Design Informatics MA (eca)

Design Informatics creates a meeting point between data, culture and design. We imagine alternate futures, disrupt thinking and play with data as a material.

Our practice is experimental, speculative and critical, informed through research and industry. We create inquisitive, professional and articulate problem solvers and entrepreneurs as graduates, leading applied data-driven futures with a global reach.

We play with making physical and digital artefacts and experimental data things. We build, test, hack and reinterpret what data means to society, and where design has opportunity to shape future thinking for challenge lead enquiry.

Design Informatics sits within the Institute of Design Informatics and is informed by research practice and industry partnerships across Edinburgh College of Art and School of Informatics.

Offered as a joint programme between Edinburgh College of Art and School of Informatics, our ECA route offers the MA degree, and School of Informatics offers the MSc degree. Students will work together and complete the same courses during their degrees, with a few areas of difference including the final dissertation timetable. Both schools have different application requirements.

Read more about the Design Informatics Masters on the programme website:

• Design Informatics Masters

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.

Normally a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in any subject relevant to themes within design informatics.

If you do not meet the academic entry requirements, we may still consider your application on the basis of relevant professional experience.

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

Our students often progress to further study or research study with many of our students progressing to PhD locally or internationally.

Many students take on roles in large organisations where their approach to innovation and working knowledge of design and data-science are sought after in industry.

A growing proportion of students are interested in starting businesses, or further commercialising products, teams or ideas developed as part of Design Informatics study.

Students are regularly invited to join in wider Institute of Design Informatics research and innovation events to help prepare them for roles after graduation.

This programme will enable you to engage across a wide range of fields that exploit the intersection between:

• data science
• design
• information technology
• experience and immersive design
• programmable matter.

The programme will open a host of opportunities in working with:

• companies
• charities
• the public sector.

For those who wish to stay in academia, the course provides a solid foundation for a PhD in related areas.

We actively encourage entrepreneurship.