Art and design is an immensely popular area for postgraduate study, stretching across a wide variety of disciplines and mediums. Many students have artistic talents that can be developed and built upon to help steer them into a career, and taking a postgraduate course in art and design is a tried and tested way to do so. There are institutions across the country offering degrees in these subjects, and it can be hard to find the best university for art and design. To help students find a good course, we have created this guide to the top universities for art and design.
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These are top ranked universities for art and design according to the Complete University Guide’s 2024 league tables. A variety of metrics are used to decide what universities are ranked highly, including student satisfaction, graduate prospects and more. If you’re looking for a place to start your postgrad research, we would recommend taking a look at these institutions.
When you start looking for a university, it’s important to take student satisfaction into consideration. This metric can help you figure out where students have found the teaching to be worthwhile or not. For art and design subjects, the highest ranked university was University of Suffolk.
With job progression on everyone’s mind, looking at graduate prospects when trying to find a university is particularly wise. It can help you find a university that teaches students beneficial skills for professional careers, and might also offer job support as part of the course. The highest-ranking university for art and design in terms of graduate prospects was UCL.
Go to: Search for art and design courses at UCL
Research quality is another vital aspect to keep in mind when looking for a postgraduate university, especially if you’re thinking about taking a research-based course. Institutions with high rankings could be able to provide an environment and resources to help you make important research progress. The University of Oxford ranked highly for research quality in art and design subjects.
Go to: Search for art and design courses at University of Oxford
The Complete University Guide’s league tables have been used to source the ranking information for this article. The league tables use data from the National Student Survey, the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, and the rankings are calculated using the Complete University Guide’s own methodology.
Go to: See the 2024 Complete University Guide art and design subject league table
Arts University Plymouth has received many positive reviews from art and design students on Whatuni, including a number of five-star ratings. Students have been quoted as saying, “There's such a good energy within the walls of the studio spaces,” and “Fantastic, amazing technical facilities and a good arts community.”
Go to: Search for art and design courses at Arts University Plymouth
To browse every university that offers art and design courses, please use our handy course finder tool, which can be filtered by subject, qualification and start date.
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