Fine Art - MA
Currently viewing course to start in 2025/26 Entry.
Embark on a transformative journey with our MA Fine Art program, where contemporary practice is considered in relation to art histories, philosophies, theory, and the global....
- Level Postgraduate Taught
- Study mode Full Time/Part Time
- Award MA
- Start date September 2025
- Fees View course fees
- Subject
- Location Margaret Street
This course is:
Open to International Students
Overview
Embark on a transformative journey with our MA Fine Art program, where contemporary practice is considered in relation to art histories, philosophies, theory, and the global.
Based in the vibrant city of Birmingham, MA Fine Art brings together a diverse community of international creative visual thinkers and makers with the aim of cultivating innovative, imaginative, and self-reflexive approaches to making contemporary art. Our course encourages a plurality of visions based on individual, proposal-led study, whilst encouraging a range of media exploration.
From drawing, painting and print, to sculpture, digital media and performance, our program allows you to experiment with a variety of artistic techniques and develop your unique voice through analogue and digital processes.
Whilst on the postgraduate program you will explore relevant themes & develop professional strategies, delving into the material, political, cultural, and theoretical factors shaping contemporary fine art. You'll gain hands-on experience in professional production, advanced research methods, contextual understanding and effective dissemination of your work.
You will build connections and expand your horizons by immersing yourself in a creative learning environment that nurtures collaboration within the art discipline and beyond. You will be encouraged to engage with the exciting Birmingham art scene and connect with wider art ecologies, preparing you for a confident future in the creative industries.
What's covered in this course?
During the course you will have expert guidance and learn from a dedicated team of experienced academics, researchers, artists, and technicians who will mentor you throughout your journey.
The transformatory energy of the course is best expressed in the words of one of our students: "My MA in Fine Art enabled me the time and space to reach a new level of critical engagement with my practice. Continual discussion with my peers from a diverse range of disciplines pushed my work into new territories and encouraged crucial challenges that gave rise to bold developments. The MA was a perfect opportunity to experiment, question, and take risks essential to the progression of a substantial and enriched practice." – Betsy Bradley
During your time with us you will study at the historic Birmingham School of Art (Margaret Street Campus), an extraordinary, Grade-1 listed arts and crafts building, and be part of a vibrant postgraduate community. Birmingham School of Art was part of a revolutionary movement to make art available to all, as the UK’s first art school run by a town council. We continue to be inspired by this legacy and its commitment to making fine art education inclusive.
Our alumni have been successful in diverse sectors such as education, the cultural industries, and arts organizations in both the public and private sectors, demonstrating the level of preparation offered to support continued practice or to work in a variety of creative art professions.
Alumni are artists, academics, researchers, have founded creative project and gallery spaces, and have worked in national and international arts and educational organisations.
The MA Fine Art course created a challenging and stimulating environment which allowed me to re-evaluate and contextualise my practice. The course helped me to acquire the knowledge, skills and experience needed to realise my potential ambitions and to find my unique voice as an artist. The programme is run with professionalism at its core and has prepared me well for the future.
Samira Nejad, MA Fine Art
Why Choose Us?
- Birmingham School of Art is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for art-based learning and research.
- The MA Fine Art programme has a significant international reputation with alumni in over 20 countries worldwide, with strong exhibition profiles and working in a range of institutions and organisations.
- Each year the MA Fine Art course participates in an Inter-Institutional Symposium with a select number of other MA Fine Art courses throughout the UK.
- You will be supported by a highly professional staff team, doctoral researchers, technical demonstrators and artists in residence in a caring and supportive environment.
- We have good external links with internationally recognised galleries (Ikon, BMAG, Tate) and organisations in the creative industries (ELIA) and the wider community. Our graduates have shown work in renowned galleries (including Tate Modern) and at prestigious events (such as the Venice Biennale).
- A high number of graduates have been awarded fully funded Arts and Humanities Research Council and Birmingham City University Scholarships for PHD study.
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OPEN DAY
Join us for an on-campus Open Day where you'll be able to learn about this course in detail, chat to students, explore our campus and tour accommodation.
Next Event: 24 November 2024
Entry Requirements
Essential requirements
Essential Requirements
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BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art or Art and Design, or other Arts-based Degree course, related subject. The minimum academic qualification required is a 2:2 award. Those with equivalent prior professional or life experience will also be considered. |
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Applicants will also need a good portfolio. |
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IELTS 6.0 overall with 5.5 minimum in all bands or its equivalent. |
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: Sep 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 1 year
- £9,190 in 2025/26
- Full Time
- 18 months (including Professional Placement - see below*)
- £10,110 in 2025/26
- Part Time
- 2 years
- Show fees
- £1022 per 20 credits
- Year 1 - 120 credits
- Year 2 - 60 credits
Fees for Part-time students
This course can be studied on a Part-time study basis. The cost per year of study is based on credit requirements for that year.
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: Sep 2025
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 1 year
- £18,600 in 2025/26
- Full Time
- 18 months (including Professional Placement - see below*)
- £20,460 in 2025/26
*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.
Portfolio guidance
If you receive an offer to study this course, you will be required to submit a portfolio. We ask that this is submitted within four weeks of receiving your offer.
Please see our portfolio guidance page for tips on putting your portfolio together.
Portfolio guidance
If you receive an offer to study this course, you will be required to submit a portfolio. We ask that this is submitted within four weeks of receiving your offer.
Please see our portfolio guidance page for tips on putting your portfolio together.
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 you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 160 credits):
Studio Practice 40 credits
Research Through Practice 20 credits
Advanced Studio Practice and Dissemination 40 credits
Professional Project 60 credits
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete at least 20 credits from the following indicative list of OPTIONAL modules.
Work Placement 20 credits
Industry Project 20 credits
Independent Creative Entrepreneur 20 credits
Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.
Professional Placement
Professional Placement 60 credits
Download course specification
Download nowCourse structure
The course comprises of five modules, taken over a one year full-time or two-year part-time route.
Learning strategies include:
- Independent learning
- One to one tutorial support
- Group tutorials
- Taught staff led seminars
- Student led seminars
- School of Art Public Talks Series
- Lectures and conferences
- Library research/resources
- Field trips (where appropriate)
Classroom activities and projects
The staff team is highly professional with extensive expertise within their individual specialist subjects and fields of research. As an MA Fine Art student, you will also have access to visiting professionals working in the art world.
Teaching throughout this course reflects the dynamic and current interests of the year group. Alongside this, students are supported in the independent investigation within their artmaking, in relation to a critical, theoretical and contextual frame.
You will be involved in group tutorials and student-led seminars that invite you to present your research and practical work for the group to consider and critically evaluate. The intention here is to share your ideas with other people who become ‘critical friends’ to help you think through your work in new ways.
Throughout the course, students are encouraged to make public exhibitions and events, and seek opportunities to test and to showcase work. There is a fantastic opportunity to show your work by contributing to an Interim Show and the Masters Final Exhibition. Our students have a reputation for being ambitious and year on year, our shows are exciting and thought provoking. As a result of the final shows numerous students have gone on to establish their profiles internationally.
Student stories
Grace Williams
Grace is an artist and lecturer, currently based at De Montfort University. After her graduation from the MA Fine Art course she became the Gertrude Aston Bowater award holder for practice-led PhD research working toward the thesis 'The Supernatural Sex: Women, Magick & Mediumship: Assembling a Field of Fascination in Contemporary Art'.
Traversing photography, film and installation her work explores the performance and sexual politics of the female body within the fields of Mediumship (channeling conduits) Magick (Occult, black magic), Magic (vanishing women) and pre-narrative cinema; with a specific focus on the materialising mediums within the Thomas Glendenning Hamilton photographic archive, for which she received the T.G Hamilton research Grant from the University of Manitoba, Canada.
Images: Escamotage / After Cecil Beaton
Ning-Hsin Chang (Losa Cola)
Losa is a sculptor, installation artist and poet. Her work is concerned with the experience of women in Taiwan and the expectation of traditional gender roles that she works to subvert in a nuanced way through the creation of anthropomorphic post-human creatures and partial body parts. Her work uses a range of material but most commonly involves the use of clay, wax, fabric, text and sound.
Images: Strange Attractors (2016) / Untitled Creature (2016)
Employability
Enhancing employability skills
As you study this course you will develop a set of transferrable skills such as creative problem solving, communication and presentation skills, adaptability and flexibility, independence and teamwork, and good time management.
You will also learn technical and digital skills in a range of workshop practices linked to your individual development.
Links to Industry
Birmingham School of Art has a wide array of links with partner organisations regionally, nationally and internationally. These partnerships will provide work experience opportunities for you, and contribute to your learning and teaching activities.
Regional - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery, Eastside Projects, Coventry Biennial, Midlands Art Centre, New Gallery Walsall, Mead Gallery, VIVID, Capsule, Grand Union, Stryx, Hippodrome, the REP, the new Library of Birmingham, Primary and Secondary Schools across the region.
National - Arts Council England, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool etc.
Placements
Placements are one of the possible ways of fulfilling your Research in Practice module. There is scope for placements with a number of organisations in the city and beyond, however it is your responsibility to plan and organise your placement with the organisation you wish to work with.
Placements can last for a few weeks or for a longer period of time. They provide you with a great opportunity to gain insight into how an organisation works and your reflection on their activities can be useful to them as you develop your research. You will also find that this is a great way to meet and network with people in the creative industries. Our members of staff are able to guide and support you through this process.
MA Fine Art with Professional Placement
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.
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.
Our alumni
Hannah Honeywill
Hannah employs objects that already exist, in particular furniture, as it has a history and functionality. Her research has been heavily influenced by the ideas and concepts within queer theory. It is the play, history, silliness and the absurdity of queer methodologies that is present in her artwork.
She was selected for New Art West Midlands, 2016 and shortlisted for the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize, 2016. In 2015 her artwork was long-listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize and she won the Next Wave Prize in Birmingham in 2014. Her work was selected for the Art Laguna Prize in Venice in 2012 and the Threadneedle Prize in London in 2011.
Recent exhibitions have included:
- Barber Institute Residency 2016-2017
- Wellcome Trust Arts Grant 2015 -2016
- Pete Lloyd Lewis Studio Award 2015-2016
Feng Ru Lee - Winner of the prestigious Taipei Prize in 2000
Feng-Ru Lee’s practice is rooted in her Far-East Asian Cultural background her work crosses a range of different media and often-incorporates video, two dimensional works, performance and installation. Toying with ideas of mass production and genetic engineering, Lee’s practice is often seen as both a critique and an attempt to understand the seemingly controversial issues involved in the state of the contemporary human condition. Lee explores ideas that centre on the status of the transition/ migration between cultures and humanity, whilst also addressing notions of the materialisation of objects and beings. Subjects, such as Eastern philosophy and Western science that seem immediately differential, hold intrinsically deep and thought provoking issues for both the artist and viewer. Lee has exhibited throughout the UK, Taiwan and internationally including the USA, Middle East, Japan, and across Europe. In 2001 she represented Taipei, Taiwan in an artist residency programme between Taipei and Jerusalem. Lee has also completed residencies in Berlin and recently at the New Art Gallery Walsall.
Recent exhibitions have included:
- Venice Biennale, 2015
- Flux Fest at VIVID, Birmingham,
- Jam: Cultural Congestions in Contemporary Asian Art at South Hills Park
- Shift Time - The Festival of Ideas in Shrewsbury
- Solo Exhibition at Entrance Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic.
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 international students
The Art Based Master’s Programme is an international community of aspiring researchers and professionals and the programme attracts candidates from all over the world including: Africa, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the USA.
This diversity provides you with an opportunity to study with people from diverse social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and who bring a wealth of experience to the programme. This gives the ABM programme a dynamic energy that enriches everyone’s educational experience.
Facilities & Staff
Our Facilities
We are constantly investing in our estate and are currently in the process of spending over £400 million on new learning facilities.
Birmingham School of Art (an impressive purpose built Grade 1 listed example of Venetian Gothic architecture) was the first major renovation project undertaken by the university (£5.5m refurbishment). The School provides an incredible resource for the production of art and its associated fields of study. The building has a range of facilities available including studios, workshops, specialist art and design library, bookable spaces and lecture/seminar rooms.
Our staff
Mona Casey
Course Leader: MA Fine Art
Mona Casey is MA Fine Art Course Director and International Lead. She is also module leader for the MA programme Models and Methods of Curatorial Practice. Mona was born in Ireland and currently lives in the UK, where she works as a curator, artist and researcher.
More about MonaJennifer Wright
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
Jennifer Wright is an artist and Senior Lecturer, teaching on B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. Fine Art programmes at Birmingham City University but also visiting and examining other Fine Art course in England and Holland. Originally trained as a painter, Jennifer has exhibited both in the UK and internationally since graduating from the M.A. Fine Art...
More about JenniferFranziska Schenk
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
Franziska is an artist, researcher and educator whose practice has been located at the interface of Art, Science and Ecology for more than two decades. Notably, she has collaborated with scientists from the emerging fields of biomimetics and bio-photonics to introduce latest nature-inspired ‘smart’ materials and methodologies into Fine Art. Drawing...
More about Franziska