MRes Creative Arts and Social Justice

Start dates

January 2025
September 2025

Attendance

Full time 1 year, part time 2 years

Learning mode

On campus

Course Summary

This course is subject to validation.

Do you want to make a difference in the world? Challenge racism and injustice? Find solutions that make life better for everyone.

Do you want to develop high-level research skills relevant to your discipline and industry? Are you considering a career in a research role? Do you want to pursue research alongside your creative practice?

This programme brings together specialist research skills with training in research advocacy and using research for social justice aims. The course is designed to build strategies and structures to challenge and survive the structural racism and inequality of UK society, including in universities and research fields.

This MRes is targeting individuals representing the ‘Global Majority’, particularly students from groups who are underrepresented in research careers with a first degree wanting to pursue a postgraduate qualification in the Creative Arts, Business Management, Bioscience or Social Sciences to help create social justice in a turbulent world. The global majority includes people whose recent families originated from the global south (Africa, South Asia, and South America) and other non-white backgrounds.

Apply for full time (January 2025)

Apply for part time (January 2025)

Apply for full time (September 2025)

Apply for part time (September 2025)

What makes this course different

How you'll learn

You will be taught by a range of staff, all leading researchers in their fields. Guided independent study: when not attending timetabled classes, you will be expected to pursue your learning independently through self-directed study, including through guided reading, construction of research briefings, planning social media and mainstream media campaigns, and review reports.

Academic support

Our academic support team is there to support you in every aspect of your course, from training in advanced academic writing to support with your well-being and assessments and support for additional needs.

Personal tutor

You will be assigned an academic adviser who will be your point of contact throughout the programme.

Workload

Across the programme, you will spend around 135 hours of scheduled contact time with an academic member of staff. This will include lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and group tutorials. Contact hours may vary for each module. As a full-time research student, the MRes demands considerable independent study and research, amounting to around 1600 hours. Much of your timetable will be shaped by your own research project. You will be required to attend a four-hour core module session each week in terms one, two and three. In addition, you will have regular meetings and workshops with tutors and your research supervisor. Timetables for part-time students will reflect modules selected in each year. Most modules will take place sometime between the hours of 9 am - 6 pm. However, due to the way the Creative Arts industry functions, students may be required to engage in activities between the hours of 6 pm - 9 pm.

To give you an indication of class sizes, this course normally attracts 20 students a year. Some activities such as lectures will include the whole cohort of students, in addition to one-to-one supervision for research project work.

How you'll be assessed

The approximate percentages for this course are:

100% coursework

This includes briefings, social media campaigns, research overviews, and original research projects.

You will receive detailed feedback on coursework, including one-to-one meetings to discuss drafts and identify strengths and areas for improvement.

We aim to provide feedback on coursework within 20 working days.

Fees and funding

January 2025

UK Full Time - £6,020
UK Part-Time - £3,010
International Full-Time - £16,100

September 2025

UK Full Time - £6,320
UK Part-Time - £3,160
International Full-Time - £16,900

UEL offers a number of partial and complete fee waivers for this programme. Waivers will be allocated on a competitive basis.

Modules

Core:

SY7013 - Making a Difference through Research (Core 30 credits)
SY7014 - Research Advocacy and Social Justice (Core 30 credits)
SY7015 - Research Advocacy through a Research Project (Core 120 credits)

Optional:

FT7027 - Developing a Creative Business (30 credits)
FT7028 - Strategic Thinking and Leadership (30 credits)
FT7029 - Working in the Creative Industries (30 credits)
BS7500 – Essential Postgraduate Research Skills (30 credits)

Your future career

The programme is designed to prepare students to undertake high-level research in their area of disciplinary specialism, and to tailor research to relevant research audiences including co-production with research users. Programme graduates will have compiled a portfolio of work that demonstrates their ability to tailor research to organisational needs and communicate research processes and outcomes effectively to a wide range of audiences.

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

Who teaches on this course

What we're researching

The School of Arts and Creative Industries is a centre of excellence for innovative and creative research, across and between a range of disciplines - among them film and media, fashion, computer games; performing arts, music, dance and drama; cultural studies and creative writing. Our research is socially engaged, collaborative and interdisciplinary and is integrated into the student experience by our research-active staff.

It is also embedded in our East London location; issues of diversity and marginalisation, cultural and social regeneration, social justice and community cohesion, are central themes. Our research activities include not only academic books and articles but also theatre performances, musical and fashion events, gallery exhibitions, and films.

Our work addresses public policy, neoliberalism and the cultural impact of digital technology, alongside debates about creative practice, cultural memory and modern urban cultures. Both in scholarly publications and creative practice research, we aim to question and illuminate, which in turn engages and motivates students to become active participants alongside our researchers in wider civic and cultural life.

The Course Leader, Dr Darren Sharpe, has an international reputation in the study of structural and health inequalities and research that brings the voices of marginalised communities to the centre in order to inform, interpret and influence research, policy and practice.

Search