Fashion and Textiles Design with Industry Placement Heriot-Watt University

Overview

Our MA Fashion and Textile Design with Industry Placement gives you the opportunity to explore concepts and contemporary topics in design, fashion and textiles through practice-based learning and an in-depth study of design. You’ll challenge traditional and contemporary uses of fashion and textiles and look at ways to create opportunities to promote new approaches and processes in fashion and textiles.  

The postgraduate master’s degree is aimed at those with an art and design background, who are looking to challenge established practice and offer new insights. The programme allows you to study an area of fashion and textiles that interests you most, while you work on inter-disciplinary projects and reflect on the creative collaborations between subject areas within the School of Textiles and Design, to foster design innovation.  

In your third semester, you’ll have the opportunity to complete an industry placement to develop your skills and experience within a real-life work environment. You’ll gain globally recognised and verifiable work experience in the textile, fashion and/or design professional space which will set you up well for life after graduation. You’ll have the opportunity to build industry connections which have the potential to lead to further employment or work experience.  

You’ll gain the knowledge, skills and competencies to meet the diverse demands of the fashion and textile industries and develop an inter-disciplinary understanding of key issues relating to the design, management, and innovation in fashion and textiles. You’ll gain the necessary attributes to set you up for a successful career upon graduation.  

Upon completion of the programme, you’ll emerge a competent and confident professional ready to tackle the global fashion and textiles industries with an in-depth understanding of the creative process and its management in both international and local contexts. 

Your Student Experience

Our Expertise

Your learning will be informed by our Fashion, Textiles and Design faculty and staff, whose work covers many key areas including: 

• Smart Nanotextiles – Nanofibres and Nanoyarns 
• Fashion Technology  
• Fashion Sustainability 
• Design Innovation 
• Printed Textile Design 
• Medical Compression Design 
• Textile and Apparel Supply Chain Management 
• Brand Management and Marketing 
• Garment Making and Pattern Cutting 

Your Learning Environment

 During your studies, you’ll benefit from our unique and purpose-built workshops and studios, providing you with a supportive, creative, and academic setting to study Fashion and Textile Design.   

You’ll have access to our fully equipped apparel workshops, spacious studies with blended use workspaces, technical workshops, and our premium Computer Aided Design (CAD) suites. The state-of-the-art industrial production equipment will enable you to develop your skills, whilst exploring and establishing your interest within the world of Fashion and Textiles Design.  

At our highly creative and practical Scottish Borders Campus, located in the heart of Scotland’s luxury textile industry, you’ll be part of a diverse yet dedicated community of students studying Communication and Design, Constructed and Virtual Environments, Fashion and Textiles, and Textiles and Design. You’ll collaborate with students from your programme, and across the campus, to develop deep connections with your peers and set you up with an established industry network upon graduation.  

We appreciate all students are different, and the programme has been designed to be as inclusive and dynamic as possible.  

Outside of the classroom, you can join a range of societies at our Edinburgh Campus, including Art Society which provides a space to explore your creativity and meet people with similar interests, and the New Designers Society which provides support for students attending the New Designers Exhibition in London, and a newly created Fashion Society. 

Teaching and Assessment  

Taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, and workshops, you’ll get to know and build relationships with the teaching staff, academics, and technicians. You’ll be assessed by coursework and your masters design collection and will receive support and feedback throughout the programme.  

Customise Your Learning

You’ll follow a comprehensive course structure, learning topics including design thinking and innovation, fashion and textiles experimentation and research, fashion and textiles development and practice, and research methodologies. You’ll have the opportunity to customise your learning, by choosing two optional courses from materials, sustainable design and management, design technologies, and business enterprise. This will allow you to focus in on the areas of fashion and textiles design that interest you the most.  

In your third semester, you’ll have the opportunity to find an industry placement within a company and industry of your choice. This will help to build your knowledge, skills, and expertise in the area of fashion and textiles design that interests you the most. Our support team will meet with you at the end of semester one to assist you in finding a suitable placement. We encourage you to utilise your own professional network to source independent placements, and our team will work with your contacts to secure and manage these additional industry placements. Our business organisations will use an interview process to recruit their placement students. As the placement is credit bearing, to progress onto the three-month placement you will need to reach the designated attainment status beforehand. The aim is for the placement to provide you with the skills and knowledge to complete your final masters research project and to give you practice based work experience. Find out about our placements in the student handbook. 

In your final semester, you’ll complete your masters project, in which you’ll consolidate your knowledge and skills to carry out an in-depth investigation. You’ll be required to demonstrate your mastery of interior architecture and design by developing an original, effective, and creative response to current problems and issues in interior architecture and design. 

You can choose whether to study the programme full-time, part-time, or by course. This flexibility allows you to fit your postgraduate studies around your lifestyle. If you decided to study part-time, you register for two courses per semester and progress to the dissertation at the end of your second year. 

You may have the opportunity to Go Global on our Inter-Campus Transfer. Opportunities for postgraduate study abroad are assessed on a case-by-case basis and if you are interested in studying at our Dubai campus or Malaysia campus for a semester or longer, you should contact the Go Global Team.