Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is a public postgraduate university of art and design in London. It began in 1837 as the Government School of Design, took the Royal College of Art name in 1896, and later received independent degree-awarding powers. It is a specialist institute: it has no undergraduate body and trains artists, designers, and architects only at master's and doctoral level. Campuses are at Battersea and White City, with historic ties to South Kensington.

Teaching is organized in schools of Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Communication, and Design. The college is known for painting, sculpture, fashion, industrial and vehicle design, animation, and architecture. The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, materials and robotics workshops, and school studios are the working units that matter to graduate students.

About 2,500 students are enrolled, all postgraduates, and more than two-thirds come from outside the United Kingdom, from over 80 countries. The academic staff is a mix of practitioners and researchers numbering in the hundreds. Alumni include David Hockney, James Dyson, and Ridley Scott.

The principal taught degree is the MA, usually one or two years of studio practice, with MRes, MPhil, and PhD degrees for research students who combine a written thesis with practice. Supervision is by a personal tutor in the studio and, for research degrees, a supervisory team. The year follows the UK academic calendar. Bursaries, school scholarships, and research-council awards support a minority of students. Battersea and White City studios are the daily workplace; London's museums and design firms sit a short trip away.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Royal College of Art lists 9 graduate programs in environmental design: 8 master's programs and 1 doctoral program.