Best UK Universities for Masters in Photography?

It depends on where you want to study. Do you want to be in London or do you mind studying elsewhere? What is your budget?

A quick Google and I found the following MA Photography degrees:

University of Brighton
Falmouth
London Met
Goldsmith's College (in South London)
De Montfort University (Leicester)
Manchester Met
Bolton
Nottingham Trent

These are just a few...

I was looking through a magazine article on prize winning young photographers around the world. In the UK they had Photography MAs from the Royal College of Art so that lead me to think that that might well be the top programme. Other people I have spoken too have backed this up. As an aside my daughter is applying for a photography BA and as the RCA don't do a BA so I asked RCA for suggestions, places where some of their MA students got BAs and did well. They gave us a very helpful list (London College of Communication, Westminster, Newport, Brighton, UCA, Farenham). If you cant get in to RCA some of those have an MA and might be worth looking at. At MA you will have to look at specialisms. Eg Newport has a long established reputation in documentary photography.

Actually if you are not limited to the UK I would look at Speos Photography Institute in Paris. perhaps a bit more commercial and practical than RCA but up there with them as top international Photography masters degrees.

Please however don't take my opinion on trust. If you ask me about maths degrees I can be reasonably authoritative but for photography I have been struggling to catch up with the differences between courses and understanding the reputations of departments.

BTW OP you are in the US. Did you check out Rochester?

Thanks for the suggestion! I also speak French and I'd love to live in France, so that programme seems pretty interesting. My photography is leaning more on the commercial side. I really think that Photo programmes should focus a little more on the business side of it.

And I'll give Rochester a check tomorrow!

RCA is no doubt the best in the UK and possibly in the world, but it's extremely hard to get into. I tried and failed... >_<
What is your work like? For me, I am fine art photography with a particular interest in examining the medium conceptually, so I am also applying to Fine Art courses. Goldsmith and the Slade at UCL don't actually run Masters in Photogrpahy, but under Masters in Fine Art, you need to choose a pathway. RCA and LCC are also very good. WIth the Slade, they interview 3 to 4 people for each place, meaning they interview about 80 Fine Art media people each year. With RCA they interview 2 people for each place, meaning they only interview about 40 or people each year. With LCC I don't know but all I know is I got a place and I don't know what to do with it (long story, I have done my BA there, so...).

I would say LCC is a good place if you wanna be in London and depite the fact many say it's hard to get into, I can tell you from first hand experience, it's not. The Slade and RCA are proper hardcore. I am yet to find out if Goldsmith is as hardcore as it sounds. One thing you might wanna bear in mind is RCA, Goldsmith and the Slade all offer their maters as 2 years full time, so as an International student (I assume you are?), you would be looking about £40,000 for the whole course. With LCC, I think it's about £10,000 give or take, coz it's only 1 year full time.

Anywhere outside of London is instantly cheaper and less competative.

Hope it helps.

I was thinking about adding this earlier, but I missed it. I'm looking into an MA, not the MFA. I'm leaning mostly into commercial (the ideal would be advertising with people, not solely products on location or in a white box). And I know about the difference in tuition between EU/Non-EU, no worries there.

Do you have some online samples of your work? I'd love to see some.
This is some of my stuff
www.federicoguendel.com/blog-2/

Hey everyone

I graduated in May from a US Uni and I'm looking for MAs in the UK for Photography. My BAs were on International Relations and Media Communications (separate degrees). Despite of the degree being media, I do have a strong portfolio and have very advanced knowledge on digital photography cause I took all my courses in photography. I ran into a programme in Uni of the Arts London

http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/courses/ma_photography.htm#

Any other good programmes out there?

Cheers

RCA is no doubt the best in the UK and possibly in the world, but it's extremely hard to get into. I tried and failed... >_<
What is your work like? For me, I am fine art photography with a particular interest in examining the medium conceptually, so I am also applying to Fine Art courses. Goldsmith and the Slade at UCL don't actually run Masters in Photogrpahy, but under Masters in Fine Art, you need to choose a pathway. RCA and LCC are also very good. WIth the Slade, they interview 3 to 4 people for each place, meaning they interview about 80 Fine Art media people each year. With RCA they interview 2 people for each place, meaning they only interview about 40 or people each year. With LCC I don't know but all I know is I got a place and I don't know what to do with it (long story, I have done my BA there, so...).

I would say LCC is a good place if you wanna be in London and depite the fact many say it's hard to get into, I can tell you from first hand experience, it's not. The Slade and RCA are proper hardcore. I am yet to find out if Goldsmith is as hardcore as it sounds. One thing you might wanna bear in mind is RCA, Goldsmith and the Slade all offer their maters as 2 years full time, so as an International student (I assume you are?), you would be looking about £40,000 for the whole course. With LCC, I think it's about £10,000 give or take, coz it's only 1 year full time.

Anywhere outside of London is instantly cheaper and less competative.

Hope it helps.