Design for Change MA (eca)

Design for Change is an exciting interdisciplinary programme which seeks to holistically address complex global challenges such as ageing populations, disruptive technologies, economic instabilities and inequalities, conflict and displacement and environmental degradation and injustices through design-led interventions.

It aims to foster a new breed of designer for the 21st century. To do this, it offers a particular blend of eco-social design.

As a student of Design for Change, you will develop the skills to research, ideate, communicate and deliver propositions for change that are just and equitable, and socioculturally, politically and environmentally aware.

You will be supported to develop tactical, critical, strategic and creative approaches that draw imaginatively on a variety of disciplinary fields, theories, philosophies and methods.

Together with other students and staff you will have the opportunity to be part of design efforts to face the urgent challenges of our shared contemporary world with humility and with hopefulness.

The programme embodies and promotes ways of designing that are slow and systemic. You will study emplaced, relational ways of designing for change that are also conscious of the importance of positionality, habit, ritual, practice and belief, and cultural and social difference.

You will be guided to consider the more-than-human in your design, and to explore alternatives to the status quo.

The programme seeks to broaden perspectives, cultivate humility, enable learning from and working with others, and privilege the experiential, the observational, and the monistic (rather than dualistic).

When studying Design for Change, you will be encouraged to be playful! We value the ability to play, to create and experiment, to try and fail and see this as a valuable and necessary part of learning. The programme cultivates a design(ing) that is non- or even anti-consumerist, activist, materially-conscious and conscious of material conditions.

Design for Change actively seeks designerly approaches to challenges that are often global and yet also locally felt. We do so critically and hopefully; as a Design for Change student you will be supported to be imaginative, principled – honing and defining your (design) values – and to embrace the prefigurative.

Our programme is ideal for students who are looking to broaden their existing specialist approaches from a range of disciplines across the arts, humanities and social sciences. We welcome those who are keen to explore – with us – how design might bring about the changes you want to see in the world.

Students on the Design for Change programme come from all corners of the world, bringing unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds with them to enrich the studio. Over your year of study at ECA, together with staff, you will learn to work together and create a plural community of practice.

Beyond your year here, as alumni, you will become part of a much wider design movement for change. Therefore, while Design for Change is a programme, it is also becoming a way of seeing and engaging with the world.

It is a shared ethos – one that connects its community of practitioners in their common goal of using design as a critical tool for good. It is a community whose members encourage one another to question the role of design, and the implications of design interventions, while striving to create positive change for today and tomorrow.

These entry requirements are for the 2025/26 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2026/27 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2025.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent

We also ask for evidence of your ability to communicate in non-textual forms as well as your motivation to engage in creative design-led practices which embrace a wide variety of media, materials and techniques. This should take the form of a portfolio.

Each portfolio document should contain two explicit components:

• a clearly identified hyperlink to a two minute video where you introduce yourself and discuss a potential circumstance for change across at least one of the programme themes (social, technical, environmental, inclusive, or political change). The video should showcase your ability to both address and present complex subject matter supported by appropriate reference materials (which may include images; articles; visualisations; compositions; performance; drawing; and/or writing).

• a collection of visual support material which demonstrates your affinity and aptitude for engaging in creative, design-led work. This can be existing project work, a portfolio of drawings, objects or artefacts and the processes of their making; sketchbook development; collated and curated research findings/materials with analysis; whatever exemplifies your creative approaches to thinking and communicating complex information and ideas.

The single portfolio document containing these two parts (video link and visual support material) must not exceed a maximum of 14 A4 papes or 7 A3 pages, any any text must be clearly readable at this size.

The portfolio is a requirement which helps us to determine your level of creative competency, to help us understand in which ways you will be able to flourish on our programme. Prior training in art, design or architecture is not required, but a desire and the courage to communicate change through multi-media means is expected. Professional experience equivalent to academic qualifications may be considered.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country

English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency which will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 73 with at least 59 in each component. We do not accept PTE Academic Online.
• Oxford ELLT: 8 overall with at least 6 in each component.

Unless you are a national of a majority English speaking country, your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start of the month in which the programme you are applying to study begins. If you are using an IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL, Trinity ISE, or Oxford ELLT test, it must be no more than two years old on the first of the month in which the programme begins, regardless of your nationality. (Revised 14 January 2025 to include Oxford ELLT.)

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old at the beginning of your programme of study.

Find out more about our language requirements:

• English language requirements

The professional knowledge, skills and abilities developed on this programme can be applied across a variety of intellectual and creative contexts.

They will prepare you for a rewarding career as a designer, maker, researcher, strategist or consultant within a variety of public and private sector organisations including:

• art and design studios and practices
• museums and galleries
• government departments
• non-governmental organisations such as charities, international bodies or research collectives.

Moreover, it will prepare you for lifelong learning and help you hone the abilities to critically and carefully navigate the challenges that (co-)designing (and life!) throws at you.

We also encourage our students to consider continuing their studies and to perhaps embark on future careers in academia, contributing to emerging fields of inquiry, teaching and using their research-through-design skills.

Similarly, if you are already in this space and are looking for career development, perhaps from within (higher) education, the programme is also very well suited to this, and a good number of our alumni have taken this route.

We regularly invite our alumni back to give talks about and share what they have done since graduating, so you will get to meet and hear from them during your time on the programme and benefit from their valuable insights and experiences.