MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise is the first-of-its-kind Master's programme offered in both London and Hong Kong by Central Saint Martins, a leading institute in arts and design education for 150 years under UAL, a world Top 2 university for art and design.  
 

This Masters Programme​ acknowledges that we are living in a fast-changing, globalised world, which presents a great number of opportunities and challenges for cultural innovation. It takes these changing conditions as a starting point to engage you in developing new knowledge and skills in order to manage cultural projects in the UK and around the world. It has been developed specifically in response to an increasing need for multi-skilled individuals who can both generate the ideas for original arts and cultural events, as well as provide leadership for the teams that realise them. These individuals will be dynamic, responsive, and fluent in public and private sectors, and have the ability to collaborate and develop networks.

​MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise addresses a contemporary shift within the cultural economy towards experiences and events, and away from the artefact. It is a response to multiple new forms of artistic and creative practice (interdisciplinary, time-based, socially-engaged, etc.), which demand new, hybrid forms of cultural management and organisation, and in turn, a new pedagogical approach from higher education institutions.

This Masters Programme takes as a starting point a definition of enterprise as engaging with projects that are new, challenging and complex, in order to create a valuable difference to specific stakeholders. It aims to enable you to gain a unique skill and knowledge set to become active creators in cultural management and production, be it as entrepreneurs, or within larger existing cultural organisations, anywhere in the world. For this reason, the course values rich cultural diversity, and benefits from the broad range of cultural backgrounds of its students, staff, and the college generally. Cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue are the essential point-of-departure for cultural and creative innovation, which generates cultural capital, and in turn fosters economic capital formation.​

•  This programme aims to equip you with the knowledge, cognitive and practical skills which enable you to develop experitise as sultural producers within a fast-changing, globalised cultural economy.
• You do not need to give up work or care duties in order to enrol on the programme. MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise is an innovative degree applying a blended learning approach, designed to enable you to pursue your studies whilst undertaking employment, by attending online classes taught by CSM faculty, supplemented by face to face/online seminars and workshops led by HKU SPACE academic staff.
• Moving away from a focus on practice or artefact, employability and enterprise are embedded within the programme. You will learn not only how to manage creativity, but also how to bring creativity to cultural and arts management. Alongside critical and creative thinking, you will acquire business skills, which are highly attractive to potential employers.  
• The programme offers you a valuable platform to expand your professional and intellectual network with peers and professionals in the arts and cultural sectors, particularly attractive to those who wish to take their careers to the next level or prepare a career shift into the related sectors.
• You will have an access to global-local experiences from CSM faculty who are active in the field of arts management, and from local academics and industry practitioners in arts, cultural and creative sectors.

• The programme is not bound by the walls of a classroom. We will draw upon our location in the heart of the city to attend arts and cultural events, and meet professionals working in the arts. Equally, you are encouraged to apply your learning to your own, individual, professional contexts and may choose to pursue a practice-based final project.

Career Opportunities

MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise aims to prepare graduates for the next step in their careers, whether that be a management position or a role within a leading team in the field of arts and cultural production. The entrepreneurial spirit of the programme might also encourage some graduates to set up their own company or creative practice, or to work as a consultant.

Other areas of employment that this programme might lead to include cultural institutions such as museums, theatre companies, cultural and live events companies and orchestras, broadcasters and publishers. Governance, policy and communication positions are also within the remit of the programme. Overall, the programme prepares graduates for careers where culture, economy and policy come together.

Specific roles a graduate might fulfil include: festival director; event manager; cultural sector entrepreneur; senior manager within an arts institution or organisation; cultural policy adviser within government; arts and community engagement adviser within a corporate enterprise; consultant to creative sector venture capital funds and angel investors (investors from the not-for-profit and philanthropic sectors).

MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise acknowledges that we are living in a fast-changing, globalised world, which presents a great number of opportunities and challenges for cultural innovation. This MA programme takes these changing conditions as a starting point to engage you in developing new knowledge and skills in order to manage cultural projects in Hong Kong, China, the UK and around the world. It has been developed specifically in response to an increasing need for multi-skilled individuals who can both generate the ideas for original arts and cultural events, and provide leadership for the teams that realise them. These individuals will be dynamic, responsive, fluent in public and private sectors, and have the ability to collaborate and develop networks.

The programme is aimed at graduates with some years of work experience who wish to challenge themselves by gaining a critical understanding of our world today as well as skills in the design, planning and production of creative events in the broadest sense. Focusing on the core capabilities of CSM, and its central role in the future of arts and other creative industries, it will offer you insights into aspects of cultural policy and governance, an introduction to business skills and processes, and strategic planning, which will equip you to shape creative futures. It will encourage radical thinking, based on creative research, analysis, and a deep understanding of the value of the cultural economy, and its role in creating cultural capital, to the wider economic, political and social environment in which it is located.

Application Deadline: 11 November 2024

All the required documents should be submitted with the application.

Application Code	2265-DP089A	Apply Online Now
Apply Online Now

Venue

• United Learning Centre
• Admiralty Learning Centre
• HKU campus in Pokfulam

Non-Local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance

This is an exempted course under the Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance. It is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognise any qualification to which this course may lead.

Programme Structure

The course comprises six multidisciplinary, 20-credit, Level 6 units that can be combined to achieve a PG Cert or PG Dip, followed by a 60-credit unit (dissertation/major project), to achieve an MA.

To achieve the Masters qualification your learning is timetabled across 83 weeks over two full calendar years. To achieve the PG Cert takes 27 weeks’ study, over around an 8-month period, and for the PG Dip, it takes 54 weeks’ study, over around a 16-month period. Both PG Cert and PG Dip are offered as an exit award only.

Each of the six 20-credit units sets out to equip you with specific skills, knowledge and insights relevant to cultural innovation; as such, the content, teaching and learning activities, and assessment evidence for each one, is distinctive and uses the lexicon and discourses relevant to the specific range of disciplines that it covers. The final 60-credit unit offers the opportunity to bring together and demonstrate your assimilation of the skills and knowledge gained. The MA award is based solely on the achievement in Unit 7.

Year	Module Title	Credit
Year 1	Researching Arts and Cultural Enterprise	20
	Practice, Policy and Markets	20
	Contexts – Local and Global Challenges	20
	Arts Entrepreneurship	20
	Business Models and Planning	20
Year 2	Business Models and Finance (cont'd)
	Focus: Social Impact and Innovation	20
	Dissertation or Live Project	60

A lecture by Charlotte Bonham-Carter (26 mins)

 

learning and Teaching methods

The programme has been designed to enable you to pursue your studies whilst also undertaking part-time employment, internships or care responsibilities. The programme operates through a blended-learning delivery model, by means of face-to-face and online teaching in a two-year period.

Peer and collaborative learning is fundamental to this model, and is achieved through a series of lectures, seminars, webinars, group tasks and workshops, as well as practice-based project developments in the realm of cultural production, enabling you to create networks that we hope will last well beyond your studies.

• Learning will be conducted in the form of online learning, support and feedback by CSM faculty members, as well as face-to-face seminars and workshops led by HKU SPACE academic staff and industry practitioners throughout the remainder of the module.

The COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong is in a state of flux. Whilst every effort will be made to ensure that all classes will be delivered in their intended mode, protecting the health and safety of students will be our top priority. Given that the situation is still fluid, we will adopt a flexible approach to the scheduling of MA ACE programme. Please do understand that we will move to online teaching if face-to-face classes are suspended. The Programme Team will announce detailed teaching arrangements to students in advance of the class.

Assessment methods

Each summative unit assessment will be assessed either ‘holistically’ or broken down into ‘elements’:

• Holistic Assessment: In holistic assessment students may be asked to submit one or more pieces of work, but tutors will look at all the work for the unit and make a single judgement about students’ performance against the University’s marking criteria. Students will receive a single grade and a single feedback form. Students will need to achieve a grade of D- or above to pass the unit.

• Element Assessment: When a unit is made up of a number of different pieces of work (or ‘elements’), those elements may be marked by different tutors or submitted at different times. In this case, each element is ‘weighted’ and added together to create the unit grade and students will receive a grade and feedback form for each individual element. Students will need to achieve at least an E grade in each individual element and at least a D- grade in the unit overall in order to pass the unit.

Details

Award

Upon satisfactory completion of all seven modules, students will be awarded the Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Enterprise degree from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.

You will have to pass all modules to gain the MA. However, your award classification is based on your achievement in Module 7 Dissertation or Live Project only.

Staff

Central Saint Martins, UAL

HKU SPACE

Application Fee

HK$300 (Non-refundable)

Course Fee

• HK$180,000* (Payable in four equal installments)
  *The tuition fee is subject to annual review

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

• An honours degree from disciplines such as fine art or design, the humanities, social sciences, politics or economics, or other areas of creative practice such as performance
• Or an equivalent EU/international qualification

And a minimum of two years of work experience in the arts, design, performance or creative business management and administration sectors. The course will not recruit from end-on students (i.e. those progressing directly from undergraduate degrees).

English language requirements

All students need to show proof of their English language ability to enrol at UAL. If your first language is not English, you may be required to provide evidence of your English language ability.  You can demonstrate your English language ability in any one of these ways:

• IELTS level 7.0 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; OR
• Level 5 or above in HKDSE English; OR
• Other alternative English Language Qualifications accepted by the University; OR

• Holding a qualification equivalent to a UK degree or higher where instruction was in English. The University sets minimum grades for each qualification (details). Qualifications are valid for 3 years from the date of issue. 

What we are looking for

We are looking for applicants who want to plan, fund and realise cultural events and processes, rather than further developing their own individual practice.  It is also aimed at professionals wanting to get a greater understanding of the frameworks governing the cultural sectors as well as foster their business management skills.

As prospective entrepreneurs and creative strategists, applicants will need to demonstrate:

• They can learn from failure
• They are inclusive and understand the need to embrace diversity

Candidate selection

We select applicants according to potential and current ability in the following areas:

• Have the ability to think in abstract terms about planning, management, and resources
• Have excellent communication skills
• Be numerate, and display some experience and understanding of logistics and strategic thinking
• Be team players and builders, not competitive individualists
• Demonstrate a collaborative mindset and an ability to negotiate roles within multidisciplinary and cross-cultural teams
• Have a strong level of standard computer literacy

Note: It would be an advantage to have working knowledge of some Adobe CS software.

Although applicants will be expected to learn and use some aspects of Web 2.0 such as blogging and use social media, the course is not designed to teach students how to use a computer.

computer equipmrnt requirements

Applicants will need to be able to access/have:

• A recent computer with an up-to-date operating system and web browser (smartphones and tablets can also be used, but are subject to some restrictions during the live classes)
• A reliable, fast broadband connection (slow internet connection can affect the learner experience, especially during a live session in a virtual classroom)
• A microphone (e.g. integrated to a laptop)
• A webcam (e.g. integrated to a laptop)
• Headphones (a headset with microphone/headphones is highly recommended)

Online Application Apply Now

Application Form Application Form for MA ACE

Enrolment Method

When to apply  | Notification  |  Financial Assistance  |  Additional Notes to Non-Hong Kong Resident Applicants 

When to apply

Please note that this programme begins in January. To ensure that your application can be assessed by the Admissions Committee, you must submit all required supporting documents by the relevant application deadline.  

Application Deadline: 11 November 2024

Apply Offline

Please bring your application form with both the original supporting documents¹ and photocopies of the qualifications stated in the application to one of our enrolment countersfor verification.

1. Application form;
2. Certificates and complete transcripts of undergraduate and postgraduate studies (if applicable);
3. Hong Kong identity card / Passport's photo page with a valid visa label;  
4. Proof of English proficiency evidence (IELTS 7.0 or equivalent; details);² 
5. Latest CV;
6. A personal statement (300 words maximum; details):
7. A Study Proposal (800 words maximum; details):

8. A crossed cheque for application fee of HK$300 made payable to ‘HKU SPACE’)

Please do not send any original graduation certificates to HKU SPACE in any circumstances. All documents, once submitted, will not be returned, and will be destroyed if the application is unsuccessful. Shortlisted applicants invited for document verification will be notified by email. 

We confirm the receipt of each application to each applicant via email. Applicants will receive an application acknowledgement email within two weeks of submission.

¹Transcripts, diplomas, and other submitted documents which are not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation in English. Certified translation may be provided by applicants’ home institutions.
² IELTS 7.0 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking

Notification

Shortlisted applicants may be invited to attend interviews in August (main round)/December (clearing round). Depending on the location and the availability of the applicant, s/he may be asked to attend an in-person or a phone/video interview.

Applicants will be notified the application results and will via email by September/December. Admitted applicants will be required to accept the offer and pay the non-refundable deposit/ tuition fee within ten days.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Students are eligible to apply for the Extended Non-means-tested Loan Scheme (ENLS) administered by the Hong Kong Government Student Finance Office (SFO). The maximum amount of the financial assistance under ENLS is the total tuition fee(s) payable in the 2022/23 academic year. A life-time loan limit is imposed on each student eligible for receiving loans under the ENLS. The loan limit will be price-adjusted annually in accordance with the Composite Consumer Price Index. The life-time loan limit is HK$390,900 for the 2022/23 academic year. 

View details 

Additional Notes to Non-Hong Kong Resident Applicants

To study in Hong Kong, all non-local applicants are required to obtain a student visa issued by the Immigration Department of the HKSAR Government, except for those admitted to Hong Kong as dependants, who do not need prior approval before taking up full-time and part-time studies.  Non-local applicants issued with a valid employment visa also do not need prior approval to pursue part-time studies. It is the responsibility of individual applicants to make appropriate visa arrangements. Admission to a HKU SPACE academic programme/course does not guarantee the issue of a student visa. Applicants may wish to note that part-time courses are generally not considered by the Immigration Department for visa purposes except for self-financed, part-time locally accredited taught postgraduate programmes awarded within the HKU system through HKU SPACE.

Payment Method

Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London

Central Saint Martins

University of the Arts London

University of the Arts London (UAL) brings together, in a single federated structure, six of the most famous art and design colleges in the world. It comprises Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins (CSM), Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Fashion, London College of Communication and Wimbledon College of Arts. Each has its own distinct approach, its own national and international reputation and its own established links with professional and cultural bodies. With a combined student population of approximately 26,000 and a global network of over 200,000 alumni, UAL is one of the world’s largest academic centres for art, design and communication.

UAL is not only a centre of excellence in practice-based learning but also a leading research university. UAL has been ranked second in the world for Art and Design in the QS World University Ranking ®2021, cementing its status as a global leader of art and design education.

Central Saint Martins

CSM is one of the world's leading institutes for arts and design education, a reputation based around the achievements of its graduates and the creative energy of its current staff and students. With its 150 years of history, CSM’s famous alumni include some of the most important British and international artists from famous painters such as Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach who studied fine art at Saint Martin’s in the middle of the 20th century; to Sir James Dyson, the industrial designer and founder of Dyson Industries; A.S. Byatt, the British author; Colin Firth, the actor and winner of BAFTA's Best Actor Award and to the latest wave of the world's celebrated designers including Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.