Global successes, new qualifications and design research with impact: 12 moments from 2023 at the RCA

1. We celebrated 9 years as the World's No. 1 Art and Design University in the QS World University Rankings – with a 100% score for Academic Reputation!
   
   
2. We announced the winners of the RCA Grand Challenge 2022/23: Engaging Communities for Generating Marine Sustainable Economies. Delivered in partnership with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), this edition of the Grand Challenge tasked our students with leveraging citizen science-led practices for increasing the health and productivity of the world’s oceans.

3. We unveiled a major new multi-year partnership with Outernet London to showcase our students’ digital work on their huge wrap-around immersive screens in central London – and joined our MA Digital Direction students for their first graduate show there in February.

4. We launched a new cohort of qualifications at Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Master of Design (MDes) and Master of Education (MEd) level – and welcomed our first students to them this Autumn!

5. Students from across the RCA took part in King Charles III’s Coronation Concert broadcast live on the BBC. Together with the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), The Royal Ballet, and the Royal College of Music, our students contributed to a spectacular performance by providing a visual backdrop of artworks projected onto Windsor Castle.

6. 23 members of the RCA community participated in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2023, with four being awarded prestigious prizes in recognition of their work. Amongst these was Research Tutor Emilio Distretti who was awarded a Golden Lion Award, as part of DAAR - Decolonizing Architecture Art Research, and Senior Tutor Dr Thandi Loewenson who received a Special Mention in the category of Golden Lion.

7. The LoveFrom Scholarship was launched giving up to two underrepresented minority students per year scholarships that cover tuition and some living expenses to study design. LoveFrom was founded in 2019 by our Chancellor Sir Jony Ive, former chief design officer of Apple.

8. In Summer 2023, we hosted our biggest graduate show yet! RCA2023 celebrated the work of over 2,400 graduates with exhibitions on and off campus and online.

9. Climavore X Jameel was launched in the School of Architecture with Cooking Sections Alon Schwabe and Dr Daniel Fernández Pascual. The partnership between Community Jameel and the RCA reimagines food systems for drylands and wetlands in the climate crisis.

10. We launched our new podcast! The Royal College of Art Podcast brings insight into the philosophy of the RCA. We talk to staff, students and the wider RCA community about what we do here and how the work of architects, artists, communicators, designers and researchers can make a global impact.

11. Edward Enninful OBE (Editorial Advisor, British Vogue and Global Creative and Cultural Advisor, Vogue) and Wayne McGregor CBE (Multi-award winning Choreographer, Director and the Royal Ballet Resident) and Ian Griffiths (Creative Director of Max Mara) were among those bestowed with Honorary Doctorates in our September Convocation ceremony.

12. We appointed a new President and Vice-Chancellor! Professor Christoph Lindner will join us in April 2024 from his current role as Dean of the world-leading Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London. As a leader in Higher Education, his work has focused on educational access and equity, intercultural understanding, and environmental sustainability in art and design.