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Creative and Collaborative Enterprise MA

London, Stratford (UCL East)

Interested in starting and running your own ethos-driven, customer-funded enterprise, where the way you do things is equally as important as what you do? Get specialist training in ethnography, anthropology and ensemble theatre, working with UCL’s anthropologists and leading creative practitioners. You’ll learn to think creatively, collaboratively and critically about your ideas, and receive the hands-on support you need to get your project going. 

UK students International students
Study mode
Full-time
UK tuition fees (2025/26)
£18,400
Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)
£39,800
Duration
1 calendar year
Programme starts
September 2025
Applications accepted
Applicants who require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 04 Apr 2025

Applications closed

Applicants who do not require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 29 Aug 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

Normally a minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Relevant experience will also be considered when assessing candidates.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 4

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

• The Creative and Collaborative Enterprise MA will support you to develop and implement your enterprise ideas. Taking a human-centred, anthropological approach, supported by the principles of ethnography and ensemble theatre, it will teach you to think creatively, critically, and collaboratively about your entrepreneurial ideas and how they can be sustained.

• The degree is aimed at students looking to start up innovative, ethos-driven customer-funded enterprises either in one of the nine creative sectors recognised by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (including advertising, architecture, IT and the visual arts) or an enterprise with a non-normal sphere of operation.

• You will develop the skills to create innovative, desirable and distinctive new products or services and to start up the value-rich, ethos-driven enterprises that will take those products to market and thrive in the contemporary world.

• You will study at the top university in London, and 4th in the world, for Anthropology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024) and The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2024.

• You will study in a warm and welcoming department that is also one of the largest and broadest anthropology departments in the UK, which researches and teaches across five sub-sections, and which continually works to expand and reshape the discipline.

Who this course is for

The Creative and Collaborative Enterprise MA is best suited to students who want to start up innovative, ethos-driven, customer-funded enterprises. Students come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.

The degree is well-suited to working professionals who wish to study part-time over two years.

Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

You will learn to initiate a creative enterprise project, to apply creative arts and ethnographic practices to business activities, to think critically about the relationship between ethos and delivery when starting a business, to utilise the skills of effectual entrepreneurship needed to initiate, grow and establish a new enterprise and to critically assess and reform enterprise activities and their context.

You will learn creative and collaborative practices, and follow customer-funded business models, providing you with the understanding, critical abilities and skill set to develop innovative, desirable and distinctive new products or services, and to start-up value-rich, ethos-driven enterprises that will take those products to market and thrive in the contemporary world. There is access to additional entrepreneurial support for students through UCL Innovation and Enterprise.

You will also develop demonstrable practical competencies transferable to any profession, including complex problem solving through critical thinking and creative initiative, effective oral and written communication, including the ability to interpret and present complex data to diverse audiences, effective independent and team working, leadership and time and project management.

Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

The foundation of your career

Graduates of the Creative and Collaborative Enterprise MA have gone on to pursue careers in a range of industry sectors, including:

• Teaching
• IT, Technology and Telecommunications
• PR, Advertising and Marketing
• Performance and the Creative arts
• Manufacturing

Graduate job titles have included:

• Marketing professionals
• Public relations professionals
• Arts officers, producers and directors
• Business and financial project management professionals
• Management consultants and business analysts

(Graduate Outcomes survey 2017-2022)

Employability

The creative sector now accounts for around 10% of the UK's GDP (Creative Industries Council). In recent years, employment in the sector has grown four times faster than the workforce as a whole (Creative Industries Council).

You will graduate well versed in developing and harnessing creative and collaborative techniques, with the skills to recognise, initiate and develop enterprise opportunities. You will have acquired a range of essential business skills and be able to contextualise your initiatives within socio-cultural phenomena.


 

Networking

As a student in the Department you have access to many opportunities to help further your career:

  • You will become part of the department's Public Anthropology section, learning from and networking with leading internal and external industry practitioners through a weekly seminar series and regular masterclasses.
  • You will have access to UCL Innovation and Enterprise resources including extracurricular courses in starting and growing a business, entrepreneurial networking and entrepreneurship advisors.
  • You will be encouraged to attend complementary departmental seminars given by active researchers in environmental, evolutionary and social anthropology and material, visual and digital culture throughout your studies.
  • You will be encouraged to take advantage of the broader enterprise communities at UCL, our neighbouring institutions and across London more widely, including attending and participating in seminars, conferences, exhibitions and research partnership opportunities to help you establish industry connections and extend your professional networks.
  • You will be encouraged to engage with the department’s active careers support activities and initiatives, which include regular career development seminars and networking events.

All students are encouraged to host and/or participate in a Reading and Research Group (RRG), which are open spaces to exchange ideas on themes of mutual interest and welcome staff and student participation from across UCL and our neighbouring institutions.

The department's central London location presents a range of opportunities to work, volunteer and carry out fieldwork in relevant organisations.

The department also houses London's global non-fiction film festival, Open City Documentary Festival, which all students are invited to volunteer to support to network with non-fiction film industry leading professionals.

Teaching and learning

You will learn through lectures, interactive seminars involving critical discussion, practical exercises, personal listening and independent directed and self-directed reading.

You will have the opportunity to attend complementary workshops led by creative practitioners and lectures given by leading entrepreneurs.

While planning and producing your final project, you will benefit from one-to-one academic supervision. Where appropriate to the final project, students may also be supported by an industry mentor, who may help you to forge links with and gain access to relevant professional organisations.

You will be assessed through a series of formative (exercises for which you will receive feedback but do not count toward the degree) and summative exercises (exercises for which you will receive feedback and do count toward the degree), including essays, presentations, take-home exercises including critical evaluations, your project portfolio and your final project.

For full-time students, typical contact hours are around 12 hours per week. Outside of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials, full-time students typically study the equivalent of a full-time job (five days or 40 hours per week) using their remaining time for self-directed study and completing coursework assignments. In terms one and two full-time students can typically expect between 10 and 12 contact hours per teaching week through a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshops, and tutorials. In term three and the summer period students will be completing their own dissertation research project, and keeping regular contact with their dissertation supervisor or mentor.

Modules

You will undertake eight taught modules and a research dissertation project.

You will take four compulsory modules in each term (4 modules in term 1 and 4 modules in term 2). The term 1 compulsory modules provide a grounding in creative enterprise, social theory, and applied ethnography. The term 2 compulsory modules introduce social and collaborative practices to shape the development of your enterprise.

Dissertation planning begins in term 2, with the research and writing conducted in term 3 and over the summer.

You will undertake eight taught modules and a research dissertation project.

In year 1 you will take 2 compulsory modules in terms 1 and 2 modules in term 2, these provide a grounding in creative enterprise and social theory, 

In year 2 you will study 2 compulsory modules in term 1 and two modules in term 2. These include applied ethnography, social and collaborative practices to shape the development of your enterprise.

Dissertation planning begins in term 2, with the research and writing conducted in term 3 and over the summer.

Compulsory modules











Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MA in Creative and Collaborative Enterprise.

Fieldwork

You will spend the summer term researching and writing your dissertation, for which you can choose to conduct ethnographic, archival and/or library-based, original research or complete an enterprise development project, with many students choosing to undertake self-funded fieldwork-based projects in the UK or abroad.

The scope and nature of fieldwork is formulated in discussion with your appointed supervisor, and subject to departmental approval.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services team.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students
Fee description Full-time
Tuition fees (2025/26) £18,400
Tuition fees (2025/26) £39,800

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

For Full-time and Part-time offer holders a fee deposit will be charged at 10% of the first year fee.

Further information can be found in the Tuition fee deposits section on this page: Tuition fees.

As this programme is based at the UCL East campus in Stratford, students choosing to take an optional module only available at the Bloomsbury campus will need to fund their own travel between campuses. Tickets from zone 2 to zone 1 costs £8.50 for students or a travel card zone 1-4 for £15.90.

UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

UCL East Scholarship

The scholarship works to support the ambitions of east Londoners by funding the fees and living costs of eligible Master's programmes including this MA at UCL. For further details, please visit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/scholarships/ucl-east-london-scholarship.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Aziz Foundation Scholarships in Social and Historical Sciences

Value: Full tuition fees (equivalent to 1yr full-time) (1 year)
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: UK

UCL East London Scholarship

Deadline: 26 June 2025
Value: Tuition fees plus £16,000 stipend ()
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: UK

Next steps

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £90 for online applications. Further information can be found at Application fees.

When we assess your application, we would like to learn:

• why you want to study Creative and Collaborative Enterprise at graduate level
• why you want to study Creative and Collaborative Enterprise at UCL
• how your personal, academic and professional skills and experience inform your interest in, and will enable you to succeed on, this MA programme
• where you would like to go professionally with your degree

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2025-2026

Apply for this course

Got questions? Get in touch

Anthropology
Anthropology

public.anthro@ucl.ac.uk

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