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Schools of Thought

Exhibition materials in black and white including a large blown-up photograph of a crouched boy playing with a truck and models of high rise buildings; and spatial design drawings. The background shows a coloured orange wall and pale coloured panels.
Exhibition materials in black and white including a large blown-up photograph of a crouched boy playing with a truck and models of high rise buildings; and spatial design drawings. The background shows a coloured orange wall and pale coloured panels.
Credits l to r: Joe V Luciano, BA Fashion Communication; Florence Wright, M ARCH Architecture; Re:Generating Creativity 2025 Photo: Jamie Johnson.

At Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, we have redesigned the College by rethinking what an art and design college should focus on and how it can work. 

Our transformation began with a fundamental question:

‘What does it look like when we work together at our best?’


This wasn’t an abstract exercise. We ask students to be creative, adaptive, bold; to embrace complexity and imagine different futures. What could our universities achieve if we reorganised ourselves with the same creativity we demand from students?

A neon yellow background overlaid with creative project imagery including a fashion editorial shot, a 3d building model and a digital design
Student work l to r top to bottom: Xuebin Fang, Re-building Creative Clusters in the City Centre, BA Architecture; Alex Morante, Helmet, BA Ceramic Design; Sophie Richardson, Rilievo, BA Fashion Communication: Image and Promotion; Uma Dehaan, Flicker Across The Room Divide, BA Fine Art; Lulu Tian, The Ocean Left Its Dead Alive, BA Jewellery Design; Timisola Shasanya, Runners, BA Fashion Design: Menswear. Cover design Martin McGrath.

A methodology for engaging with uncertainty

If we can’t model the adaptive, experimental, principles-led thinking we claim to teach, why should anyone trust us to prepare the next generation for an uncertain future?

Creative education isn’t primarily about self-expression. Approaching it as we are at Central Saint Martins, creativity becomes a methodology for engaging with uncertainty. It values prototyping over perfect solutions, holding contradictory ideas simultaneously, collaborating across difference, making abstract possibilities tangible — critical for navigating unpredictable futures.

From our enquiry emerged 5 core principles and a new structure: ‘Schools of Thought’, with 3 foundations that create common ground where disciplines naturally converge.

Our Schools

Explore our 3 Schools at Central Saint Martins

Listen and read

The podcast and CSM Paper explain why this transformation matters; not just for creative education but for anyone working at the intersection of education, industry, research and policy; recognising that how knowledge and institutions are organised is inadequate for the conditions we now face.

Scratching the Surface podcast

2 September 2026

Jarrett Fuller talks to Rathna Ramanathan about the new CSM structure and how the “Schools of Thought” model flips our understanding of disciplinary study, the influence of graphic design on her work, and why art and design education needs to change to reflect this current moment.

Scratching the Surface · 291. Rathna Ramanathan


Download the text transcript (PDF, 102KB)

C+S+M Paper, Autumn 2025

Re:designing Creative Education for Future Resilience [PDF, 1.5MB]

Join the conversation

We invite you into this ongoing work. This isn’t about replicating our model; it’s about collectively discovering what transformation looks like when we apply the same creative, adaptive thinking we demand of our students to the structures and systems that have shaped our world.

To learn more about Central Saint Martins’ Schools of Thought or to discuss collaboration and partnership opportunities, please contact us at: schoolsofthought@csm.arts.ac.uk

Central Saint Martins

Contact

Telephone

+44 (0)20 7514 7444

Address

1 Granary Square
King's Cross
London
N1C 4AA