Course Catalogue

To provide a holistic postgraduate experience that enables students to graduate as versatile, resourceful and creative costume makers.

To advance, renew and develop existing practice in costume design interpretation and technical construction skills, encouraging an experimental approach to costume construction through the application of critical thinking, engineering and problem-solving strategies.

To identify professional frameworks for collaboration and employment, providing opportunities for experiential work-related learning in costume and professional development provision that encourages engagement with industry.

To develop methodological frameworks for, and innovative approaches to, the development of practice research in costume; research that has the potential to make a positive contribution to the future development of industry practices and enables students to establish and assert their own critical voice as a unique costume maker researcher.

The teaching and learning methods employed in the delivery of the MA Costume Making programme will be varied and diverse, drawing on a combination of methods of delivery as appropriate to the course's overall aims and learning outcomes.

As Master's degree courses typically feature a greater emphasis on methods involving independent study, the learning trajectory will move towards increased independence and autonomy, encouraging positive attitudes towards lifelong learning. This independence, coupled with an industry facing approach to teaching and learning, keeps the programme current, relevant and valid by enabling a reciprocal exchange; innovative practice research in costume construction that can influence industry practices and industry developments that can further inform teaching and learning.

Students will develop subject-specific expertise, personal and social development and intellectual maturity through engagement with appropriate ways of thinking and doing. Teaching and learning will be closely related, through a variety of approaches that facilitate students' artistic, creative and scholarly development. These approaches will cohere around the integration of practice and theory, exploring relations between creative and critical modes of enquiry which, in turn, inform the development of new training frameworks, pedagogies, research methods and methodologies.

Teaching and learning will take place in a variety of continually evolving contexts, including an appropriate balance of group and individual learning, workshops, practical classes, studio-based practice, subject-specific masterclasses, lectures, seminars and tutorials. Experiential learning is also a key principle of study on the programme. Students will experience work related to practical and professional performance contexts, undertaking costume making roles and participating in a range of processes.

The assessment approach will enable students to demonstrate their level of attainment and full range of abilities and skills. Modes of assessment and related feedback strategies are designed to be part of the learning experience and ensure that the learning outcomes identified by course components can be met. Opportunities for formative and summative assessment are provided in a variety of formats which assess critical understanding, knowledge, ability, technique, creativity, artistry, and application. These formats include:

• Portfolios of practical work (examples of costume making)
• Reflective documentation and critical evaluation (presentation, viva voce, essay, dissertations, video, blog, vlog, podcast)
• Self and peer assessment (discussions, tutorials & seminars)

Teaching, learning and assessment will be underpinned by a commitment to inclusive practice. Curriculum design, delivery and assessment activities will enable reasonable adjustments to be made as appropriate, in recognition of individual learning needs. The teaching and learning strategy of the programme will also include a continuing and reflective approach to decolonising the curriculum through rethinking, reframing, and reconstructing the delivery of historical perspectives to incorporate a broader range of voices that will develop alternative research frameworks and traditions that can inform one another.

Students will also be provided with all relevant course documentation comprising aims and objectives, structure and content, learning outcomes, assessment procedures and criteria, expected study approaches.

Students are offered the opportunity to construct costumes as part of live and/or filmed LIPA productions created under professional industry conditions in the Professional Practice module. Students are also encouraged to consider a work placement as part of their professional development.