This Budget is being framed around a familiar challenge: how to deliver growth across the country in a period of tight public finances.
But that means confronting an uncomfortable contradiction. If the government believes the creative industries are central to the UK’s future growth, then it must also recognise the role creative education plays in making that growth possible.
It is hard to disagree with the government’s ambitions. Generating more than £120 billion in gross value added annually (GVA) and supporting millions of jobs, the creative industries are one of the UK’s strongest economic assets, creating jobs and projecting British talent around the world. But we increasingly celebrate the value of the creative industries while placing mounting pressure on the very institutions that develop the talent those industries depend upon.
Creative institutions do not operate in isolation. Universities, schools, colleges, students, employers and cultural organisations are part of a shared ecosystem. Pressure in one part of that system is eventually felt across all of it. Recent reaction to proposed course closures at Edinburgh College of Art highlighted this, and asked: how can we sustain the talent pipeline that underpins future growth, while individual institutions are having to make difficult decisions in response to financial pressures? The wider conversation revealed the value that employers, cultural organisations and communities place on creative education. It reflected an anxiety about what happens when opportunities to study and develop creative practice begin to disappear.
The concern matters because creative education is not separate from the success of our industries. It is the pipeline through which future designers, artists, filmmakers, fashion leaders, creative technologists and entrepreneurs develop their practice. Even beyond this sector, creativity is a skill prized by employers across industries; and for the self-employed and founders of the country, it’s an extremely valuable skill for innovation. It’s not a coincidence that UAL has been first in the UK for producing student start ups for four years running.
Ahead of the autumn Budget, University of the Arts London has called on government to invest in that pipeline. That investment needs to recognise that creative success depends on three things: sustainable institutions, accessible opportunities, and strong pathways for the next generation of talent.
A sustainable future
First, we need a sustainable future for the institutions delivering creative higher education.
Creative subjects are expensive to teach well. They require specialist facilities, technical expertise, workshops, studios, equipment and industry-standard learning environments. These are not optional extras. They are fundamental to preparing students for professional practice and ensuring graduates leave with the skills employers need – skills that are changing more rapidly today than they have across many previous generations, and skills that are widely agreed are badly needed for the future of work.
As is well documented, the HE sector has faced enormous financial challenges in recent years, and a recent cut in support for creative subjects through the Strategic Priorities Grant sends a troubling signal about how creative provision is valued. We are calling on the government to protect the World Leading Specialist Provider funding stream, but this is a minimum standard. Growth cannot be built on an assumption that institutions will simply continue to absorb rising costs indefinitely.
A sustainable student experience
Second, we need to ensure that creative education remains accessible to talented people from all backgrounds.
The reality of student life today means that financial pressures are increasingly shaping educational choices. The extreme difficulty many graduates face in managing tuition fees, loans and repayments is now well understood, but many also struggle to cover their everyday living costs while studying – particularly in London. No one should be in the position of incurring a financial penalty for having the ambition to learn and build a life in one of the creative capitals of the world. We welcomed the Starmer government’s announcement that they intend to bring back maintenance grants. But for these to truly widen access and opportunity, they must be available for all subjects – not just those courses that the government deems a “priority”. Maintenance grants for students from lower-income backgrounds that do not cover creative subjects will create a generation that are driven away from the creative industries due to affordability, regardless of their potential. We must ensure that the system supports those from all backgrounds – as a matter of fairness, and because we cannot afford to risk missing out on the talent of those individuals.
Protect the pathways
Finally, we need to protect the pathways that enable young people to enter creative education in the first place.
By the time students arrive at university, their creative journeys have often been years in the making. Technical creative qualifications – such as the long-established extended diplomas and the foundation diploma in art and design – play an important role in helping young people develop skills, build portfolios, and progress into higher education and employment. Funding for technical education needs to keep these creative qualifications thriving.
Switch on Celebrity Traitors and you’ll find actors, comedians, broadcasters, and performers who studied subjects ranging from drama and media studies to English literature. But the programme itself, now exported around the world, is an even better illustration of the value of creative education. Behind every episode sit writers, designers, producers, editors, technicians, composers, marketers and digital specialists, whose skills were developed through creative education in the UK.
If the government is serious about unlocking the full potential of the creative industries, this Budget must invest in the education and talent pipeline on which that success depends.