Master of Arts - Interior Design

MA Interior Design develops advanced spatial practice: concept and narrative-driven design, adaptive reuse and heritage contexts, materials and detailing, sustainability, and professional communication through drawing, modelling and visualisation, culminating in a major design project.

The programme suits interior, architecture and spatial design graduates seeking depth or UK context, and it engages real sites and briefs — Leicester’s stock of historic and industrial buildings offering genuine adaptive-reuse problems rather than hypothetical ones.

Technical rigour is treated as part of design quality: regulations, accessibility, construction sequencing and specification appear alongside conceptual development, because the gap between student work and practice output is usually technical rather than creative.

Software fluency should be treated as a parallel project throughout the year, because interiors practices screen on drawing capability before concept quality: AutoCAD, Revit and rendering tools appear in almost every junior and mid-level job specification, and a master’s portfolio of beautiful concepts without technical packages competes poorly. Students should therefore ensure at least one project is developed to full drawing-package standard. Model-making, printing and materials costs sit outside the £16,800 fee, and September entries run across the three admission cycles recorded in the source export. Applicants should also present a portfolio showing spatial thinking specifically, since strong graphic or product work alone does not evidence the three-dimensional judgement this course develops.

Graduates enter commercial, hospitality and workplace design practices, and the qualification supports progression toward design management. The master’s qualifies for the Graduate Route at 18 months under the post-January-2027 settlement, and dependants are excluded on taught postgraduate study.