POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA CRITICAL AND CREATIVE MEDIA

This nine-month postgraduate diploma (full-time) advances practical, research and analytical thinking skills while deepening creative and theoretical engagement with media of all kinds. The programme combines critical thinking and cutting-edge creative practice to tackle the challenging environment of contemporary media industries. It develops a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches across several media forms, including film, interactive media, print, broadcast TV and radio. It situates these media in their historic and social contexts, examining how people engage with them, their economic infrastructures, and technological forms, alongside hands-on practical engagement with media tools.

The programme’s flexible structure also allows you to build a degree that suits you.

Students can follow one of our 3 pathways: Creative Media, Society and Justice, or History and Culture, or a programme of their own design. The programme also allows students to pursue their own interests by taking related modules from across a range of subjects available at MU.

We recommend that students register for the MA programme which gives the option to do the final dissertation/project. It is possible to decide against completing the MA: it is possible then to exit with the Postgraduate Diploma. Do get in contact to talk through your options.

This programme can be taken full-time or part-time.

Applicants must have a recognised primary degree NFQ Level 8 or equivalent honours degree) which is considered equivalent to Irish university primary degree level.

Minimum English language requirements:

Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study. For information about English language tests accepted and required scores, please see here. The requirements specified are applicable for both EU and international applicants.

Maynooth University's TOEFL code is 8850

IELTS : 6.5 with no less than 6.0 in each band

Duolingo English Test (DET) : The minimum requirement will be a DET score of 120 - with at least 110 in each individual subscore. 

Pearson Test of English : 63 with no less than 59 for each item in the Communicative Skills section

TOEFL internet-based test  : iBT: 90 with no less than 21 in writing and at least 19 in every other section

Knowledge of, and skills in, mediated communication are required across a whole range of sectors. Media industries such as web design, games, film and television all require understanding of the wider communication landscape, practical knowledge of production and research skills. But it is also companies that interact with the public – that have communications and a wider social presence – that call for informed media graduates. Businesses include sports, arts and heritage organisations, charities and NGOs, corporations and brands increasingly require media-trained graduates, particularly in the areas of content production and interactive media. They also demand the kinds of critical thinking, research skills, and creative problem-solving that are developed across this programme.