The GSA internationally recognised as one of Europe's foremost higher education institutions for creative education and research in fine art, design and architecture. We are:

• A creative hothouse. A small concentrated community of committed, creative people bound together by a shared visual language and a concern for visual culture.
• At the heart of one of Europe's most influential and creative artistic communities providing an energetic environment in which new ideas can flourish.
• Producers of mature, confident graduates through education in fine art, design and architecture, which is practice based, face to face, professionally oriented and socially engaged.
• Researchers that influence world culture by generating new knowledge through creativity and conceptual thinking

Since the School was founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, as a centre of creativity promoting good design for the manufacturing industries, our role has continually evolved and redefined to reflect the needs of the communities we are part of, embracing in the late 19th century fine art and architecture education and today, digital technology.

Then as now our vision remains the same - to provide world-class creative education and research in architecture, design and fine art which makes a significant cultural, social and economic contribution.

• The GSA was founded in 1845 making it one of the UK's oldest creative institutions
• The GSA has one of the lowest student drop-out rates in the UK at 1.8%
• The GSA's annual Student Satisfaction Survey, continually shows that 9 out of 10 students would recommend the GSA to prospective students
• At the RAE 2008, the GSA was ranked as the second largest art and design research community in the UK, with 25% of our research considered to be world leading and a further 25% internationally recognised
• Design Week included the GSA in its HOT 50 list of design leaders saying that the GSA is a "leader in the field of design education"
• The Architects Journal have ranked the Mackintosh School of Architecture as the top architecture school in Scotland and continually in the top 5 in the UK - the only Scottish school in the top 10
• In 2009 the GSA celebrated the centenary of the Mackintosh Building and appointed New York based Steven Holl Architects and Glasgow based JM Architects to design a new building to sit opposite the Mackintosh for completion in 2013
• GSA graduates have won the Turner Prize in 1996, 2005 and 2009 and since 2005 30% of nominees have been GSA graduates
• GSA students have won the RIBA President's Medal in 2006 and 2008 - the medal is the top architecture prize for undergraduate architecture students worldwide
• Our staff includes Thomas Joshua Cooper - the world's leading landscape photographer, Brian Cairns - D&AD Judge and winner of a gold medal from the New York Society of Illustrators and Stirling Prize nominee architects Charlie Sutherland and Charlie Hussey