MA Sculpture
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
Request tuition fees
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* as the RCA received a high number of applications we encourage you to apply as early as possible to secure your place on your programme
* visit the RCA website to find out about fees for this programme as well as scholarship and funding opportunities
Key Summary
Online and on-campus events for future students
Join our events online, in the UK and around the World.
Introduction
The study of sculpture is ever-expanding and includes object-making, public art and social practices, site, and space, performance, sound, film, and video. Rather than only considering the specific manifestations of sculpture, we prefer to think of it as a methodology from which to progress the production of art.
This means that the Sculpture programme at the RCA supports a diverse, experimental, and expansive approach to the development of artistic practice. Students are encouraged to adopt a critical and reflexive approach to the production, development, and display of their work. Important to the programme's ambition is that students situate their practice within the social, political, and economic conditions of the contemporary world; identifying what sculpture can contribute to ongoing material, critical, technological, and philosophical debates.
To that end, core staff and visitors demonstrate that research and experimentation are highly valued elements of study, and can lead students to imagine new materials and spaces, to innovate with technology, for impact towards social transformation, sustainability, and political awareness and change.
The programme supports collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to the making and exhibiting of sculpture. Central to this interdisciplinary approach is the critique (and celebration) of the historical forms of sculpture, a legacy that we regard as a launch pad for rethinking the future.
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 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 the Sites and Situations unit, you identify the intention of your practice, its context and its relation to the site and material. This begins with an orientation of the culture and philosophy of the course, the location (city and building), facilities, staff and other students’ work. Sites and Situations embed the central notion of thinking through practice. This is achieved through tutorials, critiques, seminars, panel talks and off-site activities. The unit supports you through the production of work, demonstrating the ability to develop a creative, innovative and individual practice. Through the unit, you will locate your work within a critical context that reflects current and emerging approaches to the production of sculpture and the wider arts and humanities.
Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA, the College-wide unit.
Term 2
In The Expanded Field unit, you identify the future direction of your practice and its relation to materiality and immateriality. There is a focus on collaboration and an interdisciplinary context. This further embeds the culture and philosophy of the programme: experimentation, innovation and critical reflection.
The Expanded Field encourages the development of individual studio practice, within a wider matrix of professional relationships. This is achieved through collaborative off-site projects, workshops and a lecture series that is designed to support and encourage self-reflection, creative responses and a critical understanding of the creative economy.
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 to recognise its many potentially unintended readings and consequences.
Term 3
The Independent Research Project offers a point of synthesis through the exhibition and subsequent critical reflection. The focus is on self-directed study. Staff will continue to support you to acquire an advanced understanding of practice-led methodologies, critical reflection, production and presentation.
The Independent Research Project supports you with the specific conceptual and material demands of exhibiting and sharing your work and uses this to prepare you for the diverse professional practices of contemporary art.
Assessment will be based on the Portfolio of Practice. A reflective document that looks at the key elements of development which led to your research and exhibition. Also, how has creative identity been forged for future practice? The Portfolio of Practice will include the ideas and context from which the work emerged, including experimentation, decision-making, conceptual ambition, (im)materials and meaning.
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 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 Rothschild Foundation Scholarships
Supporting Environmental Architecture, Sculpture, Writing and Innovation Design Engineering students from the UK from underrepresented communities, with disabilities, or in financial hardship
Eligible Programmes: Environmental Architecture MA, Sculpture MA, Writing MA, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc
Funding Categories: Financial hardship, Students from under-represented communities, Students with a diagnosed physical or sensory disability
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: Two scholarships valued at £30,000 each
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