Join the community
There's always lots going on at UAL. Even before term starts, there are events to attend, groups to join and so many ways for you to explore your creativity with us.
Make sure you've started the Meet other students section of the student checklist.
Find out ways you can get involved
Events
From summer degree shows to seminars, workshops, talks and symposiums, there really is something for everyone in our schedule. Check out what's on during Big Welcome...
Welcome Fair
Run by the Arts SU, the Welcome Fair is your chance to talk to our sports clubs, societies, and student-led networks, as well as UAL services, national brands and local businesses. It’s also a great place to get some freebies!
The fair is open to all UAL students and takes place in The Street at Central Saint Martins from 10am – 4pm.
The first hour from 10am - 11am is a quiet/access hour.
Halls Life
This award-winning events and wellbeing programme is led by students, for students. There are around 30 Halls Reps who run free and low-cost events for students in halls of residences and sometimes across the wider university.
Weekly events include yoga, afternoon tea, film nights, as well as monthly quiz nights and much more.
Big Welcome events
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Showcase Ready: Write an authentic professional bio
Join this in-person session to learn how to write a bio that makes the right impression
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Showcase Ready: How to network and make a positive impression
Join this in-person session to learn how to network and make a positive impression
Communities
One of the best parts of starting university is the opportunity to meet people who have the same interests and beliefs as you. See how you can meet your fellow creatives.
Arts SU
Run by students, for students, the Arts Students Union (Arts SU) is an independent, member-led organisation. Every year you elect 4 students full-time Sabbatical Officers to direct Arts SU and to provide representation and support across 4 main categories: activities, campaigns, education, and welfare.
Visit the Arts SU for more information about their events, campaigns, academic representation, independent advice, leadership or creative opportunities, getting funding for projects and more.
Welcome to Arts SU!
Sports and societies
With over 40 societies and 17 sports clubs to join, Arts SU can help you find your community. Their clubs and societies are one of the easiest ways to meet people that share the same interests and passions as you, from across all 6 Colleges. They also offer competitive and non-competitive sporting opportunities; some teams compete in the national (BUCS) and London (LUSL) leagues, while others offer social sport opportunities.
Find out about all the societies, sports clubs and online communities.
Course Reps
As volunteers, Course Reps are students who represent their course at University and College meetings. They have a lot of influence over issues like curriculum design, facility access, opening hours and their efforts make sure students are heard. It's a great opportunity to work directly with the Students’ Union and UAL staff members to support the student experience and develop a variety of skills as a representative.
Each course will elect their Course Reps in the first few weeks of term. Find out more about Course Reps and how you can become one.
Buddy up
Run by the Arts Students' Union Advice Service, the Buddy Up initiative matches UAL students in pairs based on preferences that you provide when you apply. The scheme is a great way to meet other students if you don’t quite know how to start.
Arts SU Buddy Up!
Ask a student
Another great way you can talk to current students is our ask a student programme. This is an quick and easy way to talk to our student ambassadors about what it’s like to study at UAL. There are lots of students available to answer your questions via the online chat.
Join the Post-Grad Community
Post-Grad Community
Providing a support network for our postgraduate students, UAL’s Post-Grad Community gives you access to cross-College and cross-disciplinary opportunities and events.
Their programme of events encourages skills-sharing, networking, collaboration and new communities of practice. Events take place at UAL and elsewhere and include talks with industry specialists, visits to artists’ studios, curator-led tours and student-led activity. They support a growing number of issue-specific, cross-disciplinary interest groups, led by postgraduate students and academics. These connect creatives with shared research interests across different subject areas.
If you’re a postgraduate student, sign up to the weekly Post-Grad Community newsletter for details of events, opportunities, student articles and open calls for collaboration.
Expand your creativity
During your time at UAL, we want you to explore every element of your creativity. Here are some ways to help you make the most of your time with us as an artist.
UAL Short Courses
If you want to try a new creative practice, we run hundreds of short courses every year, covering the whole range of creative pursuits at UAL. Courses can be on site or online and can last from 1 day to several weeks. You’ll learn from UAL tutors and leading industry experts who don’t teach on main UAL degrees.
As a UAL student, you're also entitled to a 10% discount on courses under £1000 and a £100 discount for any courses over £1000. You even get this discount after you graduate!
@ualshortcourses
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5 reasons to use collage in art, from our tutor Rod Judkins @rod.judkins : 1. Collage is very accessible. It’s a great medium for someone with no background i...
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More fabulous work from our @fashionfoliocsm students! If you would like to pursue a career or education in fashion, this course is the ultimate gateway. Th...
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Spring School has just come to a close and we’ve met so many inspiring students with a different story to tell. We asked some of them how they felt on their fi...
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Our new series of Art Club is coming! Stay tuned as we share some exciting art tutorials for you to try at home. Join our @ualfuturecreatives tutors for inspir...
International opportunities
We’re all part of a global society, where studying and living in a new country can change everything – especially you and your world view. We offer opportunities to spend 1 or more terms studying outside of the UK at a partner institution, or on a work placement abroad.
Portfolio
Show off your creativity with our showcasing platform, Portfolio, and present your work alongside other UAL students from various subjects. You can create a profile from the start of your course and update your projects up until 2 years after graduation.
Portfolio allows you to show the world your work and projects, share your creative skills and interests, as well as connect and network with peers from across UAL.
Software discounts
As a UAL student you get access to a range of IT software discounts.
Most excitingly for creative students, we offer an Adobe CC deal with a subscription to the full Adobe CC suite, plus 100GB cloud storage until 13 August 2024 for just a single £41.59 payment. This is great for accessing the programmes off-site and having easy online storage of your files.
See the story of last year's robes
Grayson's robes
In a unique UAL tradition, Turner Prize-winning artist and UAL Chancellor Grayson Perry wears a custom-made robe for our July graduation ceremonies. Every year, we hold a contest to design the robes that he wears, open for all UAL student to enter.
You could design a brand-new look for our chancellor to swan down the aisle in at this year’s graduation!