Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management, MLitt, PgCert or PgDip

Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management, MLitt, PgCert or PgDip

Introduction

We live in an increasingly visual world. Images have both power and currency in contemporary society, and play a central role in shaping the world around us. From TV and advertising to social media and film, images form a part of our everyday lives. The MLitt in Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management develops your critical skills to both sort through and contextualise the images surrounding us. This programme offers hands-on, real-life experience to prepare you for future study or work in the world of images.

Study Information

Study Options

Learning Mode
On Campus Learning
Degree Qualification
MLitt, PgCert or PgDip
Duration
4 months, 9 months, 12 months or 24 months
Study Mode
Full Time or Part Time
Start Month
September or January

The MLitt in Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management offers a unique combination of research and practice. Students will learn and apply the main critical methods utilised in film and visual culture, and employ those methods in practice-based projects. The programme offers range of hands-on projects, including an opportunity to work in a local arts organisation and develop students individual portfolios to build a strong CV for work in the film and visual culture industry, as well as preparing them to go on to an academic career. This programme is ideal for those already working in the industry seeking further qualifications, or those new to the discipline seeking knowledge and experience.

Available Programmes of Study

Those starting the degree in January should be advised that they will begin their studies in Semester 2. They will complete the dissertation (Semester 3) over the summer, and finish the programme with the Semester 1 selection of courses. Taught courses do not run in the summer. Students wishing to do their dissertation at the end of the programme should consider delaying their start to September.

MLitt

Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management

Qualification Duration Learning Mode Study Mode Start Month  
MLitt 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time September More
MLitt 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time January More

Programme Fees

Fee information
Fee category Cost
EU / International students £23,800
Tuition Fees for 2024/25 Academic Year
UK £11,100
Tuition Fees for 2024/25 Academic Year

Semester 1

Those starting the degree in January should be advised that they will complete the dissertation over the summer and finish the programme with the Semester 3 selection of courses. Taught courses do not run in the summer. Students wishing to do their dissertation at the end of the programme should consider starting their study from September.

You will take the core course in Film and Visual Culture: FS5527: Projects in Film and Visual Culture and one option course. Normally the optional course will be FS5525 Work-based Placement in Film and Visual Culture, offering you first-hand experience working in the field, or FS5526 Special Study in Film and Visual Culture, where you will either develop your own project or reflect on your own current practice if you are already working in the industry.

You may also choose to study one of the additional courses that is running, listed in Optional Courses section.

Compulsory Courses

Projects in Film and Visual Culture (FS5527)

30 Credit Points

Projects in Film and Visual Culture gives students the opportunity to design a project or event in response to a Call for Proposals. In this way, the course simulates the management and development of project or event proposal through to a funding pitch (in the form of an assessed presentation) and will require students to address a variety of elements necessary to any successful arts project. The course is taught through weekly seminars and workshops. Students will engage with a variety of projects in film and visual culture in the form of case studies, including work produced by leading Scottish arts organisations. These content weeks are supplemented by sessions devoted to theory and workshops that will address the key aspects involved in designing a project or event in a film and visual culture context.

Optional Courses

Select ONE from the following:

The Museum Idea (AT5526)

30 Credit Points

Why do human beings collect and what is the purpose of museums? ‘The Museum Idea’ examines these questions by focusing on the history and philosophy of museums and relating these to contemporary museum practice. The course will examine the role of museums in society through case studies of exhibitions and other museum projects in a variety of settings, including art, history and ethnographic museums.

Public Engagement for Arts (EL5596)

30 Credit Points

Art and culture are integral to our daily lives, and the ways in which these are experienced are continually changing. Whether it is in a street performance, a public gallery, an academic festival, a webcast, a documentary or in social media, the relationship between the creative artist and those who consume it, is complex and can itself be a creative process. This course explores the many ways in which creative materials can be brought to public view, and how different forms of communication, aural, verbal and visual, can enhance public engagement with aesthetic experiences and the discourses around these.

Infinite Scotlands: Scotland and the Literary Imagination (EL55C7)

30 Credit Points

This course explores the ways in which place is negotiated in a range of Scottish texts. Looking at a selection of texts about rural, urban, and diasporic experience across the centuries, and including both canonical and lesser-known works, this course will acquaint students with key debates in the study of regional and national fiction. Place in these texts is something to be praised and scorned, embraced and abandoned, but always remains central in any discussion of individual and communal identities. Major themes and issues to be discussed include: the idea of ‘home’; the role of nostalgia and longing in Scottish fiction; the nature of community; the significance of emigration and displacement.

Places and Environments: Critical Dialogues (EL55D3)

30 Credit Points

This course introduces students to a range of critical, theoretical, and philosophical approaches to environment and place, as well as aligned research methods. Students will read key works of ecocriticism, ecofeminism, environmental philosophy, cultural geography, and related areas. Close reading and discussion of central texts will provide a foundation for further research, including the dissertation. Students will have the opportunity to discuss these ideas in relation to both literary and social contexts. This course is restricted to students on the MLitt Literatures, Environments, and Places, or by permission of the School.

Documentary Theory and Practice (FS5533)

30 Credit Points

The module offers a comprehensive look at how documentary has interrogated, and in some rare cases even influenced, politics, social values, and even popular culture. Students will be expected to look at how documentary filmmakers have built upon the famous Griersonian quote – ‘the creative treatment of actuality’ – to evolve the form’s style and scope as well as to challenge the very notion of filmic truth and reality. Attendees to the module will also learn how to identify the key documentary modes and be expected to analyse and understand how the movement’s use of transgressive visual images, no matter how apparently ‘genuine’, is frequently presented through a cinematic perspective that is not always objective. Furthermore, the module will require students to produce a short documentary or individual video essay (in documentary form) and, in doing so, explore the challenges of objective presentations.

Work - Based Placement in Film, Visual Culture, Music (FS5532)

30 Credit Points

Students will gain practical experience in the film industry and/or visual culture organisations, providing real work experience in preparation for the next steps following their degree.

MLitt Special Study in Film and Visual Culture (FS5526)

30 Credit Points

This course is designed to allow the creation of a programme of individual study where other appropriate course options at masters level are not available. It will run at the discretion of the programme co-ordinator. In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may be consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. This programme of study will be subject to approval by the convener of the relevant M.Litt programme. Where appropriate courses at masters level are available, this course will not run.

Semester 2

Over the summer you will undertake a dissertation in Film and Visual Culture. This can be a research paper, a reflective research paper combined with a work-based placement, or a research-led practice-based project, such as a film, exhibition, or other arts project.

Compulsory Courses

Dissertation in Film and Visual Culture (FS5902)

60 Credit Points

Candidates will be required to research and write a 12,000-word dissertation on a subject and in an area approved by the Programme Co-ordinator.

Semester 3

Compulsory Courses

Research Methods in Film and Visual Culture (FS5022)

30 Credit Points

This team-taught course will introduce students to key research methods in the field of film and visual culture as utilised in the research and practice of faculty members in the department. Each week students will engage with a range of written and visual materials relating to a specific approach to the study and/or production of visual culture. These may include: approaches to working with living artists and documents of ephemeral art; theories of the animal gaze; approaches to practice-as-research; documentary; memory and memorialisation; the relationship between film, art and history; close reading; bricolage; walking; intermediality; and projects in art and science among others. Throughout the course students will explore important theoretical concepts and artistic paradigms in these areas, applying them in weekly exercises and seminar preparations, and ultimately using one (or more) of them in their assessed work.

Optional Courses

Select ONE of the following:

Museums and the Digital World (AT5050)

30 Credit Points

Given the expanding use of the Internet and new media forms, museums are re-evaluating their relationships with their audiences as well as their relationships with collections. This course introduces students to a wide range of digital technologies as they relate to museums e.g., online exhibitions, smart phone apps, and 3D imagery. Students will examine the impact and consequences of using digital approaches, and the implications for museums and their users of these rapidly changing technologies.

The Novel: Environments and Encounters (EL50C5)

30 Credit Points

This module explores how the evolution of the novel form has allowed, and required, authors to find new ways of depicting spaces, places and interactions (between characters in particular environments, but also between characters and their environment). This chronologically wide-ranging course moves from the early days of the novel form through to contemporary fiction, allowing for an opportunity to study the many literary tactics that authors have employed to create the settings for their works – from vast historical backdrops, to natural spaces, to urban environments, to smaller domestic and private places. It also us to consider how different cultural moments have prompted authors to rethink how they represent characters’ encounters with the world around them, and with the other cultures, races, species and genders that inhabit that world. As well as narrative theories, students will have the chance to study canonical and less well-known texts from angles informed by current critical approaches such as ecocriticism, animal studies, postcolonial and queer theory.

Fundamentals of English Language (EL50D2)

30 Credit Points

This core course introduces students to advanced study of the English language. Three key aspects of the structure of English are introduced: the sound patterns of English (phonology); the structure of English words (morphology) and the structure of sentences (syntax). We then consider the relationship between the semantic meaning of linguistic constructions and their pragmatic implications. The course will enable students to refer confidently to the structure and use of the English language in their own research projects, whether the focus is literary or linguistic.

MLitt Special Study in Film and Visual Culture (FS5026)

30 Credit Points

This course is designed to allow the creation of a programme of individual study where other appropriate course options at masters level are not available. It will run at the discretion of the programme co-ordinator. In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may be consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. This programme of study will be subject to approval by the convener of the relevant M.Litt programme. Where appropriate courses at masters level are available, this course will not run.

Work - Based Placement in Film, Visual Culture, Music (FS5032)

30 Credit Points

Students will gain practical experience in the film industry and/or visual culture organisations, providing real work experience in preparation for the next steps following their degree.

Contemporary Issues in Aesthetics (MU5016)

30 Credit Points

This course will introduce students to the work of key contemporary texts in aesthetics relating to music and the other arts. Texts will be studied, discussed and related to one another. While selected texts will vary from year to year, readings will be taken from writers such as Adorno, Badiou, Benjamin, Barthes, Bloch, Boulez, Deleuze (and Guattari), Dahlhaus, Derrida, Dufrenne, Eco, Gadamer, Habermas, Heidegger, Husserl, Jameson, Jencks, Lachenmann, Lyotard, Nancy, Nietzsche, Rancière, Rihm, Sartre, Schoenberg, Serres, Sloterdijk, Spivak, Stockhausen, Vattimo, Wittgenstein, Zizek.

Examples of issues and questions that may be covered include the nature of modernity, post-modernity more idiosyncratic variable theorisations of recent aesthetic history; the nature and purpose of the contemporary artwork; the beautiful and the sublime; relationships between the arts; the materiality of contemporary art forms; musique informelle.

PgDip

Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management

Qualification Duration Learning Mode Study Mode Start Month  
PgDip 9 months or 12 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time January More
PgCert

Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management

Qualification Duration Learning Mode Study Mode Start Month  
PgCert 4 months or 9 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time January More

Fees for individual programmes can be viewed in the Programme(s) above.

We will endeavour to make all course options available; however, these may be subject to timetabling and other constraints. Please see our InfoHub pages for further information.

Fee Information

Additional Fee Information

  • Fees for individual programmes can be viewed in the Programmes section above.
  • In exceptional circumstances there may be additional fees associated with specialist courses, for example field trips. Any additional fees for a course can be found in our Catalogue of Courses.
  • For more information about tuition fees for this programme, including payment plans and our refund policy, please visit our InfoHub Tuition Fees page.

Funding Opportunities

The SFC Postgraduate tuition fee scholarship may be available for those classified as Home/EU fee status students for this programme. Visit the scholarship page for more information.

The James Carnegie maintenance scholarship for postgraduate students is available with this degree.

Scholarships

Eligible self-funded international Masters students will receive the Aberdeen Global Scholarship. Visit our Funding Database to find out more and see our full range of scholarships.

How You'll Study

The programme is delivered by means of seminars and workshops that are tutor- and student-led as appropriate. Students will complete independent and group work, and lead their own projects with the guidance and support of the course tutors. Assessment methods include essays, blog posts, portfolios, practical projects and other coursework.

Learning Methods

  • Individual Projects
  • Research
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Workshops

Assessment Methods

Assessment methods include essays, reflections, journal entries, and practical work such as portfolios, films and photography. The MLitt also requires a 15,000-word dissertation (which can also include practical components), while the PG diploma and PG certificate consist of coursework alone.

Why Study Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management?

  • It is unique in the combining of theory and practice to develop your critical understanding of methods in film and visual culture.
  • You will gain hands-on experience of working in the arts, by leading projects, developing social media strategies, and working on a project with a local arts organisation. Previous cohorts have worked on projects with the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh and Deveron Projects in Huntly
  • You have the opportunity to work in the industry through a work-based placement. Students have completed work-based placements in the film, TV and advertising industries in Aberdeen and beyond, within art galleries and arts organisations, and within departments at the University.
  • Two core courses provide a grounding in both theoretical perspectives and practical skills, preparing students for further postgraduate study and a career in the arts.
  • Optional modules allow students to explore visual culture in different historical and cultural contexts, and include a practice-based pathway.
  • You engage with a wide range of material, including film, visual art, performance, scientific images, television, photography, advertising, digital and social media.
  • The programme will be of interest to you if you have a background in Film Studies, Cultural Studies, English, Modern Languages and Art History. It will also be of interest to you if you have a professional background in the visual arts and media.
  • Students studying on the MLitt in Film and Visual Culture become associate members of GWW, Centre for Visual Culture.
  • The campus is a major tourist attraction and is part of 'Old Aberdeen.' The campus provides a range of spectacular architecture and visual art dating back from its inauguration to the present day.
  • Members of the School of Language and Literature play a leading role in several specialised research centres at the University of Aberdeen. The centres bring together groups of scholars from a range of academic disciplines, and foster links with other universities.
  • A number of centres are based in the School, including the Centre for Celtic Studies, the Washington Wilson Centre for Visual Culture, and the Grierson Centre for Textual Criticism and Comparative Literary History.
  • The city of Aberdeen offers a range of contemporary art and visual culture in its museums, art galleries and contemporary art centres, with notable and well known artists, live music covering all tastes and theatre. Within Aberdeenshire there is a rich heritage sector.

What Our Students Say

Cerys Davies

Cerys Davies

Cerys Davies

This course gave me confidence in my ability to build skills I have taken forward with my career, like managing large-scale events and connecting with others through public engagement and social media.

Find out more

Zuzana Fryntová

Zuzana Fryntová

Zuzana Fryntová

Being linked with Deveron Projects, an arts organisation based in Aberdeenshire, as part of the course proved crucial for my career. I stayed in touch with the organisation during the pandemic and applied for an internship after graduation.

Find out more

Entry Requirements

Qualifications

The information below is provided as a guide only and does not guarantee entry to the University of Aberdeen.

Students are normally required to have a good 2.1 degree (or its equivalent) in a subject relevant to Film and Visual Culture, such as Anthropology, Art History, English, Film Studies, Media Studies, Modern Languages, Sociology or Theatre Studies, OR, an undergraduate degree plus relevant professional experience in the arts and humanities industry.

Please enter your country to view country-specific entry requirements.

English Language Requirements

To study for a Postgraduate Taught degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:

IELTS Academic:

OVERALL - 6.5 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 6.0; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0

TOEFL iBT:

OVERALL - 90 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 21; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21

PTE Academic:

OVERALL - 62 with: Listening - 59; Reading - 59; Speaking - 59; Writing - 59

Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency:

OVERALL - 176 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 169; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169

Read more about specific English Language requirements here.

Document Requirements

You will be required to supply the following documentation with your application as proof you meet the entry requirements of this degree programme. If you have not yet completed your current programme of study, then you can still apply and you can provide your Degree Certificate at a later date.

Degree Transcript
a full transcript showing all the subjects you studied and the marks you have achieved in your degree(s) (original & official English translation)
Personal Statement
a detailed personal statement explaining your motivation for this particular programme

Careers

As well as providing research training to enable students to go on to pursue an academic career, this programme will also be of interest to those wishing to follow a career in arts management, curating, film and television, and related fields.

Career Opportunities

  • Arts Manager
  • Community Arts Work
  • Festival Organisation
  • Film Producer
  • Public Engagement
  • Web Developer

We Are Visually Programmed

We communicate and react to visual stimulation first and foremost, and analysing visual culture develops crucial understanding upon the arrival of the new digital visual revolution 

Student Film

Check out one of the projects by students in our programme in 2015. As part of the portfolio, they produced a documentary film about Botanist Ian Hedge for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh

Our Experts

Other Experts

Programme Coordinator

Information About Staff Changes

You will be taught by a range of experts including professors, lecturers, teaching fellows and postgraduate tutors. Staff changes will occur from time to time; please see our InfoHub pages for further information.

Get in Touch

Contact Details

Address
Student Recruitment & Admissions
University of Aberdeen
University Office
Regent Walk
Aberdeen
AB24 3FX