Royal College of Art
The RCA began in 1837 as the Government School of Design, founded at Somerset House to improve the ornament of British manufacture — the first state art school in the country. It became the Royal College of Art by warrant in 1896, a university in 1967, and now admits only postgraduates: no foundation year, no bachelor's degree, MAs and doctorates only.
Its Kensington Gore site sits beside the Royal Albert Hall, opposite Hyde Park; the newer Battersea buildings put studios by the river. Its alumni have shaped more of the twentieth century's visual culture than any comparable list — two of its painters, Hockney and Emin, bookend British art's establishment and its avant-garde.
Field notes
- The School of Design's first students included women — unusual for 1837, and deliberate.
- Henry Moore attended on a scholarship after the First World War; the college's sculpture MA still bears the lineage.
- It has been ranked the world's top art and design university in the QS table for most of the past decade.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
The world's most influential art and design school — postgraduate only, from its Government School of Design origins in 1837, and regularly ranked first globally for art and design.
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