Fine Art (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The Master of Fine Art (MFA) is an intensive one-year studio-based programme in the practice of contemporary art. It provides an outstanding artistic environment for developing your practice in the context of a postgraduate, arts research culture.

The tutorial system is at the heart of teaching on the MFA and you will be supported by tutors of the highest calibre, with a student-to-staff ratio and contact time that are exceptional in art schools. You will be part of a small cohort on a course designed to direct and develop your artistic practice and theoretical knowledge in a supportive environment.

The programme encompasses a diversity of disciplines including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, art writing, installation, video, sound, performance, and other expanded forms in contemporary art. It aims to encourage experimentation and nurture a critical focus for your work.

Your artistic interests and those of your peers will be embedded in tutorials, seminars, and presentations, determining the direction of your creative development. You will engage with what it means to work as an artist today, considering how an artist’s work and ideas register in different artistic, social, historical, and theoretical contexts. You will be guided and supported by tutors in one-to-one tutorials and through presenting your research and practice in seminars. You will focus on your making, key concerns, ideas, and their interdependent development.

Studio-based learning is facilitated through regular group reflection, which is characterised by collective participation in generous and robust discussion. A programme of dedicated masterclasses and skills workshops is designed specifically for the MFA. Facilities, such as the media lab and editing suites, printmaking workshop, casting, metal and wood workshops, are located in Ruskin's Bullingdon Road building along with the studios.

Ruskin students benefit from being part of a large University, with access to lectures and seminars in other departments and colleges and to specialist libraries and collections.