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Award: Graduate Diploma in Conservation Care & Management for Collections
Duration: 1 academic year, full time
School: School of Conservation
Campus: West Dean - including a six-week work placement elsewhere to support a student’s interest area
Scholarships and bursaries: See available funding

The Graduate Diploma (Level 6) is the start of your career in conservation and management of heritage collections. Using the historic interiors, collections and archive at West Dean as your teaching environment, you will learn to plan and deliver collection care, to exercise evaluative judgement and become evidence based and solution driven in delivering organisational priorities. Team-working, negotiation, communication and reflective practice skills are utilised throughout the programme and this skillset is sought after in the heritage sector and transferable to other professional contexts.

You will be introduced to the weekly, monthly and seasonal routines associated with managing historic collections, such as environmental monitoring and pest management. By working alongside our conservation studies programmes specialising in books, ceramics, clocks, furniture and metalwork, you will gain an understanding of the materiality of different kinds of collections and you will have the opportunity to learn from our science tutors about the types of analysis that can be undertaken to inform collections care.

Issues that influence contemporary collections management, such as repatriation, reinterpretation, inclusivity and sustainable practice are investigated and discussed in partnership with our GD Conservation Studies students. As the year progresses you are introduced to increasingly complex situations and can participate in some of the more ad hoc features of collections care, such as preparing items for loans, outreach activities, disaster planning, surveys and condition checking.

There is a six-week placement running up to the spring vacation and this allows you to explore  a different working environment, such as an archive, museum or heritage site and to further develop your professional skills and build networks.

The programme culminates in you presenting a portfolio of work that includes contextual work, professional practice and critical reflection. This takes the form of a collection care and management report, presentation and poster on a collection or practical project such as a collections care or conservation analysis, option evaluation, planning, or case study.