Admission Requirements MA in Design

Admission requirements

To be eligible to apply applicants must have a Bachelor's degree in design or a similar relevant discipline from an accredited university or design school.

Note that we do not make pre assessments of bachelors degrees. Please submit your application before the application deadline and we will assess your eligibility after we have received your application. 

Selection Criteria
Admission is based primarily on an assessment of Portfolio and relevant professional experience. As part of the overall assessment applicants may be called for an interview.

The following documents must be included in your application:

• Portfolio
• Educational transcripts
• Bachelor degree certificate
• Documentation for language proficiency (see under "Language Requirements")
• CV
• Documentation for passed courses at masters level (if applicable)
  
  Files must be of the type pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, mov, mpeg or png.

Online Application System
The online application system opens on 15 January. 

The application deadline is 1 March at 11:59 p.m.

We do not accept applications after the deadline. All the required application documents must be uploaded before the deadline.

By submitting an application you confirm the validity and originality of the documents. Should you fail to comply with these regulations your application and any admission offer will be cancelled.

Portfolio
Technical Requirements – Your portfolio must

• be in a single document
• not exceed 10 MB
• be optimized for viewing on a standard size computer screen
• be uploaded at the time the application is submitted
  
  You may include a link to external online materials in the end of your portfolio, but submitting only a link without a portfolio is not accepted. 

Content requirements – Your portfolio should demonstrate

• A clear positioning in relation to the subject of study applied for
• Command of design process
• Ability to identify and frame a design challenge
• Ability to develop design concepts through experimentation
• Practical workshop skills and/or experience from working in labs 
• Sensitivity to material qualities

• The technical ability to execute a fully resolved design outcome
  
  Please note 
  Where group work is presented your contributions to the project should be clearly identified and described.


  We would like to remind you that plagiarism or misrepresenting the work of others as your own is an offense against intellectual property rights and is a serious breach of academic misconduct. The work you are presenting in your portfolio must be of your own creation.

  We do not have specific requirements regarding the number of projects or pages.

  We do not give further advise or guidance on portfolios.
   

Educational transcripts
We accept transcripts or diploma supplement in English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Documents in all other languages must be translated into English or Danish either by a certified translator or your school/university. For application purposes we accept a digital copy or scan of transcripts.

Bachelor degree certificate
We welcome applications from students that have already completed or is about to complete their Bachelor's degree. If you haven't completed your Bachelor's degree by the time of applying we require to receive the degree certificate by 1 August.

CV
Please list your educational qualifications and relevent work experience

Language proficiency
Refer to section 'Language Requirements' for information on which documents and tests are accepted.

Copy of passport (photo page)
In your application you are required to submit a scan of your passport photo page. If you do not have a passport then you may upload a scan of your national ID card photo page. If you have multiple citizenships then you must upload a scan of your passport photo pages for all of your citizenships.

Danish Residence Permit
If you are a non-EU citizen and have a residence permit in Denmark then you must upload a full copy of your residence permit letter from SIRI and a scan of your residence card in your application for admission. 

Documentation for passed courses at masters level (if applicable)
Pursuant Danish higher education legislation, applicants are required to submit documentation for any credits on previous Master's level programmes/courses. We are obligated to evaluate whether previous obtained credits are credit transferable into your Master's. For more information please refer to https://royaldanishacademy.com/credit-transfer-ma-programmes

Documents that should not be included
Motivational letters and reference letters are not taken into consideration during general assessment for admission so please do not to include these.

Choose the correct programme

To be eligible for a design degree you must hold a bachelor's degree in design or a similar, design-related degree. 
 
Applicants for architecture must hold a Bachelor's degree in architecture or architectural studies. Architecture students must pay particular attention to applying for the degree in architecture in order to graduate as cand. arch/Master of Arts in Architecture and thus being able to practise as an architect. Applicants who apply for architecture without having a Bachelor's degree in architecture will receive a rejection .
 
Three MA programmes are offered as both architecture and design degrees:

- Furniture Design: Products, Materials and Contexts
- Spatial Design
- Strategic Design & Entrepreneurship

Make sure that you choose the correct programme title in the application form. For instance “MA in Architecture – Spatial Design” or “MA in Design – Spatial Design”.
 

You can apply for one programme

You are allowed to apply for only one programme in design.

If you apply for more than one programme then we will assess the first application that you have sent us i. We will cancel the subsequent applications. 

It is not possible for applicants to change programme after the application deadline or after admission.
 

No exception to language requirements 

The deadline for submission of your language test in your application is 1 March.

We do not make exceptions to the deadline 1 March or to the language test requirements mentioned on our webpage. 

If you do not meet the language requirement by 1 March you will receive a rejection and your application will not be assessed by the programme that you have applied for. 

If you already have a Master's degree

If you have already completed one Master’s degree equivalent of a Danish 2-year Master's (EQF 7) then your chance of being admitted is minimal due to the Danish rule of limitation of multiple degrees. 
 

If you have multiple citizenships

If you have multiple citizenships then you must upload a scan of your passport photo pages for all of your citizenships in your application. 

The Royal Danish Academy has a quota on number of places for EU citizens and non EU citizens. We are by law not allowed to offer an EU place to a non EU applicant and vice versa.

If we have given you an offer of admission based on the citizenship in your application and later discover that you have a dual citizenship then we have to withdraw your offer of admission.

Example: you have uploaded documentation for an Argentinian citizenship in your application. You are offered admission as a fee paying non EU citizen. You later send us documentation for an Italian citizenship (dual citizenship). We are not able to offer your admission as an EU citizen as we have used our quota for EU citizens and we are by law not allowed to accept you as a non EU fee paying citizen. We therefore have to withdraw your offer of admission.

If you have a Danish residence permit

If you are a non-EU citizen and have a residence permit in Denmark then you must upload a full copy of your residence permit letter from SIRI and a scan of your residence card in your application for admission.

If we have given you an offer of admission based on the citizenship in your application and later discover that you have a residence permit that gives you the right to a tuition fee waiver then we have to withdraw your offer of admission.