Postgraduate Application Guidance & FAQ

Depending on the programme(s) that you are applying to, you will need to provide a personal statement and ‘preference’ statement(s), or for the PhD, a research proposal.

Personal Statement

All programmes require a 300 word limit general personal statement. This statement allows you to:

• Provide reasons as to why you want to study at The Courtauld
• Detail relevant study, projects, dissertations, essays and work experience
• Outline key skills
• Tell us what makes you stand out as a candidate
• Inform us of career aspirations and explain how you think studying at The Courtauld will help you achieve them

Preference Statements:

300 word limit Preference statements offer you the opportunity to explain your interest and relevant skills for the specific programme(s), or Special Option, you wish to be considered for.

The below programmes have different requirements for their Preference Statement:

MA History of Art

• You should provide a preference statement for your preferred Special Option.

MA Conservation of Easel Paintings

• You will be asked four questions relating to your knowledge and experience of the field of conservation and your experience of Fine Art. Each question has a word limit of 400 words.

PhD Programme Research Proposal

• You must already have contacted your proposed supervisor in advance to discuss your application. Please choose your preferred supervisor from the dropdown list. If your proposed supervisor is not listed, please choose the TBC option and indicate, within your proposal, who your preferred supervisor is.
• Please provide a research title.
• The main portion of your application consists of a Research Proposal, which may be a maximum of 10,000 characters, including spaces. You may wish to model your proposal on the guidelines offered by CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership, of which The Courtauld is a member, particularly if you intend to apply for a CHASE Scholarship. These guidelines may be found here.
• You should also plan on submitting a bibliography of up to 20 items as a separate document; the bibliography does not count towards the Proposal character limit. Please submit a separate bibliography document in the Supporting Document section under Written Work.
• Personal Statement: Please provide a short statement describing how your project and past experience fit with the the Courtauld PhD Programme and your potential supervisor(s).

Depending on the course you are applying to, you will need to submit a sample of your best academic written work:

Courtauld Graduate Diploma in History of Art

• 2000-3000 word limit
• If you have been out of education for some time and do not have an academic writing sample to submit, you may write a new essay. It is suggested that you visit a gallery or museum and write a detailed analysis/comparison of two pieces of work
• If you are applying to another programme in addition to the Graduate Diploma, it is recommended that you submit a written work sample at the size suggested for the other programme

MA History of Art

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

MA Curating

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

MA Art History and Conservation of Buddhist Heritage

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

MA Conservation of Easel Paintings

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

MA in Conservation of Wall Paintings

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

MA in Art and Business

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your BA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your BA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

Research

• 3000-5000 word limit
• Preferably a chapter from your MA dissertation and, where possible, on an art historical/historical subject. If you have not yet completed your MA dissertation, you may submit an essay of suitable length

If you do not have a suitable piece of this length, you may submit two shorter pieces combined into one document for online submission. Do not submit more than the word limit.

If you are submitting a piece of written work in another language, you may provide an official translation or translate the piece yourself. Please combine the English translation into the document along with the original text if possible. If this is not possible, submit the English translation of your written work with your application and then email the original written work to pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk

Official transcripts of your previous and current qualifications (detailing programme, modules, subject grades and, if completed, final overall grade and conferment date) must be submitted. At the application stage we require electronic copies, which can either be provided directly from your university (if available) or, if only paper copies can be obtained, scan (or order then scan) an original final hardcopy transcript.

We cannot accept:

• Your degree certificate
• Transcripts directly from a student portal account
• Electronic copies from your university sent directly to our email address
• Encrypted or time-limited transcripts

If you hold a non-UK degree, please include any supplementary explanatory information in regards to your grades that accompanies your transcript. If your transcript is not in English, please ensure that a literal and complete certified English translation accompanies all documents not in English

If you have not completed your degree, you will need to send an in-progress transcript. Once you have obtained your degree, email your final transcript, showing your awarded degree, to pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk as soon as it is available.

As your referees will be asked to attest to your academic abilities, you should make every effort to provide two academic referees.

If this is not possible, you may use professional referees instead. They will still be expected to be able to provide an assessment of your intellectual abilities and potential to learn.

References must be written in English – if this is not possible, please contact pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk

As your referees may be unavailable to write a reference at the last minute, you should contact your referees well in advance of submitting your application – preferably 4-6 weeks. Your application cannot be considered until after we have received both references and any English translations of references, if necessary.

Your application will be assessed without references if references are not submitted within 5 working days of application deadline.

Regardless of when you submit your application, we will not chase up references on your behalf, nor will we automatically confirm that we have received references.

Please note that references are automatically contacted by via our application portal once you have submitted your application.

All programmes require you to submit a CV.

All applicants are expected to have an effective knowledge of English, both spoken and written. For applicants whose first language is not English, we require proof of English proficiency – for details, please see the English Language Requirements page.

Please note that we cannot issue you a CAS (Certificate of Acceptance of Studies) to apply for a student visa until you pass your English proficiency examination.

You must provide an electronic copy of all your passports. If you have a current or previous UK visa(s), please provide an electronic copy of this also.

You must provide a clear, passport style photo.

Please make sure that your photo meets the following requirements:

Photo size

45 mm (450 pixels) high by 35mm (350 pixels) wide

Your photos must:

• be taken against a plain cream or light grey background
• be clear and in focus
• must show a close-up of your full head and shoulders
• must be only of you with no other objects or people

We request that references will be submitted by your referees within five working days of submitting your application.

As your referees are not sent our automatic reference request email until you complete and submit your application, we do typically allow for five working days following the application deadline for references to come in, before assessing applications without references.

As your referees may be unavailable to write a reference at the last minute, you should contact your referees well in advance of submitting your application – preferably 4-6 weeks. Your application will be assessed without references if references or any English translations of references (if necessary) are not submitted within 5 working days of application deadline.

Regardless of when you submit your application, we will not chase up references on your behalf, nor will we automatically confirm that we have received references.

Referees are automatically contacted by email via our application portal once you have submitted your application. This email provides a link to the portal where they will be invited to directly submit their reference to our system.

As your referees will be asked to attest to your academic abilities, you should make every effort to provide two academic referees.

If this is not possible, you may use professional referees instead. They will still be expected to be able to provide an assessment of your intellectual abilities and potential to learn.

References must be written in English. References written in another language will not be accepted.

The below is provided to the referee when they log in to our online portal to submit the reference:

Referees should be able to comment, in detail and impartially, on an applicant’s recent work and his/her preparedness to undertake the proposed course of study. References are of vital importance as they help us to distinguish between very high-calibre applicants. References that do not offer a detailed appraisal of an applicant’s academic development and suitability for the proposed study, but are simply a general statement of support, may disadvantage even the strongest applicant. It is helpful to provide evidence of the applicant’s skills and, importantly, how these skills relate to the proposed study. Please do not make inappropriate comments such as personal remarks. 

We rely, to a significant extent, upon the accuracy and completeness of your comments. Please comment under the following headings: 

A: Intellectual qualities 

• A realistic appraisal of the applicant’s abilities based on the quality of academic performance to date, both overall and within individual modules or courses. Please give examples to illustrate your comments. 
• Please assess the strengths and weaknesses of the applicant. Do you have any concerns about his/her ability to complete the course, suitability for the proposed study, or ability to progress on to further study or a research career? If so, how might these concerns be addressed? You may wish to highlight the applicant’s particular strengths, relevant to the proposed study. Please give evidence to support your comments. 
• For professional referees, please draw upon your experience of the applicant’s work to give an appraisal of his/her professional performance to date. Please highlight his/her strengths in the area in which he/she plans to study and work, and note any weaknesses he/she may have. Please give examples to illustrate your comments. 

B: Suitability for chosen course of study/programme of research 

• Please assess the suitability of the course/programme, the applicant’s potential to complete the studies successfully, his/her motivation and commitment, and his/her relevant intellectual skills. You should state how the proposed course/programme relates to his/her experience to date, and to his/her future plans. You should comment within the context of his/her proposed course/programme, as we will be assessing his/her preparedness, not just his/her abilities. Please describe how he/she has developed and improved during his/her undergraduate/postgraduate career. It would be useful if you could also compare his/her ability to other relevant groups or individuals of whom you have had experience. 
• Please assess the applicant’s aptitude and preparedness for the proposed course/programme, and for continuing to doctoral study. Are there areas in which he/she will require additional training in order to complete the course/programme? (Highlighting any such areas will not necessarily disadvantage the applicant since training is expected to be part of postgraduate study.) 
• Please comment on factors such as the applicant’s conceptual ability, problem-solving skills, capacity for independent thought, potential for innovation and organisational skills.
• Professional referees should state the type and range of duties that were performed, describe how the professional experience he/she has gained has complemented his/her academic studies, and explain how this may have prepared him/her for the proposed study and research at postgraduate level. Please comment on the applicant’s professional commitment, motivation and potential. 

C: Powers of expression 
• Please comment on the applicant’s ability to express himself/herself orally and in writing. 

D: Interests 
• Please refer to the applicant’s contribution to the life of the community of your institution/organisation. 

General points of guidance 
• References should state how long you have known the applicant, and in what capacity.
• We will not release references to applicants, so please feel free to speak freely and openly. 
• We may contact you to request further verification. 

Please keep your reference within  an 800 word limit.

Please email the e:Vision Support Team at evision@courtauld.ac.uk quoting your username and the full error message details. if you experience any difficulties submitting the reference.

As part of your application to a graduate/postgraduate taught programme, we ask you to indicate a series of Study Interests. In the event that we think you might be a good candidate for another programme of study here at The Courtuald, or when looking at which other MA History of Art Special Options you might be considered for, we take into account your indicated Study Interests.

All Study Interest categories have the option of including an interest not specified already via the ‘other’ option.

The categories considered are:

Chronology

Time periods that you are interested in (e.g. 300-1500, 1600-1850, 1950-now)

Focus

Specific areas of interest, including:

• Anthropological approaches
• Curating/collecting
• Digital Humanities
• Ecology and eco-criticism
• Heritage/archive
• Object/material studies
• Postcolonial/decolonial
• Queer/feminist approaches
• Religious traditions
• Social/political history
• Transcultural studies

Places

Specific geographic areas of interest

Media and materials

Including:

• Applied arts
• Architecture
• Design
• Film/photography
• Manuscripts
• Painting
• Performance
• Print culture
• Sculpture
• Textiles

If you have recently attended a course or summer school for which you have submitted written work, you should provide that. If you are required to write as part of your job, you could provide examples of this kind of written work provided they are relevant to your application. The samples need not be on an art historical subject, but should demonstrate your capacity for writing in academic English. Your written work should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words for the MA courses. If you do not have a suitable piece of this length you may submit two shorter pieces.

If you are applying for Graduate Diploma, you may submit a new piece of writing. Please see the Programme Application Instructions for more information.

If you are submitting a piece of written work in another language, you may provide an official translation or translate the piece yourself.

You must submit an example of your written work that demonstrates your academic writing abilities as detailed in the Application Instructions.

Unlike other elements of the Online Application Form, the written work sample is intended to be flexible – within reason.

The written work example must be close to the advised word count, not including things that sit outside of the main body of text – title, bibliography, footnotes etc.. The written work sample must also meet the file type requirements as detailed in the guidance for completing the Online Application Form.

If you are unable to book a test at a centre ahead of the application deadline, then you may submit your application without an English proficiency result. It will be passed to the tutors for consideration. You must email pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk your test result as soon as it becomes available to you. Any offer made in the absence of a test result will be conditional on your achieving the required score. IELTS test results must be no longer than two years old.

You can submit your test results no later than August 15th. However, we strongly advise that you plan ahead and submit your test results well in advance of this date, especially if you need a visa to study in the UK.

Applicants for the MA Conservation of Easel Paintings will be asked to submit your test results before the interview, or no later than the deposit deadline.

If you have studied at an institution for three or more years where English is the language of instruction, you do not need to take an English language test. However, you must provide a letter from your University/ Institution verifying this.

You are invited to apply for one preferred Option in the first instance. Depending on demand for that option, you may be considered for other options based on the Study Interests you indicated.

Option availability is subject to staff availability and changing research interests.

We publish the list of options for each admissions cycle the preceding October – i.e. 2025/26 options were published in October 2024.

Please do submit an interim (or in- progress) transcript from your current University/Institution. Final transcripts showing the degree conferred must be received by the Admissions team at The Courtauld by August 31st.

We may consider late applications for some programmes – please check the How to Apply page to see if the programme you are interested in is still accepting applications. A late application will be processed and considered after applications received before the deadline.

Only UK students wishing to study the PhD programme may undertake the degree part-time

Under the section ‘School Attended’ put your high school. Leave the ‘examining body’ part blank, and add N/A for years attended and then put ‘High School Diploma’. Don’t worry about subject. Additionally, put in your AP exams by skipping ‘School Attended’ and list the AP exam, when you took it, your Subject and for what level you scored. Do the same for SAT and ACT.

For University/Institution attended, first indicate what universities you attended during which years, and finally your major, your GPA and your degree title (if conferred or the date it should be conferred).

If you have not yet completed your degree, you may be made a conditional offer. This offer is conditional upon achievement of a specified level of performance in your degree (for example, achievement of a good 2:1). If you have already satisfied the academic entry requirements of your chosen course, you may be made an unconditional offer.

To register for The Courtauld’s Online Application System and receive updates on your application, you will need an active email account.

This must be an account you check regularly, as the portal will send a number of emails to this address. We suggest you use a personal email address rather than an academic address to ensure that you maintain access in the future.

You may wish to add the following email addresses to your list of approved contacts to ensure that you receive all application related correspondence:

• ugadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk
• pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk

Before starting your application you will need to have electronic versions of the following:

• Your passport(s). Home students can alternatively provide their Birth Certificate
• Your current/previous UK visas (if applicable)
• Your Academic Transcript(s)
• The name, address and email of two references
• A passport style photo (please note that this must be in JPEG (.jpg) format)
• Your English Language qualification certificate (if applicable)
• Written Work (if applicable)
• Your CV (if applicable)

We can accept documents (except the passport photograph) in the following file formats.

• Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf)
• Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx files)
• Rich Text Files (.rtf)
• JPEG files (.jpg)
• PNG files (.png)

Please be aware that, at various points of the process, emails will be sent automatically by the system:

• If you save the application
• Confirming the submission of your application
• Asking your referees to submit a reference

You can save your application form at any point and return to it later.

Once you click on the Apply Now hyperlink on the main How to Apply page, you will be taken to the Application Registration page.

If you have already created an online application account, you can log in by entering your email and password in the boxes on the left, otherwise click New User to create a new account.

• Click the New User button.
• You will be asked to input some information about yourself. You must complete all boxes before you can proceed.
• Your password must be at least 8 characters long, and must contain both letters and numbers
• Once you have entered all the required information, click Proceed and your account will be created. You will then be taken to a confirmation screen.

1. Enter your username and password. If you have forgotten your password, click the Forgotten Password link, and your password will be emailed to the address in your username.
2. If you do not know your username, please contact evision@courtauld.ac.uk giving your full name and date of birth, and this can be sent to you.
3. You will then be taken to the applicant details screen, from where you can proceed with your application.

Please complete all parts of the Personal Details section, checking that all information is accurate as any errors may cause delays in processing your application.

Nationality and Country of Birth

As you begin typing in this box, a dropdown list will appear listing all those countries/nationalities that match the word you are typing. Choose the one that applies to you by clicking on it.

Please note that, when you choose an option, a number will be put in the box. This is normal, and you should leave this number in place, as it translates to an internal code for your chosen country.

Mandatory fields

Any fields that start with *, for example *Gender are mandatory, and must be completed before you can submit your application.

Once you have completed the page, click Save and Proceed to move to the next page. If you have missed any mandatory fields, these will be highlighted in Red and an error message will appear. Please complete the mandatory fields before proceeding.

Alternatively, you can click Save and Exit to save your form and exit the application. You will be sent an email with details of how to login and proceed when you are ready.

Depending on the course that you applied to, you will need to provide a personal statement, preference statement(s), or a research proposal. More information is available above.

In addition, for many programmes you will be invited to select a number of Study Interests across different categories, such as chronology, focus, materials and geographical location.

The next page of the form collects information about your qualifications.

Please enter information about your qualifications, starting with your most recent qualification. (Later in the application you will need to provide electronic copies of all completed degrees, Bachelor’s and/or higher. Electronic copies can either be provided directly from your university (if available) or, if only paper copies can be obtained, scan (or order then scan) an original final hardcopy transcript and upload to your application once at the Document Upload section.)

Please note that only UK institutions will be listed in the University/College/Institution field drop down box. If your qualification comes from a non-UK institution, please enter the appropriate Other in this box, and add the name in the field below.

To add more qualifications, click the ‘ + ‘ icon.

English Language Qualifications

You are exempt from providing evidence of an English language qualification if English is your first language or you come from a country where English is the majority language. Please refer to the Application Instructions to see if you are exempt.

Unless you are exempt, you will be asked questions about your most recent English language qualification. If you have not yet completed an English language qualification, please choose the TBA option – you may still proceed with your application. Please be aware that any offer made to you for entry will be conditional on the satisfactory completion of an English language qualification.

Foreign Language Proficiency

Please list any non-English languages that you speak, and choose your level of fluency. This is self-assessed, so please choose the option that bests describes your experience.

Once you have completed this page, please click Save and Proceed to continue, or Save and Exit to save your form and return to it later.

Before you can submit your application, you must provide details of two referees. You should complete all fields labelled with *.

Once you submit your completed application to us, your referees will be automatically emailed by the Portal. This email will contain a hyperlink which will give them access to the Portal to complete your reference. Please ensure your referees are expecting an email from us.

If we have not received references two weeks after you submit your application, we will send you a notification email. It is your responsibility to follow up with referees at this point, as we are unable to consider your application until we have received all references.

If your referees are having difficulties receiving our emails or using the portal, please ask them to contact pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk.

You could also advise them to add the following email addresses to their list of approved contacts to ensure that they receive all application related correspondence, avoiding the risk of the reference request email being lost in their spam filter:

• ugadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk
• pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk

Once you have completed this page, please click Save and Proceed to continue, or Save and Exit to save your form and return to it later.

You should upload all mandatory documentation – indicated by an asterisk (*). Please only upload the requested types of document under each heading.

Please pay close attention to the list of valid file types and the maximum file size.  We are not able to accept uploaded documents in any other type than those indicated and files larger than 2MB cannot be uploaded.

To upload a file, click the Choose File button and navigate to the location of the document on your computer. Once selected, you should see the file name listed on the upload page and you can click Upload to complete.

Once the uploaded successfully, the filename will be listed, you will be able to view the document, and you will be able to delete the document (as per the example below).  If you cannot see the link to view and the button to delete your document, then the upload has failed.

Having completed the document upload section, you can continue with your application using the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

I ONLY HAVE A HARD COPY OF MY DOCUMENTS – WHAT SHOULD I DO?

You should make arrangements to scan your hard copy document to an electronic file. As our system has an upload limit of 2MB, it is best to scan a black and white copy and use as low scan setting as possible. You can then save the scanned file and upload it. Note that the system will only accept the following file formats

• Word Documents (.doc and .docx)
• Rich Text Files (.rtf)
• JPG (.jpg)
• PNG (.png)
• Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf)

MY DOCUMENTS ARE TOO LARGE TO UPLOAD

The system only accepts files of 2MB or smaller, and larger files will be rejected. You can check the size of your files in Windows Explorer or the MacOS Finder. Your files must be smaller than 2MB (2000KB) to upload.

There are a number of ways you can shrink files to enable their upload.

IF YOUR DOCUMENT IS A PDF

Use the website http://compress.smallpdf.com/ to compress the PDF to a smaller size.

IF YOUR DOCUMENT IS A JPG OR PNG FILE

Use the settings in your Paint/Image program to shrink the size of your image, so it will save as a smaller file. For information on resizing images in Microsoft Paint please see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us

IF YOUR DOCUMENT IS A MICROSOFT WORD FILE

If your Word document has a lot of images, follow the below instructions to compress them

1. Open the image you wish to resize in an image editing program, for example Microsoft Paint.
2. Crop and resize the image as required. The smaller the image, the smaller the file will be.
   The admissions selectors recognise the difficulties of uploading image-heavy documents, so will accept lower quality, small images. You can also convert images to black and white if your image editor supports this. Please ensure you reference all images used.
3. Once you are happy that the image is as small as reasonably possible, save the file
4. Save as type JPG (.jpg)
5. In Word, navigate to the intended location of the picture within the document. It is recommended that you save a copy of the document and make changes to this, rather than the original.
6. Go to Insert-Picture
7. Choose the JPG picture file
8. Your file will be inserted into your Word document and can be resized as needed
9. Once you have inserted all images, save your file and check the size
   1. If it less than 2MB in size, you need take no further action
   2. If it is still too large
10. Select each picture, one at a time
11. Go to the Picture Tools option on the Word Ribbon
12. Click on the option labelled Compress Pictures
13. Untick the box labelled Apply Only to This Picture
14. Select the smallest target output, usually this will be Email.
15. Click OK
16. Save the file and re-check its size.

More information on image compression is available here https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/compress-a-picture-4598c336-688b-4ade-a582-ef966a978ffd

If you are still experiencing difficulties, please contact the e:Vision team by emailing evision@courtauld.ac.uk giving details of any error messages you are seeing

Please answer the questions on the declaration page.

Check that all the tabs along the top of the form are green. If any are red, there are problems with the data on that tab, and the form cannot be submitted until these are resolved. Click on the tab name and enter data into any field highlighted red on the page.

Once all tabs are green, you may submit your form.

Click the Submit Application button once. The form will then submit.

This process will take some time, as your information is uploaded onto our system. Please do not click the button again or use the navigation buttons on your browser, or your application may be corrupted.

After you submit your application, you cannot log back in to make any changes or submit any further documents.  Additional documents will need to be emailed to Pgadmissions@courtauld.ac.uk.

Once the upload has completed, you will receive a confirmation email and see a copy of your submitted application. We recommend you save this for your reference, though you may log in any time to view it again. Please note that you cannot check the ongoing status of your application after you have submitted, as the application portal is for submission purposes only.

Following submission of the form, you will be contacted by the Admissions Team in due course.

RESUMING AN APPLICATION

When you save and exit the application system without submitting an application, you will receive an email containing a link to resume your application.

When you click on this link, you will be taken back to the login page

• Click on the button labelled View Previous Actions
• Click the button labelled Edit next to the application you want to continue working on.

CANCELLING AN APPLICATION:

Up until the point you submit your form, you can cancel your application at any time.

To cancel an application, please log into the Admissions Portal. You can access the login page via the hyperlink within the email confirming your saved application.

• Click on the button labelled View Previous Actions
• Click on the button labelled Cancel Application
• A message confirming your application cancellation will be displayed. If you have cancelled your application in error, please contact evision@courtauld.ac.uk, giving your user name.

You may apply for up to two programmes via the Online Application Portal.

Depending on your application, study interests and demand for each programme or MA History of Art special option, we may sometimes consider you for other programmes at The Courtuald.