Want to Teach Animation? Get a Master's Degree

Want to teach? Get an MA

Do Animators Need a Master's Degree?  The answer is, it depends on what you want to do. Academia cares about academic qualifications. Industry cares about demo reels. 

If you want a job in the animation industry, you don't need a masters' level qualification. But if you are hoping to teach, especially in higher education, a masters' degree is more or less a necessity. 

The reason is that universities need evidence that you know what you are doing.  And in higher education, that evidence is a formal post-graduate qualification in your chosen field. 

Online MA in Animation - Now Taking Applications

Animation by robin Herrmann

We are now taking applications through UCAS for the September 2023 intake of our online MA in 3D animation, delivered in partnership with Buckinghamshire New University (BNU).

The online MA is a unique degree (the first of its kind) which can be undertaken by students anywhere in the world, leading to a formal qualification in the field.

Students learn how to animate to a professional level, and also engage at Masters' level with the underpinning theory and structure behind the art form.

How useful is an animation degree?

University - worth the price?

How valuable is a degree - what price a piece of paper with the letters BA (Hons) on it? All education is valuable only in so far as you actually learn anything useful. Today, there are around 80 courses in the UK that offer animation for undergraduate students - but how many of these courses actually teach the craft of animation? Today I got an email from animation student about to enter her third year at Uni, where, she says "I still don't really know how to animate as we have not learned any of the basics". So what is a student to do if they find their university is letting them down so badly? Below is a short piece of advice by Steve Moore, who co-authors my blog FLIP - Lifestyles of the Hunched and Goofy. Steve's article generated a lot of interest, and many posts, so I re-print it here.