APPLICATIONS TO THIS PROGRAMME ARE NOW CLOSED

ENTERING THE UK

If you are traveling to the UK from abroad, it is your responsibility to ensure that you hold the right documents to enter the UK.

All applicants are required to review the relevant sections on ‘Entering the UK’ via the UK Government website to check which documents are required to enter the UK and check if an application to a Standard Visitor visa or an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) is needed. Your type of immigration document and how to apply depends on your nationality, the AA can provide a letter confirming your enrolment to the course to support your application once the course fees are settled.

Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)

Commencing 8 January 2025, the UK introduced ETAs for all visitors who do not currently need a visa for short stays of under six months, including Australian, Canadian, and US passport holders.

Starting in April 2025, all visitors to the UK who do not require a visa for short stays and do not already have a UK immigration status will need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). This includes nationals from many countries, including those in the European Union as well as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

You can Check if you can apply for an ETA on the UK Government website. An ETA costs £10 and allows multiple entries into the UK for stays of up to six months at a time, valid for two years or until the holder’s passport expires—whichever is sooner.

Standard Visitor Visa

Please note that Standard Visitor Visas may take up to 3 months to be issued, all applicants who require a visa to enter the UK are encouraged to apply for a Standard Visitor visa at least 3 months in advance and no later than 1 month before the start of the programme or the date of the flight in which is intended to enter the UK, whichever is first. Student Visas are not required for study periods shorter than six months.

How to apply for a Standard Visitor Visa depends on your country of origin. You can check check if you need to apply for a visa in advance or if you can enter with and ETA and your passport upon arrival in the UK.

Applicants who need a visa to study in the UK are encouraged to carefully review the details and eligibility criteria for the Standard Visitor Visa, which are available on the UK Government website. The Visiting School Office will provide guidance throughout the process to ensure applicants are well-informed and prepared to submit their visa applications. Please also review the costs associated with obtaining a visa.

Once an applicant has been accepted into the programme and has paid the deposit or full fees (see ‘Fees’ section), the Visiting School Office will issue an invitation letter confirming enrolment. This letter can also be used as a supporting document when entering the UK.

Programme Head:

Emmanuel Vercruysse is a Co-Director of Design + Make at the AA. He is a designer with a deep interest in the relationship between drawing and making. He holds a BSc, Diploma and Mas­ters degree from the Bartlett school of Architecture, having previously studied furniture design in Belgium, and approaches design as a series of translations between drawings and objects that oscillate between intuitive acts and precise operations. This approach to design combined with his in-depth knowledge of digital fabrication techniques means that he views the digital very much as an augmentation of the poetic capacity of the analogue and he continues to explore the production of architecture intuitively through iterations of drawing, prototyping, craft and code. Emmanuel is involved in numerous collaborative practices and research groups, including art and architecture practice LiquidFactory; Field Robotics group RAVEN and the RIBA award winning experimental architectural practice Sixteen*(makers).He has held a set of leading roles at the Architectural Association and the Bartlett School of Architecture. As well as being Co-Director of the AA Postgraduate Design + Make course – positioning the campus at the forefront of Architectural Research through prototyping and large scale fabrication – he was Programme Director of the Design for Manufacturing course at the Bartlett’s Here East campus.