Design, Master

  • Application Deadline
  • 24 months
    Duration
  • English (schedule IELTS)
    Language
University rank #151 (ARWU) ,
The objective of this Design programme from the University of Gothenburg is to advance your creative and artistic skills in generating complex design proposals and alternative methods and approaches in design. Central to our programme is the discursive reflections on design practice informed by a broad perspective on design, beyond the specialist perspectives of the traditional design disciplines.

About

The practical projects, often explorative and experimental, are the core of the courses that make up the programme. In many courses you will formulate your own project brief based on your special field of interest. Tutors representing different design specialities will support you in your practical work. You will do projects both on your own and together with peers. At times we prescribe an over-arching theme, or we set up projects in collaboration with organizations outside school.

One of the key aims of the Design programme from the University of Gothenburg is to give an insight into the academic discipline of design as an area for research and development. All the courses of the programme contain seminars, text reading and writing assignments that connect to your project outcomes and reflections on your practical work.

Discussions often begin at an individual starting point and extend into a broader perspective informed by for example the social sciences and the humanities. A special focus of our discussions is the role of design in shaping the material things of our world, and how people confer meaning on material things in order to understand the social and cultural world we live in. In connection to this perspective we take a closer look on alternative ways of working as a designer.

When finally you have completed your studies you will be able to work – depending on your specialty competence – as a designer in most of the traditional fields of the design industry. In addition, you will have an informed and critical perspective on design that will support you in finding new arenas and alternative actions as a designer in promoting a sustainable way a living on this earth.

Programme Structure

Semester 1

This semester starts with a course (15 hecs) that introduces to you the key pedagogical tool in our programme – the personal project. You will start getting familiar with how to identify and formulate your own project, how to account for your process and your outcome. You will also familiarize yourself with written and spoken reflections as a tool for learning. The second course (15 hecs) is about how to critically deal with visionary projects and visualisations of future possibilities. We will work groupwise with a live project in a wider societal context.

Semester 2

This semester starts with a course (7,5 hecs) that continues the topic of communication and investigates the exhibition as a media for communication through design. The next course (15 hecs) focuses on your advancement in your own field of interest and the development of your artistic skills and methods in a long personal project.
We select a live situation as a common frame of starting points for all projects. There are also workshops and reflection assignments on creativity in the course. The last course before summer break (7,5 hecs) investigates theoretically and practically how designers can act and intervene in social change in society.

Semester 3

This semester contains a long course (22,5 hecs) that once again focuses on your own advancement in two long personal projects, one is explorative and experimental with an open starting point, the other is oriented towards a design solution. You will also have reading assignments and you will write an essay that will advance your knowledge in your own field of interest. The course at the end of the semester (7,5 hecs) will train you in identifying and formulating an adequate idea for your degree project.

Semester 4

This whole semester is one long course consisting of the most advanced personl project of your studies, the degree project. You will on your own formulate, plan and carry through a practical project. At the end of the course you will organize your own documentation of the project and your reflections into a project document. This semester and your two years of studies at HDK ends with the degree show where you will exhibit the outcomes of your degree project.

Detailed Programme Facts

  • Programme intensity Full-time
    • Full-time duration 24 months
  • Credits
    120 ECTS
  • Languages
    • English
    Schedule IELTS Find English Courses
  • Delivery mode
    On Campus

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English Language Requirements

You only need to take one of these language tests:

  • Minimum required score:

    6.5

    The IELTS – or the International English Language Test System – tests your English-language abilities (writing, listening, speaking, and reading) on a scale of 1.00–9.00. The minimum IELTS score requirement refers to which Overall Band Score you received, which is your combined average score. Read more about IELTS.

    Schedule IELTS

  • Minimum required score:

    575

    The TOEFL – or Test OF English as a Foreign Language – offers a paper-based test (PBT). The final, overall PBT score ranges between 310 and 677, and is based on an average taken from the three test components (listening, structure, and reading). The writing part of this test is scored separately on a scale of 0-6. Read more about TOEFL (PBT).

  • Minimum required score:

    90

    The TOEFL – or Test Of English as a Foreign Language – offers an internet-based test (iBT). The final, overall iBT score ranges between 0 and 120, and includes a scaled average from the four components (reading, listening, speaking, and writing). Read more about TOEFL (iBT).

Academic Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Design or equivalent of at least 180 hec. Applicants must prove their knowledge of English: English 6/English B from Swedish Upper Secondary School or the equivalent level of an internationally recognized test, for example TOEFL, IELTS.

Tuition Fee

  • International Applies to you

    20920.5 EUR/year
    Tuition Fee
    Based on the original amount of 41841 EUR for the full programme and a duration of 24 months.

  • EU/EEA Applies to you

    Free
    Tuition Fee
    Based on the original amount of 0 EUR for the full programme and a duration of 24 months.
We've labeled the tuition fee that applies to you because we think you are from and prefer over other currencies.
  • Application fee 900 SEK
  • Full programme cost 405 400 SEK
  • First payment 101 350 SEK
  • Application and tuition fees do not apply for EU/EEA citizens or exchange students.

Living costs for Göteborg

  • 7552 - 13940 SEK/month
    Living Costs

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

Funding

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