About Us
Education charity The Open College of the Arts (OCA) offers a real alternative to university for people who want to study painting, photography, textiles, visual communications and creative writing at higher level. OCA courses are studied through open learning, so students learn at home, starting their course when it suits them. Every year, around 2,000 people opt for the inspiration, flexibility and value for money OCA provides. The work of OCA students speaks for itself http://www.oca-uk.com/study-with-us/celebrating-student-work.html.
Regular study visits to galleries, exhibitions and arts festivals across the UK bring students into face-to-face contact with one another http://www.weareoca.com/category/study_visits/. Students can also study for an MA, Fine Art. Launched in 2011, it is Europe’s first MA, Fine Art offered through open learning. Drawing, photography and textiles students can also opt for OCA’s foundations courses to help them decide whether higher-level study is for them.
OCA was founded in 1987 by Michael Young (Lord Young of Dartington), one of inspirations behind the Open University and also set up The Consumers’ Association.OCA aims to widen access to creative arts education at undergraduate and postgraduate levels,offering students the chance to take arts courses without formal entry requirements http://www.oca-uk.com/study-with-us/entry-requirements.html. More than 50,000 people have studied with OCA over the last 25 years.
Press releases
Open College of the Arts and UCA celebrate 30 years of creativity for...
30 years after Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington, announced the foundation of the Open College of the Arts (OCA) at London’s Royal Academy... read more
07.02.2018 • By Open College of the Arts
More choice for students of all ages as Open College of the Arts joins...
The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) has today (Tuesday 1 November) announced that distance learning provider the Open College of the... read more
01.11.2016 • By Open College of the Arts
Yorkshire show for graduates of Europe’s first distance learning MA Fine...
The degree show of graduates of Europe’s first online MA Fine Art is taking place in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, between 16 and 25 June. The eleven... read more
09.06.2016 • By Open College of the Arts
THEY ALL SAY PLEASE A photographic exhibition by Sharon Boothroyd
An exhibition of photographs by Sharon Boothroyd looks at what prayers reveal about our inner lives. Describing the creation of the images, Sharon... read more
02.06.2016 • By Open College of the Arts
Does photography matter? OCA national symposium, 21 May 2016
In the mid-19th century, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard predicted that the popularisation of photography would mean only one portrait would... read more
14.04.2016 • By Open College of the Arts
Big Issue in the North photographs make the move south
A series of photographs that have featured in the magazine The Big Issue in the North over the last three years are making the move south to... read more
09.02.2016 • By Open College of the Arts
Street View: Sheffield seen by the city’s homeless people
An exhibition of photographs and texts at Sheffield's Winter Garden, created by users of the city's Cathedral Archer Project , will offer... read more
16.10.2015 • By Open College of the Arts
The Victorian East London of Charles Booth revisited
125 years after Charles Booth published Life and Labour of the People , his survey of poverty in London, Open College of the Arts' graduate... read more
18.09.2015 • By Open College of the Arts
What’s left after 300 years of manufacturing explosives?
Revelations in new exhibition of photographs at Royal Gunpowder Mills Powder , an exhibition of photographs by Open College of the Arts... read more
20.07.2015 • By Open College of the Arts
Seven interpretations of Memory — photography exhibition at Oxford’s...
A new exhibition of work by seven photographers from across Europe opens at Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital in Oxford on 3 May. The work on... read more
01.05.2015 • By Open College of the Arts
