Fine art, Glasgow School of Art

I studied Sculpture and Environmental art between 2017 and 2020 and I am honestly so so disappointed by it. I genuinely learnt far more on my foundation year than my 3 years at GSA. The school relies entirely on its reputation nowadays and invests nothing in its students. You'll have nothing but a cramped studio in the Stow, barely any contact time with tutors (I only ever met 2 out of the 4 of mine in 4th year) and you'll learn no technical skills (you'll be lucky if you ever manage to make anything in the workshops as they are so unaccessible). Students and tutors alike are miserable as the institution treats everyone so badly. After we were abruptly thrown out the studios in March and never got our degree show due to covid, GSA promised we would have access to the degree show budget for independent shows later on which has obviously never materialised even almost a year later. Also there is no consistency whatsoever with marking and your degree classification is like a lucky dip.

Brilliant, loved every minute.

My fault for picking the course. Basically paying for a piece of paper. Good course for the super privileged who essentially are already artists before starting the course, good for meeting interesting people too. Not a good course for people who have a conscience.

Teachers are lovely but the running of the course is worse than anything I’ve ever seen

Only get tutor time once or twice a semester with a single class critique during that time as well. If you are interested in Printmaking you wont be able to use those facilities until second year. If you are interested in Painting you better know how to do it already since no one is going to teach you any techniques or how to improve your skills. Since the tutors are never present there is no one to see your work and help you improve it as you are working on it. All of your time is used for "studio practice" which means sitting alone in your studio space making as much work as possible and hoping you get a good grade at the end of the year.

There's not much offered in terms of workshops etc, and the workshops that are compulsory are expensive. I applied here after dreaming of going to this school and am severely disappointed. The class mates are fantastic but the studio spaces are laughable at best, not worth the time.

If you like Friday ‘pot-luck lunch’, tutorials which consist of asking each other what kind of animal you’d like to be, and the overwhelming dread of realising that you’re not doing a real degree - this place is for you! Totally unhelpful staff who pontificate about the place to attract the most talented people in, but give them no studio-space, no teaching and leave them to their own devices. Glad I withdrew and I will certainly not be coming back if I have the choice. I want to go to art school to LEARN - i.e. HAVE SKILLED SPECIALISTS ON HAND WHO UNDERSTAND CONCEPTS AND MAKING PROCESSES. My main lecturers research interest was on ‘making smells’ - I was quite literally being taught by a ‘Fartist’. Don’t bother applying, and to those who rate it highly - you must be mad!

Fine art for free? It’s that ok?

It has nearly been a year since graduation and I am unemployed. GSA set me up with no resources to get a job once leaving.

Staff are well intentioned but undervalued by the school so morale is low. They’re working to rule so quite restricted what they can do. There’s no teaching of practical skills, you’re own your own with that and they call it self directed learning. It’s mostly theory and abstraction. You’ll be slated for figurative work. It’s a friendly department but the atmosphere at the moment isn’t good

This course does produce a lot of current, popular artists who have found notoriety fairly soon after graduation. The skills acquired within the different workshops are incredibly applicable to many walks of life and will stick with you forever once you've given them a try. The quality of work on the course is extremely high due in part to the time put in by tutors planning projects that focus on widening our understandings of the city and the materials/ process we can use to explore the environment through art. This course is considered the cheapest one in fine are due to the fact that most material can be found although the workshops will charge when buying casting materials, wood and metal. The trip to Millport is also a highly regarded bonding experience amongst the second years and everyone who attends will come away with something valuable from the experience.

You don't really learn any technique, except for the printing. They expect you to already know everything. You mainly pay for the studio space, everything else is kinda useless

As our tutors are currently striking and the university is yet to respond. This means we are being left with no tutors. We also have very few lectures to guide our studies which is something I have missed. My tutor is great and always responds to my questions as soon as possible as well as coming up with new informations to support my projects. The course itself does feel quite disorganised at times which can be frustrating.

Wanting to go pro And having been at Gsa helps a lot

Please choose a more hands-on course elsewhere

Abysmal contact time. Studios unfit for purpose. Poor workshop staff having to carry to weight of the institution on their shoulders. Every news article about the student experience suppressed. Feels like the higher ups couldn't care less about the student experience as they continue to push their own agenda.

Just don't go. It's far from what it's cracked up to be. You will most likely spend the whole 3/4 years thinking - whats the point. The only thing that kept me going were my classmates. I personally feel ive achieved and learned nothing from four years of uni, we were just left to our own devices half the time. Our studio building in first year had no heating, was over half an hour away from the main campus, we had small run-down spaces. Facilities were being cut left right and center. Careers advice is nonexistent and I felt i had to jump through hoops to get any sort of support. Please do yourself a favour and don't apply to this course, its a waste of time and money and you will probably be left disappointed.

Go for it, you won't find a better a better arts atmosphere anywhere in the uk