UKADIA works with specialist HE institutions and national bodies to ensure that the arst is seen as a vital part of the UK economy and supports the health and wellbeing of citizens and places. Through our Strategic aims we focus our work on issues of social justice, research and innovation, community building and supporting specialist institutions to navigate a post-covid and regulatory landscape. 

Our work will:

• Ensure students from all backgrounds are able to participate in and succeed in developing creative skills for life and for future employment
• Make the case for the importance of creative skills to societal health and wellbeing, its link to productivity in all parts of the UK economy, and connect specialist institutions to global creative ideas
• Ensure everywhere in the UK is able to access creative spaces and education, especially building capacity outside of London and metropolitan centres, connecting specialist HEIs together to provide support and the sharing of practice, and working collectively with like-minded organisations globally to promote the benefits of the arts
• Support specialist arts institutions through discussing pedagogy, regulation, funding, research, knowledge exchange and graduate skills to ensure specialist institutions remain at the cutting edge of creative arts education and are able to operate within the confines of the regulatory code.

Social Justice

Objective: Ensuring students from all backgrounds are able to participate in and succeed in developing creative skills for life and for future employment. 

Not only are there well documented issues with the diversity of talent within the creative sectors, but access to arts education within the national curriculum has been declining for the last 10 years. Furthermore, there is still an uneven distribution of arts and cultural experiences across the UK, with London and the South East dominating the cultural landscape. Our work will aim to address these gaps and support schools, local authorities and HE providers to work together in improving access to the arts for the benefit of local economies and the health and wellbeing of citizens.

Research and Innovation

Our objective: Make the case for the importance of creative skills to societal health and wellbeing, its link to productivity in all parts of the UK economy (including regional skills needs), and connect specialist institutions to global creative ideas.

Community building

Our objective: Ensure everywhere in the UK is able to access creative spaces and education, especially building capacity outside of London and metropolitan centres, connecting specialist HEIs together to provide support and the sharing of practice, and working collectively with like-minded organisations globally to promote the benefits of the arts. Together with Research and Innovation activities, support the development of regional economies through creative skills. 

Supporting Specialist HEIs

Our objective: Support specialist arts institutions through a post-covid world; discussing pedagogy, regulation, funding, research, knowledge exchange and graduate skills to ensure specialist institutions remain at the cutting edge of creative arts education and are able to operate within the confines of the regulatory code whilst continuing to be innovative.

Our work spans across a number of policy areas, from DCMS and DfE to HE regulators and sector bodies. We advocate for the needs of small and specialist institutions, especially in relation to the costs and burden of regulation, and promote the extraordinary talent of the students and staff at our member institutions. This includes pushing back on the current political approach to measuring ‘high quality degrees’ only through the metrics of highly paid graduates.

Publications

• Economic Impact of Creative  Arts Universities – November 2016
• Arts qualification pipeline report – September 2021