Ceramics & Glass

During your first year of Ceramics & Glass, you’ll undertake three units of study: Unit 1A, Unit 1B and CHS. These units are each worth 40 credits and assessed through a combination of continuous and summative methods.

To support your progress in Units 1A and 1B, you will be assigned a personal tutor with whom you’ll discuss your work in five tutorials per academic year. You’re also guaranteed tutorials from other members of the programme team each term, and you’ll have the opportunity to request tutorials from other staff from the School, as well as from a broad range of visiting tutors.

Although working primarily on your own practice, throughout the year you’ll have access to group critiques, seminars, lectures, workshops and tutorials with other members of the programme team and with staff and students from throughout the broader School. You’ll produce work for studio critiques that take place throughout term one and two.

Your first year will consist of three projects that explore different intellectual themes and contexts. In the autumn term, you’ll work from existing collections to explore the role that an object might fulfil and build research skills. In your second term, you’ll explore one of three different methodologies and related production processes relevant to your practice, with a third short project concerned with notions of space, place and site.

There is a critique at the end of each project, which is an opportunity for you to reflect on personal achievement and participate in group appraisal and discussion. As a first-year student, you’ll contribute to the Work-in-progress Show, held at the beginning of the spring term. Your work isn’t expected to be resolved at this stage, but it’s an opportunity to take risks and try new materials and ideas. As this is in a public context, it includes the question of spectatorship, enabling you to reflect upon the efficacy of the visual forms and concepts with which you’ve been working.

During your second year of the programme you’ll undertake three units of study: Unit 2A (40 credits), Unit 2B (60 credits) and SoAH School Unit (20 credits). These units are assessed through a combination of continuous and summative methods.

In your second year you’ll be assigned a relevant personal tutor who will support your practice throughout the year. You’ll produce a self-initiated body of work, which will be evaluated and discussed in group critiques and tutorials throughout the year.

In your third term you’ll exhibit in the graduate show. This will be part of the examination of Unit 2B, the Independent Research Project, which consists of a major project undertaken in your second year. Your art practice should now demonstrate that your are able to make, develop and realise work at Master's level. Your work should now have a clear direction and resolution, demonstrating an appropriate level of conceptual and technical competence. Your practice is expected to be self-initiated and thoroughly researched, and you’ll be asked to articulate your process in a viva voce examination.

Alongside your participation in programme-based units, you’ll also participate in the School of Arts & Humanities School unit. Alongside study groups, lectures, symposia, crits and tutorials, these will support you in discussing and evolving your work against a broader frame of reference.

All studio-based MA students follow a weekly schedule of Critical & Historical Studies (CHS), a College-wide initiative that provides you with the intellectual framework to build a coherent relationship between theory and practice.

CHS delivers exciting, thought-provoking and inspiring lectures by experts within the programme and high-profile visiting lecturers. You’ll have the opportunity to explore the theoretical background and aspects of your chosen discipline through a tutored dissertation process, as well as receiving individual tutorial support from our team of expert tutors.