Official Leeds Arts University freshers 2023 chat

Posting as a warning, do not study fine art at leeds arts university. Almost everyone on my course who graduated this year can safely agree that the quality of the education we received was sub- par, and we would've genuinely been better off studying somewhere else or just not bothering with uni at all. In both my second and third year there were 2 submissions, with the 2nd year submission making up a third of our final grade and 3rd year making the remaining two thirds. A common issue many of my coursemates and I experienced was that the tutors essentially skim read our submissions and whatever feedback and criticism they had to give was at best unrelated to our work and at worst literally something people had already included in their submissions. For example being recommended to read books that had already been read and discussed in submissions, being told to experiment in certain ways that had already been discussed in the submission… you get the idea. There are much better arts universities out there that you can spend your student loan at. And the worst part of all this is that the people who did bring this issue up with tutors and who pointed out the flaws in assessment were told there was nothing that could be done after the fact. The fine art staff at this university simply do not care. They do not care that we are going into huge amounts of debt over this degree, they do not care enough to properly assess work. Im embarrassed to even be associated with this university. Again to reiterate this isn’t some fringe issue this is something that has affected a lot of people on this course.

Additionally if you want to explore issues around the more taboo areas of feminism ie sexuality nudity, there have been many times I have witnessed tutors make extremely rude and bigoted comments about the art of others who work in those topics (my art is not focused on these issues so this isn’t something ive personally experienced) but don’t let the fact that there is a supposed “feminist” artist or other female tutors fool you. I have overheard tutors say nasty things behind the backs of students who have been able to get their own private shows despite this degree, it's a very unserious and unprofessional atmosphere. The only person who seemed to really have a good time was someone who's father is on the board of admissions at a very prestigious university in London, because all the tutors are suck ups and will do anything to try and advance their careers instead of actually doing their jobs properly. This is not the place for the risqué, for art that seeks to actively challenge and disturb barriers. This is a place where tutors who failed to achieve the career status they wanted to have by a certain age come to get paid and then half ass their jobs. I'm disgusted that nothing can be done, I'm disgusted that this level of malpractice is tolerated.

Which course were you on if you don't mind me asking? I'm set to attend Leeds Art Uni this year and I'd previously heard good things about it but now I'm slightly concerned haha.

Posting as a warning, do not study fine art at leeds arts university. Almost everyone on my course who graduated this year can safely agree that the quality of the education we received was sub- par, and we would've genuinely been better off studying somewhere else or just not bothering with uni at all. In both my second and third year there were 2 submissions, with the 2nd year submission making up a third of our final grade and 3rd year making the remaining two thirds. A common issue many of my coursemates and I experienced was that the tutors essentially skim read our submissions and whatever feedback and criticism they had to give was at best unrelated to our work and at worst literally something people had already included in their submissions. For example being recommended to read books that had already been read and discussed in submissions, being told to experiment in certain ways that had already been discussed in the submission… you get the idea. There are much better arts universities out there that you can spend your student loan at. And the worst part of all this is that the people who did bring this issue up with tutors and who pointed out the flaws in assessment were told there was nothing that could be done after the fact. The fine art staff at this university simply do not care. They do not care that we are going into huge amounts of debt over this degree, they do not care enough to properly assess work. Im embarrassed to even be associated with this university. Again to reiterate this isn’t some fringe issue this is something that has affected a lot of people on this course.

Additionally if you want to explore issues around the more taboo areas of feminism ie sexuality nudity, there have been many times I have witnessed tutors make extremely rude and bigoted comments about the art of others who work in those topics (my art is not focused on these issues so this isn’t something ive personally experienced) but don’t let the fact that there is a supposed “feminist” artist or other female tutors fool you. I have overheard tutors say nasty things behind the backs of students who have been able to get their own private shows despite this degree, it's a very unserious and unprofessional atmosphere. The only person who seemed to really have a good time was someone who's father is on the board of admissions at a very prestigious university in London, because all the tutors are suck ups and will do anything to try and advance their careers instead of actually doing their jobs properly. This is not the place for the risqué, for art that seeks to actively challenge and disturb barriers. This is a place where tutors who failed to achieve the career status they wanted to have by a certain age come to get paid and then half ass their jobs. I'm disgusted that nothing can be done, I'm disgusted that this level of malpractice is tolerated.

Nevermind, just literally seen that it's fine art. Thank you for the heads up! really insightful to see. I'm on illustration so I hope that'll be better, I've heard similar stuff about fine art degrees from friends doing them at other reputable institutions. Do you have any similar feedback from illustration students or is it just a fine art issue?

from what I've heard and seen the illustration course is p good, very rigorous they had a lot of assignments from what i remember but great prep for working as an artist in the real world, fine art had the vaguest submissions that too there were only 2 so most people on my course are v behind compared to others in terms of portfolios.

Posting as a warning, do not study fine art at leeds arts university. Almost everyone on my course who graduated this year can safely agree that the quality of the education we received was sub- par, and we would've genuinely been better off studying somewhere else or just not bothering with uni at all. In both my second and third year there were 2 submissions, with the 2nd year submission making up a third of our final grade and 3rd year making the remaining two thirds. A common issue many of my coursemates and I experienced was that the tutors essentially skim read our submissions and whatever feedback and criticism they had to give was at best unrelated to our work and at worst literally something people had already included in their submissions. For example being recommended to read books that had already been read and discussed in submissions, being told to experiment in certain ways that had already been discussed in the submission… you get the idea. There are much better arts universities out there that you can spend your student loan at. And the worst part of all this is that the people who did bring this issue up with tutors and who pointed out the flaws in assessment were told there was nothing that could be done after the fact. The fine art staff at this university simply do not care. They do not care that we are going into huge amounts of debt over this degree, they do not care enough to properly assess work. Im embarrassed to even be associated with this university. Again to reiterate this isn’t some fringe issue this is something that has affected a lot of people on this course.

Additionally if you want to explore issues around the more taboo areas of feminism ie sexuality nudity, there have been many times I have witnessed tutors make extremely rude and bigoted comments about the art of others who work in those topics (my art is not focused on these issues so this isn’t something ive personally experienced) but don’t let the fact that there is a supposed “feminist” artist or other female tutors fool you. I have overheard tutors say nasty things behind the backs of students who have been able to get their own private shows despite this degree, it's a very unserious and unprofessional atmosphere. The only person who seemed to really have a good time was someone who's father is on the board of admissions at a very prestigious university in London, because all the tutors are suck ups and will do anything to try and advance their careers instead of actually doing their jobs properly. This is not the place for the risqué, for art that seeks to actively challenge and disturb barriers. This is a place where tutors who failed to achieve the career status they wanted to have by a certain age come to get paid and then half ass their jobs. I'm disgusted that nothing can be done, I'm disgusted that this level of malpractice is tolerated.