Welcome from the Dean
The School of Arts and Digital Industries welcomes extraordinary people…
Many of our students are from non-traditional backgrounds, many are over-21 on entry, many are the first in their families to attend university, and many are from overseas. We celebrate the range of backgrounds, cultures and life experiences of our student body, and we ensure that our students have ample opportunity to develop professional and entrepreneurial skills - through exhibitions, performances, external exposure - and via our active work placement connections, to support their move to the world of work as University of East London graduates. We are similarly proud of our research-active and industry-engaged staff, committed the school’s stimulating and challenging creative environment, and promoting innovation, collaboration and critical thinking and practice.
If this sounds like the university for you, please take time to review our website, and I trust that you will find the information and inspiration you seek.
You will see that our school is situated on the striking, purpose-built London Docklands Campus, with provision also at Stratford and Trinity Buoy Wharf. These locations link with the multicultural histories of London’s East End, the Thames Gateway, the regenerated contemporary docklands housing the O2 and Canary Wharf, and the transformed locales of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Park, with its stadium, aquatics centre, velodrome and more… We are key and committed players in the creative, cultural and digital industries of the great global city of London.
You will find that University of East London is accredited nationally for commitment to Customer Service Excellence, Positive about Disabled People and Stonewall’s quality standards, and that we host the Centre for Excellence in Women’s Entrepreneurship.
You will learn that our School has roots dating back to 1892 and the ‘people’s university’ of the West Ham Technical Institute. The history and achievements of that institution, and others – in Walthamstow, South East Essex, North East London – helped inform the establishment of University of East London in 1992. The School takes a positive networked approach to our contemporary London-based creative, cultural and educational partnerships with, for example, Hackney Community College, London’s Institute for Contemporary Music Performance, Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, and Stratford Rising. Internationally, we value our strong partner collaborations such as those with the Legenda Education Group in Malaysia and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore.
Finally, our students, graduates and alumni – of fashion, film, fine art and media, digital arts and communications, games design and animation, music, theatre and dance, creative writing, cultural and heritage studies, journalism and advertising – are pioneers, defining, transforming, innovating, challenging, provoking, surprising and inspiring in the domains of culture, economy and creativity across the world.
I hope you will consider joining us as we imagine and make real our arts and digital industries futures !
Professor Catherine Harper
Dean of the School of Arts and Digital Industries
