Your offer: Diploma in Visual Communication Design
We are delighted to offer you a place on the Diploma in Visual Communication Design (Autumn 2026 entry) at The Margate School of Art.
Location: The Margate School of Art, 31-33 High Street, Margate CT9 1DX
Mode & duration: 1 year, part-time (October 2026 to July 2027)
Taught days: Thursdays
Fees: £3,950
This offer is conditional upon:
Acceptance of this offer below, and receipt of the application deposit (please see below for more information).
Receipt of full course fees.
Successful registration before the start of the course.
To accept this offer, we ask for a holding deposit of £395 (10% of the full fee), which will be deducted from the full fee.
This deposit is non-refundable except under the following circumstances: The School is unable to provide the academic programme originally applied for, offered, and accepted, and the applicant does not want to take up a place on an alternative programme that is offered; Deposit refund requests due to exceptional circumstances, such as serious illness or bereavement, will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Course Lead and senior managers. Refund requests must be made in writing. If a refund of the tuition fee deposit is requested and approved, the associated Offer of Admission will be automatically rescinded.
To accept your place, please confirm and pay your deposit by 9am, Thursday 14 August 2026.
Next steps:
If you accept your place on the course, we will be in touch in September with more information about registering for the course. We will send you the course outline, academic regulations and other documents before you register. You will need to show a valid passport or other ID and pay your remaining fee amount around a week before the course starts to complete your registration.
Congratulations! We hope you’re looking forward to starting your course at The Margate School of Art.
Please note that a change has been made to the structure of the course. You can find more information about this in our message from the Course Lead below:
Module 4 update for the 2026/27 Visual Communication Design Course
After meeting many of you and talking about both the course and your personal and professional interests, I have decided to make a small but significant change to the course. I am proposing to replace Module 4, Moving Image, with a dedicated module focused on socially and environmentally engaged design. This new module will be called Design – Society – Nature.
Throughout this course, we aim to support you in developing a critical design practice, equipping you to use your skills to make a positive contribution to your community and the wider world. As you'll know from our conversations, there has historically been a project that runs alongside the first four thematic modules, in which students are invited to develop a socially and/or environmentally engaged design project.
Feedback from previous students, together with my own observations, has led me to believe that this deserves to become a dedicated six-week module. In the past, students have been passionate about this project and have generated lots of exciting ideas. However, because it has effectively been an "add-on" to the rest of the course, many have struggled to find the time to fully develop and realise their ideas. This is why I have decided to replace Moving Image with Design – Society – Nature.
On a broader note, given the climate emergency and the many other significant social and environmental challenges we face, I believe these issues should sit at the heart of contemporary design practice. I hope you feel the same.
That said, if you are particularly interested in exploring moving image, we can certainly incorporate moving image approaches and skills into the other thematic modules where appropriate. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this proposed change.
If you have any questions please email info@themargateschool.com