The MA Cities course at Central Saint Martins equips students with practical and theoretical skills to successfully navigate urban environments via creative collaboration and experimentation.

MA Cities creates city-making practices that foreground social and climate justice. As an art and design college, Central Saint Martins is a place of intense cultural production, generating critical creative practices in complex and conflicting urban settings.

Through an enquiry-led approach, MA Cities challenges the conventions of urban development, regeneration and place-making and provides a platform for generating and implementing innovative forms of civic practice.

On this course, students will engage with theoretical and practice-oriented approaches, political and ethical positions and a range of scales and methods of city-making.

Students will critically reflect upon your own forms of urban practice and develop new modes of research into critical practices, urban policy, governance and the urban economy – through creative collaboration and experimentation.

The course will encourage students to develop an individual position, agenda and methodology, to inform their future urban practice.

School: Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UAL)
Course: MA Cities
Type: Postgraduate
Location: online and in London, UK
Course dates: September 2026, with a duration of two years (60 weeks) extended full-time
Application deadline: 18 March 2026

Applications to this course have now closed.

What will I learn during this course?

– Theoretical and practice-orientated approaches to urban practice
– Research skills
– Multi-disciplinary skills

What are the requirements?

– An upper second-class honours degree in a relevant field including but not limited to: architecture, design (all forms), anthropology, fine art, theatre, geography, landscape, urban studies, urban planning, engineering, environmental science, literature, postcolonial studies, politics, cognitive sciences, computer science, performance, UX/UI, communications, media, film, writing and journalism
– Alternatively, an equivalent EU/international qualification to the above
– Academic or creative experience working in relevant fields
– The course will not normally recruit from end-on students (i.e. those progressing directly from undergraduate degrees)
– English language requirements: IELTS level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking. For further guidance, please check our English language requirements

What facilities and resources are available?

– Term-time access to a range of open technical facilities, including the Loan Store, Digital Fabrication Bureau, Digital Labs, Digital Print, Paint/Surface, Photography Studios, 3D Capture Lab and Casting
– Term-time access to specialist facilities including Archway, Digital Make, 3D Make, Media Studios (Video and Sound)

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