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The University of Edinburgh: Design

Institution The University of Edinburgh View institution profile
Department Edinburgh College of Art
Web https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying
Study type Research

Summary

The PhD in Design is for students with prior advanced knowledge of and qualifications in a design discipline who want to pursue a rigorous, in-depth study of a specific topic under specialist supervisory guidance.

We welcome prospective students with a strong idea of what they want to research and how they will carry it out.

A willingness to engage with primary-source material and existing literature in the field are essential attributes in those wishing to undertake this programme.

Your aim will be to make an original and substantial contribution to knowledge in the chosen area of study.

Undertaking an MPhil or PhD in Design offers you the opportunity to become part of a dynamic and varied research community. We have students engaged in a wide range of research projects covering, deepening and extending the disciplines that make up the School of Design.

We specialise in areas including (but not limited to):

  • animation practice and theory

  • illustration

  • place, body and environment

  • design, craft and digital technologies

  • immersive technologies, interaction and gaming

  • materiality and making

  • design informatics and computational craft

  • design anthropology, history and theory

  • film theory and practice

  • design for healthcare and wellbeing

  • design for change (transition and transformation)

  • cultural and heritage studies

  • sustainability and the circular economy

  • participatory and co-design approaches

We encourage you to explore both discipline-specific areas, and interdisciplinary programmes of research. As such, you may be supervised by a range of academic staff from across design and beyond.

We welcome both practice and research led approaches to research. The first offers you the opportunity to work through and submit a practical portfolio and textual output, while the standard approach requires a fully text-based output.

Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

Master of Philosophy - MPhil

Edinburgh University

Edinburgh. Extraordinary futures await.

The University of Edinburgh is one of the world's top universities, consistently ranked in the world top 50, and placed 34th in the QS World University Rankings 2026.

Our position as one of Britain’s leading research universities was reaffirmed by the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, ranked 4th in the UK for research power (Times Higher Education, Overall Ranking of Institutions), with 90% of our research activity classified as world leading or internationally excellent in the 2021 Research …

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