- Overview
- Course content
- Accreditations
- Entry requirements
- Tuition fees and term dates
- Career opportunities
Overview
Intake: September only
Duration: 28 months part-time and 12 months full-time
Fees: £20,000 (full time) and £10,000 per year (part time)
Financial support: Bursaries may be available - please contact your Admissions Officer
Application deadline: Closed for 2017/8 entry
Please note there is a minimum requirement of three years of work experience for this course.
The Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership (the MICL) from City, University of London has been designed to give you the skills to turn ideas into action.
View a recording of a recent Online Information Session hosted by Course Director, Dr Sara Jones
Why you should take the MICL
This dynamic course focuses on developing practical skills that will enable you to lead change in your organisation, develop skills as an entrepreneur and deliver innovation. The MICL is more than about learning how to be creative. On the course you will:
- Develop tools and leadership skills you need to successfully manage innovation projects and programmes and to fast-track your own career.
- Acquire practical skills in a wide range of creativity and innovation processes and techniques that you can use in your professional and personal life to deliver breakthrough solutions.
- Gain knowledge and skills for entrepreneurship so that you can harness the creativity of your colleagues, stakeholders and clients within and outside your organisation.
Innovation is key to companies competing in today's economic climate - which is perhaps why 79% of UK managers see innovation as very important. Do you have the skills needed to lead innovation in your organisation? Read about three of our MICL students Frank,Helen and Mila who have launched enterprising innovative new businesses.
Being part of the MICL whilst developing Popcord has helped me in many ways. I am surrounded by inspiring people on a daily basis and this has been crucial in helping me maintain focus and motivation throughout the development stages. In addition, the wide spectrum of topics covered by the course has given me the expertise to tackle unexpected challenges like writing the screenplay for the Kickstarter video.
Frank Milani
Who is the MICL for?
The MICL has been designed for individuals who wish to develop the skills to turn ideas into action. Whether you work for a big company or for yourself, whether you're an engineer, artist, IT specialist or a designer, it really doesn't matter.
What matters is that you are interested in the possibilities that enabling a creative climate can create for you or your company and that you're interested in learning how to manage innovation.
Our current students come from a variety of backgrounds including IT, marketing, hotel management, the public sector and consultancy. Please note that you'll need at least three years' work experience before you can take our course. If you are interested in finding out more then come along to one of our events and follow us on Twitter (@creativity_city and #theMICL)
Cass Innovate
At Cass Innovate 2017, our MICL students had the chance to hear from, learn from and interact with entrepreneurs and innovators at every stage of their journeys – from fledgling start-ups to fully fledged global giants. The conference showcased the work of staff, students and alumni from the MICL, as well as friends and colleagues from a broad range of innovative organisations.
Individual Appointments
If you would like further information please email Jess Sprake
Course content
The Masters in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership offers a rare opportunity to study Innovation, Creativity and Leadership from a fully rounded, interdisciplinary perspective, learning from leaders in each of the disciplines.
Leadership is crucial in promoting innovative working. Innovation leaders need to be flexible, knowledgeable and be able to inspire people to follow them into the unknown. In this course you will:
- Explore innovation, creativity and leadership from five different disciplines and eight different viewpoints
- Learn how to overcome barriers to innovation so you can deliver change
- Gain practical skills to facilitate creativity
- Learn when to use different innovation tools in which situations
- Understand what elements foster a creative culture and what distinguishes creative organisations.
The Masters consists of 8 core modules, each worth 15 credits, plus either:
- A dissertation project worth 60 credits
Or
- Three electives worth 10 credits each and a small project worth 30 credits
We review all our Masters courses regularly to keep them up-to-date on issues of both theory and practice. Therefore, there may be some change to the detailed content of the modules and occasionally to module titles.
I really enjoyed the reflective learning experience of the MICL and being a student again. The diversity of the modules as well as the students are both extraordinary. The MICL helped discovering my inner child, my own creativity, and provided me with a toolbox - not a manual - to use and further develop in leading creativity and innovation.
Szabi Steiner, MInnov in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, Scholarship Winner 2011
Core Modules
Delivering Innovation - Turning ideas into action
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
This module is owned by Professor Clive Holtham and delivered by Andy Wilkins. You will:
- Learn how innovation is transformed into valuable products and services in business
- Discover how to deliver the results of creative work in business and professional processes
- Explore case studies of commercial and public organisations to understand creative and innovative commercial practices
- Look at how the cultural sector operates in a complex and rapidly changing environment and its relationship to the wider economy.
Creative Writing
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
This module is delivered by the Centre for Creative Writing, Translation and Publishing in the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Phil O'Shea. You will:
- Learn how to develop and communicate ideas through writing
- Discover how storytelling supports leadership
- Develop your own writing skills through critiquing others' writing and responding to critiques of your own work
- Learn how to use tools to develop a play or screenplay.
There will also be regular workshops with visiting writers.
"A terrific module with an enormous amount to digest and appreciate. I particularly valued the rich and honest industry insights shared with us throughout the course. It resonated and helped put each week into perspective while learning"
Lea Bodell
The Psychology of Creativity & Innovation
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
This module is delivered by organisational psychologists at the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Dr Maire Kerrin with additional delivery from Professor James Hampton. You will:
- Explore ways to develop creative talent in individuals, teams and at an organisational level
- Develop skills in building work environments that support innovation
- Learn how creativity and innovation can drive economic performance, employee involvement and organisational change.
Leading Creative Design
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
The module leader is Professor Neil Maiden. You will:
- Learn about innovation and design by studying the theories, models and practices from design science, product design, interaction design and software engineering
- Apply creativity techniques such as challenging constraints
- Run creativity workshops
- Compare the outcomes from creativity techniques and workshops with outcomes from other design approaches such as user centred design.
Leading Creative Design immerses you into the world of design thinking, design process, product prototyping, design touch points and design execution. This neatly dovetails with the module, Delivering Innovation, which is grounded in solid academic theory, but is brought to life through real life case studies presented by industry leaders and experts who have been right at the bleeding edge of radical transformation and delivering innovation.
Simon Moorhead, MSc Innovation, Creativity and Leadership
Creative Problem Solving & Leadership
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
This module is owned by Professor Clive Holtham and delivered by Andy Wilkins. You will:
- Learn formal problem-solving processes
- Cultivate intuitive decision-making and communications skills
- Enhance your understanding of your own skills and the business and professional worlds
- Gain experience of practical approaches to professional understanding, innovation and problem-solving.
Both Creative Problem Solving and Leadership and Delivering Innovation are designed to help you think AND act differently - they are designed to help you get to a new level of performance.
Andy Wilkins
Technologies for Creativity & Innovation
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
The module leader is Dr Sara Jones. you will:
- Explore technologies for creative and innovative processes
- Learn how to use creativity problem-solving tools - many of which are internet-based
- Gain practical experience with collaborative technologies for group problem-solving such as digital walls and interactive tabletops.
The Law, Creativity & Innovation
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
This module is delivered by the City Law School, one of London's major law schools. You will:
- Gain an overview of all legal concerns around design and innovation
- Learn to develop persuasive arguments to support a case
- Learn about copyright, ownership, intellectual property, territorial agreements and contract law.
Creativity and the Creative Industries
- 15 credits
- 30 hours, over ten weeks, in lectures
- 120 hours, over ten weeks, self directed study
Delivered by the School of Arts & Social Sciences. The module leader is Mary Ann Kernan. you will:
- Explore creativity and innovation in different performance arts including music, dance and acting
- Compare creativity and innovation in performing arts with creativity and innovation in the other disciplines you have studied
- Learn how to transfer different types of knowledge across disciplines to improve creativity and innovation.
This module acts in many ways as a creative showcase for your learning on the MICL. After site visits and creative workshops, you will be supported to apply your learning throughout the programme to group performances as well as the creation of personal artefacts, and to reflect on your learning throughout the MICL in a reflective portfolio. Fun is guaranteed - but alongside, for many of your predecessors, some profound insights into how the programme's can be applied to the MICL dissertation projects and beyond.
Mary Ann Kernan
MSc Research Project
Masters Research Project – 60 credits
The aim of the individual project is to apply the insights you’ve gained throughout the Masters programme to your working environment. You will deliver your final project as a dissertation. A member of academic staff with expertise in the particular area you wish to research will be allocated to supervise the project. This is an excellent opportunity for your employer to gain immediate benefit from your studies.
Small Project – 30 credits
You will undertake a substantive individual pieces of work under the guidance of an academic supervisor. The aim is to provide you with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that you have acquired in the taught part of the Masters degree in relevant creative, innovation delivery and leadership contexts.
The aim of the individual project is to apply the insights you've gained throughout the Masters programme to your working environment. You will deliver your final project as a dissertation. A member of academic staff with expertise in the particular area the student wishes to research will be allocated to supervise the project. This is an excellent opportunity for students' employers to gain immediate benefit from their employee's studies.
Recent projects include:
- The Heart Of Sardinia: A campaign to promote touristic accommodations through social networks
- The Motivation to Share Creative Work Online for Reuse by Others
- What is the impact of investment of innovative digital research and development in Arts and Cultural Organisations?
- Opening the Door to Personal Metaphor within Organisations
- How Can Trustees Of Charities Encourage Innovation?
- Public Trust In UK Open Data
- Inculcating And Fostering Innovative Working In The Federal Board Of Revenue, Pakistan
- A New Approach To Medical Technology Innovation: Knowledge Co-creation By Researchers, Practitioners And Users
- The Sensei Within: A Study Of Leadership Qualities In Japanese Martial Arts
- Business Mavericks
- Innovation In Professional Services. A Comparative Study
- How To Increase The Use Of Mobile Computing By Social Care Workers?
- How is Leadership defined in Higher Education?
- Local Government Employees’ Views On What Encourages Them To Contribute Positively to Innovations
- Creativity in a Box: learning to facilitate group creativity using online learning materials and the facilitator’s toolkit
- What do people value in terms of wellbeing information and its provision?
- Does the creative content provided to participants impact the quality or quantity of outputs from a creative session?
- Innovation in the use social media in Higher Education
Taking this course has been a personal learning journey. I now approach my work with more confidence and look at the world with fresh eyes. The interdisciplinary nature of the course provides a lively and creative climate for study, useful frameworks and novel connections. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to bring about change - in whatever form that takes.
Alison Duffy, Partner, Perspectiv LLP, MSc Innovation, Creativity and Leadership
Accreditations
Cass Business School is among the global elite of business schools that hold the gold standard of 'triple-crown' accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS).
We are consistently ranked amongst the best business schools and programmes in the world which, coupled with an established 40-year reputation for excellence in research and business education, enables us to attract some of the best academics, students and businesses worldwide into our exclusive Cass network.
Entry requirements
Documents required for decision-making
- Undergraduate degree transcript (if applicable)
- CV
- Personal statement (500-600 words)
- Evidence of minimum of three years employment, at an appropriate level
Documents which may follow at a later date
- IELTS, if necessary
- Confirmation of professional qualification examinations/exemptions/passes, if applicable
- Two professional references
- For a successful application to receive an unconditional status all documents must be verified, so an original or certified copy of the degree transcript must be sent by post to Specialist Masters Programme Office, 106 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8TZ, UK
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The entry requirements for the MICL are as follows:
Degree Level
- A UK upper second class degree or above, or the equivalent from an overseas institution. Applicants who do not hold a degree may be considered on the basis of work experience alone.
English Requirements
- If you have been working in the UK for at least three years the English requirement may be waived at the discretion of the Admissions Panel. Please contact your Admissions Officer for details.
IELTS
The required IELTS level is an average of 7.5 with a minimum of 6.5 in writing and 6.0 in all other components.
Work Experience
Applicants should also have a minimum of three years' work experience in a relevant professional domain.
Applicants who do not hold a degree may be considered on the basis of work experience alone.
I only wanted something interesting in my CV. Instead, the MICL gave me whole new ways of seeing and thinking about life. And the skills and inner fire to do something about it, even at 50. This degree was life-changing for some of us. Be warned. Prepare for impact.
Joe Tarrant, MInnov in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership
Tuition fees and term dates
Tuition fees for 2017/18 entry
Application fee: Nil
Tuition fees: £20,000 (full time) and £10,000 per year (part time) Currency Converter
Deposit: £2,000 (paid within 1 month of receiving offer and non-refundable unless conditions of offer are not met)
First installment: Half fees less deposit (to be paid at registration)
Second installment: Half fees (paid in January following start of course)
Term dates 2017/18
In-Person Registration (all students must attend): Commences 18 September 2017
Compulsory Induction: 18 - 29 September 2017
Term I
2 October 2017 - 15 December 2017
This includes a Reading Week
Term II
22 January 2018 - 6 April 2018
This includes a Reading Week w/c 27th February, with class activities on Friday 3rd March
Unquestionably, the MICL was the best master's degree for me and one that I would fully recommend to anyone looking for something different, novel and may I dare say, more practical than a standard business master's. I've enjoyed extraordinary experiences collaborating with my classmates on the various challenges that we immerse ourselves into. We all come from such different backgrounds and industries, and although it can be testing at times, we are all on this journey together.
Marc Schiemann, IT Service Manager, MSc in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, Scholarship Winner 2010
Career opportunities
The Masters in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership (MICL) has been designed to:
- unlock career possibilities - and bring lifelong rewards through accelerated career progression
- have immediate impact on students' capabilities and hone existing skills
- help you build a diverse network of like-minded individuals - a rich source of ideas and mutual support.
As a new course, our first group of students graduated in April 2013. Already they have used the skills they've developed to gain promotion in their current jobs and find new opportunities as a result of the course. Others have applied the skills they've learnt to change the way they work in their current jobs.
A student who completes the MICL will have learnt about, experienced, and therefore have at their disposal a wide selection of tools, techniques and methods for creative design and problem-solving drawn from a wide range of disciplines, as well as the understanding needed to apply them to greatest effect in a range of different social, organisational and technical contexts.
Whether you're full of ideas that never go anywhere or you struggle for inspiration, this course will teach you how to generate ideas, then take those ideas and deliver change. Many companies struggle to turn ideas into action - and ideas don't keep. You will learn what it takes to deliver innovation.
The multidisciplinary nature of the MICL helped me grow personally and professionally. It broadened my knowledge, stretched my thinking and challenged me to work in new areas. It enabled me to take my career in a fresh direction. You can apply what you learn immediately and the outcomes are impressive.
Stephen Clulow, Director Social Media for Business Consortium, MInnov in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership
Where are they now? Employment destinations of graduates include:
- Project Manager, GUME, Brazil
- Consultant and Manager of the Impact Innovation Academy, at Impact Innovation in
- Leamington Spa
- Fundraising Support Manager, Scope Charity
- Freelance Creativity Consultant
- Group Director of Operations, NEP UK
- Founder and owner of start-up company, CYCL
- Programme Manager, Innovation Lab, Nesta
- Founder and CEO, the crazyones.org, Canada
- Consultant and Facilitator in Leadership and Innovation
- Senior Consultant, Public World
- Brand Engagement Consultant
At the end of your time at Cass, we aim to ensure that you have a highly regarded qualification - and a clear vision of where you want it to take you. Like many of our part time students, you may be using your Masters to enhance your prospects with your current employer. Or perhaps you see it as an opportunity to change your career direction. Either way, you can rest assured that our Careers Service will be there to advise and support you.