Few art colleges can lay claim to shaping the careers of some of the world's most influential artists and designers the way the Royal College of Art can. Its legacy stretches from the revolution of Victorian manufacturing to the London 2012 Olympics. This year the RCA celebrates its 175th anniversary, marking the longest and most successful continuous experiment in publicly funded art and design education in the world. Established in 1837 as the Government School of Design, the College trained students for work in Victorian ceramics, textiles, and ornamental crafts production.

From its early public service roots, it has built a reputation for a culture of making, robust critical theory, seminal interdisciplinary thinking and pioneering practice-led research that now attracts students from more than 50 countries around the world, looking to embark on professional and personal transformation. Wholly postgraduate, today the RCA covers design, communications, fine art, applied art and humanities, specialising in teaching and research. There is a very strong link between the way in which students are taught and the professional work they do afterwards. The 2006-2010 alumni employment survey reveals that 97% of this cohort is working or practising at the right level in their specialist field.

Number of students
1,200 MA, MPhil and PhD students

Subjects on offer at UAL

• School of Architecture | Architecture | Interior Design
• School of Communication | Animation | Information Experience Design | Visual Communication
• School of Design | Design Interactions | Design Products | Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) | Service Design | Vehicle Design
• School of Fine Art | Painting | Photography | Printmaking | Sculpture
• School of Humanities | CHS | Critical Writing in Art & Design | Curating Contemporary Art | History of Design
• School of Material | Ceramics & Glass | GSM&J | Fashion Menswear | Fashion Womenswear | Textiles

Alumni
David Hockney, Sir Ridley Scott, Ian Dury, Gertrude Jekyll, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Orla Kiely, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Hans Coper, Ossie Clark, Bill Gibb, Zandra Rhodes, Gavin Turk, Min-Kyu Choi, Sir James Dyson, Eric Parry, David Adjaye, Tord Boontje, Graphic Thought Facility, Neville Brody, O Zhang, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore OM, Bridget Riley, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili, Alice Temperley, George Shaw, Spartacus Chetywnd, David Mellor, Thomas Heatherwick, Sir Peter Blake, Richard Wentworth CBE, Philip Treacy, Erdem, Christopher Bailey, Barber Osgerby, Suzie Templeton, John Hedgecoe, Gillian Carnegie, Suling Wang, Robin Day, Lucienne Day, Brothers Quay, Jonathan Barnbrook, R B Kitaj, Chantal Joffe, Tony Cragg, Alan Fletcher, Storm Thorgerson, Tony Dunne

For further information please contact:
admissions@rca.ac.uk