The distinction of Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) was created by the RSA in 1936 to enhance the status of designers in industry and encourage a high standard of industrial design. The distinction is conferred upon 'citizens of the United Kingdom, who have attained eminence in creative design for industry'. Only 100 designers are able to hold the distinction at any one time and it is regarded as the highest honour to be obtained in the United Kingdom in the fields of industrial design. In addition, the RSA confers upon a limited number of distinguished international industrial designers the award of Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (HonRDI).\nThe Faculty of Royal Designer's for Industry was formed in 1938 as the association of RDI's with the object of furthering the excellence of design and its application to industrial purposes. The Faculty's affairs are presided over by a Master who serves for two years, he is assisted by a Deputy Master who is Master Elect.\nNew appointments are made after consideration by the Faculty and a Joint Panel (comprised of the Faculty and the RSA's Council). Appointments are then ratified by the RSA's full Council.\n\nRecords include administrative correspondence and files including some information on members, minutes of committee meetings, printed items and publicity material and photographs\n
The Design Section involved itself from time to time with other societies in the promotion of Design, often to encourage different Design bodies to co-operate with each other.
The Society's examinations were instituted in 1856 and work burgeoned over the ensuring decades. The RSA Examinations Board was responsible for the Society's role as a major examining body principally in commercial/office skills and languages (particularly English as a foreign language) ranging from elementary to post-graduate. The academic work of the Board was conducted mainly from the London offices whilst the operational work, including printing and data processing, was carried out at premises near Orpington. The Examinations Board became a separate Company in 1987 and was sold in 1997 at which point it merged with the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations Boards to form OCR. Records include administrative files and papers and printed material including some examples of examination papers at various dates. Examination papers for some years have also been bound into volumes of the Journal.\n\nRecords include general administrative correspondence, printed matter including examination question papers, syllabuses, reports and photographs. The collection does not include lists of individual candidates.
Organised by the RSA but involved collaboration with three other bodies: The ERAS Foundation (later re-named the Environment Foundation), the Department of the Environment and the CBI.\nEntrants could be from industry, educational or research bodies, public bodies or individuals. The project aimed 'to identify, encourage and publicise innovations to abate all types of environmental pollution'. Awards of a trophy and certificate were made annualy.\nSource: The RSA and the Environment, edited by Timothy Cantell, 1993\n\nRecords include printed materials, reports and photographs.
First conference held at Fishmongers' Hall 4-5 November 1963, RSA participated in this along with The Nature Conservancy and co-organised the second and third conferences. Second conference, 10-12 November 1965 was held at the RSA for the first two days and at the Fishmongers' Hall for the third.\nThe last conference in the series was held at the Guildhall, London, 26-28 October 1970\nSource: The RSA and the environment, edited by Timothy Cantell, 1993\n\nThe RSA took responibility for all administrative matters about the Conference in 1964. The Nature Conservancy retained responsibility for arrangement and editing of the relevant papers and for drawing up the programme. In 1968 the Standing Committee for the 'Countryside in 1970' considered a paper about a permanent scheme of awards for projects on the ground which succeed in improving the countryside or extending nature reserves. It was agreed that it would be a good means of promoting active care for the countryside and involvement of the whole community. The committee thought it advisable that the first awards should be made in 1970. Recognising that the '1970' organisation was unsuited to undertake such a scheme they decided that a sub-committee should consider ways and means of organising and financing a Scheme and enter into negociations with potential sponsors. \n\nRecords include administrative correspondence, minutes of meetings, reports, files and papers, publicity and printed matter and photographs
The Thomas Cubitt Trust worked with the Society for a short period to develop a series of annual lectures on architecture and building. These lectures were published in the Journal. Thomas Cubitt had been a member of the Society. He, along with Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and Scott Russell attended the historic meeting with Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace on 30 June 1848 at which the Great Exhibition was born. The RSA-Cubitt Trust Panel was a sub-committee of the Committee for the Environment. It met three or four times a year and convened one conference or seminar annually as well as the Cubitt Lecture.
The Focus on Food Campaign was an RSA flagship education initiative. This campaign builds on two projects completed in 1997: the RSA's Cooking Counts and the QCA's Food in Schools. The project was run by Design Dimensions, a charity, at the RSA at Dean Clough. \n\nThe Campaign aimed to raise the profile and importance of practical food education and help secure, sustain and strengthen the position and status of food in the National Curriculum. The work focused on the making of food as the key experience in learning about the social importance of food.\nSee: http://www.waitrose.com/focusonfood/\n\nThe RSA's involvement ended in February 2003 but the project will continue under the administration of Design Dimensions.\nRecords include publicity and printed material including teaching packs and photographs of events.
Learning Pays was a project set up by the Society and run by Sir Christopher Ball
The National Advisory Council for Careers and Educational Guidance is a non-government organisation. It was established under the aegis of the RSA and CBI in June 1994, working towards full independence in June 1997. Member organisations represent guidance professional bodies, education, commerce and industry, and student, youth and special interest groups.The purpose of the Guidance Council is to promote and advise on the provision of good quality guidance for learning and work, accessible to all individuals throughout their lives.\n(Taken from the introduction of First Steps publication 1995)
An analysis of the educational, financial and social benefits of nursery education and other forms of early learning
The RSA has had an interest in Home-School links and the use of written agreements since 1988 when it worked with the National Association of Head Teachers on a project 'Home-School Contract of Partnership'. It has published regularly on the topic since then, some of these publication being part of the Education for Capability (PR/ED/107) and Parents in a Learning Society(PR/ED/104) projects
PROJECT2001 was a three-year initiative, started in March 1998, which enabled voluntary organisations to operate more effectively - through access to training and qualifications for individuals, by supporting organisational development, and by promoting lifelong learning within the sector\n\nRecords include working files, publicity material and photographs.
Electronic Education, its role in the learning society, was a conference held at the RSA in 1992. This series includes publications from that conference
Study group to consider the special problems facing Britain in the development of technological higher education
A pilot project in a family of schools in Leicester, to introduce Shakespeare to children between the ages of 4 and 18
The original sequence of material and original folio numbers have been retained where possible and the contents are listed to item level. The letters cover the period 1754 to 1770 and are in approximate chronological order.The series has been placed in a general category as it covers a range of subjects.