Global Fashion Management MA

Course overview

The fast-moving business of fashion is becoming even more dynamic requiring fashion leaders with advanced management skills that are purpose-driven, agile and visionary.

MA Global Fashion Management is a globally focussed postgraduate course allowing you to gain key competencies, knowledge and skills in fashion management. This course develops future managers capable of managing multinational fashion companies and brands. The programme also increases your capacity to shape the future of the fashion industry by creating maximum value for stakeholders, consumers and brands.

Creative strategic thinking is at the heart of the programme. With a strong balance between theory (academic) and practice (industry), you will engage with a unique blend of global fashion management themes such as contemporary values and systems, creative engagement, data-driven retail, digital transformation, and consumption experience.

You will study at two internationally renowned Schools at the University of Leeds. The School of Design, as the principal school, affords you the opportunity to draw creative mastery, inspiration, and ideas from various creative resources. Studying at the Business School enhances your strategic thinking and sharpens your business acumen.

MA Global Fashion Management has been developed in consultation with leading fashion brands and retailers. It represents a new direction in amalgamating retail-systems management, business, and design thinking research within global fashion. This programme enables you to gain comprehensive knowledge, skills and critical competencies required for strategic and senior roles in the fashion industry.

Please refer to our deadline information before submitting an application to this course.

MA Global Fashion Management is built upon the three pillars of design, business and research.

You will study the three design-led management specialist modules: Contemporary Fashion Management, Fashion Sustainability and Society, and Data Analysis in Management. You will also study two business-led modules, Cross-cultural Consumer Psychology and Managing Global Logistics and Supply Chain. Research in Design and Enterprise will provide you with an array of skills to be more ready for your major project and the industry.

Specialist facilities

The School of Design offers excellent facilities and technical support for developing your creative skills. We have a range of dedicated spaces where students can work independently. We also have a number of practical workshops, studios and specialist facilities: Sculpture Studio; 2D Art Studio; Fashion Design Studio; Knit and Weave Studio; Photography Studio; Digital Print workshop; Laser cutting and 3D Print workshop; Printmaking Workshop; XLab for Immersive Technologies and 3D workshop. We provide access to a team of excellent technicians across the full range of skills who can help you to realise your work to reach its potential.   

The School also provides a range of other support to enhance the student experience and prepare students for the workplace: free dedicated software; a wide range of technical induction programmes; free access to LinkedIn Learning Tutorials; free cameras and video recorder on loan; supporting a Degree Show; external promotion; Visiting Speakers, who are well known figures from industry or other institutions around the world. 

Additional highlights:

• Free dedicated software such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud

• Partnership: Marks & Spencer Archive access

Internship opportunity - from 2025/26

All School of Design masters students and final year undergraduate students can apply for our internships. Two successful candidates will work with the PACE creative team for six months after finishing their course. Find out more about our Professional Academy for Creative Enterprise (PACE).

Hear from one of our previous interns about how the experience helped shape her professional journey:

The internship has helped me grow not only in technical skill but also in adaptability—qualities that are essential in a professional environment.

Lucy Clanfield, PACE Intern.

Find out more about Lucy Clanfield's experience.

Course details and modules

MA Global Fashion Management is built upon the three pillars of design, business and research.

You will study the three design-led management specialist modules: Contemporary Fashion Management, Fashion Sustainability and Society, and Data Analysis in Mangement. You will also study two business-led modules, Cross-cultural Consumer Psychology and Managing Global Logistics and Supply Chain. Research in Design and Enterprise will provide you with an array of skills to be more ready for your major project and the industry.

The three pillars will help you be more prepared in the future-facing fashion industry and explore its intersections with technology, innovative business models, ethics and sustainability and other global contemporary issues.

The main module of the programme spans semesters one and two. In the first semester, you will explore the fundamental elements of the fashion business by covering the processes of fashion systems, sustainable and ethical approaches, fashion consumers and design thinking in management. The second semester will augment your fashion management underpinning by exploring retail and fashion marketing, data analysis, supply chain and creative research approaches. As you advance, the final semester will allow you to conduct a global fashion management major project, enabling you to showcase the culmination of all you have learnt over your studies.

The Programme Leader for this course is Dr Rubab Ashiq.

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.

Year 1 compulsory modules

Learning and teaching

You will gain a breadth of fashion management knowledge along with an expert focus in a specialised field. There will be a significant emphasis on the practical application of specialised knowledge of the fashion industry, and how it operates and interacts with its consumers.

Creative problem solving and design thinking methods are central our teaching in the School of Design.  Your learning will be enhanced by a range of contemporary teaching methods which encourage active learning and are underpinned by inclusive and authentic learning activities, including team working, creative sprints and industry facing scenarios. 

We follow a campus based blended learning approach; you’ll have a range of resources in the virtual learning environment which are accessible at all times, including videos and pre-work to help you prepare. You’ll attend lectures which are carefully designed to invite engagement and participation, seminars enable you to delve deeper into key topics, workshops to learn and practise design making, crit sessions and tutorials to discuss work in progress.  

Your module tutors have dedicated office hours, which means there’s always the opportunity to ask questions.  

Collaboration with staff and your peers is the foundation of our teaching and learning, giving students active input into their learning journey. Two of your core modules will be studied with students from other design disciplines, where you will benefit from our community of learners, by contributing your diverse perspectives, and encountering those of others, with global industry practices in mind.  

These activities provide a rich resource to support further investigation in your private study time.  Private study is important at university and a potentially significant change from the way you have been taught previously. This is space where you can reflect and critique materials from taught session, including further reading, writing, designing and making. You will be guided through this process by your tutors to help you develop your knowledge and research skills. The ability to work independently is key skill to your development as creative professional and thinker. 

You’ll also have the ongoing support of your Academic Personal Tutor. 

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

In the School of Design you will be assessed through a variety of methods, these include visual 2D and 3D responses, portfolios of text and image, blogs, short videos, presentations as well as more traditional essays, reports and occasionally exams. Some of your assessments will be based upon collaboration with your peers. This collaboration could be in the development of artefacts, proposals and/or various forms of visual and textual communication in response to problem-based issues. 

The nature of assessment will change as you progress through your programme: 

• Semester 1:  Assessments will focus on your understanding and acquisition of new knowledge, academic, digital and professional skills.  
• Semester 2:  Assessments will focus more on establishing how well you understand, analyse and apply this new knowledge and these new skills in relation to real-world, local and global settings.    
• Semester 3: Study will become more self-directed major project often being negotiated and agreed with tutors.  

Throughout the year, it is to be expected that you will find that assessments are progressively more challenging. To support you as you navigate assessment, we provide formative as well as summative assessment. Formative assessment gives staff an opportunity to give you feedback on personal progress, in good time before a summative deadline. Given the range of assessment types in any one level of study, formative assessment and feedback enables you to reflect upon your personal progress and establish which forms of assessment allow you to play to your strengths.  

Authentic assessment means relevant assessment; relevant in terms of contemporary contexts and also relevant to your personal interests and your future aspirations. The authenticity of assessment is an important consideration in how we design assignments and project briefs. This means that we think carefully about the relevance of assessment outcomes; not only in academic terms but also in terms of your chosen career path, skill development needs and the future of work in your chosen discipline. Where appropriate, there will be an element of choice in your assessment. Some projects will allow you to choose the focus and format of your submission.  

Dialogic teaching methods emphasise in-class discussion and support staff / student debate. This approach to teaching and learning enables staff to hear all student voices. In turn, for some modules, this in-class dynamic may facilitate and inform the co-production of assessment tasks. Co-production of assessment tasks means that staff and students work together to devise fair and inclusive assessment; both formative and summative. This allows staff to consider the requirements of a module alongside opportunities to allow students to harness their strengths.   

While remaining considerate of module and programme learning outcomes, where relevant and beneficial, we strive to adopt a flexible approach to assessment design. This flexibility allows us to respond to student voice, maintain an agility that allows us to react to global, social and cultural change and respond swiftly to opportunities to devise projects with our industrial partners. We aim for all assessment to be relevant, meaningful and engaging

The school has an excellent code of practice on assessment which is being updated every year. The principles and processes governing assessment and marking were being implemented in accordance. A balance between theory and practice is central to the assessments. In addition to the focus on the learner as a subject, an orientation toward action as a learning medium, is also essential in order to achieve training that is closer to practice (where theories can be practical). The programme also embraces the international and socio-economic diversity of both student and academic community as part of the assessment design. Assessments are constantly being improved to ensure better inclusive and authentic assessments and student success.

Applying

Entry requirements

You’ll need a bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) or equivalent qualification, preferably in a management, marketing, business, fashion or design related degree specialising in one of the following subjects indicated under 'Management, marketing, business, fashion or design related subjects'.

We will also consider applicants with relevant experience, an interest in Sustainability, communications, media, textile, or advertising, or coming from an area of expertise to which Sustainability, communications, media, textile, or advertising is complementary such as the ones listed under ‘Other areas’.

We welcome applicants from a diverse range of subject disciplines so please do not hesitate to apply if your subject is not listed.

All applicants will be required to respond to the questions in the supporting statement section of the online application form to explain why you wish to study this particular course and your career plans. Relevant professional experience may also be considered. We may request additional documentation to inform our decision.

Management, marketing, business, fashion or design related subjects

• Accounting
• Advertising
• Artistic Design
• Banking
• Business
• Business Management
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Economics
• Enterprise
• Entrepreneurship
• Environmental Design
• Fashion Design
• Fashion Marketing
• Finance
• Financial Management
• Hospitality
• Human Resources
• Information Management
• Innovation Management
• International Business
• Law
• Management
• Marketing
• Marketing and Communications
• Operations
• Product Design
• Social Psychology
• Social Sciences
• Sociology
• Sustainability
• Textile Design
• Tourism
• Visual Communication Design

Other Areas

• Anthropology
• Engineering
• Languages
• Maths
• Neuroscience
• Politics

International

Our admissions team are experienced in considering a wide range of international qualifications. If you wish to discuss whether your qualifications will meet the necessary entry criteria, contact the School’s admissions team.

You can also check the accepted qualifications for your country or region.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Business (6 weeks) and Language for Business (10 weeks).

We also offer online pre-sessionals alongside our on-campus pre-sessionals. Find out more about our six week online pre-sessional and our 10 week online pre-sessional. 

You can also study pre-sessionals for longer periods – read about our postgraduate pre-sessional English courses.

How to apply

Please see our How to Apply page for information about application deadlines

The ‘Apply’ link at the top of this page will take you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you intend to apply for funding, we advise you to submit an application for your chosen course as early as possible and at least one month before any scholarship deadline.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Documents and information you'll need

• A copy of your degree certificate and transcripts, or a partial transcript if you’re still studying (please submit an official English translation where the original is not in English)
• Your approved English Language test* (if applicable)
• A personal statement in response to the questions asked in the supporting statement section of the application form
• A full up-to-date CV
• Any previous UK CAS, visa and BRP documents if you’re an international applicant who has previously studied in the UK on a Tier 4/ Student Visa.

* Applicants who have not yet completed an approved English language test may apply for a Masters course prior to taking a test.

Personal Statement Requirements

Please summarise your reasons for applying to this particular programme of study. Your response can include details of your previous study/work experience relevant to the programme and career ambitions. Your response can provide us with important information on your suitability for the course, so please complete carefully.

Please explain why you have chosen to apply for this Masters course at the University of Leeds by answering the following questions in separate numbered paragraphs:

• What areas of this course particularly interest you and why? Have you studied these before? Please explain your reasons for applying to this particular Masters course
• Why do you want to study this course at Leeds? Please comment on aspects such as available resources at the University and in the city, research specialisms within the school or academics you would like to work with.
• What potential themes have you considered for dissertation research?
• How will studying for this course help you to achieve your longer term goals?
• Why do you see this course as a particularly valuable subject to study?
• What skills and experience do you have that have prepared you for this course? You may like to give details of any final year work/projects you have previously undertaken, relevant work experience etc.

Relevant work experience might include: fashion, management, marketing and communications, advertising, media, sustainability, design.

Next Steps

Where further information to support the assessment of your application is needed, we may ask for a recent sample of written work.

We do not generally request references, unless further information is required to support the assessment of your application.

Support for part-time and mature learners

The Lifelong Learning Centre provides support for mature and part-time learners across the University, including advice on how to apply to university and support throughout your studies.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of Design
Leeds University Business School

Contact us

Postgraduate Administrator

Email: PGT-Admissions-Design@leeds.ac.uk

Fees

UK: £16,000 (Total)

International: £32,750 (Total)

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

Additional cost information

There are additional costs of study that students need to cover. We estimate that these additional costs could be as described below, but this amount may vary depending on how you decide to respond to university briefs and the range of materials and techniques you decide to adopt.  

Equipment and material costs  

Students also need to cover costs of copying and supplying their own basic materials (e.g. pens, pencils, notebooks). The programme doesn’t require students to provide other materials to complete the programme successfully.

Computers and digital equipment  

To ensure you can make the most of your studies at Leeds, you’ll need to make sure your laptop meets the system requirements for your course.  

Some of our courses require the development of work using Adobe Creative and other relevant software. If required by your programme, the School will provide you with a free Adobe CC account when you arrive. We also use a blended learning model where you’ll need to access course materials and video conference using a computer or mobile device (eg laptop, tablet, smartphone). Costs for a laptop will vary depending on the exact specification. You should expect to pay between £800–£2,500.   

If you’re buying a new laptop for your studies, then we recommend that you wait until you’re registered as a student so that you take advantage of discounts given to university students. Delaying purchasing also allows you to find out from your programme leader what you need and what you do not need. Depending on your circumstances you can benefit from a laptop loan or further support from our Financial Assistance Fund.  

You will also have access to further digital equipment in our studios and using our loan scheme. But, you may decide to purchase your own equipment which will result in additional optional costs. Examples are Drawing tablet (£50–£500); Digital camera (£200–£1500); etc.  

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more about additional costs.  

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government.  Find out more at Masters funding overview.

The School of Design is offering five £10,000 Head of School Masters Scholarships for 2025 entry. Alternatively you may be eligible for an International Excellence Scholarship or Leeds Masters UK Scholarship.

Career opportunities

Flexibility, resilience and transferable skills are desirable attributes for creative industry professionals. In the School of Design, we not only provide research led, industry informed subject-specific knowledge, we aim to equip you with the best possible skills for a variety of future careers.

Design thinking, combined with excellent research and criticality skills are increasingly valued across a wide range of sectors; therefore, your degree from the University of Leeds opens opportunities across disciplines and multiple industries, as well as in your programme related specialism. 

The multidisciplinary nature of this programme means that you will have the chance to advance key competencies, knowledge and skills in global fashion management. This will allow you to understand and shape global retail operations by managing multinational fashion organisations, international retail environments, global supply chains, and value chains.

On graduating you will be equipped to thrive in either further study or a diverse range of career paths. The knowledge you will have gained will make you especially employable in the fashion industry, including fashion management, fashion marketing, fashion public relations, merchandising and logistics management, management of the product development process, retail or brand management, product sourcing and supply chain management, sustainability-focus roles, and e-commerce.

Graduates have gone into careers in a number of different fields. Many continue with their professional practice –working for companies such as LVMH Asia, French Connection, Lululemon, Emotech. Others have entered academia as lecturers or PhD researchers.

Careers support

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.