Design Management - MA
Currently viewing course to start in 2024/25 Entry. Switch to 2025/26 Entry
Do you want to be a design thinker? Is your goal to use a design strategy to transform businesses, cultures, and lives? Alternatively, do you want to develop your own design business? If your answer is yes, then this course is for you! This course invites designers and non-designers to apply design thinking and business-speak to create innovative and purposeful outcomes....
- Level Postgraduate Taught
- Study mode Full Time
- Award MA
- Start date January 2025
- Fees View course fees
- Subject
- Location City Centre
This course is:
Open to International Students
Overview
Do you want to be a design thinker? Is your goal to use a design strategy to transform businesses, cultures, and lives? Alternatively, do you want to develop your own design business? If your answer is yes, then this course is for you!
This course invites designers and non-designers to apply design thinking and business-speak to create innovative and purposeful outcomes. On this course, you sharpen your strategic edge through expanding your entrepreneurial and business capabilities. If you are a non-designer, you learn to be a creative thinker.
The postgraduate course is available as a full-time (1 year), part-time (2 years), and via ‘work based learning’ (2 years) while you remain employed.
You bring the knowledge from your past education and practice, combine them with the subject knowledge of design management, and create solutions that are not just aesthetically pleasing but also functional, viable, and purposeful. The course brings excellent networking opportunities for you to facilitate knowledge building and collaborative learning.
On this postgraduate course, we teach you the interdisciplinary issues that design managers work with, such as business, marketing, technology, and art. Immersed in practice, you acquire the skills and the confidence to manage and lead a project. You are encouraged to push the boundaries and to put forward new, improved ideas that are innovative and purposeful.
Design thinking, design strategy, creativity, research, and problem solving are applied extensively to all the modules. You undertake projects individually and in a team, where you learn communication, management, and interpersonal skills. You work with industry partners with the utmost professionalism. You pursue an industry-based inquiry, which may be a placement. And, you acquire and apply people management, client management, and project management tactics while working on industry projects and teams.
With an MA in Design Management, you are acquiring skills that empower you to apply to jobs in a diverse range of fields, and you can pursue further research by conducting a Ph.D.
If you would like to find out more about the course, please email the co-course director, Nicholas Irvin: Nicholas.irvin@bcu.ac.uk.
What's covered in this course?
You’ll learn from our team of commercially active staff, who ensure the content stays industry relevant. Alongside the opportunity to complete a six-week placement option, you will have the chance to work on commercial projects with established businesses. Previous projects have included working on a brand review with GKN, a FTSE 100 British multinational company specialising in aerospace.
Tailor the programme to suit you. The curriculum has a distinctive professional focus and embraces business management, marketing, design strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, design leadership and design practice.
Your focus will also include project management, intellectual property law and finance. There is also a strong emphasis on the development of evidence-based decision making, high level leadership and communication skills.
If you are passionate about design and keen to learn how it can be connected with business and if you desire to progress your career further or build your own business from scratch, this course is designed for you. MA in Design Management will help you to gain the needed knowledge, skills and qualities in order to achieve your most desirable goals and dreams.
Valentina Hadjispyrou
Why Choose Us?
- You will take charge of your learning by tailoring your education focused on your career goal and design specialism.
- You can study whilst remaining in full time employment via work-based learning.
- You can network and collaborate during a six-week industry enquiry.
- You will work on industry projects from around the globe.
- You will experience innovation in real-time: You will work collaboratively with peers from other disciplines and industry partners. You will co-create and design new solutions for companies in collaborative projects.
- You will create exhibitions of your work: You will have the opportunity to talk about your work to a diverse audience from different schools in Birmingham City University and outside during student-led exhibitions on the course.
- You have the option of choosing the course with a professional placement module, which enables you to do a work placement (with extra fees) for six months.
- Two-thirds of the impact of our research was judged to be very considerable (3*) or outstanding (4*) - REF2021
OPEN DAY
Join us for a virtual Open Day where you'll be able to learn about this course in detail. Booking isn't open yet for this event, register your interest and we’ll email you as soon as booking goes live.
Next Event: 3 - 7 February 2025
Entry Requirements
Essential requirements
Essential Requirements
The course is aimed at designers with an interest in developing their business and management skills, and non-designers with an interest in working within design. You are expected to have:
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Either a first or second class honours degree in a related subject, or, equivalent qualifications/experience. Non-standard applicants with a non-design related degree and/or extensive work experience are offered a place on the course on a case-by-case basis. They may be invited for an interview. |
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A background or proven interest in design or design management. |
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A personal statement outlining personal goals and a plan to use the course to achieve these. |
Extra information for EU/International students
| Essential | ||
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| EU | International applicants should note that this course requires a high standard of reading, writing, and listening skills; full-time/part-time students are expected to have a minimum English standard of IELTS 6.0 overall with 5.5 minimum in all bands or its equivalent. | |
| International | International applicants should note that this course requires a high standard of reading, writing, and listening skills; full-time students are expected to have a minimum English standard of IELTS 6.0 overall with 5.5 minimum in all bands or its equivalent. | |
| Work-Based | Work-based learning students who are based in countries where English is not the first language should note that this course requires a high standard of reading, writing, and listening skills; full-time/part-time students are expected to have a minimum English standard of IELTS 6, with a minimum of 5.5 in each of the listening, reading, writing and speaking components. | |
If you have a qualification that is not listed, please contact us.
Fees & How to Apply
UK students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: MA
Starting: Jan 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 15 months
- £8,925 in 2024/25
- Full Time
- 18 months (including Professional Placement - see below*)
- £9,820 in 2024/25
International students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: MA
Starting: Jan 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 15 months
- £17,710 in 2024/25
- Full Time
- 18 months (including Professional Placement - see below*)
- £19,485 in 2024/25
*Professional Placement option
The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.
This will allow you to complete a credit bearing, 20 week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.
You will be responsible for finding and securing your own placement. The University, however, will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will also benefit from support sessions delivered by Careers+ as well as advice and guidance from your School.
Placements will only be confirmed following a competitive, employer-led selection process, therefore the University will not be able to guarantee placements for students who have registered for the ‘with Professional Placement’ course. All students who do not find a suitable placement or do not pass the competitive selection process will be automatically transferred back to the standard, non-placement version of the course.
Personal statement
You’ll need to submit a personal statement as part of your application for this course. This will need to highlight your passion for postgraduate study – and your chosen course – as well as your personal skills and experience, academic success, and any other factors that will support your application for further study.
If you are applying for a stand alone module, please include the title of the module you want to study in your Personal Statement.
Not sure what to include? We’re here to help – take a look at our top tips for writing personal statements and download our free postgraduate personal statement guide for further advice and examples from real students.
Course in Depth
Modules
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 180 credits):
The module Design Research introduces you to Design Management. You learn the methods, tools, approaches of conducting a creative research in this field. You learn about various forms of research strategies, writing a literature review and its purpose, and methods for data collection, analysis, and synthesis.
In this module, you initiate your development plan, where you direct your learning by undertaking action research. You set yourself a goal and then make a plan on how you will achieve your goal. You begin by asking the questions, ‘where am I now?’, ‘where do I want to be?’, and ‘how do I get there?’. Your focus is beyond the Master’s. You evaluate your skills, knowledge, and learning style depending on where you see yourself in the foreseeable future, while identifying the gaps in your skills and experience. It is necessary that you strategise the way you will acquire the missing skills and knowledge while you are on the course.
The module, Design Strategy and Innovation, enables you to apply design thinking in creating new ideas. You examine the role of design and creativity in creating breakthrough innovations. The module bridges the languages of design and business. The curriculum enables you to apply design thinking for innovation, and evaluation of the return on investment. In this module you build strategies to establish design as a leading functional discipline.
The module, Global Perspectives, aims to broaden your thinking about the application and relevance of design management in various cultural contexts. This module introduces you to the different contexts in which Design Managers operate, the relationships they manage, the cross-cultural practices they have to navigate and their impact at a global level. You learn about successful practices of Design Managers from different parts of the world, and practices where they are positively impacting non-design sectors. As a result, you open your mind to different design cultures, design practices, and design attitudes.
The module, Leadership and Design Entrepreneurship, aims at embedding you in practice. The module introduces you to the multifaceted role of a design manager. You acquire project management and interpersonal skills whilst you work in a team on a live industry brief. You also have the opportunity to conduct an inquiry with industry which could be a work placement. On this module, you learn to manage client expectations and communicate with a diverse audience. You are expected to be an independent learner. As an independent learner you have to find opportunities to apply your knowledge to practice and show your leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.
Professional Placement
In order to qualify for the award of MA Design Management with Professional Placement, a student must successfully complete all of the Level 7 modules listed above as well as the following Level 6 module.
This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 20-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.
Download course specification
Download nowCourse Structure
You can study full-time, part-time or by ‘work-based learning.’ Our UK and EU-based students can commit to the full Master’s programme or start with the Postgraduate Certificate and continue on to the Postgraduate Diploma and Master’s if they wish.
Work based learning allows you to accelerate your career by remaining in full time design-related practice during your studies. This is open to all our students provided you are fluent in English and work in design related positions. If you choose this option, you can relate your study directly to the workplace. Developed around personal and work related goals, work-based learning is based on a combination of standard and adapted course modules, involving approximately 15-20 days attendance, attendance is negotiated individually but usually involves a minimum of six visits to the University over two years.
Student stories
Korrakot Kulkraisri
Brand Strategies and Designer
Oglivy & Mather / Brand Union
My current role requires strategic planning skills, research and development of product branding opportunity, and management skills, focusing both start up business and re-branding. I handle design visual identity and create branding concepts solution for clients.
One of the most important highlights from my time on the course would definitely be my lecturers and friends. I don't think I could get a better support from Caroline and Nick - they are always there when ever we struggled with the work. The variety of students coming from different parts of the world and backgrounds broadened the scope of the course and opened up the real meaning of design.
Another important aspect I gained from this course was the ability to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to try something new and exciting.
Employability
Enhancing employability skills
Many of our graduates are established designers working in architecture, fashion, graphics, interiors, jewellery, media, product, service, and design-related businesses. Design Management graduates have been successful in establishing and running their businesses. And, many have jobs in companies that are not in the field of design but require Design Managers to instil more human-centred approaches and processes in the business.
Career opportunities are found in design and brand consultancies, in-house design and marketing departments, and innovation teams. Graduates of this course hold job titles such as user researcher, UX designer, UI designer, senior designers, design managers, strategic designer, project and account managers, buyers, and marketing communication managers.
Student stories
Kaifa Huang (Kevin)
MA Design Management graduate
My current role is mainly about Real Estate advertising, both online and in print. I deal with data collection and research about creative inspiration, promotional materials design, copy writing translation (Chinese-English).
When I was deciding to choose my specialism, the MA Design Management really stood out. I was impressed by the fact that it doesn’t only help designers to gain insights into business knowledge, communicate strategically with non-designers, and vice versa, but also help ‘manage’ design and designers in my future work.
The highlight of the course would be creating so many useful and helpful contacts who really helped me with independent study, complete tasks more efficiently, strategic and effective communication.
Keiran Clayton
Placement at Ikon, Manchester
Working at Ikon for two weeks on a work placement gave me an amazing insight into a real furniture design industry.
During my time there I learned and worked on a number of different skills, particularly all about the development process that the team goes through to come up with a bespoke furniture solution and a wider view of interior design as a whole. My placement also gave me a real-life and in-depth insight into key areas of the industry such as safety, research, materials and CAD software.
But it wasn’t just about the technical skills. I also spent a great deal of time learning about the commercial side of things such as how the business works behind the scenes, time planning, and finance.
Read more about Keiran's placement
International
Birmingham City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.
The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.
Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:
- Details of the entry requirements for our courses
- Some of the good reasons why you should study here
- How to improve your language skills before starting your studies
- Information relevant to applicants from your country
- Where to find financial support for your studies.
Our course welcomes students from across the world. We have an excellent reputation globally, and have over 20 years’ experience teaching international students. Our international students are also able to take part in the work-based learning option for this course.
Hong Kong MA Design Management: SHAPE
MA Design Management also runs parallel at the School for Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE). The course at SHAPE, HongKong is designed explicitly for work-based applicants.
Facilities & Staff
Our Facilities
When you join Birmingham City University, the first thing you will notice is the exceptional quality of our campuses. With an investment of over £400 million across our buildings and facilities, we are committed to giving you the very best learning environment to help shape your experience.
You will be based in our multi-million pound Parkside building – a state of the art facility located within our City Centre Campus. Here you will have full access to our recently upgraded, high spec CAD (Computer-Aided-Design) workstations situated within our dedicated computer labs and open access areas. We also provide access to leading edge digital design software, enabling you to explore technical drawing, graphics, 3D modelling, visualization, animation, computation, simulation, and virtual reality.
The Parkside Building is also home to our digital fabrication labs, where you will be able to explore 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC machining, ceramics, glass and traditional model-making, guided by our team of expert technicians with access to our on-site material store, and professional printing facilities.
You’ll also benefit from:
- Design studios
- Physical and digital library
- Loanable laptops
- Dedicated social spaces
- Cafés
Photo Gallery
From industry-standard software, to our workshops and studio spaces, everything you need will be at your fingertips from day one. Working with our dedicated teaching teams and expert technicians, you'll be supported from concept through to completion.
Our staff
Dr Mersha Aftab
MA Design Management Course Director
Mersha believed that most effective teaching happens when students have space, which allows them to ask questions, make mistakes, and learn from their mistakes. By creating collaborative and interactive sessions that are similar to working outside of academia, with industry projects and live case studies, her sessions give students critical...
More about MershaNicholas Irvin
Senior Lecturer in Design Management
Nick is lecturer in Design Management and this programme attracts students from a diverse range of design and non-design disciplines from the UK and overseas. The programme focuses on the strategic value of design and its importance within a business context, which aims to develop the confidence; skills and knowledge for work in industry.
More about Nicholas