Newcastle University

Postgraduate Opportunities in Fine Art

MFA, MPhil and PhD

Newcastle University offers two types of postgraduate degrees in Fine Art - a taught postgraduate masters course - the MFA, and two research-based postgraduate degrees - the MPhil and PhD. At Newcastle you will be taught by some of the best researchers working nationally and internationally. In the recent national UK ‘Research Assessment Exercise’, 85% of our research was rated ‘internationally excellent’ or better, placing us in the top five of all UK art schools.

• The MFA is a two-year full time studio-based programme in Fine Art. It is designed for graduates in Fine Art and for those with other backgrounds who wish to establish or extend their position as practitioners in the contemporary art world. Around 80% of the course is your studio work, with professional practice and dissertation modules making up the other 20%. We admit ten students per year onto the MFA.

• The MPhil is a research degree requiring a year of study full-time or two years part-time. The project/proposal for the MPhil can be practice-led or theoretical, and the submission can be a text or a combination of studio practice and text.

• PhD students may propose a research project that is practice-led or a research project that is solely text based. A practice-led PhD would require three years of full-time study (or six years part-time) and the final submission would be a combination of an exhibition of creative work made over the period of study/research and a thesis. The thesis would typically be 30,000 words, which constitutes approximately 30% of the degree. A text based PhD would require three years of study (or six years part-time) and the final submission would typically be a thesis of 80 - 100,000 words. PhD students will normally have completed a masters level course prior to their PhD.

Current and recent PhD student research projects have included: Cath Keay, Ruth Barker, Annie O'Donnell, Jason Dee, Christian Mieves, Tom Schofield, Janet Lambert, John Maclean, Isabella Streffen, Miwa Takabayashi, Matt Smith, Lilian Nabulime.

Funding

AHRC funding for UK and EU students.

Newcastle University has been very successful in its bid for funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the Block Grant Partnership Scheme. Future studentships will be advertised. For entry in 2013, you should contact the department for information. We expect the deadline for future applications to be February 2013.

AHRC funding for 2012 entry.

The deadline (March 1st 2012) for applications for AHRC funding has now passed. We will accept applications for our courses after this date, but you will not be considerd for funding after this date.

International Students

Newcastle University offers a large number of partial scholarships to prospective international postgraduate research students. Please click here for more information.

International students may be eligible to apply for funding from their own governments or educational bodies, especially for PhD level research. You are advised to investigate these possibilities with your governmental or educational bodies as early as possible as many sources of funding have application deadlines in advance of those followed in the UK.

Other Opportunities

There are other funding opportunities available to both UK and non-UK citizens. In the first instance, try using the university's funding pages to help you:

• Postgraduate funding pages

• you should also check out the DirectGov pages on finance by clicking here (for students from England)

Tuition Fees

Comprehensive information about fees and funding is available in the University's Funding & Finance pages.