Museum and Gallery Studies

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a good BA(Hons) degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant subject area, which may include:

• a humanities subject, such as art history design history, English literature, film and media studies, cultural studies, philosophy;
• a social sciences subject, such as geography, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, history or education;
• a practice-based degree in an area such as fine art, design or architecture; or
• a business or management related course.

We also welcome students with relevant professional practice experience should they not hold a higher education qualification.

For those students without professional experience in museums and galleries, voluntary museum work is not a requirement for acceptance on the course.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Through this course you will acquire real-world experience of working in museums and galleries. Our imaginative, interdisciplinary, international approach will advance your knowledge of contemporary developments in this vibrant and sophisticated area of culture, arts and heritage.

You'll develop transferable skills that are essential across this sector, working with museum and gallery professionals to nationally and internationally recognised museum standards. There are plenty of research opportunities in museums and galleries, which will allow you to develop your own interests and gain valuable research and practice-based skills. You'll also have the option to manage and curate an exhibition and produce research towards a dissertation or work-based creative projects.

On this course you'll re-imagine the relationships between academy and profession, exploring the implications and applications of this approach to accepted ideas of academic museum studies and museum practice.

This degree engages across artistic, urban planning, architectural and design practices as offering alternative creative approaches to museum study and practice. Our genuinely interdisciplinary approach to creative practice is one of the unique features of our curriculum.

We aim to offer a more sustainable place-based approach to our understandings of museums, museum practices and their academic study, and further open the museum up to the world in an ethical engagement towards more-than-institutional futures.

Reasons to choose Kingston University:

• The course is taught in partnership with external institutions like the Museum of London, the National Maritime Museum, the V&A, English Heritage and Freud Museum, London.
• Our partnership with Brooklands Museum led to a nomination for the Art Fund's Museum of the Year 2018, the biggest prize in the UK museum world.
• Kingston University has its own museum and gallery – the Stanley Picker Gallery and Dorich House Museum.

What you will study:

The course examines contemporary issues and practices, including those relating to collections management, interpretation, audiences and exhibition. You will study taught modules covering critical analysis and creative practice, and conduct research around the broad themes and subjects addressed by each module. As well as working with our own in-house museums, Stanley Picker Gallery and Dorich House Museum, we work with four external institutions each year to develop real-world museum projects.

You'll take five core modules, working on live projects with our partners. Four of the modules are worth 30 academic credits each and the major project is worth 60. The course totals 180 credits.

Students can choose to complete a professional placement by opting to study for an additional year. This is not a compulsory part of the course which can be completed either with the placement year or as a single year.