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Students on campus at the University for the Creative Arts
University for the Creative Arts
Farnham

Questions/thoughts regarding the University for the Creative Arts

Hello there, I'm looking to apply for a postgraduate degree in music management or something relevant (arts management etc.).

I've listed a bunch of universities but for the University for the Creative Arts specifically, I've stumbled upon many things that don't make a lot of sense and kind of me tick me off.

Specifically, these things make me wonder in general:

Guardian rates UCA highly, yet the complete university guide and the Times, position it later down on the rankings. Why the massive gap?

In Wikipedia the UCA page is rather small and vague, and the student numbers are from 2015-2016, which is super odd.

In QS, UCA has a rather empty profile, compared to other UK universities, even those that are placed in the bottom of every ranking (Middlesex, Westminster etc.)

I checked the virtual tour of Epsom campus, and half the halls/rooms look empty and under construction. What's up with that?

Also, pretty much nobody in here talks about UCA. So, that's that.

The thing is, my next option is the University of Southampton, which is amazing but way more expensive (international student here), with the other viable alternative being UCA as I said (course-wise at least and I like the location more). So I'm trying to make sense of UCA first.

Research on University of Southampton for example has been way simpler, and overall it looks more legit, every piece of information I need, I find.

If anybody has opinions on anything related to UCA, just let me know please, I'd appreciate it very much.
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Students on campus at the University for the Creative Arts
University for the Creative Arts
Farnham
Reply 2
Avatar for 18_Pu
18_Pu
3
I literally have the same issue - no one ever seems to talk about UCA Epsom or how it is, or how the courses are. It is so strange! I've been trying to find out for months now, but nothing great has come out of it. I did connect with some students on LinkedIn and tried to get more information - again vague stuff like yeah it's nice. Funnily the student ambassadors didn't really reply/ help much. Makes me wonder if they're actually good..
Original post by T.Rop
Hello there, I'm looking to apply for a postgraduate degree in music management or something relevant (arts management etc.).

I've listed a bunch of universities but for the University for the Creative Arts specifically, I've stumbled upon many things that don't make a lot of sense and kind of me tick me off.

Specifically, these things make me wonder in general:

Guardian rates UCA highly, yet the complete university guide and the Times, position it later down on the rankings. Why the massive gap?

In Wikipedia the UCA page is rather small and vague, and the student numbers are from 2015-2016, which is super odd.

In QS, UCA has a rather empty profile, compared to other UK universities, even those that are placed in the bottom of every ranking (Middlesex, Westminster etc.)

I checked the virtual tour of Epsom campus, and half the halls/rooms look empty and under construction. What's up with that?

Also, pretty much nobody in here talks about UCA. So, that's that.

The thing is, my next option is the University of Southampton, which is amazing but way more expensive (international student here), with the other viable alternative being UCA as I said (course-wise at least and I like the location more). So I'm trying to make sense of UCA first.

Research on University of Southampton for example has been way simpler, and overall it looks more legit, every piece of information I need, I find.

If anybody has opinions on anything related to UCA, just let me know please, I'd appreciate it very much.
hi, probably a bit late now (this post is over 2 months old lol) but i'm a current uca student (acting & performance). my course is at farnham but i have been to epsom (my sister lives nearby in streatham). i can't say much about the uni campus but the town is very pretty and i imagine studying there would be quite nice bc it's so close to london, you can go on days or nights out in london but not have to pay the ridiculous london living prices. if anyone has any questions about farnham uca though feel free to ask me
Hi! I can't help with the Epsom campus in particular, but I attended UCA Canterbury and also had an interview at the Rochester campus before deciding. I overall enjoyed my experience, found the tutors to be knowledgeable (most are practising artists) and patient most of the time. Communication between the university and the students was frustrating at times, like timetables being delayed etc.

I graduated in 2017 though, so my experience was pre-Covid and therefore it could be very different now!
Reply 5
Avatar for MFlamel
MFlamel
3
This is probably very late, but just in case anyone in the future comes across this or it's still useful: I'm currently a third-year student in UCA Epsom, and I can say that there was some construction going on a few months back. I don't know the full details because the situation hasn't really affected me, but it might be because the Rochester campus is shutting down which has led to all the courses there being moved to other campuses, so they have been getting things ready for that. Also, they have reworked the courtyard area so it's more workable as a courtyard (basically meaning that people can actually sit down out there now since previously the only outdoor seating areas were the bit of green outside the canteen and the park across the road.

I can't talk much about the gaps between rankings, because I honestly don't know much about that. I know that people have very different experiences between courses, and from what I've seen of the other campuses Epsom is quite small especially in comparison to Farnham.

In terms of certain rooms feeling empty, that may depend on when the photos were taken. Since the last academic year (2020-2021) was almost entirely online barring I think three lessons before the government shut everything down again, that could have had an impact. Usually at the end of each year, year 2 and year 3 students have an End of Year Show to showcase their work, which means the studios are basically blitzed to be as clean as possible (I don't know if you would have seen the goofy paintings/drawings on some of the walls in some studios, but they would have been painted over around the exhibition time). If the place was cleaned up in preparation for an End of Year Show and then the photos were taken mid-pandemic, it's possible that's the cause behind some studios looking bare. That said, I can't say for certain since I have no clue when the photos were taken.

In terms of my experience at the uni itself, I've generally always been able to get help with something or get what I've needed very easily. I don't know if the oil printing room (for letterpress, beaver press, etc.) will be around after the Rochester courses move in. It may just be moving locations in the uni. Equipment is easy to book out and signing up for a studio induction is painless. My only complaint about the uni would be that since it's rather fashion-orientated, some other things fall to the side just a bit. For example, a friend of mine on the graphics course (which I think is being phased out/moved to other campus?) mentioned that while his tutors were able to get in some professionals to give tutorials on some moving image stuff, it was more towards the end of the year and not something that the tutors themselves knew, so throughout the year if the students had queries about moving image it could be a bit difficult to move forwards with that if you didn't teach yourself.

I'm not sure if all of that's helpful, but hopefully it's helped somewhat?

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