The following information is intended for prospective students who have been invited for an interview at Cardiff School of Art & Design for a place on one of our undergraduate programmes. In order to be successful in gaining a place at Cardiff School of Art & Design you will need to make the best of your interview and of your portfolio.
Like most Art & Design courses we receive more applications than we have places. You can expect then that we are looking for the most enthusiastic, inquisitive and able to study with us. However, it is important to know that the way we judge real ability is not based upon exam results alone. During your interview the subject team will want to know about you as a person. They will want to find out if you are serious and well informed about your choice of subject. They will also want to know whether you are equipped with the skills and attitudes that show that you have the potential to make the best use of your studies and whether you deserve to win a place at Cardiff School of Art & Design.
First Steps
Please check that you can get time off from your School, or College or place of work to attend the specified date of your interview. If not please contact the University Admissions team (029 2041 6010) as soon as possible to arrange another date.
If you have a disability and will need a parking space or special facilities please also call the University Admissions team to arrange this. Unfortunately while parking on the Llandaff campus is not possible on a weekday, it will be possible for you to be dropped off and collected. Please plan your journey in advance. Finding us is straightforward. For those using SatNav, the postcode is CF5 2YB. Helpful advice on getting to the Llandaff Campus is also on-line:
www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/campuses As our interviews are held during the winter months if we do get bad snow and have to cancel an interview day at short notice, both the University and the School’s website will carry an urgent message for you.
Preparing for your interview
The interview itself will involve a review of your portfolio and a conversation with members of the subject team. The conversation will be relaxed and informal, we want to meet you at your best, not when you are stressed and nervous.
Ultimately, we are seeking to find people who will contribute to the community of intellectually and creatively driven people who make up CSAD, both our staff and our students.
• You need to be yourself – relaxed and purposeful. We want to know you, not someone acting out a role.
• Dress comfortably and be smart, whilst remembering it’s not an interview for a job in a bank – this is art and design after all.
• Above all, you need to show how enthusiastic and passionate you are about your subject, and that you: have an enquiring mind; are ready to learn; are prepared to take risks; can play with ideas.
• Ask about opportunities that we have built into your programme for work experience, travel abroad or exchanges with other Universities.
• Ask about the way in which you can direct your studies towards creative practice, research or enterprise.
• Ask about opportunities for further studies at Masters level that we offer.
Your portfolio
Your portfolio represents you as an artist, designer or maker. A good portfolio is not slick like a holiday brochure or a University prospectus, but neither is it a scruffy assemblage of scrappy notes.
Bring sketchbooks, they provide interesting insights into your techniques and purpose
Artists and designers use their portfolio to give other people an insight into their outlook, creative scope and particular skills. We see many thousands of portfolios, what will make yours stand out?
• Put in the best work from your current course.
• Put in work that you have done for yourself, outside of school or college, especially pieces that really show off your skills and dedication.
• Put in something that shows that you are open to experimentation, even if it went wrong.
• Bring your sketchbooks along too, as they provide interesting insights into your techniques and purpose.
• Take care with how you present your portfolio as an assemblage or body of work; Ask yourself is it right for the subject you are applying to study?
On the day
You will have been invited to either a
morning or an
afternoon interview session, but are very welcome to stay for the day to find out more about CSAD and what the University offers. If you have been given a morning interview slot, please arrive by 9.30am. If you have been given an afternoon interview slot, please arrive by 1.30pm. Your interview may involve you in a group exercise, a one-to-one interview and a chance to discuss your portfolio. Each programme does this slightly differently. Any problems on the day please call CSAD Interview Hotline: 029 2041 6682. You will have plenty of time to look around the University Campus and the Library or to grab a cup of coffee or something to eat in a coffee bar or in the Student Union. You will be asked to leave your portfolio in a safe place. This will be reviewed without you there.
After your interview
If we feel you deserve to win a place at Cardiff School of Art & Design we will write to you and inform UCAS with either a conditional or unconditional offer. This offer gives you the opportunity to be among other imaginative, curious and astute artists and designers, who want to develop the skills to become artists or designers who are equipped with the skills to become leaders in their Field. Our entrance expectations (UCAS 300pts) and rigorous but friendly interview process creates a really expert community of students who are serious about their studies in Art and Design at University. Some of our programmes have six or seven or more applicants for every place, so if you are lucky enough to win an offer of a place with us, think very hard before you reject that opportunity.
If you have a conditional offer from us, but don’t get the required grades, do get in touch. If we have interviewed you and offered you a place we clearly think you will make the most of your studies and will do what we can to honour that. We are proud of CSAD, for its history, its standards and for the way in which it enables our students to shape their own studies around their own interests and ambitions. The fact that it is in the exciting student city of Cardiff makes it all the better.
How to find us
The university is approximately a ten minute bus ride from Cardiff Central Station. Use bus numbers 62 or 63 and ask to alight at Llandaff village (mention that you’re traveling to Cardiff Met). There is a 5 minute walk to Llandaff campus. Full directions can be found at:
www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/findus
Handy sites:
www.cardiffbus.com
www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk
www.traveline-cymru.info
www.nationalrail.co.uk
