Fine Art Prof Doc

This course is in clearing

Overview

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Professional Doctorate

Fine Art Prof Doc, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant
  • Full time, 3 years
  • Pound 6320 per year

Fine Art Prof Doc, international applicant, full time

  • International Applicant
  • Full time, 3 years
  • Pound 16900 per year

What makes this course different

Industry experts

You will study on an increasingly prestigious course under the supervision of some of the country leading fine artists and theorists including Michael Pinsky, Debra Benita Shaw and Karen Raney.

Career prospects

Our doctorate has helped develop the work of internationally acclaimed artists such as Max Hattler, the renowned audio-visual artist and animator.

Work exposure

You will have excellent opportunities to exhibit your work and take advantage of our close relationships with many galleries and our regular engagement with professional venues and practices.

Course modules

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

What we're researching

We have maintained an international reputation for artistic innovation and research excellence, due in large part to the work of our high-profile art practitioners and researchers in related fields.

 

Reader Michael Pinsky is a British artist whose international projects have created innovative and challenging works in galleries and public spaces. He has undertaken many residencies that explore issues which shape and influence the use of our public realm.

 

Taking the combined roles of artist, urban planner, activist, researcher, and resident, he starts residencies and commissions without a specified agenda, working with local people and resources, allowing the physical, social and political environment to define his working methodology.

 

His work has been shown at TATE Britain; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu; Saatchi Gallery; Victoria and Albert Museum; Institute for Contemporary Art, London; La Villette, Paris; BALTIC, Gateshead; Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Modern Art Oxford, Milton Keynes Gallery, Cornerhouse, Manchester; Liverpool Biennial, Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours; Armory Center of the Arts, Los Angeles and the Rotterdam International Architectural Biennial. His most recent solo exhibition was at Somerset House, London.

 

DFA Programme Leader Karen Raney is an academic, former editor, painter and writer whose novel All the Water in the World was published in the US and UK, translated into five languages, and was shortlisted for a Costa Book Award 2020. She was the winner of the 2017 Pat Kavanagh Literary Prize. From 2000-2015 she was editor of Engage Journal of International Visual Art and Gallery Education. Her academic research includes theories of creativity, contemporary art, gallery education, fictional representations of death, and art practice as research.

 

Debra Benita Shaw is a Reader in Cultural Theory and co-director of the Centre for Cultural Studies Research. She is known internationally as a critical posthumanist interested in urban studies, feminism and science fiction criticism, and has gained considerable recognition in the fields of architecture and critical geography. Her textbook, Technoculture: The Key Concepts (2009) is used in science and technology studies courses around the world and she is regularly invited to address symposia on approaches to urban change, posthuman theory and literary criticism. With Jeremy Gilbert, she organises the yearly seminar series Culture, Power & Politics.

 

Senior lecturer Antigoni Memou is the author of Photography and Social Movements (2013). She has published in the academic journals Third Text, Photographies, Philosophy of Photography and Ephemera and has presented her research at numerous international academic conferences.

 

Her research includes the history and theory of photography; the politics of contemporary art; digital image and social media; visual activism and tactical media; art institutions and issues in contemporary display; Latin American photographic practices; the impact of globalisation on art, photography and culture; cultural and critical theory; cross-disciplinary approaches to art history.

 

 

Making a difference

UEL is one of the UK's leading modern research universities. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), 92 per cent of UEL's overall research was rated as world-leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognised.

Your future career

The Doctorate in Fine Art (DFA) leads to employment outcomes by requiring students to engage with the art industry of galleries, critics, publications, and artist-run spaces outside of the University.
The 60-credit taught module in year 1 includes seminars in art writing and publication, funding and exhibiting.

Job roles

Many doctoral students are already in employment as academics, teachers, curators or artists, and the DFA often leads to an extension of their professional roles or to new employment. 

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

Fine Art Graduates
The course had an immensely positive impact on my art practice and professional outlook. It provided me with critical context and support, which led to the creation of a new body of work, progressing from short film towards installation-based works including multi-screen setups and a water screen. The Doctorate has helped me steer my entire artistic practice towards a more considered, grounded, and unified expression, a solid foundation on which to build in years to come."
Dr Max Hattler

world-renowned animator, Doctorate in Fine Art at UEL

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

How you'll learn

This programme is the UK's longest-running Professional Doctorate in Fine Art and is equivalent to a PhD. The full-time model is three years, part-time is five years.  The doctoral programme has three strands - creative practice, professional practice and theoretical research - and it is designed to follow, within academic parameters, the organic, foraging, unpredictable nature of art practice.

This distinguishes it from the more academic fine art PhDs. For our students, the proposal is not a project outline to be carried out, but a starting point from which their work can, and does, move in unforeseen directions.  Students are supervised by the programme team and by dedicated supervisors drawn from art and design and related areas, who have relevant research and expertise.

Guided independent study

After writing and registering their proposal, students work with allocated supervisors, and a core staff team provides continuity and integration. A strong group dynamic and exhibition culture are central to the programme. Work in progress is aired through regular seminars attended by all year groups. Interim shows take place each year, with critics, curators and artists from outside the university invited in to critique the work.  Students are encouraged to seek out and curate their own external exhibitions.

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support

Dedicated personal tutor

As a researcher, your personal tutors are the programme team and two, or sometimes three, doctoral supervisors.

Workload

Six work-in-progress seminars are scheduled per semester, with individual tutorials and feedback sessions in addition.  The first semester of the programme is devoted to writing the doctoral proposal, supported by the programme team.  All students exhibit their work at the yearly showcase exhibition.

Your timetable

A detailed timetable is given out to incoming students before the start of the term and is explained fully during induction.  Thursday is the day when DFA seminars and proposal tutorials take place.  Supervision can be arranged individually on other days.

Class sizes

There are between 20 and 30 researchers on the Doctorate Fine Art across all years.  Work-in-progress seminars are attended by all year groups.  Supervisory tutorials are individual.

How you'll be assessed

Annual written reviews serve as an ongoing record of doctoral work and research, and are the basis on which students pass and progress to the next year of the programme, through an annual review panel decision. The doctorate itself is awarded on the basis of the written report that accompanies the viva voce examination, and the final major showcase of work.

Detailed feedback is given, verbally and in writing, on drafts of proposals, reviews and reports.  Feedback on creative practice is continuous through the supervision process.

Campus and facilities

Docklands Campus, London, E16 2RD