The College Area
Falmouth College of Arts is one of the more unusual colleges in the country. The college itself is tucked away five minutes walk from the high street in a largely residential area. On first view it would appear to be just a couple of buildings but the college is made up out of a series of 10-12 buildings that (like most things in Falmouth) snake down the side of a very steep hill, and is surrounded by quiet suburbs. There is also another brand new campus out of town at Tremough , which has a regular bus service every half-hour. But I’m sure some one else who studies there will you about that.
The Town
The thing about Fal is that is it a small place, so the student population adds dramatically to local population. this means that there is a huge feeling of community amongst the students, you cant walk down the street with out seeing at least five people off your course, and countless others who you sort of know but not well enough to say hi. But this is a double edged sword, most of the time it is really cool but once in a while someone does/says something to someone else, and like that, everybody will know, including all the people you see walking down the street, everyday.
The size of Fal can also be a bit of a culture shock for those used to big cities, or even small ones! The town has all the basic shops- Boots, WHSmiths, M&S, Dixons, Woolworths, Tescos and a hand full of clothes shops and that’s about it and all are quite small. The nice thing is that the high street is on the edge of the key over looking the estuary and the harbour.
Possibly one of the nicest things about Fal is the beautiful surrounding areas, as the town is holiday destination for many people there are lots of pretty a places around the town. One of the biggest natural assets of Falmouth is the beach, that is two minutes walk from the college, and in the summer is packed full of locals and students alike. There’s really nothing that sums up the fun of Falmouth than having a barbecue on the beach as the sun goes down on a warm evening in June, aaaahhh! Another big draw for people is the surfing, there is precious little surf in the Fal area, so you have to have a car, but the surfing culture is visible every where.
If you want more shops there is a regular and cheap train service to Truro which is the biggest city in Cornwall, in fact it’s the only city in Cornwall, so go figure.
There are however lots of pubs in Fal and there should be one to suite you, and there are a few clubs too, thankfully none have dress codes. The most popular is Remedies, which is open till 2pm most nights and had a wide range of music throughout the week, from Metal to Hip Hop and Drum and Bass to cheesy crap. Unusually there is a big Hip Hop scene in Fal, well there use to be anyway! There’s always a live band on somewhere be it jazz, pub-rock, or open mic.
Accommodation
The accommodation in Fal is of varying quality, and pretty much you pay what you get, average for a good size room is £45 to £55 a week, but if you can, view before you decide as there are some real crap holes out there. First years are not guaranteed a place in halls as there aren’t that many places. The halls are only 3 years old so still look kind new, they are normally given to students who have to travel a long way, so students from overseas and northern areas of the country are most likely to get a place.
I didn’t get into halls as I only live a couple of hours away, so I had to find a place from a list that was supplied to me by the college. Oh and another thing halls are a good ten minute walk from the college and there’s the mother of all hills in between. Halls is also kind of expensive being about £60-£65 a week for a single room, en-suite but five sharing a kitchen and communal room.
The Course
I was doing the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course at Fal which is supposedly one of the best in the country, but I can only tell you what I have seen. The first year is pretty slack and I really can remember much about what when on in college, there were various work shops to do with different aspects of design, and we were taught by a mixture of Full time tutors and part-time tutors who ran there own agencies in the areas (which is cool). For the first year, and half of the second year you are set briefs focusing on different areas of design given a set time say 5 or 6 weeks to work on it. You will have a weekly meeting with a tutor to discuss you project. It is in these projects where the tutors will teach you about the design process that will form that basis for any project you do in the future, so unlike me you might want to pay attention.
Then things change for the last half of the second year you will be told to come up with your own projects, your own deadlines and pretty much told to get on with it. There are still weekly group meetings with a tutor, and one to ones if you want them but from here on its all down to you. You can do toss all and have a good time but you will get a nasty shock when you have to finish three projects in four weeks and you’ve got to make up the dam briefs as well! This is the basis for the rest of the course so you really have to be disciplined and learn to plan thing for your self and the more you put in the more you get out. With respect to hours a week in college, and work out side of college hours, it isn’t really an issue, you will be required in college a couple of times a week for meetings, and that’s it. If you want to work at home you can and many people do, really its up to you, but the tutors will always tell you be in college as much as you can (pah!)
One of the best things about the course is despite its far flung location there are lots of guest speakers that give lectures usually Friday at 2:00, some very famous in the design world. The course also has many ex students working in agencies all over the county (possibly the world), and they often come back during the year to talk to students about life after college and getting jobs. During the second year you are also offered the chance to organise a work placement for your self in a selection of major design agencies in London and other areas. These are invaluable experience and though it sounds scary you really should do them as they will give you contacts in the design world and if you impress them they will remember you, who knows? They might offer you a job, it has happened!
With respects to the third year, well it is a lot of work as you have a 6,000 word dissertation to do as well as two minor projects and one major, all of which will become parts of you life. After working on a project for so long you start to eat, sleep, and breath it so you better pick projects that you really care about or it will drive you mad!!! Once again you get out of it what you put in so, its up to you., but I will say, plan everything, and expect everything to take twice as long as you think it will!
The tutors are and eclectic bunch but they are all experts in their respective fields of design, many of them were (in many cases still are) prominent in the design world and there experience is invaluable. You will get on with some more than others, you will find that the different tutors have different uses, and its up to you which ones you use and how often you see them.
Another thing, the course in not cheap with respects to equipment, what with endless messed colours prints (the college printer is useless!) and mount board, you can spend a lot on not much. You will be asked to pay £90 at the start for ‘studio fees’ quite what this goes on nobody knows but you get free black and white printing.
By far the biggest expense is that by the start of the third year everybody on the course had a computer (mostly Macs), and if you do go for a Mac they ain’t cheap, I didn’t get much change from £1700 for my G4, but they are the best for graphics and mine is still going strong, after 3 years.