Art Foundation celebrates 'Outstanding' rating

FOUNDATION academics in Art and Design have been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

A four-day inspection in December of the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design returned the top mark for MMU in its first evaluation since 2005.

Three out of four areas were rated ‘outstanding’: - Overall Effectiveness, Outcomes for Learners and Quality of Teaching and Assessment, with the other category Effectiveness of Leadership & Management achieving a ‘good’.

Around 170 students enrol on the Diploma, which acts as a bridge year from college to undergraduate study.

Superb

Head of Art at Manchester Art School Penny Macbeth said: “This is a superb result, which confirms our course as one of the best available in the country.

“Inspectors viewed our provision particularly teaching and learning extremely highly, so much so that they will be coming back to do case studies for a national report on drawing and innovative use of project briefs.”

Key points from the inspection were:

- Almost all students successfully complete the foundation programme, over half achieving a distinction and a further 40% a merit in 2012. This pattern of high-grade success has been consistent over the last three years. Students’ attendance is excellent.

- Students are extremely well motivated, which contributes notably to their rapid and often exceptional progress. Students are encouraged to adopt unconventional creative approaches that heighten their thirst for knowledge and skill development. Consequently, their portfolios contain highly individualised and exciting work.

- Students’ work is consistently of a very high standard across all four specialisms. Sketchbooks and journals contain extensive research, including references artists that influence their thinking. Students’ work is frequently self-expressive, mature and perceptive.

- Students have excellent access to the outstanding resources,

- Teaching is planned very well, uses imaginative and interesting tasks and is of a consistently high quality. Tutors’ expectations of their students are very high and in turn students have high expectations of themselves.

- Students with specific learning needs are assessed quickly and appropriate support is organised promptly.

- Inspirational and skilful staff are successful artists, designers and writers and this helps students to develop their own professional practice and independent research skills.

The report concludes: “By the end of the foundation course, students’ technical expertise and their ability to think abstractly and reflectively means they are prepared exceptionally well for higher education. Almost all of them progress to undergraduate courses; around half at Manchester Metropolitan University and a significant proportion to other prestigious universities.”

Congratulations to the whole team: Anthony Ratcliffe, Programme Leader, Joan Beadle, Dave Brodie, Margaret Mytton, Joanne Vickers, Louise Johnson, Eileen Simpson and Sophie Benson, Director of Studies.