128 reviews for Glasgow School of Art

Best thing is we get to do a lot of projects and worst thing is that it's 9 to 5.

The facilities are amazing, but often difficult to access casually - you always have to get inducted into facilities which is more difficult to get into than you’d imagine. There seems to walls up around certain facilities that make them difficult to access quickly - you really need to plan ahead. Accessing facilities often requires you to write a proposal in order to be allowed to use them. The technicians and staff that work in these facilities are absolutely amazing - filled with knowledge and so happy to help.

Could be much better - these things seem very hard to find within the institution.

This course has very minimal contact time with tutors, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing - pre-covid, the people that will help you the most are the technicians and staff that work in the specialist facilities on campus. They are the ones who will teach you the tangible processes, whereas your course tutors will give you more ideas on how to thematically progress your own practice. You will have to do a lot of thinking on your own, and whilst it often feels like being thrown in the deep end - the lessons you learn here are invaluable. You spend a lot of time reflecting with your classmates and learning from each other.

20

There are great lectures and Q&A’s by previous alumni who now work in a variety of industries - encouraging at times, but also there never seems to be a clear cookie cutter path in how to get into stable employment immediately

No

access is limited, and they have cut opening hours every year since I began studying here

the counselling support is overbooked and it takes half a year to get onto a session with them. Student support otherwise is brilliant, offering workshops and getting to know you and your issues on an individual basis

the students union has been indefinitely closed, the student president does not reply to our courses emails with faculty.

I wouldn't know as I haven't been in to university, it campus is closed

There is one active society at the university, of 30 people.

tutors are brilliant, hands on supportive of your creative education. Student voice is non existent, the student union too, teachers have no ability to take your issues with the course further

1

they have some lectures

Private flats in Glasgow are cheap and beautiful, a great place to live

Very poor while I was studying painting, no fumigation space. Maybe it's better now but- I left when they built stow so I'm not too sure. I know they have a building I guess but I've heard it's overcrowded

I believe that the Glasgow School of Art is an extremely elitist institution I went there with a dream of becoming an artist and then slowly my dreams died off when I realised that I couldn't afford to buy art supplies and other children of rich parents would give them thousands of pounds for their degree show pieces and then they would get firsts and win all of the prizes and I tried so hard.. But I got a 2:2. They didn't support me at all. I have nothing now.

Student unions were great, we just weren't listened to.

It's in a good location, sure

Everyone was gay so queer soc was a bit of a joke

I quite like how we would have one-on-one discussions with our tutors but didn't feel frequent enough but I think that was because there were too many students. We would have about 2 tutorials a semester as well as group ones that could have been grouped better

24

No help at all I graduated last year, been doing bar work, volunteer work to try and get my foot in the door, it's all been me. I'm unemployed and gsa didn't prepare me for this

Again, they don't have much in terms of facilities, studio spaces can be really cramped, not spacious like their website claims. The technicians in the workshops are really nice but the system sucks. You can't use other majors' workshops without a specific project proposal, meaning you don't get time/space to play with different mediums/materials at all and they are not introduced to you in the curriculum. Visiting workshops you do have access to is also inefficient. They introduce you to the facilities in the beginning of the year but since you may not use them regularly for projects, you forget how to use a lot of the machines and will require technician's assistance to get whatever you need done properly.

Read my answer to question 12. Also it's not like guidance counselors can change the bad structure of the program.

right next to sauchiehall street and school

None

In an alternate universe I'd sue them for false advertising and wasting my time and money. I don't suggest looking at their website description at all, because it reads like propaganda when compared to my actual experience. 1: There is no allocated time to present or discuss interests/projects/struggles/opportunities with your classmates in the curriculum at all. There is no opportunity to present your works to the class so everyone gets to know each other as artists anytime during the year. 2: There are no actual "courses", they've separated the year into different projects and a new tutor comes in for every or every two projects or so. They often don't introduce themselves at all and in my experience are not willing to get to know students and help them with anything outside of the project. There're also no electives to engage students diversely. 3: Lack of talks/events/gallery spaces/professional connections. According to the curriculum plan, it seems that there is only one exhibition opportunity all the way at the end of 4th year. There is no move to develop students' personal art/work/practice and help them get publications/publicity/recognition in any form. As a result projects and time are often unorganized and left completely to students. Attendance issues are statistic and so is failure to finish projects. Worst of all, the dep head was very dishonest with me during the application process, he is either very unaware of how the program is actually doing or thinks it's fine to say whatever he needs to get me to pay the tuition. It's likely a mix of both but this place has a horrible sense of community and is living off of its former reputation. As it is now, it's not a place worth your time or money.

1

The program is very bad.

Expensive and cold, laundry is really expensive but overall alright.