Masters Degree

The next potential career path is a to do a master’s degree after finishing my bachelor degree, this would entail doing another full year of university with the purpose of developing me skills and connections to a better standard for going into the professional world. The advantages to doing this would be a greater level degree which would be worth more than a bachelor’s degree allowing me to potentially get a better start in the industry with an already higher stand point. The degree would also give me space to further develop my skills and fully realise my style which would give me a much stronger starting point going into the professional world with a clearly developed brand and style to begin with would allow me to market myself better and jump right into the creative industry after finishing university. It would also give me the opportunities to make contracts as well as take on placements which could eventually lead to permanent jobs making it a very attractive possibility. There are a few downsides though, the main one being time, as it would take up an entire extra year which I could be working in to grow myself, though it could be argued that I could do some work while also studding into order to get a kick start on that before leaving, though it is still something to consider. There is also the problem of cost and the fact that this will add another nine thousands of debt on to an already large dept to pay back, though again this could be outweighed if it means having a more successful career because of it, though if that where to fail it would still be a large dept. Overall though I do think it might be worth the money and time as I feel I could really benefit from an another year or development due to starting the path of illustration half way through my degree rather than at the start and it just simply needing more development in style and skill.

After looking for potential causes to do I came across three possible causes, one from Nottingham Trent University and one from Birmingham City University, and one from Wolverhampton University. To start with the first one I will look at is Nottingham Trent University which offers an MA in Illustration course (taught), it’s one year long and focuses on developing and pushing the skills and styles of the student while also providing internships and networking opportunities to help build a professional presence with projects focusing on the area of illustration the student would be interested in. This appeals ton me a lot as it is pretty much exactly what I am looking for in a degree as it will help develop my technical skill and push my style while also allowing for contact building and networking opportunities which are all very important to me making it a great option. The course itself costs £8000 making it the most expensive course here with an entry level of 2:2 which is low considering the high fee.

The next course I’m going to look at is from Birmingham City University, this is there MA in Visual Communication (taught), which has a sub section of illustration that the student would choose upon taking this masters. This degree is also focused on further development of skills as well as learning more about the creative industry and understanding it better, there will also be connection and networking opportunities through collaborative projects. This degree seems much more focused on the learning and development aspect of the creative industries though it is still certainly something that could be a potentially very worthwhile option as it does fill me need of wanting to development skills and further my field. The cost of this one is £7,100 and the entry requirements are 2:1 which is a level higher than the previous course.

The last course is from Wolverhampton University and is their MA in Digital and Visual Communication (taught). This masters also has a illustration selection which you would choose, it’s focused on developing skills for the modern world and learning about how to compete and brand in a competitive market, as well as giving chance to develop creative design ability’s. From what I understand of this course it is much more suited to graphic design and other more solely digital areas of the creative industry and even though it has an illustration selection the example work they give for it is much more in the line of graphic design, this mixed with the focus on leaning the market and branding and not too much on the technical development or networking leads me into thinking this isn’t what I’m looking for I a degree and so I highly doubt I will take that as a choice. The course costs £6250 and has an entry level of 2:1, which also makes it the cheapest course here.

Overall I am still very interested in the route of a masters and it is still something I am considerably heavily in doing but I think before any further decision can be made on which degree to would be best more research in the form of open days and discussion with course leaders would be needed to help find what course would be best suited to me and what I’m looking for in the future.