Are you planning to apply to NCAD in 2021? Portfolio submissions are online this year. Sign up to the Portfolio Workshop on Wednesday, 6th January to find out how to compile, edit and digitally submit your portfolio.
Portfolio demos and chat with students who submitted their portfolios last year.
Presentations and Q&A from First Year tutors.
Free, NCAD Portfolio Workshop online event for:
Applicants, teachers, tutors, guidance counsellors, parents, guardians and friends.
Sign up here
The National College of Art & Design has 1,000 full time students and a further six hundred students who are taking evening courses. Those who know the College, and those who have attended the Open Day, the annual exhibitions and fashion show, will be aware of the very high standards that are achieved.
The College has four Schools; Design, Education, Fine Art and Visual Culture.
A tutorial system operates throughout the College and many of the courses are project based. Students’ progress is monitored at the end of projects, and by examination at the end of each year.
From its beginnings, the National College of Art & Design has been as equally concerned with fine art as with design. The School of Fine Art teaching combines the traditional disciplines such as drawing and painting with an open experimental approach which allows individuals to realise their ideas in a wide range of media. Through contact with teachers who are practising artists, students become familiar with the activities and the ideas of artists working in today’s society. Students also become familiar with the fundamentally questioning nature of contemporary art and of the variety of responses generated by contemporary artistic practice. It is an intense visual education not only for artists but for others who may build careers in related directions.
The School of Design is the largest in the College and comprises ceramics, glass, metals, fashion design, industrial and product design, textile design and visual communication. In design the emphasis is on solving specific problems set by project. While students are expected to master the relevant technologies, the aesthetic design factor is stressed equally. There are many links with industry and students often work on competitions sponsored by commercial firms. The College aims to promote a broad education in design which can be the basis for a variety of careers either as part of a team in industry or by working individually in a studio or small business.
The School of Education provides for the education of teachers of art, craft and design in second-level schools. There are two modes available: the four-year joint honours degree in Design or Fine Art and Education, and the two-year Professional Master of Education in Art & Design. The School also provide a two-year Professional Master  in Socially Engaged Art (part time mode). The Centre for Continuing Education in Art and Design is part of the School of Education and offers a range of part-time courses including certificate courses.
The College welcomes all applicants who are committed to art and design and who also have the necessary talent and academic standards. We can assure you that a degree course at The National College of Art & Design will be an enriching and challenging experience. It is a preparation for life in both a professional and a broad educational sense.
