Professional Doctorate in Fine Art (DFA) course is the longest-running, most developed of its kind, with a group culture and centralised structure that makes it unique. It’s designed for artists from the UK and abroad who wish to make their practice the basis for doctoral study and can be undertaken over three years full time or five years part time. It differs from practice-led PhDs in that you will arrive with an art practice to be analysed and developed rather than a 'project' to be carried out. Students enrolled on the course are engaged in a wide range of practices, including painting, installation, film, video, performance, photography and printmaking. Unlike a PhD, an exhibition of practice replaces the thesis as the main evidence of research. There’s a strong focus on professional practice and your body of work will represent an original contribution to fine art practice. Our doctoral course has three strands: creative practice, which is developing your art work; professional practice, which involves exhibiting, curating, teaching and commissions; and theoretical research. You will spend your first six months developing your proposal, with the aim of locating your work in relation to contemporary art 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, unpredictable nature of art 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 exhibition takes place each year when critics, curators and artists from outside the University are invited to critique the work. Your doctoral thesis is your final exhibition of work, supported by a written report of 15,000 to 25,000 words.