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Art Therapy at University of Hertfordshire - UCAS

Course options

2025 - 20262026 - 2027
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Course summary

Why MA Art Therapy at the University of Hertfordshire?

  • Employment prospects: Our postgraduates work across the NHS, Social Services, adult and child mental health, rehabilitation, palliative care, learning disabilities, forensic settings, and mainstream schools.
  • Industry accreditation: Approved by The Health Care Professions Council (HCPC).
  • Strong industry connections: You will benefit from our excellent links with the NHS, public and private sector, and organisations such as ECArTE to provide you with entrepreneurial skills to help you start your own services.
  • Industry work placements: You will have a supervised placement for 120 days providing you with experience and employment in healthcare, education and/or voluntary organisations.
Join a vocational course, comprising of campus and placement-based learning. We’ll teach you through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops, to bring together theory and practice. We offer a stimulating learning environment, teaching through role play, visual art practice, peer participation and experiential group work. You’ll complete 96 days of supervised placement learning to give you valuable experience in practicing art therapy in real-life settings. This experience will help guide you to become a mindful, relational and ethical art therapist. Every step of the way, we’ll encourage you to be an active learner. To be creative. Art making lies at the heart of this course, so you’ll have lots of opportunities to develop strong practical skills. Plus, you’ll reflect on how to use your own art making as therapy practice. Outside of the course, we’ll require you to explore your own therapeutic journey. To engage with personal therapy to gain self-awareness and to see the approaches used to facilitate honesty of expression. The course is offered on a full-time (2 years) and part-time (4 years) basis. With students on each pathway studying together. Both pathways are equally weighted in terms of practice-based and campus-based learning. We welcome creative and psychologically minded students from a wide range of cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds.

Modules

Core modules: Art therapy practice part 2; art therapy practice 1; discourse and reflection: art therapy; experiential training 1; experiential training 2; experiential training 3; creative economies; research and enquiry. Optional modules: Research and enquiry (online); creative economies (online).

Professional bodies

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

  • Health and Care Professions Council
  • British Association of Art Therapists

Entry requirements

Mature students are accepted. Maturity and life experience is regarded as essential. Honours degree in Art and Design. This means any art and design discipline; Fine Art, Textiles, Ceramics, Film etc. Prior to registration approx 1,000 min hours relevant work experience in mental health, special education or other related field. Paid or voluntary work is acceptable and both needs to be consistent over a period of time. UK/EU candidates when invited to interview will present; an art portfolio that shows evidence of their ongoing art practice and identity as an artist, a short written assignment and two acceptable references. If you currently do not meet the above entry criteria, you may want to consider our Arts Therapies and Wellbeing Foundation.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

Fees for Postgraduate Study 2026/27: https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/fee-information/how-much-are-my-fees
Art Therapy at University of Hertfordshire - UCAS