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| Kensington campus |
During the last few weeks, we have experienced
a national strike in the UK organised by the academic staff of the
universities. Many students have shown their support because they sympathise
with the cause and also because we are directly affected by the underlying
issues, many of which are local to the RCA.
As an artist and student, I feel thankful that
I am studying at the RCA. It is a big responsibility to belong to this
institution with such an interesting and avant-garde history and which for
decades has been a place for experimental processes and life-changing
experiences.
However, I feel that in the last few years the
institution has changed its course, now is focused on showing that it is ranked
as the “#1 Art & Design School in the world”. This branding strategy encourages people to
enrol, and therefore allows the college to increase its budget, nevertheless,
it has created huge pressure on the tutors and unrealistic expectation on the
students.
The increasing student numbers and increasing
tuition fees without investing in the staff and the facilities is annihilating
the sense of community, among other issues. Unfortunately, this model only
thrives based on the exploitation of the tutors and staff and the economic
indebtedness of the students.
These shifts are also happening at other
institutions, which from my point of view, is creating a growing social,
ethical and cultural crisis. All this
reminds us that the art world, and particularly the art schools, are not
isolated islands, and are affected by the current political, economic and
ecological crisis.
I believe that the academy is the place for
reflection, developing critical thinking and creative approaches, and in some cases,
it needs to be the place for resistance as well. What is an art school? And what kind of art
school we want? These always should be
open questions, that demands a wide-open discussion and shouldn’t be answered by
external agendas.
This context makes me ask if the wellbeing of
the community and the academic quality are still a priority of this school.
Unfortunately, I think that those concerns might not be compatible with the current model of education as service, school as business and students as
customers.
The world is changing in multiple ways, and if
the RCA doesn’t realize these changes, the institution will decay like many
other institutions which are in this process.
I believe that it is still possible to change the path, that a more
horizontal way of directing the school still could be implemented, one which
the whole community (tutors, students and staff) could trace the way of the
institution[i],
one which the arts would be at the core.
I am sure that this current crisis is the best
opportunity for rethinking in a structural way the model of education that the
RCA is creating, and the possibility of imagining and building more desirable
and healthy futures.
Best regards,
Snyder Moreno Martín
MA Sculpture
[i] According to the Annual Report
2018-2019 of the RCA, “Income from tuition fees grew 18% to £41.3m (2017/18:
£34.9m), representing 70% of the College’s core income compared to just over
50% in 2014/15”, which makes me think, why not to consider the needs of the
students when investing the money that they are paying.
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| White City campus |
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| Battersea campus |
