Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art stands in London’s Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with three campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. The college began in 1837 as the Government School of Design at Somerset House, moving through Marlborough House and South Kensington before becoming the Royal College of Art in 1896. Its South Kensington Darwin Building, completed between 1960 and 1963, was designed by RCA staff and is now a Grade II listed building. The Battersea campus houses sculpture, arts and humanities, printmaking and photography in converted and new buildings. White City opened in 2017 to host communication, animation and digital design programmes. The RCA is recognised as the world’s leading art and design institution. It has headed the QS World University Rankings’ art and design subject area for ten consecutive years. Fashion programmes were ranked first by Business of Fashion in 2015, and UK graduate art schools topped Modern Painters’ 2011 list. Research output rated world-leading in 40 per cent of submissions during the 2008 assessment. The college offers degrees in twenty-eight subject areas across four schools, including a history of design programme run with the Victoria and Albert Museum. It also provides summer schools, executive education and English courses for prospective students. Visitors to the South Kensington campus find the Darwin Building with its purpose-built studios and lecture theatres. The Battersea site includes the Sculpture Building, the Painting Building renamed in 2022, the Dyson Building for printmaking and photography, and the Woo Building for ceramics, glass and jewellery. White City’s buildings by Allies and Morrison accommodate digital direction and communication design. The college’s galleries and workshops display work by current students alongside exhibitions of alumni such as George Clausen, Kate Greenaway and Gertrude Jekyll.