1. Executive Summary The Royal College of Art is the UK’s only entirely postgraduate art and design university. The Royal Charter specifies that the College’s purpose is “to advance learning, knowledge and professional competence particularly in the field of the fine arts… through teaching, research and collaboration with industry and commerce”. Fifty years on, the College remains in the vanguard of creative enquiry, with around 2,000 students from 65 countries registered for MA, MRes, MPhil and PhD degrees. Applications are strong, and the College’s strategy sets out an ambitious plan both to increase student places to 3,000 by 2020 and to launch new programmes underpinned by its world-class research. Recent examples include the MA in Contemporary Art Practice, launched in 2016, to offer a truly global dialogue about the practice and study of contemporary art, alongside the College’s established fine art programmes in painting, sculpture, photography and print, and the haptic crafts of making in ceramic, glass, and metal. The College is located on three sites in central London, in Kensington, Battersea and White City. In 2016 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an unprecedented £54 million grant to support a major expansion at Battersea to create a flagship innovation campus, housing new research centres, knowledge exchange labs and additional space for the College’s highly successful business incubator, InnovationRCA. Work on the new building is due to start in early 2018 and complete in late 2020. As well as welcoming students from around the world, the College’s global dimension is enhanced through extensive links with business and industry and its partnerships with leading art and design, cultural and educational institutions; including, among many others, its neighbours in Kensington (Imperial College London, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal College of Music and the Natural History Museum). The College has 400 full- and part-time staff, including internationally renowned artists, designers and practitioners. These staff, together with customised forms of teaching and learning, dedicated technical facilities and research centres, all contribute to create an exceptional creative and intellectual environment and a remarkable record of graduate employment. Numerous eminent graduates have created far-reaching impact and influence, and the College boasts such noteworthy alumni as Sir James Dyson, Thomas Heatherwick, David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Christopher Bailey, Julien McDonald, Alison Jackson, Idris Khan, David Adjaye, Suzie Templeton and Sir Ridley Scott. The RCA operates on campuses in Kensington, Battersea and White City, with a total estate of 36,000 square metres consisting of both purpose built and converted buildings. These include the Grade 2 listed Darwin Building (1961) in Kensington, the Sackler (2007) and Dyson (2012) Buildings in Battersea and a new campus at White City which opened in September 2017.
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