Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art - London, England

• Profile

The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a university in London, England, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate art and design institution, offering the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD.

The results of the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), published in December 2008, confirmed the Royal College of Art's position as the leading specialist art and design institution in the United Kingdom, with 40% of its research output judged to be of quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour. A further 25% is deemed internationally excellent.

The College is housed in a number of sites in South Kensington and Battersea, including the Darwin Building at Kensington Gore, and Stevens Building nearby in Jay Mews. The official reopening of the Royal College of Art’s sculpture building in Battersea marks the first step in the College’s ambitious expansion programme south of the river.

In summer 2009, the sculptors will be joined by the painting department in a new building, the first phase of a bigger scheme designed to combine the Schools of Fine Art and Applied Art, and bring the four Fine Art departments together for the first time in the College’s long history.

The second phase of the new campus will begin in 2010, housing the departments of photography and printmaking as well as a gallery and a large lecture theatre along with accommodation for 30 start-up units for businesses in the fields of art and design.

With floor space exceeding 7,000 square metres, the development will be car free with 58 cycle spaces and a minibus linking to the Kensington site. Around 250 students and staff will relocate from the main college campus in Kensington.

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