MA Print
Royal College of Art
Key Information
Campus location
London, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 Year
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
Request Info
Application deadline
Request Info
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* visit the RCA website to find out about fees for this programme as well as scholarship and funding opportunities
Open Days and Prospective Student Events
To provide prospective students with opportunities to find out about the RCA experience and programmes, we run a number of on-campus and online open days as well as events in various countries around the world.
Introduction
The program positions Print as an expanded field that situates the printing press as the prehistory of computing and the web. We collectively explore the many ways technically mediated images alter and expand the world. You work from a range of positions, some working through print, making prints directly and others working with print, using archives, broadcast media, collage, and installation to explore the rich cultural legacies of printed matter. We aim to develop the potential of each student in ways appropriate to their concerns and consciously select an extremely diverse group of students to creatively expand the field.
How will I learn?
Seminars, visiting artists, publishing projects, and the wider environment of the School, College, and London help to provide a critical framework to question the nature of expanded Print practices. The multiplication of images always raises questions of originality, authenticity, and value. Print includes industrial production and craft processes. Its history is inextricably linked to commerce, entertainment, and education. As the demand increases for all Fine Art practices to be replicated and transmitted digitally, the difference between hard copy and screen-based images grows ever more complex as evidenced by current debates about NFTs and the role of social media. How do shifts in the registers of different media affect our lives, ways of communicating, and the stories we tell? Engaging with a wide range of artists and archives places debates within the program in a state of dynamic flux.
Learning and teaching activities in the program may include, but may not be limited to: briefings, lectures, seminars, tutorials (individual and group), critiques, technical inductions and negotiated technical learning, workshops, and public dissemination of work.
Meet the RCA
We host a range of online and on-campus open days as well as recruitment events in cities around the world. These events can include 1-to-1 meetings and portfolio advice, informal chats, presentations, and sessions with staff, students, and alumni.
Check the Check the RCA event webpage for details of upcoming events.
Admissions
Curriculum
Programme structure
The programme is delivered across three terms and includes a combination of programme, School and College units.
Term 1
In Orientation, Induction and Experimentation we begin with the notion of orientation, a term originating from ‘Orient’: ‘a person's basic attitude, beliefs, or feelings in relation to a particular subject or issue’.
You will begin the programme with a series of orientation sessions and technical inductions. Seminars and external visits to exhibitions and archives will help you understand the expanded field of Print in the context of the broad field of contemporary art. You will be encouraged to experiment with new ways of making to challenge existing models of thinking and demonstrate this through studio practice.
Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA, the College-wide unit.
Term 2
Development and Context focus on deepening an engagement with both producing works and through discussion, understanding the ways in which it might be read, displayed and contextualised. To this end holding a group exhibition/event, and a publication project gives you deadlines and experience in professional contexts.
In term 2 all School of Arts & Humanities students will participate in the Urgency of the Arts, a School-wide unit. Through this unit, we ask: what do arts and humanities research and practice have to offer in our current socio-political climate? The unit introduces students to a diverse range of perspectives, approaches and practices relevant to contemporary practice and thought in the Arts & Humanities. The delivery is devised to help you identify and query your own practices and disciplinary assumptions through encounters with others and within the various practices undertaken by students in the School, and to raise awareness around contemporary concerns. You will be supported in understanding the ramifications of your own work and practice within a broad cultural context, and recognise its many potentially unintended readings and consequences.
Term 3
Independent Research Project
You will have submitted a plan for your independent research project at the end of the second unit based on the experience of the exhibition and publications projects in unit 2. The Independent Research Project (IRP) emphasises the sharing of work with an audience. The focus is on completing work which synthesises and builds upon the work of the last two terms. You will be expected to make, curate and exhibit in the context of a group exhibition. Most Print students would work in exhibitions, though a few may choose publication as the principal form. The shift is towards identifying forms of presentation and understanding individual needs in terms of future professional development. In the closing weeks of term, professional development activities, applying for grants, setting up studios, self-employment and residency applications are the focus of School-wide events. You are required to participate in a public ‘Print Out’ panel discussion with invited guests.
Program Tuition Fee
Rankings
The Royal College of Art has been ranked the number 1 university for art & design internationally for the 9th consecutive year, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 – the largest world-wide survey of academic and industry opinion.
Scholarships and Funding
House of Fraser Bursary
Supporting students in any MA programme from the UK (Preferably a Scottish national), experiencing financial hardship
Eligible Programmes: Architecture MA, Interior Design MA, City Design MA, Environmental Architecture MA, Ceramics & Glass MA, Contemporary Art Practice MA, Curating Contemporary Art MA, V&A/RCA History of Design MA, Jewellery & Metal MA, Painting MA, Photography MA, Print MA, Sculpture MA, Writing MA, Animation MA, Digital Direction MA, Information Experience Design MA, Visual Communication MA, Design Products MA, Fashion MA, Global Innovation Design MA/MSc, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc, Intelligent Mobility MA, Service Design MA, Textiles MA
Funding Categories: Financial hardship, Full time, Student preferably of Scottish origin
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: £10,000
Leverhulme Arts Scholarship
Supporting MA Sculpture, Painting, Contemporary Art Practice, Print and Photography students experiencing financial hardship
Eligible Programmes: Contemporary Art Practice MA, Painting MA, Photography MA, Print MA, Sculpture MA
Funding Categories: Financial hardship, Full time
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: Up to seven full tuition fee scholarships for new students
Rose Finn-Kelcey Bursary
Supporting Sculpture, Painting, Contemporary Art Practice, Print and Photography MA students.
Eligible Programmes: Contemporary Art Practice MA, Painting MA, Photography MA, Print MA, Sculpture MA
Funding Categories: Full time
Eligible fee status: Any
Value: A tuition fee bursary of £5,000
Sir Frank Bowling Scholarships
The Scholarship supports 21 UK MA, MRes and PhD students every year from across all RCA MA, MRes and PhD disciplines.
Eligible Programmes: Architecture MA, Interior Design MA, City Design MA, Environmental Architecture MA, Architecture Pathway MRes RCA, Architecture MPhil/PhD, Ceramics & Glass MA, Contemporary Art Practice MA, Curating Contemporary Art MA, V&A/RCA History of Design MA, Jewellery & Metal MA, Painting MA, Photography MA, Print MA, Sculpture MA, Writing MA, Fine Arts & Humanities Pathway MRes RCA, Arts & Humanities MPhil/PhD, Animation MA, Digital Direction MA, Information Experience Design MA, Visual Communication MA, Communication Design Pathway MRes RCA, Communication MPhil/PhD, Design Products MA, Fashion MA, Global Innovation Design MA/MSc, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc, Intelligent Mobility MA, Service Design MA, Textiles MA, Design Pathway MRes RCA, Design MPhil/PhD, Healthcare & Design MRes, Intelligent Mobility MPhil/PhD, Materials Science MPhil/PhD, Computer Science MPhil/PhD
Funding Categories: Financial hardship, Students with Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage, or mixed Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: £21,000
The Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award
Supporting MA Painting students from the UK experiencing financial hardship
Eligible Programmes: Painting MA
Funding Categories: Full time
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: Two scholarships valued at £20,000 each
The Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award
Supporting MA Painting students from the UK experiencing financial hardship
Eligible Programmes: Painting MA
Funding Categories: Financial hardship
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: Two scholarships valued at £20,000 each
The Paul Desty Scholarship
A Scholarship supporting MA Painting and Sculpture students with demonstrable financial need.
Eligible Programmes: Painting MA, Sculpture MA
Funding Categories: Financial hardship
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: One full tuition fee scholarship valued at £15,000
The Tony Snowdon Scholarship
Applicants must make an application via the application portal on the Snowdon Trust website from Jan 2023: https://www.snowdontrust.org/scholarships
Eligible Programmes: Architecture MA, Interior Design MA, City Design MA, Environmental Architecture MA, Architecture Pathway MRes RCA, Ceramics & Glass MA, Contemporary Art Practice MA, Curating Contemporary Art MA, V&A/RCA History of Design MA, Jewellery & Metal MA, Painting MA, Photography MA, Print MA, Sculpture MA, Writing MA, Fine Arts & Humanities Pathway MRes RCA, Animation MA, Digital Direction MA, Information Experience Design MA, Visual Communication MA, Communication Design Pathway MRes RCA, Design Products MA, Fashion MA, Global Innovation Design MA/MSc, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc, Intelligent Mobility MA, Service Design MA, Textiles MA, Design Pathway MRes RCA, Healthcare & Design MRes
Funding Categories: Financial hardship, Students with a diagnosed physical or sensory disability
Eligible fee status: Any
Value: Up to £15,000 in tuition fees + £15,000 maintenance support