As the application approaches, the collection of works is basically closed, but the deadline for RCA Huangyi application is advanced, and the collection of works is required to be completely renovated. It is less than 2 months before Huangyi DDL. Do you want to let students apply? Or is there another inside story? In my opinion, it is not critical to say: of course, it is inseparable from a series of policies for overseas students this year, but also has a more inevitable connection with Huangyi itself, which is to recruit more unique students than in previous years (and applicants this year are likely to have scholarships), to achieve their own "future plan". Now let's take a look at the reasons behind the change of requirements in this application in combination with Huangyi's future planning?
Is the deadline of RCA Huangyi application advanced? Is the collection required to be completely renovated?
1. The time is significantly shorter. Compared with rolling in previous years, this year's DDL is advanced to Nov.13 (although it is said to be the "first round", the principle of first come first served is still followed, that is, although in principle, there will be a second round in January, but whether there is a specific key depends on the first round of student recruitment, which is not necessarily the case. It is safest to submit it as soon as possible);
2. The collection is 5 visual works or video display (note the relationship between the two is "or");
3. You need to submit a critical challenge video within 2mins (not just a video CV, but a Creative Journey Video that can show your creativity)
Why RCA Huangyi has such a problem! What kind of students do you want to recruit this year?
After the news broke out, if any careful student browsed the official website, he would find that the homepage style had not changed in the previous 2-3 years Royal College of Art , even the official website has changed its tone. Compared with the previous official website, it is obviously more "technological". In addition to the visual changes of the web page and the changes of application requirements, my focus is also the Support GenerationRCA in the Meun column, and the school courses and application requirements appear here at the bottom left corner of the figure below.
The first time I noticed this GenerationRCA was in February this year, when I found that Huangyi sent a message on January 28 on all platforms synchronously that it would begin to implement a five-year plan called "Future Plan", and GenerationRCA was the key to this plan!
At that time, RCA only showed some information about GenerationRCA, but also clearly proposed that in terms of campus, we should first upgrade and open Battersea campus and restart Darwin Building; Secondly, in terms of teaching projects, it is clearly proposed that we hope to start new professional subjects in the future (I will talk about specific majors later); Finally, in the part of teachers and students, RCA plans to set up scholarships to prevent the loss of high-quality talents.
At that time, I was very much looking forward to this move of RCA. After all, although RCA is the best art school in the world, and its awareness of "innovation" is also very advanced, it was still relatively "stable" in the past few years. Therefore, the proposal of this plan is enough to see RCA's determination to completely change.
RCA also said without any "modesty" that GenerationRCA would be the most important development plan of Huangyi since its establishment in 1837, and it would push Huangyi to a new horizon.
Not to mention what the plan itself is to do, just look at the positioning given by Huangyi, which shows its importance. What's more, the slogan proposed by RCA to GenerationRCA is still "Shaping people who shape the world" - "shaping/cultivating those who shape the future"
Students who have a certain understanding of Huangyi know that Huangyi's innovation majors are very powerful, especially the three majors of Service Design, IDE and GID that cooperate with Imperial College. Huangyineng has achieved world-class influence in the field of interaction, not only because of the support from other institutions around the world, but also because of its own InnovationRCA.
In its 2015 report "Research on the nature and annual value of start-ups", the British Higher Education Funding Council rated RCA as "the university with the largest number of student derivative enterprises with university ownership in Britain in recent years". In contrast, there are 4 universities in Oxford, Imperial College London and University College London, 2 universities in Cambridge, and as many as 14 RCAs. All this is done by InnovationRCA.
This GenerationRCA is an upgraded and re upgraded version of InnovationRCA. After RCA proposed the plan to the British government in 2016, it received 54 million pounds of support from the British government, and then RCA received the largest charitable gift in history from Sigrid Rausing Trust. All of the above can be seen from the importance that the British community attaches to GenerationRCA.
On September 16 this year, the Garfield Weston Foundation, a trust foundation, once again donated 5 million pounds to RCA to build a new Flagship Battersea Campus, and this campus will be put into use in 2021. (Yes, the first batch of users may be the 2020/2021 class. At this moment, the class is preparing their works!)
All this is because: its goal to double the number of start ups exiting InnovationRCA
How can such an ambitious plan be realized? Huangyi gave three key points - Places/location, Projects/projects, People/personnel.
Take a look at:
Places
In fact, it is the Flagship Battersea Campus mentioned earlier. In this part, there are two updates of teaching facilities, which can give us some enlightenment:
1. The Research Building labs host advanced manufacturing and intelligent mobility
2.A double-height hangar will allow students to assemble, Prototype or display large scale artworks or inventions/A double height hangar (I checked some for you, hangars generally refer to buildings used to store and maintain aerospace equipment). Students can assemble, produce and display prototypes and creative inventions of large-scale works here.
RCA has invested heavily in building facilities and teaching to create such sophisticated equipment and space, not only to provide a better learning environment for future students. At the same time, let's take a look at these facilities and equipment, such as "only mobile", "large-scale invention works", "research laboratories", and even the hangar level construction studio. Generally speaking, most people's first reaction must be high-tech academic talents.
Projects
In the academic direction, RCA will not only strengthen cooperation with IC Imperial Technology, but also put artists, designers, scientists and engineers together by combining key scientific disciplines with core innovative disciplines to reverse the current traditional concept of science and art design - taking design as the last step of scientific research or project development, Instead of combining design with research at the beginning.
In order to better reverse the current traditional view, RCA will continue to recruit talents from all over the world and introduce new majors. For example, new specialties and fields planned to be launched: medical design, robot design, urban design, environmental architecture, nano and software robot technology, computer science and machine learning, material science and circular economy.
Although these majors may not be launched until 2021 at the earliest, we can also see from the side that the reason why Huangyi will change the requirements of the collection of works this time may also be because Huangyi wants to catch those students who are innovative and can break through and create new concepts. Select more unique students with higher standards and more "interesting" ways.
People
In this part, RCA proposed a plan to provide scholarships for talented people. We all know that RCA is hard to apply for scholarships in the past, but this time RCA proposed that no truly capable student should miss the learning opportunities in RCA because of economic or background reasons.
In recent years, everyone has said that RCA enrollment is expanding, not only in China, but also in EU countries. According to the official data provided by RCA, the number of students applying for RCA in EU countries increased by 12% in 2019. Now, 1/4 of RCA students are from EU countries.
In order to improve the quality of students to meet the plan of GenerationRCA while "expanding enrollment globally", it is not difficult to understand the requirements of the RCA change portfolio.
After thoroughly investigating GenerationRCA, let's take a look at the requirements of this RCA imperial art collection.
First, apply in advance. When the PSW was restored, we had predicted that the number of students studying in the UK would increase significantly in recent years. After all, compared with the United States this year, the UK's move is too friendly. Secondly, the British educational system is generally shorter, which is more advantageous. Therefore, the RCA's shortening of the application period has something to do with a series of overseas study policies.
However, it should be noted that in the GenerationRCA we have been discussing today, the future employment of students is also a key part of the plan, especially this time RCA plans to double the achievement of InnovationRCA - student derivative enterprises. In terms of specific student application review, it is bound to be more rigorous and select more high-quality students.
Therefore, if you are going to apply for RCA this year, you must review your own collection more strictly within only one month. You can participate in the collection review projects or open day activities of some institutions. For example, this year, the Natural Light Teaching and Research Center has raised the examination standards for students more rigorously, and in the upcoming enrollment season, Natural Light has also invited enrollment examiners from major art schools in Britain and the United States to conduct pre application examination for students.
Secondly, the biggest difficulty is no different from the simplification of the content of the collection, and the additional requirements that suddenly appeared this year - Critical Challenge Video.
In the past, we saw video requirements in the requirements of other colleges and universities, most of which have two possibilities:
1 Professional needs, such as film and television, animation, director, digital media and other majors, require students to submit video works as part of the portfolio;
2. Special CV type video presentation, such as NYU ITP, requires students to submit a 1-MINUTE INDUSTRY VIDEO. It is required that students do not need to do special effects, but only need to have a clear voice, be able to show their basic information to the school, and show simple and unique personality and creativity.
However, the video proposed by RCA this time gives the double "limits" of Critical Challenge+Creative Journey. The first is the Critical Challenge. RCA's attention to this video cannot be ignored; Secondly, Creative Journey, RCA wants to see the creativity of applicants more than simply introducing who they are.
It is not difficult to understand the future planning of RCA mentioned above. RCA will develop in a more scientific and forward-looking direction in the future. Whether you are from an artistic design background or other professional backgrounds, you need enough creativity and ideas.
As for the collection of works, another college in Britain, UAL London University of the Arts He has set up his own 8th college, SDI, and the key of SDI is forward-looking social design and sustainable design. His proposition is to change the current status of design and redefine the meaning of design to other disciplines. This almost coincides with GenerationRCA.
It is not difficult to see that both the UAL and RCA are paying more attention to the impact of design on the future. Whether it is sustainable, or a social hotspot, or the nanotechnology, robot design, medical design, etc. proposed by RCA this time, students need sufficient interdisciplinary ability and creativity.
In my opinion, this time Huangyi abandoned the conventional application routine, the deadline for RCA Huangyi application was advanced, and the collection of works required a thorough renovation. It has a deep relationship with the current development trend of art schools and the world's understanding of design. For students who want to apply for RCA this year, the key is to seize the time to sort out and optimize the collection of works; Secondly, we should also pay attention to the creativity of the collection of works.
From this year's replacement of assignment by RISD, to the release of SDI by UAL, to RCA, everyone is more concerned about the definition of future design, which requires designers to have more divergent thinking dimensions, broader creativity, and deeper interdisciplinary awareness.
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