11 Hereford College of Arts reviews

As I'm only in my first year, I couldn't say yet.

I feel very supported and my tutors are all very open and enthusiastic, it's great to be taught by people who are so open about their own practice, but also can appreciate other ways of working.

21

We have amazing access to workshops with fantastic and helpful Technical Demonstrators, I feel really lucky to have such a wonderful support around me. The Library also has very knowledgeable staff who go above and beyond in their jobs. What the University lacks in size, it more than makes up for in openness and attitude.

I do feel that there could be more staff available for students with SEN, there are a higher number of creative people with some firm of SEN than in a normal University. That said, the staff are brilliant when you get to see them.

HCA provide many opportunities to work on live briefs, with both local and international clients. Giving students ample exposure to the wider art community and helping to grow each students’ network. The skills which are nurtured and honed throughout the duration of the course are invaluable tools which are transferable across many disciplines. Collaboration, communication, teamwork and respect are a huge part of the HCA culture.

The course is delivered at a very mature level. HCA treats its students as adults, capable of learning and experimenting as competent individuals. Rather than restricting the student learning experience, HCA empowers students to question everything and provides students with the necessary support and guidance to seek out answers and solutions.

24

The facilities at HCA are of an exceptional standard. Students have access to an entire wealth of resources an on a regular basis. Weather working with materials such as wood, metal and ceramics or more technologically based practices such as 3D printing, laser cutting or CAD modelling and rendering, HCA have it all. With knowledgeable, friendly and approachable technical demonstrators on hand to provide assistance when needed.

HCA offer an excellent Student Support facility. There is always somebody on hand to offer help and guidance on all aspects of student life. Weather this is how to approach a piece of academic writing, financial support, or simply to offer guidance on wellbeing. HCA also offer a variety of student and University lead activities to promote wellbeing. Such as Yoga and book clubs. Tutor feedback, group and one on one discussions feature regularly in the student timetable.

Careers advice from CV to starting up your own business. Advice on how to promote yourself through online platforms, social media, blogs, portfolio etc Live briefs with employers who offer internship opportunities Promote societies to get involved with that are relevant to Textiles

I have no complaints about how my course was taught. I received weekly tutorials, group discussions, formal presentations, live briefs, we had several visiting lectures, seminars and numerous practical workshops including the option of any additional ones that I wanted to participate in.

15

Facilities at HCA are amazing with access to both the College road & Folly Lane workshops. Unlimited Access to IT suite,library & various equipment when requested .

Support amazing I received weekly academic mentoring for writing my dissertation as I had no previous experience before attending top up year at HCA

Visiting lecturers, live briefs, visiting places of interest, Instagram

I liked the way we got to independently develop our work. We all have different areas of interest and we were allowed to investigate this. We got our own studio. The technicians were amazing and always happy to help ! Some collaborations projects were ok too. PIC for dissertation was amazing with specialist tutors who really knew their stuff - AMAZING!! IT were also great with good facilities in printing papers and fabrics and the library was extensive. Least like has to be favourites chosen in terms of material or processes. I needed more support for the work I was specialising in. To figure it all out myself made my life 10x harder and longer than others who had the specialist tutors and support from the get go.

3

Amazing parts were the library, 3D, IT, printers including the sub and digital printers, studios, laser cutter, heat press, print binders, print colours, fabric store, yarn store, screens, domestic knitting machines.

Personal issues are taken seriously and time is allowed to be taken out of college when needed. Understanding. Feedback can be tricky, you may get multiple opinions from various tutors but this is the nature of the beast with any art course. You do get delegated one towards fmp. Culture of the college in general is lovely- everyone is very nice.

A module is specifically dedicated to professional application and includes a work placement opportunity. HCA also encourages you to learn many different skills across the college which makes you unique to employers.

I really liked that we had a lot of opportunities to present our work to a mix of industry professionals, our peers and one to one with tutors, this helps increase your confidence. I liked that we also got one to one tutorials with tutors every week! Which is very rare to find in most universities.

For a smaller Univerisity, the facilities are really surprising. There are workshops and libraries based over two campuses, which is really handy especially if one of the workshops is quite busy you can just head over to the other one. There are no restrictions at all, I was a textiles student and worked in , 3D, Textiles, Photography, library, IT

The support at HCA is one of the best things about it! The tutors offer an incredable amount of support. I got feedback on projects every week! The feedback really pushed and motivated me, and there're office door was always open If I was stuck or wasn't sure about something. They would also put us forward for opportunities and competitions. Also when it came to dissertation I was given a lot of help from both my tutor and the academic team, and they really helped me get through it.

The uni gives us live briefs with many textile company’s which gives us plenty of opportunities to make contacts for future work opportunities. We also completed a module that encouraged us to research possible careers we’d like to have and also required us to take part in work placement

I loved how we were given the freedom to explore other areas of art and design and apply it to textiles and that the workshops were open to all students who wanted to learn new skills. There wasn’t anything I disliked

We had two campuses (a college level campus and a university level campus) that provided a variety of workshops and and lot of tools and technologies that allowed us to be experimental. Workshops in both campuses were open to all HCA students of all levels

By introducing you to different people from all different areas of the subject to see what sort of thing is possible

A positive is being able to see a tutor whenever you need help and one always being there to help you The least there is sometimes a lack of communication that could lead to confusion

5

Always a space to work at a desk but sometimes a lack of workshop space and workshop popular with other courses as well

Always able to see someone at anytime for help weather that be a tutor for help with project work or someone to talk to about personal problems

We do lots of live briefs with real clients and our tutors are all professionals who work in the industry, the IT technicians are also really good at teaching us software.

We get to see a tutor everyday and when we need to, there is lots of variety and we discuss things I would like more choice of food in the cafe

15

we have lots of support, for academic writing and craft workshops but also a well being officer who is great. We get a lot of feedback and tutorials whenever we need them

We often have visits from external practitioners which gives us the opportunity to start conversations with them. This enables us to get paid work with companies or offer our services for free to develop skills that maybe the course can’t offer.

The course is mostly a practical course with some academic follow ups to cement our learning. Most of the academic sessions are also lined with fun activities to take part in so it is never just a sit down session where you’re spoken to for 2-3 hours at a time.

20

Having two campus’ it really has very different facilities. There’s access to a dance studio, theatre, performance hall and countless other spaces to rehearse or work in. Being a dedicated arts college it means that no space is out of bounds and it really enables some creative sessions both inside and outside of our teaching time

I don’t use any of these services but you do have multiple sessions each year to make sure you’re on the right track with the academic side whilst there are well being officers on campus as well.

The course actually widens your options for different career paths in the performing industry. By getting you to do work experience with various different companies, which all of them are related to performing or on the production side of it. This course also helps develop your weaknesses and they recognise your strengths. As each project you do they are all very different to each other and always challenge you. What they also do well is find you job opportunities whilst you are studying with them (which can be paid and non paid work) such as casting calls and so on. The tutors are brilliant at their job, they make sure that you are developing as a performer and always strive to help you as well. And they will support what you are doing outside of the course as well. Also the trips they provide which include workshops, one of them included a workshop with David Glass and a behind the scenes look at Bad Wolf Studios. This course is brilliant to help you to become a self employed performer and help you find work in the performing world. They offer you a lot of things which you can’t get anywhere else, highly recommended!

The course itself teaches you acting practitioners such as, Michael Chekhov, Uta Hagen, Stanislavski and much more. They also teach you the history of different types of theatre and where it all comes from and also cover the business side of performing arts as well! Truly useful for any self employed people!

24

The facilities are equipped with various different things, such as 3D printing, wood making, metal making and various different things which they offer to all students!

The tutors are wonderful when it comes to feedback, they will give you one to ones to help you improve your physical work or academic wise give you very helpful and clear feedback. The well-being officer is always onsite and is easy to get hold of as well!