MA Creative Arts Practice
Study from anywhere in the world. Delivered through blended or fully online learning, this one-year programme will help you shape your creative identity, develop critical thinking skills and build a sustainable career in the performing and production arts.
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Overview
This one-year, practice-led, modular programme for creative graduates will evolve your practice and enhance employability in a world-leading performing and production arts education environment.
As contemporary creative artists often work across and beyond the traditional boundaries of artistic disciplines, the focus will be on bespoke, individual learning.
You will engage in critical inquiry to identify meaningful goals and develop essential knowledge, skills and attitudes for success in your artistic journey.
Throughout the programme, you will have the opportunity to build a professional network and receive support to critically engage with your practice in order to transform your creative identity.
It will also help you enhance your skills for freelance work, employment with creative agencies or further academic study, while expanding your professional network.
This is a flexible programme, where you’ll work alongside RCS lecturers and industry experts, as well as our network of national and international partners.
The MA is designed to integrate with your existing arts practice and includes a significant amount of student-led learning. It will be complemented by intensive residencies at the beginning and end of the programme, as well as online delivery, one-to-one support, and peer group learning.
The important details
UK Applicant Deadline:
30 May 2025
International (including EU) Applicant Deadline:
30 May 2025
Institution Code:
R58
Programme Code:
219F
Application Fee:
£28.50
Why Study Creative Arts Practice at RCS?
Develop and deepen your artistic practice in a world-leading creative and collaborative environment where you’ll share, learn and grow as part of a diverse, multidisciplinary community.
This one-year programme will help you shape your creative identity, develop critical thinking skills and build a sustainable career in the performing and production arts.
We welcome applications from filmmakers, composers, playwrights, dramaturgs, choreographers, designers, visual artists, photographers and any arts specialists who are ready to transform their creative practice.
This programme is available to study online or with some
Enhance Employability
Your enhanced skills and practice, and your development of new work with specialist support, will open up new employment or research opportunities.
Specialist Learning Environment
In recent times of great change in the creative industries, this course ensures that you will be well-versed in and able to navigate contemporary expectations, debates and innovations in practice. RCS offers the highest level of specialist tuition across all the performing and production arts disciplines, ensuring the best possible learning environment closely linked to national and international partner companies and festivals.
Flexible Learning
The flexibility of the course means that you can fit your studies around work or family commitments, and study in the mode that best suits your needs (blended, online or distance)
Graduate Destinations
Whether it’s enriching portfolio careers or taking a new professional direction, graduates of this course will:
- Contribute and innovate in a variety of creative employment fields.
- Develop creative entrepreneurship and competency in the creative industries.
- Enhance their sustainable professional practice in a way that incorporates an ethos of self-directed and life-long learning.
- Nurture visual awareness, literacy and critical faculties in order that they may consider, for example, aspects of form, semantics, human factors, business and professional practices, sustainability issues and cultural influences in the construction and development of creative practice skills and solutions.
Programme Structure
Join us from anywhere in the word – the programme can be completed entirely online or combined with in-person residency intensives. You also have the option to take accredited short courses to add to your learning experience.
The programme is delivered in modules, where you’ll be supported by RCS lecturers and industry experts to critically engage with your practice and to refine your identity as thinker, maker and leader.
The modular structure follows the thematic route of Situating Practice and Cultures and Context. This leads to modular content which enables you to focus on Expanding Practice. The final module culminates in Synthesising Practice.
This will conclude with the presentation of a piece of work-in-development that synthesises the knowledge and skills you have acquired on the programme as part of your emerging praxis as an artist.
How to Apply
This programme is new for academic year 2025/26. More information about the application process will be added here as it becomes available. If you are interested in applying, you can sign up to receive updates about this programme, or contact our admissions team via email: admissions@rcs.ac.uk
The closing date for all on-time MA Creative Arts Practice applications is 30th of May 2025. If you submit your application after this date, we cannot guarantee that your application will be reviewed by the interview panel. If you do want to submit a late application, you must contact admissions@rcs.ac.uk in the first instance to check we are accepting late applications.
Interview
The interview is designed to provide the programme team with an insight into your level of suitability for study on the programme. This will likely take place online.
The interview will comprise of two parts consisting of a short presentation and an interview.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland may require an applicant to provide additional material in support of their application prior to, or following, their interview.
Your programme will culminate in a module which enables you to design and undertake a substantial project, synthesising your arts leadership and/or fundraising enquiry into one cohesive piece of work. You are invited to share some initial ideas for how you might use this project to deepen your chosen field of enquiry. For example, you may choose to focus on investigating:
- Opportunities within your specialist area that you would benefit from a deeper understanding
- The practical application of arts leadership and/or fundraising in a professional context
- Defined areas of arts leadership and/or fundraising/policy that you believe would benefit from further research or exploration
- Ways in which you might use this final module to address gaps in your own development
You will be requested to provide some evidence to support your initial proposals, drawing on published journal articles, books or other key sources and to be prepared to provide some critical analysis of these in light of your project ideas. We will explore this with you and support your ideas development as part of the interview process.
Following your presentation, there will be a 20-minute discussion about your presentation and application with the Head of Programme and a member of the delivery team. This will be used to explore your educational background, experience, opportunities and aspirations and you will be invited to address the following questions:
- What has led you to apply for this programme?
- How do you see this programme contributing to your professional development?
- What opportunities, if any, will you have to apply your learning in a professional context whilst on the programme?
The panel will take account of all aspects of the applicants’ profiles. This will include:
- Performance at interview
- Commitment to the programme
- Potential to benefit from the programme
- Readiness for masters level study
- Academic qualifications
- Personal statement
- References (2 references from appropriately qualified persons)
- Contextualised data
Entry Requirements
Academic Requirements
Applicants for the programme normally have a degree or international equivalent in a subject area relevant to the demands of the programme. It is recognised that some applicants may not have achieved a full degree in a relevant subject area, and we will take account of relevant professional experience where it is deemed to be a suitable equivalency.
English language requirements
International English Language Testing System score (IELTS) (if applicable) Level 7.5 with a minimum score of 7.5 in speaking and with a minimum score of 5.5 in all parts.
Fees & Funding
Tuition fees
For academic year 2025/26:
Tuition fees for academic year 2025/26 are in the process of being confirmed and will be available to view here soon. Last year’s fees can be viewed below.
For academic year 2024/25:
- Full-time: £14,700
- Part-time: £7,350
Please note these fees are subject to change.
Funding & Scholarships
You can find out about the funding and scholarships available for studying at RCS by visiting our dedicated page:
Cost of Living & Programme Costs
This course can be studied fully online if you live further afield and don’t wish to travel to participate in-person. The course is structured to be delivered online with in-person residencies offered to supplement and enhance the learning experience.
Sign Up for Updates
Why RCS?
We are the only place in Europe where you can study all of the performing arts on the one campus. There is a distinctive creative energy at RCS and you’ll be made to feel part of our inclusive and diverse environment from the very beginning of your studies.
Our graduates are resourceful, highly employable and members of a dynamic community of artists who make a significant impact across the globe.
At RCS, students develop not just their art but their power to use it.
World Top Ten
We were voted one of the world’s Top Ten destinations to study the performing arts (QS Rankings) in 2024, the eighth time we have been placed in the top ten since the ranking was established in 2016.
Perform & Collaborate
Our curriculum is built around performance and collaboration and we hold professional partnerships with all of Scotland’s National Companies. Join forces across artforms and be part of the 500+ performances we give each year.
Outstanding Alumni
Our graduates are employed across the world and we take pride in the impact they have on their art forms. We’ll equip you with the skills to thrive as a professional and join their ranks.
Learn from the Best
More than 1,000 lecturers, tutors, artists, technicians, co-ordinators and support staff work at RCS across all our art forms. Study with some of the finest educators and performing and production artists in the UK.
A Campus Built for You
Our facilities are world-class. From rehearsal rooms and recording studios to our five professional performance venues, we have a campus to showcase and develop emerging artists to the highest standards.