Design (Research)

Goldsmiths’ Department of Design postgraduate research programmes offer you the opportunity to redefine design research in a community of design practice.

• It is aimed at practitioners and scholars of design, and those in related disciplines, who wish to develop a theoretically engaged, critically aware and empirically informed approach to design, design education, design research and design practice.

• The programme builds on and contributes to the Department’s internationally renowned approaches to inventive, experimental, and creative research where design’s relation to the social is placed centre stage.

• You can choose to do a practice-based or a thesis-based research degree.

Practice-based MPhil/PhD
The practice-based programme explores new approaches to, or applications of, existing knowledge by means of design practice.

For PhD, the research will create new knowledge by means of practice research. Your thesis will integrate an original body of practice and a written component providing critical analysis of your practice, critical assessment of relevant literature and practice and describe the method of research. Assessment is by thesis and viva voce.

Thesis-based MPhil/PhD
The thesis-based programme provides a written account of your research and contribution to knowledge on a subject related to design.

The MPhil thesis will provide a distinct contribution to the knowledge of a subject related to design and the PhD thesis will provide an original contribution to knowledge on a subject related to design. Both include a critical assessment of relevant literature and describe the method of research. Assessment is by thesis and viva voce.