Guiding policy 2
A greater desire for creative education
A demographic boom at home, population growth abroad, and longer working lives, means more students than ever before.
The ubiquity and power of digital technology means we can reach and engage them, while constantly improving their education experience.
By growing student numbers here in London and expanding online, we can provide more students, whoever, or wherever they may be, with a high-quality creative education.




What we'll do
- Increase the number of student places on courses delivered in London by 5,000 (3,000 full-time equivalent).
- Increase flexibility in how and where students study through online and low-residency courses providing 15,000 places (5,000 full-time equivalent).
- Invest in our infrastructure and capacity to increase the scale of our online and low residency courses.
- Research and prototype the digital student experience.
- Re-imagine access and participation to lift financial barriers and create new access routes through pre-degree education, Short Courses, UAL Awarding Body and UAL Future Creatives.
- Pioneer an offer in creative professional development and executive education.
What we’re doing now
Case Study 1: Low residency postgraduate courses
We are already reaching out to more students. Central Saint Martins, for instance, has pioneered low residency Masters courses. Three are up and running: MBA with Birkbeck, MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise, and MA Cities, with additional courses to come. The courses are delivered over a weekend. This benefits prospective students already in employment. The proportion of UK students on these courses is higher than the UK university average.
Case Study 2: Insights programme
Too often university admissions processes work against students from poorer backgrounds. Our Insights programme is designed to offer places to students whose parents have never been to university, students from low-income backgrounds, students in receipt of benefits for living costs such as Universal Credit, and looked-after children and care leavers. This will ensure our admissions process is fairer and that our university reflects Britain in its fullest. The programme currently partners with 166 schools and colleges, and in our 2021 entry over 200 students progressed from Insights to study at UAL.
Case Study 3: Fashion Analytics and Forecasting
According to Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google “The ability to take data - to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualise it, to communicate it - is going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades”. There has never been greater demand for graduates skilled in data. But there is currently a shortage of graduates with the right data skills. London College of Fashion is helping to change this, launching its MSc in Fashion Analytics and Forecasting. It is the first online postgraduate course to combine fashion business knowledge with data analytics.
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Isabella Furness, 2021 BA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Photograph: Grey Moth
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Joanna Domagalska, 2022 BA Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communication, UAL
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Kate Petersons, 2023 BA Design for Branded Spaces, London College of Communication, UAL
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Artefacts created by current students and graduates, 2022 UAL | Campaign design direction: Brand and Creative Services, UAL