The Royal College of Art is a postgraduate university in London, England, and claims to be the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design offering the degrees of M.A, M.Phil and Ph.D. Housed in the Darwin Building in Kensington Gore, it serves roughly 800 students with coursework in fine art, applied art, design, and communications.
The college was founded in 1837, and was then known as the Government School of Design. It became the National Art Training School in 1853, and in 1896 received the name The Royal College of Art. After 130 years in operation, the RCA was granted a Royal Charter in 1967, which gave it the status of an independent university with the power to grant its own degrees.
It played a major role in the birth of the modern school of British sculpture in the 1920s, with students including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and in the development of Pop Art in the 1960s with students including Peter Blake and David Hockney.
The college also has an international reputation for its teaching in the fields of photography, industrial and interior design, fashion, ceramics and silversmithing. Degrees in the History of Design are offered in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Distinguished alumni include architect Edwin Lutyens, vacuum-cleaner designer James Dyson and film director Ridley Scott.
