What are your criteria for choosing an art study institution? How to make a choice in the most common large institutions, small institutions and studios? Today, from an objective and neutral perspective, natural light Teaching resources, curriculum products and services Compare large institutions, small institutions and studios to see what their advantages and disadvantages are, and tell you how to choose a reliable art study abroad agency.
Long term communication with students in the WeChat background and WeChat group, the natural light found that everyone's most concerned about the art study institutions, always focused on teaching resources, curriculum products, services.
First of all, teaching resources, including teacher resources and learning practice resources and other aspects, whether teachers have rich design experience and employment experience; Can you guide students to really improve their majors in teaching, and finally complete the collection of works and get the offer. This point cannot be ignored.
Second, course products. Now, various art overseas study institutions have launched a variety of courses and products, as well as many "package" type projects. However, no matter what form of courses, whether students' professional and application needs can be fundamentally addressed, whether students can carry out targeted professional teaching and portfolio counseling according to their own conditions, is the focus of students and parents.
Service is also an important inspection point. This service not only refers to the teaching of teachers, but also includes the attitude and service quality of the whole organization; Whether the consultant is responsible; Professional teachers are not serious in class; Whether they can communicate with students' parents in time after class; Whether the follow-up service is perfect.
The above criteria often affect everyone's judgment and final decision. What are your criteria for choosing an art study abroad institution? How to make a choice in the most common large institutions, small institutions and studios?
Large institutions
First of all, from the perspective of scale, large institutions are generally in the art study abroad market, and have a relatively stable market share. They have a relatively fixed flow of student audiences. In the whole art study abroad industry, they have a long operating year, enjoy public praise, and have accumulated a certain amount of resources and teaching application experience. Even in the field of major study abroad, they enjoy popularity.
When choosing art study abroad institutions, large institutions are the first choice for most students. Especially at the beginning of learning about art study abroad, a lot of information about institutions and majors, and application related information, may be obtained through Zhihu, Douban, study abroad exchange community, or the official website of large institutions.
Teaching resources
Large institutions compare teachers and other professional resources Guaranteed For example, professional tutors in the portfolio can cover most of the Art and Design Whether it is illustration, pure art, visual communication, or new media art, interactive design, installation, which is a relatively small number of majors, generally speaking, there are good teachers as a guarantee. Teachers have overseas art school art study experience and rich work experience.
secondly, Teaching environment I suggest that if conditions permit, we must on-the-spot investigation Don't give up the trouble! The field investigation can let you see the teaching environment and hardware equipment of the institution intuitively. A good teaching environment and a variety of hardware equipment can provide more learning space and opportunities for students.
Professional teachers can help students complete professional courses to Teaching mode of overseas universities Give lectures to help improve students' professional ability and finally complete the collection of works. But for students, completing the portfolio is only the first step to study abroad, and overseas colleges and universities attach importance to students' Design thinking ， Innovation awareness ， critical thinking ， And multi-dimensional creativity For students who are accustomed to the domestic teaching mode, it is not easy to fully grasp these.
Therefore, a responsible art study abroad institution is not only able to help students complete the study of the collection of works, but also can provide opportunities for students to cultivate and improve their comprehensive artistic literacy. It is far from enough to only accept teachers' teaching in the classroom to cultivate this part of ability. At this time, it reflects the advantages of large institutions, such as being able to connect students with overseas art schools Admissions Officer resources, Famous overseas artists or designers Cooperation with High reputation brand or company cooperation Etc.
Through rich practice, art overseas students can personally improve their comprehensive artistic quality, at the same time, they can also access a broader display platform, accumulate experience, and bring about higher ability cultivation with competitive opportunities.
Course products
The curriculum is the focus of most students. Is the curriculum based on students? Is the course targeted? Can it cover multiple fields systematically and comprehensively? Is the arrangement reasonable? Can we provide multi-dimensional help for students? It is all the students need to understand and compare.
Institutional Curriculum system In comparison, they have their own characteristics and advantages. With the help of a large group of students, Teaching is relatively mature Because these courses have been verified by many professional teachers and previous students, teachers constantly update teaching arrangements, rebuild the curriculum framework, and customize special courses for different students according to previous teaching experience and student needs.
Large institutions have a better understanding of the needs of students and can accurately recognize the strengths and weaknesses of students in the application for art study abroad, Teachers are experienced enough , with Targeted teaching , especially in Many to one, customized In teaching, teachers can provide all-round and suitable teaching help for students based on their professional ability, application intention and personal interest.
At the same time, with the help of the organization itself Admissions Officer ， Professor from overseas universities ， Famous artist/designer ， Brand cooperation resources ， Academic research projects In addition to the portfolio courses, students can also obtain comprehensive improvement, so that students have a competitive background of studying abroad.
Especially at present, "Interdisciplinary" It has increasingly become a necessary development trend. Overseas art schools not only emphasize the integration of majors, but also encourage students to cooperate with students from different majors or colleges. With rich reserves of teachers and resources, large institutions have the ability to provide more practical opportunities for students, so that students can be promoted in many ways, and can also easily achieve cooperation with other professional students.
Institutional services
In terms of service, in addition to course teaching, what people pay more attention to may be Follow up guarantee , and the experience of the whole process from the collection of works to the application submission. In terms of teaching process, it has a perfect system. Each link has a specially responsible teacher, and each step can reflect whether an institution is professional and can bring high-quality teaching services to students.
For example, the consultant teachers who communicated with you in the early stage, the professional tutors, basic course teachers, overseas college teachers, admissions officers, etc. who will be contacted in the portfolio courses, as well as the educational administration teachers who are behind the support to arrange courses for you, the online and offline activity teachers who guide you to participate in the activities, and the customer service and return visit teachers who are responsible for follow-up feedback. In some institutions that provide application documents and language course services, there are also professional document teachers and language teachers who provide one-on-one guidance and document writing according to the situation of each student.
Secondly, what you care about most may be Sign the contract In this step, large institutions and students will sign contracts with clear terms and specific items on learning and application. Both parties will take contracts with legal effect as the criteria, and students' class application will be more guaranteed.
Small institutions
Small institutions should exist between large institutions and studios. Most of them are art study abroad institutions that have a certain scale but are still in development. Relevant information can be found on Zhihu, Douban, Weibo and other platforms. Among students, although it may not reach the level that most people know, it is also the choice of some students.
At the same time, the price is significantly lower than that of most large institutions, and although it is a small institution There is a fixed teaching campus , and Registered license Therefore, small institutions will also be included in the choice of some students.
Teaching resources
In terms of teachers, most teachers also have overseas study experience or rich work experience. However, because small institutions are still in an upward development state, they may not fully have the ability to have a large number of high-quality teacher resources. In addition to some fixed full-time teachers, small institutions teacher Mainly part-time teachers Therefore, teachers are more mobile.
Secondly, on the teaching campus, small institutions The facilities and platforms that can be built have limitations As a result, the learning opportunities and platforms provided to students are also limited, especially the recruiter resources, professor resources and brand cooperation opportunities of some overseas top universities.
Course products
Most small institutions will Follow the example of large institutions For example, launch some targeted curriculum products, such as short-term courses, summer courses, workshops, and regular lectures for teachers from overseas colleges and universities.
However, for the developing institutions, they need to constantly expand their teaching scope and try to find out a suitable and advantageous teaching model. Therefore, the specific portfolio courses and professional curriculum arrangements are still not mature enough.
In addition, due to the high mobility of teachers, students are more likely to change their curriculum. For example, they are having a work collection class with a teacher, but the first project is not over yet, but the teacher leaves... This kind of thing is more likely to happen in small institutions.
Institutional services
Small institutions are small, but most of them are There is a relatively complete service system Maybe the department settings are not so comprehensive, but for example, the signing of contracts mentioned above is mostly formal, and students will sign formal contracts with legal effect.
However, in terms of specific teaching services and application services, they may not be so perfect. Because teachers are limited, small institutions provide student services, It may be impossible to give consideration to every student Or failing to keep good communication with students in time.
Art Study Studio
Studio is a kind of art study abroad training form that is gradually emerging at present. Since overseas colleges and universities give lectures and students' homework mainly in the form of studio, the art study abroad training in studio mode is also covered by many students.
However, the natural light still suggests that you should carefully choose the art study training in the form of studios, especially the studios that promote in the name of individuals, such as the studio built by a teacher who graduated from RCA IDE, or Parsons Fashion Design Graduated xxx designer's studio. Although it is a studio created by graduates from Top universities, it is difficult to verify the founder's background.
Teaching resources
There are few teachers in general studios, most of whom are less than 10, and most of the studios They are mainly specialized in a certain specialty For example, jewelry design art study studio, clothing design art study studio.
So first of all, in terms of teachers, Little selectivity In large institutions or small institutions, students have the opportunity to choose their own teachers according to their own preferences or circumstances because of the rich resources of teachers. However, in the studio environment, students have very few teachers to choose from. Especially for students who apply for art colleges in small language countries, such as Germany, Italy, France, Japan, it is difficult for students to find teachers who meet their application intentions in the studio.
Secondly, most of the more formal studios are co founded by several designers, who may have very strong design experience, may have participated in very famous brand cooperation, or even have been designers of major companies. however Rich design practice experience does not mean having high level teaching ability The formal studio is good. If it is an informal studio, students do not have any information sources to check, so they cannot know whether the teacher's education background is true or not, nor can they know whether the teacher's work experience is true.
In terms of teaching resources, it is difficult for the studio to provide students with breakthrough professional learning ability or competitive background improvement opportunities, The professional guidance and resources available to students are limited In addition, brand cooperation and academic projects also have limited background improvement for students.
Finally, as we mentioned earlier, "interdisciplinary" is not only the current teaching trend of overseas art colleges, but also the focus of contemporary designers and artists. However, since most studios specialize in a certain specialty It is difficult to provide cross disciplinary help to students And expansion.
Course products
In terms of courses, the studio has fewer students, so teachers may have more energy to pay attention to each student, and can adjust learning courses and contents at any time according to the situation of students. However, it is also because of the small number of students that there is no systematic educational service, and it is difficult to provide students with a mature curriculum system and perfect overseas study planning.
In addition, as the natural light has said before, we should be particularly careful to choose the studio with personal name as the propaganda point, because this kind of studio is likely to be the only one with this teacher. The place of the class may be the coffee shop or bookstore under a building, and even the contract may be an oral agreement or chat record. Everything is not so reliable, student Without fair and reliable guarantee 。
Studio Services
The studios are generally small in size and mainly staffed by designers and teachers The service process can hardly be balanced For example, there may be a shortage of teachers in teaching affairs, consulting teachers, applying teachers and teachers in charge of activities, and some studios may even directly There are no such teaching functional departments 。
Some students may think that none of this seems important, but in fact, they are all indispensable roles in art overseas study institutions. For example, teachers in charge of academic affairs are actually "miscellaneous". The first is to arrange courses. Teachers in the Academic Affairs Department will arrange courses for students according to feedback from counselors, professional teachers, students themselves, and students' parents, Follow up students' classroom situation in real time, and help arrange and plan the next stage of courses and learning according to various classroom feedback.
Secondly, the educational administration teacher can also help adjust the time arrangement and course progress among students, teachers and parents, and urge students to complete the course tasks in a timely manner; At the closing stage of the portfolio, the educational administration teacher is also responsible for the final review and docking of the portfolio of students and instructors; After that, when the application begins, the teacher of educational administration will urge everyone to submit documents and application materials in time. If there is an interview, the teacher of educational administration will also help to make an appointment in advance and arrange corresponding preparatory courses.
It can be seen that just a teacher of educational administration plays a role in the whole process from the collection of works to the application. There are other teachers whose functions are not specified in the natural light, who also play a very important role in the whole art study abroad teaching.
The absence of any link will bring about students' application for art study abroad Instability Therefore, if the studio has reduced or lost these functions, it is easy to Delay students' learning and application progress The situation.
Secondly, in the contract signing part, the studio is in three forms Minimum guarantee Of. First of all, most studios are in the form of small teams No record, basically no business license, no registration. The signed contract is probably not formal enough, even as we mentioned earlier, the oral chat record is directly used as a "contract agreement". This is a very big hidden danger for students, and there is no guarantee.
Summary:
Above, compared with large institutions, small institutions, and studios, it is not difficult to find that large institutions are the most worthy choice among the three modes. The teaching resources and course services are relatively rich, especially in connection with overseas college admissions officers and teacher resources, and there are many opportunities to cooperate with artists, designers and brands. Students can access more Academic projects and practical learning with competitive advantages , and there are Effective legal provisions can serve as protection of rights 。
Small institutions in development have fixed teaching places and campuses to choose from, and have registered business licenses. Although in terms of teaching resources, practice and academic project opportunities, small institutions still There are limitations, but there are also reliable and practical guarantees , you can also consider options.
It is recommended that you provide tutorship for the art study abroad collection in the form of studio Choose carefully , especially the studio launched in the name of an individual. First of all, the teaching resources and platform resources have limitations, and the curriculum model is not perfect. One teacher may hold several positions. If If you really want to feel the environment and atmosphere of the studio, you can participate in some workshops or offline activities organized by the studio 。
Finally, whether you choose large organizations, small organizations or studios, we recommend that you Do more research, think carefully, compare more and consider comprehensively First of all, roughly define your own needs. During the visit, directly communicate with the teacher about your application intention and professional demands.
You can also ask to see the application cases and offers of previous art students, especially their Cases of art overseas works collection Pay more attention to students' original background and work integration results, and you can also see the ability of an intermediary.
The most, the most, and the last must be selected The price is clear, the terms are clear, and the formal contract is signed A collection of overseas art works. When the art intermediary institutions for studying abroad are determined to be reliable, it will be more secure to choose the ones that are suitable for you.
This article belongs to the original article of Natural Light International Art Education Team. Without permission, it cannot be reproduced commercially in any form. If it is found, it must be investigated for legal responsibility.
