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Overview

The College of Fine Arts is one of the ten dynamic faculties of the University of New South Wales. Studying at COFA is characterised by rigorous studio activities, high levels of scholarship and research, exposure to the best and most exciting art and design practice Sydney can offer, and participation in collaborative international art projects. Located in Paddington, the centre of Sydney's gallery and museum district, COFA offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees through its five professional schools (Art, Art Education, Art History and Theory, Design Studies and Media Arts). The College is unique among Australian art and design institutions in that it provides studio practice as well as professional studies in theory, history, education and management.

Staff and students at the College are engaged in practice, scholarship and research across a wide range of visual arts and design disciplines including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture/performance/installation, photography, film/video, mixed media, digital media, ceramics, textiles, jewellery, graphics/media, applied/object and environments/spatial. Specialist degrees are offered in the areas of art education, design education, art and design history and theory, and arts administration. Cross-disciplinary courses that link COFA and other UNSW teaching and research expertise are also available, combining, for example, arts administration with law or commerce.

The teaching and research of both studio and theoretical activities is based on three principles. Firstly, recognition of the increased cross-disciplinary nature of the visual arts and design. Secondly, the acquisition of traditional skills and the application of new technologies (often wrongly regarded as mutually exclusive) are integral to all aspects of teaching and learning. Thirdly, students are offered a college and wider university environment and experience that enhances their capacity to respond in a significant way to the personal, artistic, cultural and political issues of our time.

COFA is committed to the international engagement of its students, staff, curriculum and research activities. Within an overall enrolment of approximately 2000, 246 are international students who come from more than 25 countries across Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Americas. The College has cooperative agreements with specialist art and design institutions throughout the world. For example, the International Drawing Research Institute (located at the College) places COFA staff and students in key studios and locations alongside colleagues in Beijing and Glasgow.

COFA has the expertise, resources and experience to offer specialised yet flexible cross-disciplinary degree programs in visual art and design. The extensive holdings of the Clement Semmler Library, the vibrant and challenging exhibition programs of the COFA student gallery and internationally renowned Ivan Dougherty Gallery broadens a student's experience. As well, the excellent materials handling and fabrication workshops, A/V support and computer facilities that are essential learning and research tools within art and design make a major contribution to a very productive student experience at COFA. The research activities of students and well renowned research staff are supported by individual staff and student initiatives, specialist conferences, centres and institutes.

Academic Schools
School of Art
School of Art Education
School of Art History and Theory
School of Design Studies
School of Media Arts
COFA Online

COFA Support Units
Computing Services
Digital Print & Copy
Occupational Health & Safety
Resource Centre
Student Centre
COFA Galleries
COFA Library

Contacts
COFA Student Centre
COFA UNSW
PO Box 259
Paddington NSW 2021
Tel: +61 2 9385 0684
Fax: +61 2 9385 0706
Email: cofa@unsw.edu.au