Professional Doctorate in Therapeutic Arts Practice

Overview

Our Professional Doctorate offers candidates the opportunity to develop high-level practice and research skills in therapeutic arts practice. A strong emphasis is placed on working collaboratively and multi-modally with individuals and groups in the community health and welfare, arts, and education sectors.

The subjects are mostly delivered via online methods (Zoom and Office 365 Teams). We require students/candidates to be able to visit our Melbourne studio once a year as required. Typically, this would be in November for end-of-year presentations or to meet onsite with a supervisor.

Supervisory relationships are assigned by MIECAT.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate mastery of a substantial body of specialised knowledge at the frontier of arts-based research, including knowledge that constitutes an original contribution to therapeutic arts practice and or approaches.

Demonstrate a substantial knowledge of research approaches and methods relevant to arts-based research and the arts used therapeutically in practice.

An expert understanding of, and capacity for critical reflection on, different philosophical and methodological approaches in arts-based research and the arts used therapeutically in practice.

A developed capacity for intellectual independence, with creative critical responsiveness, to related ideas and approaches in the field, that generates original knowledge.

Skilfully design and implement research that effectively communicates significant original findings for related fields.

Sophisticated capacity to use multimodal arts-based presentational forms to communicate a complex investigation of originality or original research.

A refined capacity to independently, creatively, responsibly, and ethically, adapt knowledge and skills gained in professional practice and research to generate new knowledge within diverse contexts.

Advanced ability to advocate for the role of the arts in knowledge creation and dissemination, and in communicating, educating, and activating for change towards community, social/world flourishing, and well-being.

The total expected hours averaged per week is 26, inclusive of subject time, on the basis of a 40-week study year.

Structure

A 5-year part-time Professional Doctorate.

Candidature will be considered provisional until students have completed the year one subject requirements. Confirmation of candidature will occur after the MIECAT Institute’s Education Committee has reviewed the candidate’s submissions and deemed them satisfactory.

The subjects in years one to four include Research Supervision and our Seminar Series. The subject in year five is Research Supervision.

Within these subjects, students/candidates will be required to attend group and individual supervision, complete an ethics application, present work in progress, and attend the seminar series events.

The course has been designed to accommodate an intake of 6–8 new students in the course’s first year.

Due to the importance of group learning, MIECAT reserves the right to decline a ‘Year 1 student intake’ each year. This decision will be based on the number of students we require for a first-year group or the accumulative number of candidates in the overall course.

Prerequisites

MIECAT Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice or previous MIECAT Masters degree.
PLUS
Evidence of capacity to complete academic writing, such as an arts-inquiry paper, a peer-reviewed journal article, or equivalent publication (3,000–5,000 words).*
AND
Professional experience related to the fields of the arts, therapy, community well-being, education, or research.

Either Honours degree or Masters degree from another Higher Education provider in a relevant area (with grades considered reasonable).
PLUS
Evidence of capacity to:
– complete academic writing, such as a peer-reviewed journal article or equivalent publication (min 3,000–5,000 words).
– undertake an arts-based inquiry, such as a portfolio of creative works.
AND
Related professional experience (as above).

* Submitted examples of the applicant’s academic writing must be in the original English or have been translated from the original language of writing/publication into English by the applicant themselves.

Applicants who have not completed a MIECAT degree might be asked to complete additional content at the beginning of year 1.

Depending on prior experience any required workshops would focus on: Arts-based/artistic research and bringing arts-making or an arts practice into inquiry work; and,
an introduction to MIECAT’s approach to arts inquiry.

To support an application into our Doctorate

We recommend viewing closely the following documents:

2025 MIECAT Professional Doctorate Information booklet
2025 MIECAT Professional Doctorate View
The (2025) fees schedule has been published in the Annual Fees section.
Yearly timetables can be found in the Student Services Hub, including the 2025 Year 1 Professional Doctorate Timetable.
View our Research

Applications for our 2025 first-year intake have now closed. If you are interested in future intakes, please complete this form with your details and we will be in touch.

The application form

At the beginning of the electronic application form, we ask the following questions:

What would you like to tell us about yourself in a short autobiographical piece of writing?
Do you have a research topic, an ‘alive question from a real-world setting’, or an area of passion/interest you hope to inquire into for the Doctorate?
If so, how well do you foresee this topic/question/area sustaining the longevity of a five-years part-time study, including a capacity to keep your interest?
How will participation in this program and the research you hope to produce support the wellbeing of a community?
When you see the words ‘RESILENCE’, ‘TIME’ and ‘WELLBEING’ beside the phrase ‘a five-year part-time Professional Doctorate’, what is your response?
When you hear about the possibility of submitting the research as a thesis or an artistic artefact/exhibition/presentation and accompanying exegesis at the end of the study, what is your response?

An application must be submitted via The MIECAT Institute’s application tool, Wisenet.

You will be asked to provide

• A recent photograph
• Scanned copies of academic transcripts (showing results)
• Evidence of capacity to complete academic writing
• For non-MIECAT Masters graduates, evidence of an arts-based inquiry
• Current curriculum vitae (showing related professional experience)
• Contact details of two referees or letters of support (professional and/or academic)

Selections process

After reviewing the application and documentation, we may:

• Extend an invitation, to participate in a small group online selections process workshop. This workshop is an opportunity for prospective students and doctoral staff to see if our course is ‘the right fit’ for an applicant. It is a time to experience our approach, for questions to be asked, and for clarifications to be made.

• Advise the applicant that we will not continue further with their application.

We will make offers following and informed by the selections workshop event.

Please see the 2025 Year 1 Professional Doctorate Timetable for key admission procedure dates, including small group workshop dates and communication points with applicants.