The Student Room Group

Best universities in London/area for foundation art degree, and degree top ups?

I'm wanting to do foundation art degree

then fashion, fine art, photography, film, or wherever it takes me

recommendations/experiences please

x
Reply 1
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design: Foundation Studies in Art & Design
http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/courses/further_education/foundation-art-and-design.htm

Chelsea College of Art and Design: Foundation Diploma in Art & Design
http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/courses/further_education/foundation.htm

University of Kingston: Art & Design Foundation
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/artfoundation/

If you're particularly interested in becoming a Fashion Designer, Central Saint Martins is honestly the only option out of the three. If you're unsure (as you imply) as to what you'd like to do after your foundation, either of the above are highly recommended.
Reply 2
University of the Arts London is probably your best choice, but each college kind of has certain specialities. CSM for Fashion, LCC for Graphics etc.

If you're interested in Photography I wouldn't recommend Chelsea, unless you only want to do digital photography, as they don't have any dark room facilities.

I'm currently doing Foundation at Camberwell, which I chose because it seemed to be more of an 'all-rounder' and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to specialise in. One of the advantages of being at UAL is that their Foundation students tend to have priority over other degree aplicants, and you can quite easily go from doing Foundation at say Wimbledon and then deciding you want to specialise in Fashion and do your degree at CSM.

Go to all the open days and ask questions and just see which one you like best. There are other options apart from UAL (Kingston, Putney, RUTC) but if you're staying in London I would definitely recommend UAL.
Reply 3
I'm currently in my first year of a degree course at Chelsea and I wouldnt agree with the above poster that there's more of a chance that you'll be able to do a UAL degree course if you've done your foundation there, during my foundation when i came to look around chelsea, my head of course told us that it's actually detremental to your chances of getting on a degree course at ual if it's where you're doing your foundation in a way, because they usually only accept a couple of applicatants onto each course from UAL foundations, so if there are a lot of people on your foundation wanting to go onto a degree course at ual your amoung extremely high competition. As for my course there are only 3 people from the foundation at chelsea and i think only 3 others from other ual foundations.
I did my foundation at bucks new uni in high wycombe, just outside west london, purely because it's close to where i live, but it is also one of the top uni's for art foundations in the country, 98% get into their first choice uni, i dont know one person i knew on my course there that didnt get into their first choice. The uni is an ugly place and isnt good for academic courses, but the art side is very good, the studio space and opportunies are good, there are always tutors about to help you but it's not really strict and you dont have to always be there if u find it easier to work at home, and they help you no end if uni applications.
When it comes to choosing a uni, chose somewhere with good studio space, there isnt that at chelsea and its a nightmare, its ridiculous.
Reply 4
coco1
I'm currently in my first year of a degree course at Chelsea and I wouldnt agree with the above poster that there's more of a chance that you'll be able to do a UAL degree course if you've done your foundation there, during my foundation when i came to look around chelsea, my head of course told us that it's actually detremental to your chances of getting on a degree course at ual if it's where you're doing your foundation in a way, because they usually only accept a couple of applicatants onto each course from UAL foundations, so if there are a lot of people on your foundation wanting to go onto a degree course at ual your amoung extremely high competition. As for my course there are only 3 people from the foundation at chelsea and i think only 3 others from other ual foundations.
I did my foundation at bucks new uni in high wycombe, just outside west london, purely because it's close to where i live, but it is also one of the top uni's for art foundations in the country, 98% get into their first choice uni, i dont know one person i knew on my course there that didnt get into their first choice. The uni is an ugly place and isnt good for academic courses, but the art side is very good, the studio space and opportunies are good, there are always tutors about to help you but it's not really strict and you dont have to always be there if u find it easier to work at home, and they help you no end if uni applications.
When it comes to choosing a uni, chose somewhere with good studio space, there isnt that at chelsea and its a nightmare, its ridiculous.


The intake is largely dependent on the college and course you are applying for. In my case, I noticed that the large majority of the students on my undergraduate degree at CSM were students from UAL foundation courses, notably CSM itself and Chelsea. Personally, I underwent my foundation equivalent in Tokyo, so I fell under the international intake.

Regarding the allocation of space at Chelsea, a large number of my friends complained about the space given. I guess this is particularly pertinent for students that study Fine Art, although Interior and Spacial students also suffer. It's annoying, because I'm well aware that the North Block is used entirely for administration, when it could be used for the students. I would have thought that they could use Davies Street exclusively for that, and allow the colleges to be used, more or less, for the students themselves. Hopefully, they will address this issue with the CSM move in 2011.
Reply 5
Original post by coco1
I'm currently in my first year of a degree course at Chelsea and I wouldnt agree with the above poster that there's more of a chance that you'll be able to do a UAL degree course if you've done your foundation there, during my foundation when i came to look around chelsea, my head of course told us that it's actually detremental to your chances of getting on a degree course at ual if it's where you're doing your foundation in a way, because they usually only accept a couple of applicatants onto each course from UAL foundations, so if there are a lot of people on your foundation wanting to go onto a degree course at ual your amoung extremely high competition. As for my course there are only 3 people from the foundation at chelsea and i think only 3 others from other ual foundations.
I did my foundation at bucks new uni in high wycombe, just outside west london, purely because it's close to where i live, but it is also one of the top uni's for art foundations in the country, 98% get into their first choice uni, i dont know one person i knew on my course there that didnt get into their first choice. The uni is an ugly place and isnt good for academic courses, but the art side is very good, the studio space and opportunies are good, there are always tutors about to help you but it's not really strict and you dont have to always be there if u find it easier to work at home, and they help you no end if uni applications.
When it comes to choosing a uni, chose somewhere with good studio space, there isnt that at chelsea and its a nightmare, its ridiculous.



After doing your art foundation did you apply for uni whilst doing your art foundation or did you apply after finishing your foundation.. which mean you would take a gap year? :confused:
Original post by F.Jvd
After doing your art foundation did you apply for uni whilst doing your art foundation or did you apply after finishing your foundation.. which mean you would take a gap year? :confused:
This thread is over 5 years old, so you are unlikely to get a reply. Apply during the autumn term of your foundation course.
(edited 11 years ago)
you silly billy

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