What is a PhD in Arts, Design & Architecture ?

Arts, Design & Architecture is a group of disciplines that enable students to use creativity, design principles, theories, methods and tools in order to create a more beautiful and functional world.

People who work in Arts, Design & Architecture develop projects, plans, designs and concepts for everything, from buildings, monuments, clothes, and devices to intuitive graphical interfaces and easy-to-use web pages. They are also creators of fabulous art, including paintings, music, theatre plays, dances, and many other wonderful expressions of beauty and imagination.

Some of the main disciplines within Arts, Design & Architecture are Art History, Graphic Design, Landscape Architecture, Music, Visual Arts, etc.

If you choose to focus on Architecture, you will learn everything there is to know about creating the perfect design for a new building or even an entire city. Courses will focus on fundamental architecture elements, on safety and materials, environmental impact, as well as lighting, textures, and how to create the perfect contrast between materials and colours. It’s not an easy job, as it also involves principles from physics and mathematics, but designing someone’s dream house or a cityscape is a very rewarding job.

Studying Graphic Design will focus on teaching you how to use images, text and colours to communicate messages efficiently. To do that, classes will present basic design principles, elements, and rules.
If you go for Music, you will study musical theory, instruments, perfect harmonies, and numerous musical styles. You will work with other talented musicians, just like you. After graduation, you’ll be an expert in playing at least one instrument.

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Arts, Design & Architecture opens up many career opportunities. In addition to the subfields we’ve already mentioned, you can specialise in Fashion Design, Film, Photography & Media, Theatre & Dance, User Experience Design, and others.

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View all PhDs in Arts, Design & Architecture. Keep in mind you can also study an online PhDs in Arts, Design & Architecture.

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How Arts, Design & Architecture Subject Ranking Lists Are Created

Want to know which universities offer the best Master's degrees in Arts, Design & Architecture?

Check out the university rankings listing the best universities where you can study Arts, Design & Architecture according to World University Rankings by Subject from Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings by Subject from TopUniversities, and Best Global universities for Arts and Humanities, by U.S. News.

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Best Universities for Arts, Design & Architecture on PhDPortal

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Universities Location TopUniversities Ranking (2018)
Royal College of Art Bayswater, United Kingdom 1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, United States 2
Parsons School of Design - The New School New York City, United States 2
Rhode Island School of Design Providence, United States 4
Pratt Institute New York City, United States 5
University of the Arts London (UAL) London, United Kingdom 6
Politecnico di Milano Milano, Italy 7
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, United States 7
California Institute of the Arts CalArts Santa Clarita, United States 9
Stanford University Stanford, United States 10
University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom 11
Yale University New Haven, United States 12
Aalto University Helsinki, Finland 13
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, United States 14
Goldsmiths, University of London London, United Kingdom 15
Art Center College of Design La Cañada Flintridge, United States 16
RMIT University Melbourne, Australia 17
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Los Angeles, United States 18
The Glasgow School of Art Glasgow, United Kingdom 19
Columbia University New York City, United States 20
California College of the Arts San Francisco, United States 22
New York University New York City, United States 23
National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico City, Mexico 24
Tsinghua University Beijing, China 25
Tongji University Shanghai, China 26
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 27
Melbourne Business School Melbourne, Australia 28
Seoul National University Seoul, South Korea 29
University of Technology Sydney Sydney, Australia 29
University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, Argentina 31
University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia 33
Monash University Melbourne, Australia 34
National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore 35
Loughborough University Loughborough, United Kingdom 36
Peking University Beijing, China 37
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Santiago, Chile 38
University of Palermo Argentina Buenos Aires, Argentina 39
Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Singapore 40
Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia 41
Cornell University Ithaca, United States 42
University of Sao Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 42
University of Sydney Sydney, Australia 42
Princeton University Princeton, United States 45
Tecnológico de Monterrey Monterrey, Mexico 46
Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design Årsta, Sweden 47
Australian National University Canberra, Australia 48
Ravensbourne University London City of London, United Kingdom 49
Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, United States 49
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Vienna, Austria 101
Arizona State University Tempe Junction, United States 101
Bauhaus University Weimar Weimar, Germany 101
Beijing Normal University Beijing, China 101
Berlin Summer University of the Arts Berlin, Germany 101
Brown University Providence, United States 101
Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh, United Kingdom 101
Emily Carr University of Art + Design Vancouver, Canada 101
Fudan University Shanghai, China 101
Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India 101
IT University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark 101
KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium 101
Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan 101
Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, United Kingdom 101
Middlesex University London, United Kingdom 101
National Cheng Kung University Tainan, Taiwan 101
Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom 101
Nottingham Trent University Nottingham, United Kingdom 101
Politecnico di Torino Turin, Italy 101
Polytechnic University of Valencia Valencia, Spain 101
Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, Spain 101
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Den Haag, Netherlands 101
Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield, United Kingdom 101
The University of Western Australia Perth, Australia 101
TU Berlin Berlin, Germany 101
UNICAMP - University of Campinas Campinas, Brazil 101
Polytechnic University of Catalonia Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain 101
Panthéon-Sorbonne University Paris, France 101
University Sains Malaysia George Town, Malaysia 101
University of Adelaide Adelaide, Australia 101
University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 101
University of Dundee Dundee, United Kingdom 101
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Urbana, United States 101
University of Leeds Leeds, United Kingdom 101
University of Montreal Montréal, Canada 101
University of Reading Reading, United Kingdom 101
University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia 101
University of Texas at Austin Austin, United States 101
University of Tsukuba Tsukuba, Japan 101
University of Washington Seattle, United States 101
University of Wisconsin Madison Madison, United States 101
University of Wollongong Wollongong, Australia 101
Waseda University Tokyo, Japan 101
Autonomous University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 151
Boston University Boston, United States 151
Brunel University London London Borough of Harrow, United Kingdom 151
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, United States 151
Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand 151
Concordia University Montréal Montreal West, Canada 151
Dongguk University Seoul, South Korea 151
Duke University Durham, United States 151
Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn, Estonia 151
Ewha Womans University Seoul, South Korea 151
Federal University of Minas Gerais Belo Oriente, Brazil 151
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre, Brazil 151
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Kanpur, India 151
Kookmin University Seoul, South Korea 151
Nanjing University Nanjing, China 151
National Chengchi University Taipei, Taiwan 151
National Chiao Tung University Hsinchu, Taiwan 151
North Carolina State University Raleigh, United States 151
Northwestern University Evanston, United States 151
Oxford Brookes University Oxford, United Kingdom 151
Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso Valparaíso, Chile 151
Sapienza University of Rome Roma, Italy 151
The Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) São Paulo, Brazil 151
University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand 151
Tohoku University Sendai-shi, Japan 151
Universidad ANAHUAC Mexico City, Mexico 151
Universidad de las Américas Puebla Puebla, Mexico 151
University Teknologi Mara Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 151
University for the Creative Arts Farnham, United Kingdom 151
University of California, Irvine Extension Irvine, United States 151
University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, United States 151
University of Canberra Canberra, Australia 151
University of Cape Town Cape Town, South Africa 151
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, United States 151
University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand 151
University of Porto Porto, Portugal 151
University of Santiago de Chile Santiago, Chile 151
University of Southern Denmark Odense, Denmark 151
Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, New Zealand 151
York University Toronto, Canada 151
Zurich College of Arts Zürich, Switzerland 151
Auckland University of Technology Auckland, New Zealand 51
Cranbrook Academy of Art Birmingham, United States 51
Curtin University Perth, Australia 51
Griffith University Southport, Australia 51
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht Utrecht, Netherlands 51
Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 51
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Mumbai, India 51
Institute of Technology Bandung Bandung, Indonesia 51
Kingston University London Borough of Sutton, United Kingdom 51
Lancaster University Lancaster, United Kingdom 51
Maryland Institute College of Art Baltimore, United States 51
Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand 51
National Taiwan University Taipei, Taiwan 51
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) Taipei, Taiwan 51
The Ohio State University Columbus, United States 51
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 51
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Jamundí, Colombia 51
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China 51
Sungkyunkwan University Seoul, South Korea 51
Swinburne University of Technology Hawthorn East, Australia 51
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 51
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Copenhagen, Denmark 51
The Royal Institute of Art (KKH) Stockholm, Sweden 51
The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, United Kingdom 51
Umea University Umeå, Sweden 51
Metropolitan Autonomous University Azcapotzalco, Mexico 51
Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain 51
Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City, Mexico 51
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogotá, Colombia 51
University College London (UCL) London, United Kingdom 51
University of Applied Arts Vienna Vienna, Austria 51
University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand 51
University of Barcelona Barcelona, Spain 51
University of Brighton Brighton, United Kingdom 51
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada 51
University of California, San Diego San Diego, United States 51
University of Chicago Chicago, United States 51
University of Chile Santiago, Chile 51
University of Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal 51
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, United States 51
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, United States 51
University of Queensland Brisbane, Australia 51
University of South Australia Adelaide, Australia 51
University of Southern California Los Angeles, United States 51
University of the Andes Bogotá, Colombia 51
University of Toronto Toronto, Canada 51
Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, United States 51
Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China 51
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Specialisations within the field of Arts, Design & Architecture

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