Taught by a team of highly specialised historians, critics and philosophers, the Critical & Historical Studies (CHS) programme at the Royal College of Art provides a unique environment for postgraduate art and design students to reflect upon their own practice and to engage critically with students from their own and other disciplines. The relationship of practice to history, theory and criticism lies at the heart of the CHS research programme, which supports MPhil and PhD by thesis in a broad range of subject areas in art, design and architecture. A particular strength of the programme is its close relationship to practice, and its emphasis on the ‘art school’ context for research. In an environment where the majority of programmes are studio-based, the programme’s approach is to engage fully with the theoretical positions that art and design practice embodies.