Performing Arts Prof Doc

This course is in clearing

Overview

Course options

Select year

Professional Doctorate

  • Prof Doc Performing Arts, home applicant, full time

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 3 years
    • Pound 6020 per year
  • Prof Doc Performing Arts, home applicant, part time

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 5 years
    • Pound 3010 per year
  • Prof Doc Performing Arts, international applicant, full time

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 3 years
    • Pound 16100 per year
    International applications are closed for 2024

What makes this course different

Doctorate

A Doctorate for professional practitioners.

Industry knowledge

Supervision by academics with industry experience, practice and knowledge.

Studio spaces

Professional standard studio spaces.

Course modules

Download course specification

Info

Your future career

Your future career

This Professional Doctorate is for performers and creatives who wish to develop their practice and gain a doctorate which opens pathways into academia, research and the wider creative and performance industries.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, and further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

What you'll learn

The Professional Doctorate in Performing Arts (DPA) is practice-based and industry-facing, attracting mid-career performance practitioners whether that be directing, acting, dance, choreography, sound or lighting design or performance-academics.  The DFA aligns with the institutional vision to bridge the divide between industry and academia.  Practice is put at the centre of doctoral study, fed by research into contemporary performance and theory, and professional performance. 

The DPA also serves as Professional Development for academics teaching in drama training or conservatoire as well as qualified UEL staff who wish to develop their performance practice and critical analysis and to enrich their teaching. 
The DPA is all credits at D-level (8) which is essential both to accurately reflect the level of study being undertaken and to ensure that students are eligible for new government postgraduate loans.   

The DPA leads the way in UEL in Creative Practice doctorates and will inform and share resources and teaching with other doctorates undergoing validation - Fine Art, Film, Fashion, Creative Writing and Art and Architecture.

How you'll learn

The Professional Doctorate in Performing Arts is led by the individual performance practice of the student who is supported by specialist supervisory teams who understand creative practice. Students will develop their work through independent study, and practice-based seminars and have access to professional-level technical resources. Our doctoral course has three strands: creative practice, which is developing your performance practice;  professional practice, which involves performance, research and development showings, teaching and workshops; and theoretical research.

You will spend your first six months developing your proposal, with the aim of locating your work in relation to performance practices in the field and developing critical habits.

You will make explicit the strategies already in use and open up new ones that will allow theory to inform, but not prescribe your creative work.

The course is designed to accommodate the organic, foraging, and unpredictable nature of performance practice. So, for doctoral students, the proposal is not a project outline to be carried out but a starting point from which your work can move in unforeseen directions.

Your annual written reviews will serve as an ongoing record of your doctoral work. A showcase performance takes place each year to profile your work.

Your doctoral thesis is your final performance work, supported by a written report of 15,000 to 25,000 words.

How you will be assessed

Your supervisors monitor your progress throughout the course.

We'll assess you through a combination of essays, written reports, oral presentations, portfolios and your final performance.

This is a practice-based doctorate accompanied by a final critical report of 15,000 to 25,000 words.

Campus and facilities

University Square Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by the School of Arts and Creative Industries

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.