Digital Media Design

How can designers, managers, entrepreneurs and scholars keep pace with the rapidly changing field of digital media and web design? Is it possible to learn skills, approaches and methods that facilitate both current production and the anticipation of future developments in digital media? The MA Digital Media Design provides both the technical and conceptual framework required to succeed in the digital environment of today and tomorrow.

This course is one of the only MA degrees in the UK to combine professional development and technical skills with academic rigour and scholarly consideration. The philosophy of the course is that the innovative design and management of digital media must go hand in hand with critical thinking about digital media.

The MA Digital Media Design concentrates on industry-standard techniques, introducing you to core development tools and how to use them. You will develop skills in coding, visual design and image manipulation, and an appreciation of user experience through research.

By the end of the course, you will have built connections with companies and industry networks and will have developed project-based portfolios that will greatly facilitate your entry into the job market.

• The unique combination of technical, management and conceptual skills will increase your chances of working in one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in the UK. The majority of jobs in the sector are located in London and the south-east, with Birkbeck uniquely positioned to take advantage of technology hubs such as East London's 'Silicon Roundabout'.
• We focus on teaching and research in film and media, journalism, arts policy and management, with the Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture, the Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology and the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image (BIMI) as focal points of our research culture. BIMI has a rich programme of free screenings and film-related events, and also hosts the annual Essay Film Festival.
• We have state-of-the art cinema and exhibition spaces, all housed in a historic building that was a former home to key members of the Bloomsbury Group, including the author Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell.
• Birkbeck was ranked as one of the top four universities in the UK for its Art and Design research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.