The RCA is wholly postgraduate. Every student we accept for a Master of Arts course has a degree or equivalent qualification or experience in a relevant subject. Every student has convinced us through their application, portfolio and interview that they have the potential to succeed at postgraduate level and achieve ‘mastery’ in the subject they intend to study. But what are the criteria for success?

The most important of the criteria for ‘mastery’ is the ability to produce work at an advanced level. This means work that is at or near the forefront of the discipline being studied. Advanced work in studiobased disciplines is characterised by a highly creative, imaginative, innovative and individual response to a challenging brief (either set or self-set). Advanced work is evidence of deep and focused enquiry, constant reflection and sustained application.

The second of the key criteria for ‘mastery’ is the ability to articulate clearly the intentions of the work produced and the approaches, knowledge, skills and reasoning employed in its production. It is not enough within a postgraduate context simply to produce advanced work. The ideas and processes must also be presented.

Several criteria fall under the heading ‘intellectual engagement’. This refers, for example, to students’ knowledge and understanding of contemporary and historical practice, ideas and methods of research relevant to their own work. Postgraduates must be able to contextualise, analyse, evaluate and debate their achievements and the achievements of others who are working in related areas. We are again looking for focus and depth, rather than breadth, of engagement.

Emphasis on technical skills varies enormously from discipline to discipline and even from student to student within a discipline. However, all postgraduate students must demonstrate skills at an advanced level appropriate to the production of their own work. We are not looking for broad familiarity with the whole range of skills employed within the discipline being studied. That should have been acquired at undergraduate level and, if not, we can help fill any important gaps. However, students must be able to show that they can develop existing skills and acquire new ones as and when they are needed.

Under this heading, we include a range of personal skills and qualities that are essential for success both in postgraduate study and in professional life after graduation. These include the ability to define personal aims and to evaluate progress against these aims, to work with a high degree of independence and motivation, to respond creatively to new and complex problems and to work effectively alone or in a team.

Finally, given the pre- or mid-professional character of our MA courses, we are interested in how well students are prepared to make the transition into professional life. This we describe as ‘professional orientation’. Among the most important of the criteria under this heading are students’ knowledge of the professional contexts in which they might work and the ability to match personal strengths and weaknesses to career plans.

These criteria, more fully explained to MA students when they begin their studies, are the basis on which students are assessed at key points in their progress towards graduation. This is not, however, a matter of ticking boxes or calculating success from a list of marks. We welcome and encourage diversity and individuality. Our staff and examiners set out to make an informed, qualitative and holistic judgement of each student’s achievements against a collective understanding of what it means to be a ‘postgraduate’ and a ‘Master of Arts’.