Master of Fine Arts

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is designed to provide visual artists with the opportunity to extend their professional practice through advanced research in one or more SCA studio area.

Candidates develop a level of proficiency, self-direction and focus through investigating a proposed area of research to produce work of an original and speculative nature. The MFA is a two-year full-time program.

Candidates complete the MFA program by creative work and research paper culminating in a substantial exhibition, performance or installation of creative works, and a research paper of 10,000 - 12,000 words on an area of relevance to the creative work. Candidates may also complete the MFA by written thesis only, of 35,000 -50,000 words, concentrating on an area of art theory, art history, cultural studies or professional studies in visual art.

Each research candidate has a supervisor, a member of the SCA academic staff, appointed to take primary responsibility for the conduct and progress of the candidature, and an associate supervisor, a member of academic staff at the Faculty or within the University of Sydney, appointed to provide additional support to the candidate and to cover times when the primary supervisor is not available.

Over the first two semesters candidates attend a weekly seminar program dedicated to the discussion of individual research and contemporary visual arts practice. At the end of each semester candidates must complete written work prescribed by the academic staff members coordinating the seminar series. In the first two semesters candidates may also be required to undertake study in research and professional practice.

In the third and fourth semesters, candidates complete the research paper and are also required to attend the Graduate School Forum.

Entry Requirements

Applicants are expected to have:

• an honours degree in Visual Arts, or
• a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts, or
• other qualifications considered by the Dean to be equivalent to four years of tertiary study in visual arts, and
• a demonstrated ability to undertake research.

If English is not the first language, the applicant must also satisfy the University that he/she can express himself/herself (in both written and spoken English) sufficiently well to pursue the research satisfactorily. For further information about English language requirements visit the University of Sydney, International Office website http://www.usyd.edu.au/internationaloffice/student.