The Glasgow School of Art

How to Apply 
This page directs you to the relevant section of our website which gives you information on applying for study as an undergraduate student.

On these pages you will find links to information on what to put in your portfolio and how your application is assessed.

How to Apply to:

• Architecture
• Design for Health and Wellbeing
• Fine Art and Design
• Immersive Systems Design
• Product Design
• Product Design Engineering
• Sound for the Moving Image

More information on Exchange, Study Abroad, and Foundation & Portfolio:

• Exchange
• Foundation & Portfolio
• Study Abroad

Click here to access a plain text version of the GSA's zine, Source Materials.

Your application to study at the GSA is in two parts:

• UCAS Application form
• Digital portfolio files and portfolio statement 

UCAS Application
Application forms for 2023 entry should be submitted to UCAS online by 25 January 2023. The deadline for non-UK applications is 30 June, but early application is encouraged: https://ucas.com

Digital Portfolio submission
Applicants to all programmes (with the exception of Product Design Engineering) are to submit a digital portfolio by 1 February 2023. Non-UK applicants will be invited to submit after their UCAS form is received. Completed applications are assessed on receipt, and can be made from 15 October 2022, so early submission is encouraged.

We have updated the number of image slides you should upload to our Portfolio Upload site for many of our programmes these will be shown in the guidelines for applicants. You also now have the added option to upload your image slides as a .pdf file.

Please carefully review the Admissions Guide(s) for the programme(s) you are applying to as the number of slides you are required to submit varies depending on which of the GSA’s five specialist schools you are applying to. These guides are available here and contain the up-to-date number of slides you are required to submit.

If you choose to send your slides to us as a .pdf document please remember that each page of a .pdf file is considered the same as one slide, and you should set the page size to A4 when making the .pdf. The number of pages in your .pdf should be equal to the number of image slides you are asked to supply e.g. 10, 15 or 20. If you provide more these will not be considered as part of the application process.

You can submit your digital portfolio either by uploading JPEG files or a PDF to the GSA digital portfolio assessment site. 

Your digital portfolio must meet the following requirements:

JPEG files

• The number of files required for programmes in the GSA's Mackintosh School of Architecture is 10-15, School of Design and Innovation School is 15, and School of Simulation & Visualisation programmes is 10.
• The number of files required for programmes in the GSA's School of Fine Art is exactly 20.
• Each JPEG file must not exceed 2MB.

PDF files

• The number of pages required for programmes in the GSA's Mackintosh School of Architectureis 10-15, School of Design and Innovation School is 15, and School of Simulation & Visualisation programmes is 10.
• The number of pages required for the GSA's School of Fine Art programmes is exactly 20.
• The page size must be set to A4.
• The total file size must not exceed 50MB.

If your PDF file contains more than the number of pages required, only the first 10, 15 or 20 will be considered. 

Please do not embed links to external sites within your JPEG files or PDF. The GSA cannot consider work hosted externally from the GSA assessment website. 

Your portfolio statement

In addition to your UCAS Personal Statement, your application to the GSA requires you to provide a portfolio statement. Please include information about the circumstances under which you have produced your portfolio to make sure we are aware of the individual context in which you are producing your work. Tell us anything you think is relevant about your experience of working on a portfolio (during lockdown or otherwise), the challenges you have had and the adaptations you have had to make. Think about sharing with us what you think has worked well or been a success and what you would in reflection do differently.

Access to the Portfolio Upload site

GSA Registry will provide details to you about how to set your password and access the Portfolio Upload site by email. You should receive this email at least 4 working days after submitting your UCAS application. If you have not yet received this, please contact registry@gsa.ac.uk quoting your UCAS Personal ID.

If you have experienced any issues uploading your portfolio, using your password or uploading your portfolio statements please email registry@gsa.ac.uk as soon as possible.