Is a 40-hour-week still feasible for performing arts students?

There is a persistent class ceiling in the UK’s creative arts sector. Recent research by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre found social mobility at its lowest level in a decade. Only 8.4 per cent of people working in film, TV, video, radio and photography identify as being from a working-class background. It’s a similar story in theatre and across the wider creative arts landscape. Long-term careers have overwhelmingly become the preserve of the well connected and privileged.

One reason is cuts to arts education in schools, which exclude many young people from any interaction with the arts, critically reducing their cultural capital and dissuading them from even considering a career in the sector.

And even those who do want such a career struggle to establish one. Outcomes aren’t as linear for arts graduates as they are for graduates going into careers in STEM and professional services, with early careers often dominated by freelance work and short-term contracts. Young people who don’t have a financial safety net – and who are excluded from the established networks of the middle classes that can help secure permanent work more quickly – struggle to make it through these difficult years.

In theory, higher education institutions ought to be part of the solution. We can’t make arts careers less fragmented, but we can do more to widen the pool of those trying to establish one – and, in doing so, hopefully widen the pool of those that succeed.

Data analysis by the Sutton Trust finds that graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to become socially mobile and find secure jobs in higher income brackets compared with non-graduates. But the same study found that creative arts degree subjects have among the lowest levels of access and success for graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Universities are traditionally not quick to change, but smaller, specialist arts institutions should have the capability to be agile. We may argue that we are already much better than we used to be at fostering closer links with employers, enabling access to work experiences, connections and networks for students from all backgrounds. We may also point to the scholarships we offer talented students from lower-income backgrounds and the financial support we give eligible students in financial hardship. 

While these initiatives are all welcome, however, they only reach those diminishing few from lower-income and diverse backgrounds who manage to gain access to arts higher education in the first place. How can we reverse that trend?

First, we need to understand why it is happening. I don’t believe that the previous government’s narrative about “rip-off” degrees has led non-traditional students to dismiss the value of a creative arts degree: it has been just as well reported that the UK’s creative industries are booming, offering graduates immense opportunities.

For me, a bigger factor is our often inflexible and intensive teaching and learning timetables. Particularly in an era of rising living costs, these have created a social and economic barrier to creative arts education. Many programmes demand that students commit between 30 and 40 hours a week to their course, across teaching, studio time and independent study. For those who need to balance studying with paid employment (or who have caring responsibilities), this simply isn’t viable. They look at our course modules description and opt out before they even reach the application process.

By introducing more flexible and innovative modes of teaching and learning, we can realign the time demands of arts degree programmes with today’s students’ circumstances.

We also need to look at admissions policies to ensure that applications from students from lower-income backgrounds are reviewed equitably, and diverse life experiences are embraced more favourably when it comes to making admissions decisions.

When higher education and careers in the arts are accessible to all, the economy benefits from an even stronger creative sector, and society benefits from more culturally rich stories and perspectives. Broadening artistic perspectives in this way can boost social inclusivity and help to create a society in which wider participation in the arts is a natural outcome.

Randall Whittaker is principal and CEO of Rose Bruford College.