RCA
Where ideas shape the future: PhD study at the RCA
11 Nov 2025
Join a global community of artists, designers and researchers redefining the role of creativity in tackling today’s biggest challenges. In this Q&A, Professor Hala Mansour, Head of Doctoral Programmes
It Could Be Sweet: Harold Offeh on art, play and possibility
11 Nov 2025
Harold Offeh, artist and Head of Programme for the RCA's Contemporary Art Practice MA, is making waves; with major shows, new commissions, and a prolific practice that deeply engages with the world around him.
RCA Applications Now Open
11 Nov 2025
Applications are now open for Round 1 entry to study across all programmes at the Royal College of Art.
The RCA announces GREAT Scholarships for 2026/27
11 Nov 2025
In partnership with the British Council and the GREAT Britain Campaign, the RCA has announced the third year of GREAT Scholarships. For 2026/27 we are offering two scholarships to students from India and Turkey.
From art school to Aardman: The RCA graduates defining British animation
11 Nov 2025
RCA graduates have helped shape Aardman’s playful, handcrafted world, carrying an experimental spirit from art school into the world of commercial animation.
Lady Helen Hamlyn CBE Receives the 2025 Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education
23 Oct 2025
The Royal College of Art is delighted to announce that Lady Helen Hamlyn CBE has been awarded the 2025 Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education, one of the highest honours in the field.
From Kingston to Kensington: The enduring legacy of Barrington Watson
22 Oct 2025
A pioneer of post-Independence art, Barrington Watson broke barriers at the RCA and dedicated his life to nurturing the next generation of artists.
RCA graduates honoured at inaugural Jaguar Arts Awards
17 Oct 2025
The RCA announces the winners of the inaugural Jaguar Arts Awards
The Intelligent Mobility Design Centre welcomes three new Visiting Design Fellows from Hyundai Motor Group
09 Oct 2025
Sangha Ko (Genesis), Seongrock Jeong (Hyundai) and Han Jung (Kia) arrive from Korea and will work with the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre and Intelligent Mobility MA programme to design and develo
Royal College of Art announces ambitious plans for the renewal of its Kensington site
09 Oct 2025
RCA shares plans and designs for the renewal of its Kensington site
Featured
Typewriters, the office machines that preceded computers
By Kiron Kasbekar | 10 Apr 2025
You see office tables today equipped with desktop computers or laptops. But think of the 1970s, and what would you have been seeing?
Wishful thinking about cars
By Kiron Kasbekar | 05 Apr 2025
Donald Trump may be many things, but a good economist he is not. Accustomed to dictating terms to people he has worked with,
The history of safety glass
By Kiron Kasbekar | 26 Mar 2025
You probably already knew that the world’s VIPs move around in cars with bullet-proof glass windscreen and windows. But did you know that ‘bulletproof glass’ is not really bulletproof?
German silver: used in cutlery, music, electricals - but it’s not silver
By Kiron Kasbekar | 20 Mar 2025
This material, which was first developed in China, not Germany, and is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc, has lost its sheen in home uses, but finds favor in electrical engineering.
Pioneers – the Wrights and Glenn Curtiss launched the aircraft industry
By Kiron Kasbekar | 17 Mar 2025
First Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their plane, the ‘Wright Flyer’, from near a small town called Kitty Hawk. Then Glenn Curtiss built planes with a very different system of controls, which has lasted until now.
What do aircraft have in common with bicycles and motorcycles?
By Kiron Kasbekar | 17 Mar 2025
From chains and sprockets to direct drives—If someone asked you what aircraft have in common with bicycles and motorcycles, how would you respond?
Radar’s ancestors: From sound mirrors to modern detection technology
By Kiron Kasbekar | 11 Mar 2025
Radar has become a well-settled technology today, especially in the field of navigation.
Nokia Bell Labs: innovations in communication, computing, technology
By Omar Almeida | 08 Mar 2025
Bell Laboratories, or Bell labs, which has now become Nokia Bell Labs, is one of the most renowned research and development organizations in the history of science and technology.
Company story – Quaker Oats
By Kiron Kasbekar | 08 Mar 2024
Quaker Oats is a company whose products I remember from my childhood days. Years before a foreign exchange crisis caused the Indian government to impose curbs on consumer product imports, we used to see a host of foreign brands in the Indian market. Including Quaker Oats, which I remember eating when I was a child, and which has been available for the past two decades or more.
