Key information
Duration
Start dates & application deadlines
- Starting January 2027
- Starting September 2027
Language
English
Delivered
On Campus
Campus Location
Disciplines
Design
Overview
The School of Design at the Royal College of Art is home to internationally significant research, much of which is practice-based. The teaching and research areas of the School – Design Products, Fashion, Global Innovation Design, Innovation Designing Engineering, Healthcare Design, Robotics, Service Design and Textiles – represent a wide range of approaches to design research.
Features
- Research topics range from those which are strongly user-focused – such as designing new medical innovations or citizen science through to those which are more experimental – such as designing trust in AI systems or multi-species design.
- We particularly encourage applications in our strategic design research plan areas including: The future of making; Manufacture and materials; Systems and design; Design for safety; Design for health; Intelligent machines; Data capture and creation; Design science and Design resilience.
Programme Structure
Curriculum:
- A postgraduate research degree challenges you to complete a research project that pushes the boundaries of our understanding.
- Unlike a taught degree, a research degree emphasises independence of learning and increased specialisation.
- You will manage your own research project in order to investigate your topic in depth an to produce new ideas, arguments and solutions.
- A research degree will give you the subject matter expertise and transferable skills necessary for a wide range of senior roles in research and academia, as well as in business, industry and the cultural and creative sectors.
- A PhD is awarded to students who produce a substantial piece of original research that makes a contribution to research in the field.
Admission requirements
Academic requirements
We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.
English requirements
We are not aware of any English requirements for this programme.
Other requirements
General requirements
- The programme welcomes applications from candidates from across the world and of all ages, including those with academic and professional backgrounds.
- Applications are considered in terms of quality of proposal, quality of practice (where appropriate), readiness to undertake a research degree at this level and supervisory capacity.
- Your portfolio is a showcase of your work as an artist or designer and can be made up of images, videos or writing examples. Your portfolio helps us to better understand your application and allows you to show evidence of your ability and motivation to undertake a given programme.
- Please submit a portfolio with no more than 10 projects that illustrate your practices and capabilities supporting your research proposal (20MB PDF max).
- You will need to provide your score from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination
Fees and funding
Tuition Fees
Tuition fees are shown in AUD and the most likely applicable fee is shown based on your nationality.
- International – International tuition fees apply to students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the study country. In some regions, like the EU/EEA, or under certain agreements, students from partner countries may also pay domestic fees.
Non-residents: 61,549 AUD / year (≈ 32,600 GBP / year)
- Domestic – Tuition fee for the domestic students.
Citizens or residents: 19,730 AUD / year (≈ 10,450 GBP / year)
Living costs
London, United Kingdom
2,147-4,072 AUD / month
The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.
