About Us

For 160 years, our university has been a passionate advocate for creative education and research.

We offer courses in Architecture, Crafts, Fashion, Graphic Design, Illustration, Fine Art, Photography, Film, Media, the Performing Arts and Creative Business. Our programmes are acclaimed for their top teaching quality, and highly respected by creative sector employers.

But we’re a lot more than that, too.

Our goal

We want to inspire people to use their creativity to drive change, overcome challenges and improve the lives of others.

So we’ve designed our university to be an inclusive, dynamic environment. Our campuses across Surrey and Kent, our Institute for Creative Innovation in Xiamen, China, and our homes within partner organisations such as the Maidstone Television Studios all have one thing in common:

They are places to forge inspiring partnerships, make work with purpose and build real solutions to human problems across the globe – whether that’s as part of our vibrant teaching and research community, or as a student on one of our courses.

Our strategy

Our ten-year strategy sets out how we're working to make UCA an even better place to work and study.

View our strategy and mission

Our successes

2nd

We are the second highest-ranked specialist creative university in the UK for 2025, according to The Guardian.

12th

UCA is ranked 12th for social inclusion by The Times/Sunday Times for 2025.

1st

UCA is the UK's top specialist art and design university for world-leading research outputs in the most recent Research Excellence Framework.

Graduate Showcase

Each year, we’re privileged to be able to share our graduates’ incredible work with the world. And now’s your chance to take a look.

View more work on the Gradshow website

University Executive Board

Professor Melanie Gray

Joint Acting Vice-Chancellor

Professor Mark Ellul

Joint Acting Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer

Professor Lyndsay Duthie

Pro Vice Chancellor Academic Partnerships and Industry Engagement

Professor Anastasios Maragiannis

Pro Vice-Chancellor Creative Education

Professor Sarah Clark

Pro Vice-Chancellor Student Experience, Professor of Art & Design Education

Chancellor & Chancellor Emerita

Chancellor: Professor Dame Magdalene Odundo DBE

Professor Dame Magdalene Odundo is an internationally renowned ceramicist whose work can be found in public and private collections worldwide. She became UCA’s second Chancellor in June 2018, succeeding Dame Zandra Rhodes, who became Chancellor Emerita.

After graduating from UCA’s Farnham campus, which was then known as West Surrey College of Art & Design, Dame Magdalene developed her unique creative technique, drawing on traditional Ugandan practice and other sources, such as Mexican pottery and Greek Cycladic sculpture, to build her pieces.

Dame Magdalene was Professor of Ceramics at UCA Farnham from 2001 to 2016, and then became Professor Emerita. She has received honours from cultural and educational institutions across the world.

Chancellor Emerita: Dame Zandra Rhodes DBE RDI

Dame Zandra Rhodes is UCA’s Chancellor Emerita - a role she took up after serving as our first Chancellor from 2010 to 2018.

Dame Zandra is one of the world's most recognisable, distinguished and exciting fashion designers. She has built her career on the foundations of hard work and determination – the same values that inspire and motivate our students to succeed in their chosen careers.

Dame Zandra is also a graduate of one of our founder institutions, The Medway College of Design, where her mother was also a lecturer.

Staff directory

Information about academic and support staff is available within our staff directory.

View all staff

Alumni stories

We're proud of the incredible things our graduates achieve, and delighted to count big names such as Tracey Emin CBE, Karen Millen OBE, Arnold Schwartzman OBE, Stephen Webster MBE, Mark Baker, Chris Butler, Gareth Edwards and Grant Orchard among them. Read more about some of our alumni's successes: View all news View all blogs

19 Nov 2024

Colourful Heritage – the story so far

A group of UCA alumni sitting around a table with food and drinks

06 Sep 2024

Then and now – what happened to UCA’s design class of 1974?

UCA acting and performance alumni Gabin Kongolo, right, on stage at Shakespeare's Globe

30 Aug 2024

Acting alum Gabin takes on the Globe

A close up head and shoulders shot of RuPaul's Drag Race winner Nymphia Wind, also known as Leo Tsao. Picture by Mettie Ostrowski

22 Apr 2024

You’re a winner baby… con-drag-ulations to Nymphia Wind!

A head and shoulders shot of Hamza Shaikh smiling

10 Apr 2024

Rising Star accolade for Hamza's innovative work

09 Apr 2024

UCA’s own Nymphia Wind breezes to Drag Race final

Sally Sheppard speaks on stage at the launch of a game

06 Mar 2024

Sally’s drive for equality is no game

a crowd cheers against a backdrop stating '2023'

20 Dec 2023

UCA’s 2023 Highlights

Alumni community

Graduates of UCA become members of our alumni network - a global creative community of like-minded makers and innovators who have studied at UCA or one of our founder institutions.

View alumni information

Where we stand

As a university, we have a responsibility to impact the world positively, and we believe in leading by example. Find out more about where we stand on the big issues.

Data and privacy Environment and sustainability Equality and diversity Health, safety and wellbeing Freedom of information Quality assurance

Further information

Accessibility at UCA Charitable status Global partnerships Governance Jobs at UCA Staff directory Student financial information Technical services commitment

Our access and participation plan

Our access and participation plan sets out what we are doing to improve equality of opportunity for under-represented groups to access and succeed in higher education.

Got a media enquiry?

Head over to our media pages for our press office contacts and details of how we can help.

Media Enquiries