Changing the world through bold and curious thinking, making and doing.

Changing the world through bold and curious thinking, making and doing.

Founded as the Dublin Society Drawing School in 1746, today NCAD offers the richest and most diverse education in art and design on the island of Ireland, supporting graduates to change the world through bold and curious thinking, making and doing. NCAD is an organisation strengthened by close connections to our community in Dublin 8 and partners across the fields of Irish and global education, industry, culture and social enterprise. The quality of our art and design programmes is globally recognised, and NCAD is the top ranked art and design institution on the island of Ireland, and in the top 50 institutions in Europe (QS world university rankings by subject – academic reputation).

We attract students from around the world. Students are at the heart of everything we do, and we are continuously proud of the versatility, confidence and imagination of our graduates.  Active in international networks, they create new forms of knowledge with research partners across Europe. Graduates include artists and designers who have changed the face of their fields, whose creative work meets the highest levels of achievement, whether it is encountered in major international galleries and exhibitions, on the catwalk and in the high street, or in the setting of health care or essential services.

NCAD’s distinctive and historic city centre campus of studios, workshops, and learning and social spaces has a special energy all its own. As one of Ireland’s most important creative and cultural institutions, our vision for our students is that of a studio-based, learning-by-doing experience that responds to both the digital and material world.

The College has four Schools:

The School of Design offers degrees in fashion design, graphic design, illustration, interaction design, jewellery and objects, medical device design, moving image design, textile & surface design and service design. Our students start with concepts and questions, challenging established design precepts and socio-cultural, ethical and technical assumptions to ensure that they don’t simply play a role in shaping objects, materials and services for today’s customers, but begin to define the very nature of what society may need, want and desire in the future.

The School of Education prepares students for teaching in the visual arts at second level fostering interest in the arts, and motivating and challenging students to achieve their creative potential. The school also offers a range of part-time courses including certificate courses for adult learners.

The School of Fine Art seeks to enable students to see the world anew, placing the accepted and unquestioned into a different light, exploring the boundaries between the private and public sphere, and between the individual and collective. All departments in the School of Fine Art – Applied Materials, Media, Painting, Print and Sculpture – help students to develop a highly individual way of seeing and interpreting, and of expressing themselves visually.

The School of Visual Culture offers an undergraduate degree in Visual Culture as well as a number of postgraduate taught and research degrees. The School also provides the Critical Cultures programme to all undergraduate students from across the college, providing students with the ability to critically analyse an image or to express an idea with clarity.

The range of the career paths followed by our graduates is an unequivocal demonstration of the value of the education they receive. Experimentation in the studio, learning through doing, deep understanding of materials and processes, as well as the criticality that is embedded across all pathways, prepare our graduates to thrive in a dynamically changing workplace and beyond the worlds of art and design.

Our era is one of fast and sometimes troubling change, and as a society we face many challenges. We cannot predict the kind of world our graduates will be working in – although it is certain that they will encounter new and as yet unknown opportunities and challenges. Imagination, creativity and critical thinking – central elements of learning at NCAD – are what is required to meet this future.

Art and design education at NCAD stimulates the creativity and imagination we all need to make our environment sustainable, our societies inclusive and all our lives richer.

Click here to visit NCAD’s website

IADT is unique within higher education in Ireland. We are Ireland’s only Institute of Art, Design and Technology with a specific focus on education for the creative, cultural, and technological sectors. Working alongside industry partners in film, photography, animation, art, design, music, technology, new media, psychology, business and the wider cultural sectors, we champion best-practice models of education and industry collaboration.

Our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are professionally oriented and contribute significantly to our graduates’ excellent reputation across the creative industries. Our progressive studio-based curricula and interdisciplinary teaching and learning integrates, and promotes, entrepreneurship, design thinking and collaborative practices. This commitment ensures our graduates excel within the rapidly changing world of professional practice. Additionally, our Creative Futures Elective programme presents our students with a broad range of interdisciplinary and professional opportunities that complements and extends their disciplinary knowledge.

Our extensive programme of postgraduate short-courses will be greatly enhanced under the CFA, providing emerging and mid-career creative and cultural professionals with access to new knowledge and practices to impact and shape their future careers.
Notably, IADT is home to The National Film School (NFS), a nationally and internationally recognised centre of excellence in screen production, design and education for screen and media arts. IADT is recognised among the top film and animation schools globally by Variety Magazine (USA) and NFS staff and alumni have a distinguished record of national and international awards and recognition, including the Academy Awards, Venice Biennale, Cannes Film Festival, Royal Television Society, EMMYS, BAFTA and the Irish Film & TV Awards.

Along with international partners, we are founder members of FilmEU, a pan-European consortium of HEIs funded to establish the first European University of Film and Media Arts.

Through its Faculty of Film, Art & Creative Technologies and the National Film School, IADT has cemented its position as a key player in driving practice-led education, innovation and research for the screen industries, design and the broader creative and cultural sectors. The Faculty is the only centre for creative practices to receive a DELTA Award from the National Forum for Teaching and Learning. The Disciplinary Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment (DELTA) Award is presented to discipline groups who demonstrate excellence in teaching and learning enhancement and “who commit to an ongoing, clearly articulated, shared process of continued enhancement”.

Click here to visit IADT’s website

University College Dublin is one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities; an environment where undergraduate education, masters and PhD training, research, innovation and community engagement form a dynamic spectrum of activity. Since its foundation, UCD has made a unique contribution to the creation of modern Ireland. UCD is currently ranked within the top 1% of higher education institutions world-wide and is Ireland’s most globally engaged university, with over 33,000 students drawn from 144 countries.

UCD Arts and Humanities has long been recognised nationally and internationally for innovation and excellence in teaching and research, as well as for our contribution to intellectual and cultural life in Ireland. Our faculty is committed to enabling our students to realise their potential and to thrive academically. We challenge our students to engage in research-informed debate and analysis, and to approach complex issues with a creative and open mind. We have an international reputation for nurturing world-class talent in the creative arts and the performing arts.
UCD has a proud track record of achievement in the creative and performing arts. Since our foundation we have produced internationally-distinguished writers, actors, visual artists, theatre artists, documentary-makers, media professionals, musicians, composers, curators and film-makers.

Click here to visit UCD’s College of Arts & Humanities website