Master in Design

Before you start your application for admission, please check that you have the required academic background. Only applicants who meet the admission requirements can be qualified. If you are not qualified your application will be rejected.

The Master's Programme in Design requires a completed Bachelor's Degree in Design or other relevant field of study amounting to a minimum of 180 ECTS credits, but normally of 4 years duration.
In the first round of the application process, the applicants' qualifications will be assessed on the basis of their application, which must include a Letter of Motivation, project description and documentation of relevant design-related work (portfolio).
Applicants who advance to the second round will be interviewed.

Admission to Department of Design and The Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design is highly competitive.

Academic requirements

1. You must have obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Design, normally of minimum 4 years' duration.
   Your degree must be issued by a recognized university or university college.
   You can find the specific requirements for your home country in the country list. 
2. You must document your English language proficiency, see below for details.

Language requirement

Applicants who are not native English speakers must document their proficiency in English by taking an internationally recognised English test.

Schedule your test early enough for the results to reach us within the application deadline 1 February.

How to document English language proficiency

Applicants from some English-speaking African countries, and applicants with a degree taught in English from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle East are not exempt from submitting an English language test.

Information about exemptions.

Deadline for registering your application for entry to the programme in August 2025 is 1 February 2025. The application form will be open from 1 December 2024.

Complete application

In the online application form you fill in all the necessary information. After you have submitted your application you will receive a confirmational email which contains important instructions about your application. The email also contains a link to your application folder where you upload all the required documentation including your Letter of Motivation and portfolio.

You will be able to upload and access your folder until the deadline on 1 February 2025.

Portfolio

Portfolio requirements are outlined below.

Checklist

1. Register your application in Søknadsweb
2. Portfolio
3. Project Description
4. Letter of Motivation
5. CV showing former education and design-related experience and activities.
6. Secondary School certificate / High School Diploma
7. University degree certificate(s)/diploma(s)
8. Transcript of records (an official statement listing courses/subjects you have completed at your university) including a description of the grading scale used.
9. Documentation of English language proficiency
10. Copy of your passport or picture ID including full name and date of birth.

If you complete your bachelor's degree in the spring 2025 you must also upload

• Documentation of higher education completed to date.
• A list of courses you are registered for and the expected date for completion.

Document requirements

• We require all uploaded documentation to be scanned from original documents.
• If the original language of your documents is not English or a Scandinavian language, officially certified copies of a translation to one of these languages must accompany certified copies of your documents in the original language.
• All documents must be uploaded as good quality PDF-files.

1. Documentation of sufficient funding to obtain a residence permit for studies. Required amount for 2024/2025 is NOK 151 690. Valid forms of documentation of funds:
   • Self-financing: Bank statement/transcript (dated after 1 October 2024) in your name detailing the required amount (NOK 151 690 or the equivalent in any currency)
   • Financing provided by sponsor: Guarantee letter and official bank statement/transcript (dated after 1 October 2024) showing possession of the required amount (NOK 151 690 or the equivalent in any currency)
   • A letter confirming that you are eligible for a scholarship/student loan from your home country.
2. After admission:
   • You will need a confirmation receipt from UiB as documentation for your application for a residence permit for studies.
     • Transfer the required amount to Sammen's deposit account.
     • UiB will send you a confirmation receipt by email as soon as possible after your transfer.
     • Submit the receipt with your application for a residence permit for studies.
   • Only transfer money after you have received your Letter of Acceptance.

Tuition fees - non-EU/EEA/EFTA applicants

All non-EU/EEA/EFTA students are required to pay tuition fee.

The tuition fee for the Master's Programme in Design for the academic year 2024/2025 has not yet been decided. The tuition fee is subject to change prior to the start of the academic year. 

Information about the tuition fee for international students at UIB. 

NOTE: The University of Bergen does not offer any scholarships

Your Letter of Motivation should not exceed 2 pages, and should explain:

• Why you are applying for admission to the Master's Programme in Design, and what subject area you are applying to:
  Visual Communication or Furniture- and Spatial Design/Interior Architecture.
• What expectations you have for your studies on the Master's Programme in Design.
• How you work; what methods, materials, media etc you plan to use in your work.
• Your thoughts and critical reflections concerning your design practice to date:
• In what context you place your own design production.

Your Project Description should not exceed 2 pages, and should explain:

• The topic and area your design project aims to explore.
• Your motivation for executing the project and the societal relevance of the project.
• The objectives and main questions of the project.
• How you intend to carry out and present the project.

Your portfolio must follow your application to the programme, and must include documentation of relevant design production that demonstrates your academic qualifications for carrying out an independent MA project.

Your portfolio must consist of 6-10 works you find to be relevant for you application to the programme. Each work must be documented by 4-5 pictures each and a short text explaining the work.

Your portfolio may contain works in any media you choose, i.e. video, web page or app. Should you wish to present a video, web page or app as part of your portfolio, these must be presented as screenshots in your portfolio along with text and functioning link to the specific webpages where they can be viewed.

Your portfolio must appear as one document with multiple pages.
Videos must not exceed 10 minutes in length.

Technical specifications for your portfolio:

• File format: PDF
• Physical format PDF: Landscape orientation A3 (420 x 297mm)
• Maximum siza: 250 MB
• Name your file as follows: last name_first name_portfolio.pdf

The interviews will take place in March. Excact date to be announced.

All applicants who move on to the interview round of the application process are encouraged to have their interview in person in Bergen. We understand that this might be difficult for some applicants, and interviewing remotely via zoom or similar is therefore an option. Please state your preference in the application. 

An invitation to the interview will be sent to the applicants registered e-mail address.You are required to respond to the invitation.

Your application status in Søknadsweb will be Under consideration until the application process has been finalized.

Applicants who have not yet documented their Bachelor's Degree at the time of acceptance will, if successful, receive a conditional offer of admission.

Applicants whose applications are rejected during the assessment will only be notified through Søknadsweb.

Application procedures