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 Royal College of Art in South Kensington | |
| Motto | Dieu et mon droit |
|---|---|
Motto in English | God and my right |
| Type | Public |
| Established |
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| Endowment | £39.6 million (2025)[1] |
| Budget | £94.7 million (2024/25)[1] |
| Chancellor | Sir Jonathan Ive |
| Vice-Chancellor | Professor Christoph Lindner |
| Students | 2,555 (2024/25)[2] |
| Undergraduates | 0 |
| Location | , United Kingdom |
| Campus | Urban |
| Language | English |
| Website | rca |
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TheRoyal College of Art (RCA) is apublicresearch university inLondon, England, with campuses inSouth Kensington,Battersea andWhite City. It is the only entirelypostgraduate art anddesign university in the United Kingdom.[3]: 118
The RCA was founded inSomerset House in 1837 as theGovernment School of Design[4] orMetropolitan School of Design.[5] By 1848 there were more than 300 students attending classes each day.
The numbers of pupils at present (June 1848) attending at Somerset House is about 80 in the morning, 260 in the evening, and about 50 females. The greater part of the students are the sons of tradesmen and of the upper class of artisans; the females are principally the daughters of professional men, or such as are being educated for governesses.[6]
Richard Burchett became head of the school in 1852.[7]
TheScience and Art Department was a government department established in 1853 to promote education in art, science, technology, and design in Britain and Ireland. The Department funded a large site in South Kensington that housed the Science and Art Department, the South Kensington Museum, and other bodies, and the Science and Art Department took over the Government School of Design.[8][9] Owing to this association, the college has been referred to in several (mostly colonial) sources as the "South Kensington School of Science and Art".[10][11][12]
In 1853 it was expanded and moved toMarlborough House, and then, in 1853[4] or 1857,[5][7] toSouth Kensington, on the same site as theSouth Kensington Museum. It was renamed theNormal Training School of Art in 1857[5] and theNational Art Training School in 1863.[7] During the later 19th century it was primarily ateacher training college; pupils during this period includedGeorge Clausen,Christopher Dresser,Luke Fildes,Kate Greenaway andGertrude Jekyll.[7]
In September 1896, the school received the name "Royal College of Art",[13] and the emphasis of teaching there shifted to the practice of art and design.[4] The Science and Art Department was merged into theBoard of Education in 1899.[8]
Teaching ofgraphic design,industrial design andproduct design began in the mid-twentieth century. The school expanded further in the 1960s, and in 1967 it received aroyal charter (amended in 2021) which gave it the power to grant its own degrees.[14]
In July 2020, the Royal College of Art launched its first-ever online graduate exhibition, RCA2020.[15][failed verification]
The RCA today[when?] has three campuses located inSouth Kensington,Battersea andWhite City.[16]
The Darwin Building inKensington Gore, South Kensington, was completed 1960–1963. It is a short distance from the RCA's home 1896–1967 in theHenry Cole Building, now part of theV&A Museum. The Darwin Building was designed by a team of RCA staff members,H. T. Cadbury-Brown,Hugh Casson and Robert Goodden,[17] and since 2001 has been a Grade IIlisted building. It is named after painter SirRobert Vere Darwin, known as Robin Darwin, who was the rector at the time the building was commissioned. Although there was modest development into the mews behind the Darwin Building, the restricted site meant further expansion had to be in another part of London.
In 1991, thesculpture department moved to a converted factory inBattersea. In the early 2000s the college conceived a substantial extension on the site, with a minibus service linking it to Kensington. After a redevelopment byWright & Wright (budget £4.3m, floor area 2,500 sq m), the Sculpture Building opened in Battersea in January 2009.[18][19] In 2018 the RCA was granted planning permission to redevelop the Sculpture building into a new Arts & Humanities building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, with work planned for completion in late 2021.[20]
A masterplan was commissioned fromHaworth Tompkins and phase one of their three-phase design was completed with the opening of the Sackler Building on 19 November 2009, to house the painting department. Its name commemorated a major gift byThe Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation.[21][22][23] The Sackler Building was renamed as the Painting Building in 2022.[24]
The Dyson Building, named in honour ofJames Dyson, whose charity donated £5m towards the £21m cost, was opened on 24 September 2012. It housesprintmaking andphotography, and contains an innovation wing where start-up designers can launch their businesses.[25][26] The Woo Building was opened on 30 September 2015, completing the Battersea project. It is named in honour ofSir Po-Shing and Lady Helen Woo, who have funded scholarships at the RCA since the 1990s. It accommodates the Ceramics & Glass and Jewellery & Metal programmes. The building'sanodised aluminium gates were designed by alumnusMax Lamb.[27][28]
In 2017, RCA White City became the third RCA campus, co-located with theBBC Media Village and accommodating the School of Communication, Animation and Digital Direction and Communication Design[29] in buildings designed byAllies and Morrison.
In 2013, the college offered postgraduate degrees in art and design to students from over 60 countries.[30]
The RCA offers agraduate diploma pre-masters conversion programme,MA,MRes,MPhil andPhD degrees[31] in twenty-eight subject areas, divided into four schools: architecture, arts & humanities, communication, and design. Thehistory of design programme is in collaboration with theVictoria and Albert Museum; there are two double MA/MSc programmes withImperial College London.[32]
In addition to formal qualifications the RCA also offersSummer school andExecutive education courses throughout the year.English for academic purposes (EAP) courses are offered to applicants who need to improve their academic English ability to meet the college's entry requirements.
In early 2019, the RCA announced the launch of its new GenerationRCA programme. GenerationRCA -among other initiatives- will also "inject science disciplines into the mix of creative disciplines traditionally on offer." The new programmes will include Environmental Architecture and Digital Direction; with future programmes centred on nano and soft robotics, computer science, and machine learning, material science and thecircular economy.[33]
In 2024, the RCA was placed first in the art and design subject area in theQS World University Rankings published byQuacquarelli Symonds for the tenth year in a row, with an overall score of 98.5/100.[34]For the second consecutive year the RCA was also ranked first place in the History of Art category, which incorporates programmes teaching the history of design.[35]
In August 2015, it was ranked first on a list of master's courses in fashion by Business of Fashion, a fashion website.[36][37]
In April 2011, the RCA was ranked first on a list of UK graduate art schools compiled byModern Painters magazine from a survey of professionals in the art world.[38]
In theResearch Assessment Exercise of December 2008, 40% of the research output of the school received the highest (4* or "world-leading") assessment, the third-highest rating in the art and design subject area; over all subject areas only about fifty institutions received a higher rating.[39]
The college is an active member of theUniversity of the Arctic.[40] UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region.[41]
The Royal College of Art also participates in UArctic's mobility program "north2north". The aim of that program is to enable students of member institutions to study in different parts of the North.[42]
The Royal College of Art has several awards and prizes which it confers on its graduating students. These include theSheila Robinson Drawing Prize.[citation needed]
The Royal College of Art and its predecessor schools have numerous notable alumni.
Among those who studied in the RCA predecessor bodies in the nineteenth century were SirGeorge Clausen,Christopher Dresser, SirLuke Fildes,Kate Greenaway,Gertrude Jekyll[7] andEdwin Lutyens.
Alumni from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries include the sculptorsJean Gibson,Barbara Hepworth andHenry Moore, paintersFrank Auerbach,Sir Peter Blake,Frank Bowling,David Hockney,Bridget Riley,Gavin Turk andCharles Tunnicliffe, artistsJake and Dinos Chapman,Tracey Emin andR. B. Kitaj, fashion designersOssie Clark andZandra Rhodes, industrial designersJames Dyson, andDavid Mellor, film directorsTony andRidley Scott, writerTravis Jeppesen, textile artistNour Jaouda, designersThomas Heatherwick and architectSir David Adjaye, prominent member of the suffragette movementSylvia Pankhurst, the musicianIan Dury, sound artistJanek Schaefer, and the actorAlan Rickman. The artist and graduateGerald Holtom designed theCND symbol in 1958, which has become a nearly universalpeace symbol.[43]
The Royal College of Art Society amalgamated with OSARCA (the Old Students Association of the RCA 1912) for the benefit of graduates and associates of the Royal College of Art.[44]
Academic and research staff include:[when?][citation needed]
| Neville Brody | Professor of Communication |
| Professor Johnny Golding | Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art |
| Nicky Hamlyn | Tutor, Visual Communication |
| Peter Kennard | Professor of Political Art |
| Rut Blees Luxemburg | Reader in Urban Aesthetics and Senior Research Fellow |
| Flora McLean | Senior Tutor, Fashion |
| Olivier Richon | Professor of Photography |
| Tai Shani | Tutor, Contemporary Art Practice |
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