The College of Fine Arts (COFA) at the University of New South Wales has launched one of the world's first fully online postgraduate degrees in art and design.

The Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design is a fully accredited professional development degree that brings together students and teachers from around the world in a fully interactive online classroom environment. International students can now study art and design at an Australian university without leaving home. Students will experience online study with peers from different creative backgrounds, professional experiences, locations and cultures.

The program will explore theoretical and practical connections between a wide range of creative disciplines, offering students valuable individual and collaborative skills and knowledge in line with contemporary cross-disciplinary creative art and design practice.

The Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design builds on the success of the COFA Online initiative, which has successfully delivered online undergraduate and short course programs since 2003. Today there are over 680 students enrolled in COFA Online undergraduate courses, and over 30 art and design units are offered online. COFA Online is supported by the College's award-winning Omniumâ„¢ e-learning software designed specifically for online art and design collaboration.

Last year, COFA Online received a Carrick Award Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning: "for pioneering internationally recognised best practice in online education in the creative arts and design."

"This degree responds to the increasing demand from employers in creative fields who place a high value on cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration skills in their employees," said Simon McIntyre, Postgraduate Online Course Coordinator for COFA. "These skills will be vital in an increasingly globalised and networked professional environment."

Applications are now open for the Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design, which commences in Session 2, 2007.

For more information about the Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design and COFA Online visit: www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/online

For more information on Omnium visit: www.omnium.net.au/project

Media contact: Simon McIntyre, COFA, 02 9385 0631 or s.mcintyre@unsw.edu.au; Erin Rutherford, UNSW Media unit, 02 9385 8732 or e.rutherford@unsw.edu.au

Date issued: 27 March, 2007.