Programme Specification
1. General information
Programme title: Design Products
Award: MA
Qualification Framework level: Level 7
School/Department or equivalent: Design
Campus location(s): Battersea
Total UK credits: 180
Date valid from/to 2022-23
2. Programme Philosophy
Design Products explores new terrain for designing products aiming to evolve new design
disciplines and practices. We question ‘what is a product?’ and the assumption of adding products
to uncover critical questioning to inform cutting edge creative practices for designing better
futures. Our programme ethos focuses on a range of ideas for exploring these new areas for
product design practice. These evolve over time and currently include design subtraction, multi-
species design, circularity, questions for action, products delimited, design doing, design justice
and decolonising design.
We work in collaboration with industry but also explore new locations and relationships for
designing products: the experiences and impacts they generate whether these are design
interventions or working with start-ups, governments, or global agencies. We measure the success
of our design impacts against the United Nations Sustainability Development Goal’s and the design
territory of products within systems.
Learning will develop during the programme through terms 1 and 2 via a series of short projects
focussed on experimentation and developing a strong and adaptive personal creative process
building a portfolio of projects culminating in the development and delivery of an Independent
Research Project in term 3.
3. Educational Aims and Outcomes of the Programme
Programme aims
● Explore a series of key future design agendas to uncover new terrain for Designing Products
and practices from people to ecosystems;
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● Experiment with positioning new and emerging technologies in advanced design practice;
● Facilitate the exploration of new disciplinary directions;
● Critically question and appraise current approaches to Designing Products and the
definition of a product;
● Develop an approach to Design Products which puts the understanding of impact from
individual to social, multi-species and global at the heart of design activity.
What will I be expected to achieve?
Upon successful completion of the programme, you will be expected to meet the
requirements of both the College-wide Learning Outcomes and your programme-specific
Learning Outcomes.
College-Wide Learning Outcomes
You should be able to:
● Interrogate and articulate the intentions of your work in relation to the critical and
conceptual context of your field(s) of study;
● Independently plan and produce work that is informed by developments at the forefront of
your field(s) of study;
● Evaluate and critique the principles and methods of research in your field(s) of study, and
apply these principles to your creative, professional and/or scholarly practice;
● Demonstrate originality in how you translate knowledge into practice;
● Communicate your creative, professional and/or scholarly practice to a non-specialist
audience;
● Critically reflect on the likely public impact of your creative, professional and/or scholarly
practice, and on your responsibilities as a practitioner;
● Define your professional ambitions and identify the challenges involved in meeting them.
Programme-Specific Learning Outcomes
● Locate your practices in relation to leading ideas in the field;
● Argue for how your own design practice is situated within the forefront of the discipline;
● Articulate the range of ethical issues when developing designs for advanced practice;
● Demonstrate ability to experiment with leading edge making practices;
● Understand, adapt, experiment, and deploy (proposals or) new technological solutions to
advanced design challenges;
● Experiment, test and prove technologies across a range of appropriate mediums;
● Demonstrate how your designs impact on the United Nations Sustainability Development
Goals;
● Independently manage multiple requirements in delivering advanced practice projects;
● Clearly communicate concepts and creative process using a range of media, techniques
and presentation formats.
4. What will I learn?
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Curriculum Map
Term 1 Term 2 Term 3
Locating Practice Grand School-wide elective
(15 credits) Challenge (15 credits)
(15 Independent Research
credits) Project
Advanced Practice (60 credits)
Experimental Design (15 credits)
(30 credits)
AcrossRCA (30 credits)
Programme Structure
Unit Title Term Credit Core or Elective?
Value
Locating Practice 1 15 Core
Experimental Design 1 30 Core
AcrossRCA (College-wide unit) 1&2 30 Core
Grand Challenge (School-wide unit) 2 15 Core
School-wide elective 2 15 Elective
Advanced Practice 2 15 Core
Independent Research Project 3 60 Core
In the first term we help you locate your own practice at the forefront of the design products
landscape (Locating Practice). This is supported by enhancing research skills and identifying
additional technical and intellectual skills to develop new and improved design methods and
approaches connecting research and making. Experimental Design allows you to expand the range
and ambition of your design practice through various forms of experimentation to uncover new
skills, methods and ideas. This unit covers a broad spectrum of experimentation from methods to
materials, technology, making, manufacturing, futures, social and participatory.
The second term engages with Advanced Practice by deepening your own creative methods
through specialist focus via elective programme platform options, based on programme ethos
themes and School-wide electives. Programme specialist design input is delivered via platform
electives in the Advanced Practice unit. You will also collaborate with other School of Design
programme disciplines in a team-based School-wide Grand Challenge tackling a major emerging
strategic design issue. There are also opportunities to take part in commercially sponsored
projects in terms 2 and 3 depending on availability.
In the third term you will synthesise learning from terms 1 and 2 by independently developing,
managing and delivering a high-resolution Design Products project (Independent Research
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Project). The emphasis here is showing how you have brought together skills, learning and design
practices from across terms 1 and 2 to design and deliver a project that sits at the forefront of the
design products landscape and enables the delivery of a design discourse that argues for the new
design space within which it sits. The Independent Research Project (IRP) will be delivered through
a supervision model, and it is expected that students will spend the majority of their time on
personal study and making.
Grand Challenge (School-wide unit)
In term 2 all School of Design students will participate in the Grand Challenge, School-wide unit.
The aim of this unit is to connect and challenge all students in the School through the introduction
of a ‘wicked’ design problem that requires a cross disciplinary approach to problem solving
involving an external international scientific or industry partner (or both). This unit and lecture
series has been hugely successful in connecting and disrupting disciplines, people, philosophies
and approaches to design thinking whilst providing our student body with very unique networking
opportunities.
AcrossRCA (College-wide unit)
Across terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA. This unit aims to support you to meet the
challenges of a complex, uncertain and changing world by bringing you together to work
collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams on a series of themed projects informed by expertise
within and beyond the College. These projects will challenge you to use your intellect and
imagination to address key cultural, social, environmental and economic challenges. In doing so,
you will develop and reflect on the abilities required to translate knowledge into action, and help
demonstrate the contribution that the creative arts can make to our understanding and experience
of the world.
Independent Research Project
How the project will work
You will be expected to develop an initial major project proposal and refine this based on learning
and experiences throughout terms 1 and 2. The project will then be supported by targeted strategic
supervisions from lecturers and support from technical resources.
What the College expectations are
The College expectations are to deliver an opportunity and space for students to experiment in
term 3 with the freedom to showcase their learning towards demonstrating mastery through an
IRP project and related design discourse in the discipline of design products.
What access/support students require
Occasional supervisory meetings with staff will take place with the aim of strategically focusing the
project trajectory and how it aims to deliver new solutions, innovations or discourse in the field.
The final work will include a public exhibition demonstrating your ability to identify and define
design opportunities, articulate the significance of a design to stakeholders; and to generate
innovative solutions.
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You will have an opportunity to experiment with the freedom to showcase your learning through an
IRP project and related design discourse. The final work will include a public exhibition
demonstrating your ability to identify and define design opportunities, articulate the significance of
a design to stakeholders; and to generate innovative solutions.
5. How will I learn?
You will learn through a range of teaching typologies in each unit including briefing, critique,
exhibition, group tutorial, individual tutorial, lectures, seminars, demonstrations, workshops, peer
reviews and independent study. Each unit will comprise of one or more projects which will develop
learning up to the assessment point.
We will formally assess learning once in each unit with a formative and summative assessment. A
critique or demonstration will be used for either the formative or summative assessment with
asynchronous assessment methods including explanatory short video, desktop display, portfolio,
visual presentation, and demonstration used for the other assessment point. The formative
assessment will provide you with feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their work-to-date
and recommend strategies for improving learning to enhance the outcome of the summative
assessment.
You will submit work in a range of both digital and physical formats depending on the unit project
briefs. Examples of submission formats include writing, videos, 2D drawings, sketches and diagrams
to test rigs, proof of principle, demonstrators, simulations, prototypes or models.
6. Assessment and feedback
Regulations
Regulations for assessment and progression can be found here. Please familiarise yourself with
these.
Unit assessment
The programme uses a range of assessment methods, including synchronous, such as:
● Critique – a group review of work led by one or more academics;
● Demonstration – students will perform or demonstrate their design or intervention to prove
its qualities in relation to the design brief and learning outcomes.
We will also compliment these with asynchronous assessment methods including:
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● Explanatory short video - a 3–5-minute video which functions as a stand-alone pitch for the
final design proposal;
● Desktop display – a display of project material curated to explain the design proposal and
learning journey;
● Portfolio – a document containing a presented set of unit projects illustrating a series of
design proposal and highlighting learning outcomes;
● Visual presentation – a stand-alone graphical presentation which can sit alongside a
designed product, artifact or intervention that explains the design intent and design
discourse;
● Exhibition – a public dissemination of the design project used for interactively testing
reactions to the proposal.
You can expect a range of formal feedback on your work including:
● Tutorials – individual verbal feedback on a project or stage;
● Group Tutorials – shared feedback on work using exemplars and learning from the progress
of others;
● Seminars – thematic investigation of an important Design Products concept where
conversation and advice can be applied back to own work;
● Critiques - staff will give verbal feedback, question, and critique projects.
● Demonstrations - following a demonstration, students will be given succinct feedback on
areas to improve and highlights of successful features;
● Assessment notes - following assessment project overview notes will be provided to
complement verbal and other feedback delivered during the unit to highlight strengths and
weaknesses towards meeting the learning objectives;
● Workshops – conceptual and applied practical skill sessions where verbal feedback on own
learning and adaptation of skills will be given.
Throughout all of the units you will be expected to keep notes of comments and verbal feedback
providing an aid to reflective learning. Informal feedback may also occur in peer reviews and on an
ad-hoc basis.
7. What award can I get?
To be awarded an RCA MA degree you need to gain 180 credits at level 7 of the Framework for
Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ). This will involve successfully completing all units.
If you fail a unit at the first attempt, you will be offered an opportunity to resit the unit. If you are
successful at resit you will be awarded the credits for that unit. If you are unsuccessful, you cannot
progress further in your programme.
Exit awards:
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If you have gained at least 120 credits at level 7 of the FHEQ, you may be eligible for the exit award of
Postgraduate Diploma. An exit award is a final award from the College and cannot be rescinded.
For more detailed information about the College's assessment, progression and awards policies see
the Regulations.
8. Admissions
Cross-College requirements
Academic Entry Requirements
Candidates must normally have obtained a good relevant undergraduate degree or an equivalent
qualification. The College recognises as an equivalent qualification any degree, diploma, certificate
or other evidence of formal qualification awarded by a university or other higher education
establishment where the award is made following the successful completion of a programme of at
least three years’ study, the programme of study being open, as a general rule, only to persons
holding a certificate awarded on the successful completion of a full programme of upper secondary
education.
Other qualifications may be approved, providing that the College’s Academic Board for Concessions
and Discipline (ABCD) is satisfied that the applicant has the ability to pursue the programme of
study successfully. The ABCD is empowered to make judgements about the extent to which
qualifications or experience gained elsewhere may be accepted in partial fulfilment of its
requirements.
Portfolio
All applicants are required to submit a portfolio as part of the application process. A portfolio is a
showcase of an applicant’s work as an artist or designer and can be made up of images, videos or
writing examples. The portfolio helps us to better understand the applicant and allows them to show
evidence of their ability and motivation to undertake a given programme.
Each programme is looking for different things in a portfolio; each Head of Programme provides
specific advice on portfolio requirements in the online application system. We advise prospective
students to consider these requirements carefully before submitting their application.
Applicant Qualities
Generally, we are looking for applicants to demonstrate their:
- creativity, imagination and innovation;
- ability to articulate the intentions of the work;
- intellectual engagement in areas relevant to the work;
- technical skills appropriate to the work;
- potential to benefit from the programme and achieve MA standards overall.
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English Language
Applicants who are not a national of a majority English-speaking country will need to demonstrate
their English language proficiency. The College accepts a range of English language qualifications.
The full list can be seen at https://www.rca.ac.uk/studying-at-the-rca/apply/entrance-
requirements/english-language-requirements/
Applicants are exempt from this requirement if they have received a 2.1 degree or above from a
university in a majority English-speaking nation within the last two years.
If a student would need a Student Visa visa to study at the RCA, they will also need to meet the Home
Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.
Admission Process
Applications must be made directly to the College through our online application portal:
https://www.rca.ac.uk/studying-at-the-rca/apply/application-process/ma-application-process/
Upon completion of that first stage of the application process, candidates will be invited to submit a
portfolio of their work, a 300-word statement of intent and a video communicating clearly their
motivations, personal interests and why they are pursuing a Masters degree at the Royal College of
Art. These materials are reviewed by members of the programme team who will communicate an
academic decision to the College Registry, who manage the process of offer-making in line with the
College’s recruitment targets. In some cases, where the programme team is not able to make an
admission decision based solely upon the work submitted by the applicant, we may invite the
candidate to undertake an interview with us.
Whilst there are still spaces available, successful candidates will be made an offer of a place. If there
is no vacancy for a subsequent successful applicant, the candidate will be placed on a waiting list,
and may be made a firm offer should a place become available.
Programme-Specific requirements
Specific advice on programme portfolio requirements is provided by the Head of Programme in the
online application system. Please consult the College website for further information on programme-
specific admission and portfolio requirements.
