The MA Applied Imagination course at Central Saint Martins encourages students to develop their imaginations while focusing on entrepreneurial thinking.

MA Applied Imagination will encourage students to use research as a creative tool, with the goal of asking better questions.

Rather than discipline-related skills and processes, the course focuses on developing student-specific interventions, which can be tested and developed through real-world applications. These research topics vary greatly and are dictated by students' skills and interests.

Students studying MA Applied Imagination have previously used the course as an opportunity to develop creative entrepreneurship projects – from establishing new start-ups to working with creative-sector organisations.

The course foregrounds iterative testing, entrepreneurship and stakeholder engagement. It also adopts a critical stance towards cultural, economic, social and political inquiry, using discourses taken from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, critical theory, management theory, social enterprise, performance and technology.

MA Applied Imagination embraces multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural collaboration. This is reflected in the wide diversity of our student intake – in addition to conventionally art – and design-trained students, previous cohorts have included students from other disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, law, business and finance, performance, literature, history and science.

Our students evolve as flexible and reflexive practitioners, able to function in a wide variety of professional and entrepreneurial situations.

School: Central Saint Martins
Course: MA Applied Imagination
Type: Postgraduate
Location: London, UK
Course dates: starts January 2027, with a duration of one year full-time (45 weeks). Applications for 2026/27 entry open in spring 2026
Application deadline: October 2026

Find out more about the course and apply ›

What will I learn during this course?

– Iterative testing, entrepreneurship and stakeholder engagement
– Anthropology, critical theory, management theory, social enterprise, performance and technology
– Problem solving and provocation

What are the requirements?

– An honours degree or an equivalent EU/international qualification
– English language requirements: IELTS level 6.5 with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking (please check our main English language requirements webpage)

What facilities and resources are available?

– Students on this course have 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 and 3D Capture Lab and Casting

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