MA Writing
Royal College of Art
Key Information
Campus location
London, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 year
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
Request info
Application deadline
Request info *
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* “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
Open Days and Prospective Student Events
To provide prospective students with opportunities to find out about the RCA experience and programmes, we run a number of on-campus and online open days as well as events in various countries around the world.
Introduction
To provide prospective students with opportunities to find out about the RCA experience and programmes we run several on-campus and online open days as well as events in various countries around the world. You can find out about upcoming events or watch replays of past open days on the RCA website.
Consider the MA writing programme part of the ongoing occasion of your learning, one which you have already begun, will share with us for a year, and which will then continue — irrevocably changed — once you leave. While you’re with us you will be taught a lot, but you will learn a great deal more.
There is not one particular type of writer that we would like to produce, and so whether you would like to write for a mainstream audience, or prepare for doctoral study, we will be able to support you to become the best possible version of the writer you’d like to be. If we tend towards anything it is ‘creative non-fiction’, imperfectly described, although ‘literary writing’, rather than literature, might be a less inadequate alternative. In recent years our students have used the expanded essay to produce an extraordinary range of forms and consider an extraordinary range of subjects, and you will be encouraged to do so, too. The projects often combine these different approaches unexpectedly or fold together established genres — such as memoir and cultural history, for example — to produce work which possesses both intellectual rigour and poetic form.
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.
Next on-campus open day: Saturday 20 January, 2024.
Admissions
Curriculum
Programme structure
The programme is delivered across three terms and includes a combination of programme, School and College units.
Term 1
Distance and Proximity – We’re always writing from somewhere, and this unit considers what it means to have a position, whether in relation to a subject, or a person. It is often said to be important to maintain a ‘critical distance’ to a subject, and yet ‘close knowledge’ is also greatly valued. How far from — or how close to — a subject might one be to write best about it?
Attention – Attention is one of the foremost qualities of a writer, whether it is turned to the rhythm of a sentence or the cut of a jacket, a political movement or the stillness within a dance. To notice, to discern, to discriminate: all of these things will be considered within this unit.
Publics and Counterpublics – How might we create the public for whom we write? In this unit, we will consider how our writing might enter the world, and the effect it might have upon it once it does.
Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA, the College-wide unit.
Term 2
The Practical Past – Research is one of the most important ways by which we engage with the world, and in this unit, we will look at how we can develop our research skills to improve our writing practice. As well as reading groups and discussions on various historiographic approaches, students will visit archives, libraries, and other collections to learn how these might be used to extend their practices.
How to Live Together – Writing is often presented as a solitary activity; we prefer to think of it as something collaborative, something that is made with and for others. In this unit students will work together to produce work for a cultural organisation which will be made public; this might be a small publication, for example, a podcast, or a series of talks.
The urgency of the Arts – 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 recognise its many potentially unintended readings and consequences.
Term 3
The Independent Research Project (IRP) is the culmination of the MA Writing programme and constitutes the largest piece of work to be completed by the students. The form of the IRP is subject to negotiation but it is suggested that the submission consists of a piece of writing of between 10,000–12,000 words; this might be reduced if the submission also contains other elements, such as a website, or other audio-visual materials, for example. Although the IRP consists largely of independent study, it is also supported by individual and group tutorials, and work-in-progress presentations.
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
Eranda Rothschild Scholarships
We are supporting a range of MA students from the UK with financial needs.
Eligible Programmes: Architecture MA, Writing MA, Animation MA, Global Innovation Design MA/MSc
Funding Categories: Financial hardship
Eligible fee status: UK fee status
Value: Four scholarships valued at £25,000 each
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
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 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