Entry requirementsWe welcome a wide range of applicants including recent graduates as well as those with several years’ experience of working in the sector or beyond. Participants are expected to have at least a good second class honours degree or equivalent. Many will have experience of subsequent professional practice. Special consideration is given to applications from mature students without the required formal qualification. All courses require a high level of academic work. Good spoken and written English is essential, at an overall IELTS level of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.5 in each of the four categories.
Academic titleCulture, Policy and Management MA
Course descriptionCourse overview
This programme has been designed in consultation with cultural policy makers and sector employers to develop the skills and knowledge you need to start of further a career in the visual arts, perfomance arts or museums and heritage. It aims to develop your critical understanding of the creative and cultural industries and enhance your skills to become a key player in the sector.
The modules are intensive and look at the specific topics relating to policy and management across the cultural sector. The course structure allows you to focus on your own area of interest in your course work and research, such as visual arts, performance arts or heritage.
Choose between three modes of study
In the first term of the course, you will develop an individual pathway plan within one of three modes of study. The three modes are:
* Taught Mode
This consists of two core modules, six elective modules and a 10,000- word dissertation.
* Professional Placement Mode
Two core modules and three elective modules are followed by a placement within a cultural institution, organised with the support of tutors. The MA is completed by a 10,000-word dissertation.
* Research Mode
Students complete two core modules, two elective modules and a further taught module on research practice, before conducting a 20,000-word research project in an area of study of particular importance to their career.
* duration
The Programme may be taken full time over one year, part time over two years, or over a maximum of four years by arrangement.
Course overview
This programme has been designed in consultation with cultural policy makers and sector employers to develop the skills and knowledge you need to start of further a career in the visual arts, perfomance arts or museums and heritage. It aims to develop your critical understanding of the creative and cultural industries and enhance your skills to become a key player in the sector.
The modules are intensive and look at the specific topics relating to policy and management across the cultural sector. The course structure allows you to focus on your own area of interest in your course work and research, such as visual arts, performance arts or heritage.
Choose between three modes of study
In the first term of the course, you will develop an individual pathway plan within one of three modes of study. The three modes are:
* Taught Mode
This consists of two core modules, six elective modules and a 10,000- word dissertation.
* Professional Placement Mode
Two core modules and three elective modules are followed by a placement within a cultural institution, organised with the support of tutors. The MA is completed by a 10,000-word dissertation.
* Research Mode
Students complete two core modules, two elective modules and a further taught module on research practice, before conducting a 20,000-word research project in an area of study of particular importance to their career.
Create your own pathway plan
The MA Culture, Policy and Management pathways programme allows you to negotiate a course of study with tutors to support your own specific career aspirations. Click here to see full details of pathway options and potential scenarios.
Engage with opinion leaders in the fast-changing cultural sector
Our tutors have many years of experience in the sector and retain close links with leading institutions [more]
Study to suit your own needs
Take the course full-time, part-time, or as individual modules [more]
Course content
All MA students are expected to complete two core modules, a number of elective modules and a dissertation.
Core modules
*
Culture, Policy and Management
*
Cultural Portfolio: Pathway Plan and Immersion
*
Professional work placement (professional placement mode only)
*
Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Research Design (research mode only)
Elective Modules
*
Audiences and marketing
*
Contemporary UK cultural policy
*
Cultural planning
*
Currents of criticism
*
Education and learning in the cultural sector
*
Evaluation politics and communication
*
Financial planning and entrepreneurship
*
Fundraising
*
International cultural policy models
* Law and the cultural sector
*
Managing organisations
*
Managing people
*
Post-colonial agendas: the Other, identity and the culture of politics
*
Programming
In the first term of the course, you will develop an individual pathway plan within one of three modes of study. The three modes are:
* Taught Mode
This consists of two core modules, six elective modules and a 10,000- word dissertation.
* Professional Placement Mode
Two core modules and three elective modules are followed by a placement within a cultural institution, organised with the support of tutors. The MA is completed by a 10,000-word dissertation.
* Research Mode
Students complete two core modules, two elective modules and a further taught module on research practice, before conducting a 20,000-word research project in an area of study of particular importance to their career.
Professional placement and study abroad
The placement pathway (see course overview) includes a work placement module which gives participants the opportunity to work alongside professionals in the cultural sector in order to practice competences acquired earlier in the programme. This module comprises two parts: part one is the preparation for the placement; part two is the placement itself.
* With guidance from the module leader, each participant draws up an individual plan for the placement based on their own investigations and consideration of the placement offers made by cultural organisations. This assists participants to find an appropriate host organisation which fulfils their aims and objectives.
* For their placement, each participant carries out a programme of work, or a project, supervised by a host at the organisation. During the placement participants are visited by the module leader. By participating in the working life of an organisation, participants are expected to develop their own areas of interest, try out new skills and learn the value of effective networking. The placement lasts for 10 weeks, between April and June.
The majority of work placements are based in London and embrace all cultural forms. These may range from large national organisations such as English National Opera and the Barbican Centre, to smaller ones such as Shakespeare's Globe, The Tricycle Theatre and the Wigmore Hall. Other types of cultural organisation, including funding and advocacy bodies, are also used when this is appropriate for the participant.
Indicative content
Four months prior to the work placement, participants undertake a number of activities to prepare them for the placement. These include:
* drawing up an individual plan for the placement based on their own investigations
* considering the placement offers made by cultural organisations to the Department
* placement preparation, including aspects of financial management, plus individual tutorials.
The placement itself will be subject to an interim monitoring meeting at the University as well as a final feedback session.
Study abroad
Students on all pathways who are nationals of a European Economic Area member state or associated country can choose to spend three months of the course studying culture, policy and management at one of our partner universities:
* Arhus University, Arhus, Denmark
* Estonian Academy of Music, Tallin, Estonia
* Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland
* Hochschule fur Musik, Hamburg, Germany
* Groningen University, Netherlands
* University of Barcelona, Spain
This is a wonderful opportunity to experience and compare the cultural life and culture, policy and management issues of a second country, enabling you to establish European links that can offer you social and professional advantages in future years. All the students who have taken part in this scheme have reported on the value of the experience. They have made friends, have studied a different subject or the same subject form a different perspective, or have undertaken research for their course work at City. Above all, they have gained an alternative perspective, an enlarged set of contacts and a better knowledge of working across borders and boundaries. Many eventually work with funding agencies, with international agencies, with the British Council or with arts organisations that want to develop international links.
Funds from the European Union's SOCRATES scheme are available to assist with the additional costs of study in another country, and City University's Centre for Language Studies provides short courses in some European languages to help prepare you for your time away.
If you would like to spend your three months studying in a different country or at a different institution to those listed above, we have an extensive network of partners in countries as diverse as the US and Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and western Russia. These partners are outside the SOCRATES/ERASMUS scheme and are not part of a funded programme, but provide the opportunity for you to experience exactly the country or course of your choice.