potentially transferable to other contexts beyond art, media and design.

As students in art, media and design, you will develop skills in communication and expression through visual and plastic forms. As the authors of the QAA subject benchmark statement for art and design declare, you will be able to use visual languages to ‘investigate, analyse, interpret, develop and articulate ideas and information’, and be able to ‘employ materials, media, techniques, methods, technologies and tools associated with the discipline(s) studied with skill and imagination whilst observing good working practices’ (QAA 2008: 4.3).

The evidence of this will be shown in a variety of ways. For example, you will produce a body of work that demonstrates an ability to generate ideas, concepts, proposals, solutions and arguments independently and collaboratively in response to set briefs and as self-initiated activities. This will mean employing both convergent and divergent thinking in the processes of observation, investigation, speculative inquiry, visualisation and making.

In order to achieve these goals, you will also learn how to select, test and make appropriate use of materials, processes and intellectual and physical contexts. This will enable you to develop your projects from conception through to material outcomes (QAA 2008: 4.3).

In addition, you will learn how to manage and make appropriate use of the dissemination of your work, and apply resourcefulness and entrepreneurial skills to support your own practice, also in relation to the practice of others (QAA 2008: 4.3).

You will recognise the significance of the works of other practitioners in relation to your own practice. You will be informed by professional practice in your discipline, including the critical and contextual dimensions of your discipline in particular, and of art and design in general. For example, you will study business, cultural, economic, environmental, ethical, global, historical, political, societal and theoretical contexts (QAA 2008: 4.3).

You will be aware of the implications and potential presented by innovations in the current and emerging media and technologies of your discipline, and will engage with interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary practice in art and design (QAA 2008: 4.3).

Finally, you will assess the relationship between the aesthetic and more practical and functional dimensions of your work, and you will be aware of your relationship with audiences, clients, markets, users, consumers and participants (QAA 2008: 4.3).

General knowledge, understanding, attributes and skills

These are normally part of the subject curriculum but are neither specific nor unique to art, media and design studies. They have potential applications in a wide range of contexts.

Typically, you will acquire the ability to self-manage. That is, you will study independently, set goals, manage your own workloads and meet deadlines, while also anticipating and accommodating change and working within contexts of ambiguity, uncertainty and unfamiliarity (QAA 2008: 4.4.1). In addition, you should be able to organise your time effectively while undertaking course work, and control your stress levels and maintain your health.

You will learn critical awareness. The QAA’s subject benchmark statement for art and design emphasises an ability to ‘analyse information and experiences, formulate independent judgements, and articulate reasoned arguments through reflection, review and evaluation; formulate reasoned responses to the critical judgements of others; [and] identify personal strengths and needs’ (QAA 2008: 4.4.2).

You will be able to demonstrate information skills. This entails sourcing, navigating, selecting, retrieving, evaluating, manipulating, re-presenting, transforming and managing information from a variety of sources through selecting and employing appropriate communication and information technologies (QAA 2008: 4.4.5).

Skills in communication and presentation are also very important. You will learn how to articulate ideas and information in comprehensible forms using visual, oral, written or other performative forms, and present ideas and work to audiences in a variety of contexts (QAA 2008: 4.4.4). This is particularly difficult for international students as it requires skills and confidence in a foreign language.

Finally, you will learn interpersonal and social skills. This means interacting effectively and with confidence with others. For example, you will engage your interpersonal and social skills through collaboration, collective activities and various forms of negotiation and dialogue (QAA 2008: 4.4.3).