RCA opens School of Communication & Design

The Royal College of Art launched a new School of Communication & Design on 2026-09-02, bringing together communication and design disciplines that previously sat in separate departments.

This is a substantive change at the 107-year-old institution: the new school will join the School of Architecture and the School of Arts & Humanities to form a three-school structure designed to encourage collaboration across media, materials and methods.

RCA leaders say the move responds to how creative work actually happens today, where job descriptions stretch across strategy, craft and technology and employers expect makers to shift roles quickly. In practice, the change brings programmes that once had little formal contact into the same academic ecosystem—so Animation will sit closer to Fashion, Visual Communication to Innovation Design Engineering, and Digital Direction to Textiles.

"Bringing together a dynamic community of creative disciplines creates new opportunities for collaboration," — Professor Kerry Curtis, dean of the School of Communication & Design

The new school will deliver these programmes:

• Animation (MA)
• Communication (MFA/PGR)
• Creative Education (MEd)
• Design (PGR)
• Design Futures (MDes)
• Design Products (MA)
• Digital Direction (MA)
• Fashion (MA)
• Information Experience Design (MA)
• Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc
• Textiles (MA)
• Visual Communication (MA)

For students and creative employers this consolidation matters because it makes interdisciplinary work easier to schedule, assess and resource. Shared workshops, studio spaces and project briefs are likely to produce graduates fluent in both conceptual strategy and hands-on making—an increasingly valuable combination in fields such as immersive media, product design and brand experience.

Academically, the RCA frames the change as more than operational: it positions the school to shape how communication and design respond to fast-evolving technologies—AI among them—by combining material intelligence with critical practice. For prospective students and collaborators, the reorganisation signals an RCA curriculum built around connection rather than separation.