GuildHE and UKADIA, with a steering group of creative specialist higher education providers and Creative UK, are today launching a new report ‘The Value of Creative Graduates’ that investigates and addresses the challenges of defining the value of creative graduates. It sets out the unique impact of creative degrees and creative pedagogy and evidences the significant contribution specialist creative institutions make to their regions, both culturally and economically, supported by case studies.
The report features a series of recommendations for the higher education sector, businesses and government to encourage the realignment of the perception of the value of creative graduates and ensure there is equality of access and opportunity for individuals.
These include asking the government and regulators to rethink the current ‘value’ measures of graduates, such as highly skilled and salary metrics; asking non-creative industries to better articulate the value of creative skills to their productivity, growth and innovation activities; better careers IAG and alumni tracking; and ensuring sustainable funding models for specialist creative providers to protect the diversity of the globally-valued UK higher education sector.
The incoming government has made a commitment through the Labour Party’s Sector Deal and Labour Creatives work to support the development of creative skills and harness them to support national growth. This report is a highly useful resource in bringing together the evidence base for the value of creative graduates, and GuildHE and UKADIA look forward to working with the ministerial team in both DfE and DCMS.
Dr Kate Wicklow, Policy Director at GuildHE said:
The UK has a world-leading creative industry. In 2022, government estimated that it provided over 2.4 million jobs and generated £126bn in gross value added (GVA) to the economy. This report addresses the challenge of defining creative graduates’ value by critiquing current methods, providing robust longitudinal data and realigning the perception of the value of creative graduates.”
Lisa Mann, Executive Director for Academic Innovation at Arts University Bournemouth and representing UKADIA said:
“Collectively higher education providers, employers and policymakers need to collaborate to support the future pipeline of creative skills. Creative education has been eroded by austerity and policy change that has impacted access and participation, industry collaboration with education providers, and the role of culture in regional development.
With the new Labour government, we must come together to address these issues and barriers for the better. Championing the incredible value creative graduates bring to our society, recognising the subsequent economic contribution of the creative industries and ensuring we collectively commit to improving diversity in the sector, will be the first steps to a fairer and more dynamic creative skills system.”
Read the report ‘The Value of Creative Graduates’
Read the accompanying blog by Lisa Mann, Executive Director of Innovation at Arts University Bournemouth, Chair of the Steering Group and representing UKADIA
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