The graduating Master’s students of 2011 are of especial, personal significance to me: together we joined the RCA in 2009 as ‘rookies’. Congratulations to all of you, and to all the MPhil and doctoral graduands of 2011 for your extraordinary achievements.

In his Spring budget address, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, made the following statement: ‘We are only going to raise the living standards of families if we have an economy that can compete in the modern age. So this is our plan for growth: we want the words “Made in Britain”, “Created in Britain”, “Designed in Britain” and “Invented in Britain” to drive our nation forward — a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers.’

These are sentiments that the RCA entirely endorses. As the world’s most influential design and art university, our Charter is explicit in its aim to align our work to industry; the RCA plays a vital role in delivering the Government’s ‘created in Britain and designed in Britain’ agenda, with so many of our alumni in leading roles within design-led British companies. The international influence and impact of the RCA really is exceptional — from capturing all three BAFTA nominations in Animation this year, to the announcement that Clare Waight-Keller (alumna 1993) is to lead the Paris fashion house, Chloë.

It was difficult to attend any major exhibition in 2011 without feeling the presence of the RCA: from Design Products students at the Milan Furniture Fair; to Turner Prize finalist George Shaw exhibiting at the Baltic Gallery in Newcastle and the South London Gallery; Elizabeth Price and Spartacus Chetwynd at the Hayward Gallery; Keith Wilson as curator at the Royal Academy; Peter Kennard at Raven Row; Martin Smith at Marsden Woo Gallery; the opening of the major new Hepworth Wakefield gallery; Tracey Emin’s retrospective at the Hayward; and Leah Capaldi at the Catlin Art Prize awards. I personally felt a tremendous flutter of pride as I counted through the number of very recent Painting and Sculpture graduates from the RCA featured in the Saatchi gallery Newspeak II exhibition this winter. And these are just the shows I attended; there were many others.

All of us at the RCA wish to thank our many donors, in particular Lady Hamlyn; Sir James and Lady Dyson; Sir Po-Shing and Lady Woo for their major gift in support of Applied Arts; and Sir Terence and Lady Conran. The Conran Foundation has supported Show RCA 2011, the sixth consecutive RCA Show to benefit from their generosity.

I congratulate all graduands of 2011 for their hard work and inspirational final-year projects; I really hope that through AlumniRCA you will remain a close member of the RCA community throughout your lives.