Motto | Designed for industry. |
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Type | Public |
Established | 1962 [1] |
Academic staff | 140 [2] |
Students | 2,535 (2019/20) [3] |
Undergraduates | 2,485 (2019/20) [3] |
Postgraduates | 45 (2019/20) [3] |
Location | North Greenwich , London , UK |
Website | ravensbourne |
Ravensbourne University London (formerly Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication) is a digital media and design university, with vocational courses in fashion, television and broadcasting, interactive product design, architecture and environment design, graphic design, animation, moving image, music production for media and sound design.
Ravensbourne was established in 1962 by the amalgamation of Bromley School of Art, Sidcup School of Art and Beckenham School of Art. It was originally at Bromley Common and later at Chislehurst and on the Greenwich Peninsula in Inner London, where it opened a new campus in autumn 2010. The college is named after the River Ravensbourne, which flows from Bromley Common to Greenwich. [4]
Bromley School of Art opened in 1878 in a new building in Tweedy Road, Bromley that later became Bromley Library; [4] after the Second World War it became Bromley College of Art. [5] In 1959 it became Bromley Technical College after a merger with the Department of Furniture Design of Beckenham School of Art, which dated to the turn of the century as a technical school, had become an art school in purpose-built accommodation in 1908, and had expanded after the war with crafts trades. [6] In July 1962, the remainder of Beckenham School of Art merged with Bromley College of Art and Sidcup School of Art (founded in 1898 and by then also known as Sidcup Art College) to form Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. [1] In 1965 the college moved to Rookery Lane, Bromley Common. [6] { That site had originally housed the Rookery, an 18th-century house that had been burnt out while in military occupation in 1946. As the college expanded it was unable to develop that site any further, as it was in the Metropolitan Green Belt. In 1975 the college moved most of its operations to a purpose-built building designed after lengthy consultation on 18 acres (7.3 ha) of private parkland on Walden Road, Chislehurst ( 51°25′14″N0°03′13″E / 51.4205°N 0.0537°E ). [1] [4] The Rookery Lane site was redeveloped for the Bromley College of Further & Higher Education.
In 1983 the National Advisory Body for Local Authority Higher Education was set up by the Secretary of State for Education and Science, and demanded a 10 per cent cut in higher education spending across the sector. At Ravensbourne this was interpreted as requiring the closure of a department, with the communications and television broadcasting course at the College initially earmarked to be discontinued as it was on a separate campus and the closure would have allowed the College to consolidate its properties. This was later changed to a decision to cut the Fine Art course at the College on the grounds that there was a large number of similar courses offered elsewhere in the region, and this closure occurred later that year. [7] As a result, the college was renamed to Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. [1] In 1985 the communications and television broadcasting course department was moved to the main Chislehurst campus from its Wharton Road, Bromley site, now occupied by St Timothy's Mews housing development. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Ravensbourne has offered higher-level courses in design since the 1960s. It was amongst the earliest of institutions to be approved by the then CNAA to convert the traditional Diploma programmes in Art and Design into honours degrees during the 1970s. In April 1989 it became a Higher Education Corporation. [4] Following the demise of the CNAA in 1992, Ravensbourne entered into a validating partnership with the Royal College of Art, which agreed exceptionally to take this responsibility. This validation ceased when the Royal College of Art withdrew from offering collaborative provision. Ravensbourne was recognised as an affiliate College of the University of Sussex in 1996, and was re-recognised in 2002. Between 2009 and 2012 the institution's undergraduate and postgraduate provision was validated by City University, London. This relationship was maintained until May 2012. In June 2013 University of the Arts London became the validating partner. In August 2017, Ravensbourne was granted the right to award its own degrees, and in May 2018 it gained university status, becoming Ravensbourne University London. [1] [13] In 2019 Ravensbourne began validating courses at the City and Guilds of London Art School located in Kennington in central London.
In 1999 an existing photographic and 3D studio building on the Chislehurst campus was converted into a modern library and computer facility. [4]
A new campus on the Greenwich Peninsula, designed by Farshid Moussavi [14] (from the acclaimed Foreign Office Architects in 2010), opened in autumn 2010. [15] [16] It is next to The O2 entertainment district and closer to partner institutions and the industries to which the college relates. In 2011 the building won a British Construction Industry Award [17] and the RIBA education and community award. [18]
In 1971 the Broadcasting Department instituted Rave on Air, an annual student-run broadcasting event. [19] [20]
National rankings | |
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Complete (2025) [21] | 131 (of 131) |
Times / Sunday Times (2024) [22] | 131 (of 131) |
Ravensbourne offers undergraduate, postgraduate and further education programmes taught in a single faculty with two main clusters of courses, the Design School and the Screen School.
At undergraduate level, there are Foundation degrees, honours degree level top-up years (for those having completed foundation degrees or equivalent), and Bachelor's degrees. The available postgraduate provision consists of Master's level courses, each of which can be studied to MA, MDes or MSc (dependent on subject). A range of subject areas are offered within the main disciplines of fashion, design and broadcasting.
Within the area of Further Education, Ravensbourne offers the Diploma in Foundation Studies for both Art & Design and Media, as well as the BTEC National Certificate in Art and Design.
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992.
Beckenham is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west of Bromley and Shortlands, and 8.4 miles (13.5 km) south-east of Charing Cross. Its population at the 2011 Census was 46,844.
Chislehurst is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in Kent. According to the 2021 census, Chislehurst has a population of 15,600.
Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is 11.3 miles (18.2 km) south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. It was part of Kent prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965.
The London Borough of Bromley is a borough in London, England. It borders the county of Kent, of which it formed part of until 1965. The borough's population in the 2021 census was 329,991. It is named after Bromley, its principal district. Other districts are Penge, Hayes, West Wickham, Chislehurst, Beckenham and Orpington. The local authority is Bromley London Borough Council.
Bromley and Chislehurst is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2006 by Bob Neill, a Conservative.
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offers postgraduate degrees in art and design to students from over 60 countries.
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 9+1⁄2 miles southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023.
The Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England.
The Kent Institute of Art & Design was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone College of Art and Rochester (Medway) College of Art. In turn KIAD merged with the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College on 1 August 2005 to form the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester. In 2008, this gained full university status and became the University for the Creative Arts.
The Northern School of Art is a further and higher education art and design college, based in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool in the north-east of England. The college was called Cleveland College of Art and Design after the former non-metropolitan county of Cleveland, operational from 1974 to 1996. In April 2018 it was announced that the college would change its name to The Northern School of Art effective from September 2018.
Norwich University of the Arts is a public university in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom that specialises in art, design, media, architecture and performance. It was founded as Norwich School of Design in 1845 and has a long history of arts education. It gained full university status in 2013.
Arts University Plymouth is an independent university-sector Higher Education (HE) provider located in Plymouth in South West England. The former Plymouth College of Art was officially granted university status in 2022. In April 2019 the specialist college was awarded taught degree awarding powers (TDAP) by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), granting the institution the authority to award and accredit its own BA (Hons) degrees and Masters awards.
The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England.
Sidcup Art College, also known as Sidcup School of Art, was an art college in Grassington Road, Sidcup, Greater London, England. Founded in 1898, it amalgamated in 1962 with Bromley College of Art and Beckenham School of Art to form Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, now Ravensbourne University London.
Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth College of Art and Design and then Falmouth College of Arts until 2012, when the university college was officially granted full university status by the Privy Council.
Bromley was a rural district in north-west Kent, England from 1894 to 1934. Its area now forms part of the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London. It did not include the main settlement of the same name, which constituted the Municipal Borough of Bromley. Mottingham formed an exclave of the district.
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