Digital Media Design (Taught)

Our MA Digital Media Design is ideal if you want to stay ahead in the rapidly changing field of digital media and web design. This one-of-a-kind course offers you professional development and technical skills combined with academic rigour and scholarly consideration.

Why choose this course?

• On this course we teach you not only how to design and manage digital media, but also how to think critically about it. This unique approach gives you the skills and knowledge you need to be successful in the digital media industry, as well as the critical-thinking skills necessary to stay ahead of the curve.

• The course will prepare you for a career as a web developer or designer in the competitive arena of digital media, where employers are looking for candidates with a strong foundation in both technical and business skills.

What you will learn

We will teach you industry-standard techniques including coding, visual design and prototyping. You will also investigate agile and human-centred design methodologies, as well as gaining a deep understanding of core design concepts like accessibility, usability and user experience.

You will gain all-important skills in critical thinking that directly impact the design of digital media. By the time you graduate, you will have developed your ability to carry out design projects from idea to evaluation, and will have built up a portfolio that will impress potential employers.

How you will learn

You can study this course full- or part-time. It has an evening timetable with classes taking place in the evening, so you can manage your studies around other commitments. Highly interactive teaching makes for an engaging learning experience, through formal lectures, seminars, practical workshops and computer lab sessions for hands-on experience.

You will be able to tailor your degree to your interests and career goals by focusing on relevant subjects and choosing from a range of option modules. This course focuses on digital media design, but we also offer two interlinked MA Digital Media courses, one which focuses on culture and one which focuses on management aspects.

Highlights

• 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 southeast.

• 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 as focal points of our research culture.

• 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.

Careers and employability

The MA Digital Media Design provides technical skills like coding and design, but also essential transferable skills such as:

• critical thinking

• problem-solving

• communication

• teamwork

• leadership

• business acumen.

Graduates of the course will be prepared for careers in web development, multimedia programming, design, project management, education and training. They will be well-positioned for roles such as:

• web developer

• project manager

• digital designer

• multimedia specialist

• user researcher

• digital content manager

• UX/UI designer.

Top employers of MA Digital Media Design graduates include tech giants like:

• Google

• Apple

• Microsoft

• Amazon

• Meta

• Adobe.