Creative Industries

This unique Creative Industries program at The University of Edinburgh brings together cross-disciplinary expertise and knowledge in data analytics, creative thinking, business and law to understand the complex challenges facing the creative industries. 

This Creative Industries program at The University of Edinburgh is a bold, innovative program designed to develop your knowledge and skills for leading the cultural and creative institutions of the future.

You will learn to apply interdisciplinary knowledge within a project team in order to respond to live challenges set by our partner organisations, and you will create and apply knowledge from different areas using data-informed approaches. A strong focus of the program is on learning to collaborate and work with others as you develop the leadership skills needed to coordinate the diverse specialisms, organisations and individuals needed to deliver creative experiences and products.

Studying with us will help you build professional and leadership skills as you work directly with world-class cultural organisations in the City of Edinburgh. This program makes excellent use of Edinburgh as a cultural capital and you will benefit from established relationships with organisations in cultural heritage, festivals and advertising.

Postgraduate Study at the Edinburgh Futures Institute

This program is part of an interconnected portfolio of postgraduate study in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). EFI supports interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research that is focussed on complex global and social challenges. Our programs are all taught by academic experts from many different subject areas, and as an EFI student you will develop creative, critical and data-informed thinking that cuts across traditional disciplinary boundaries. You will have the space to think deeply about questions linked to your own passions and professional goals, and will develop a team project based on a live challenge set by one of our partner creative organisations or proposed by a student, incorporating issues and themes that you wish to develop.

As well as knowledge specific to your area of study, studying at EFI will give you the skills and understanding you need to become a creative, confident and critical citizen in a fast-changing world. These will include core data skills, data ethics, the ability to interrogate issues of global scope, and the creative and analytic approaches to knowledge that are vital for building better futures. You can join us regardless of whether you already have skills in the use and application of digital data.

Career opportunities

The Creative Industries program provides core knowledge and ability - for example in marketing, digital strategy and consumer and audience engagement - that you will be able to apply to real, live challenges faced by the cultural sector.

It will prepare you to take up leadership and management roles in a variety of creative and cultural sectors such as:

• the creative industries

• arts management

• cultural heritage

• cultural tourism

For mid-career professionals, the program offers the opportunity to expand, deepen and apply knowledge to new contexts, strengthening existing skills and developing new approaches which can be applied in professional work.

The core elements of the program address the data and higher-order skills we know are important for the future of work, confident and critical citizenship, and a thriving, just society.

Courses include:

• Cities as Creative Sites: Urban Studio

• Critical Creative Diversity

• Culture, Heritage and Learning Futures

• Pitching Your Stories, Services and Products

• Strategic Change Leadership for Creative Industries