Posted 21 November 2025

The University of Nottingham recently announced plans to close its music courses, citing ‘low demand’. This has been met with understandable pushback from Nottingham alumni, current students and union members. But this is not just a Nottingham story – news such as this sends shockwaves around the education and creative learning communities. Why are creative Higher Education (HE) courses being devalued again? And what can we do to counter this? 

Low-value?  

The Office for Students’ quality rating exercise TEF (The Teaching Excellence Framework) has put pressure on the HE sector, especially around graduate outcomes targets and courses that will lead to a good salary 15 months after graduation. The Sunak government translated poorly rated TEF courses into low value or rip-off degrees, It was often creative degrees that came under fire.  

Data published by HESA demonstrates graduate occupations by previous course. The data taken from 2022-23, during the Sunak government, shows that the courses least likely to lead to ‘high value’ roles were business and management, followed by computing. This debunks the myth of low-value creative arts degrees. 

In the school and college sector, a lack of subject choice has impacted on subject departments and teacher recruitment. The decline in creative GCSE subjects has directly affected staffing in schools and colleges; there were 14% fewer full or part-time teachers of arts subjects in English secondary schools between 2011 and 2022 according to the Cultural Learning Alliance. Disadvantaged learners have less access than others. 

Go Higher West Yorkshire (GHWY) believes that all high-quality HE courses are equally valuable because there is a wider range of factors that motivate students to progress to HE. These include graduate outcomes, but not exclusively.  

Thankfully rhetoric around ‘value’ is being phased out. In fact, creative courses are uniquely placed to drive our current government’s educational, skills and Modern Industrial strategies. 

From value to skills  

What if we reframe the concept of the value of HE to a skills model, as the current government has?  The World Economic forum, in its 2025 Future of Jobs report,  states that analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, and creativity are the core employment skills. These skills are developed on creative courses. 

The UK’s Modern Industrial strategy makes a clearcut case that creative HE courses are extremely valuable. The Creative Industries forms one of the eight priority sectors with its own industrial plan. The plan enforces a vision to ‘build a resilient, skilled workforce fit for the future’ and to ‘develop a long-term government and business partnership to support all stages of the Creative Industries skills pipeline.’

Hope for the school and college sector  

The recently published Curriculum and Assessment Review states that the Creative Industries is the sector with the biggest projected growth in employment between 2025 and 2030. It is anticipated the workforce will comprise of 170,000 workers qualified to HE level – at level 4 and above.  

The Curriculum and Assessment review strongly enforces the importance of the creative and cultural learning by placing an emphasis on greater subject choice for GCSE learners. This should reverse the decline in the study of creative subjects and feed into the skills pipeline. 

Ways that educators can promote the value of creative skills 

Advocate to develop creative skills. Encourage and signpost to take up the enhanced offer of music and arts provision both on the curriculum and as extra-curricular activities promised by this government. This includes the ‘new National Centre for Arts and Music Education […] which will promote high quality arts education, provide continuous professional development’ (Modern Industrial Strategy). 

Promote the Creative Industries as viable pathways for young people, irrespective of their background. GHWY has a suite of CPD webinars titled ‘Spotlight on the Creative Industries’ aimed at teachers and advisers to support young people and students on their progression to the creative industries.   

There are more brilliant resources including the government funded Discover Creative Careers programme, Into Film, Intogames, local cultural education partnerships, HE outreach and music hubs. The Government is also looking to develop ‘a refreshed UK-wide £9 million creative careers service, working closely with key partners such as the new Jobs and Careers Service, to equip the next generation of young people with the ambition and knowledge to work in the Creative Industries’ (Modern Industrial Strategy) 

Finally, make your voice heard. For example, The Post-16 pathway consultation is now open. This offers a chance for sector colleagues to feedback about which qualifications should be reformed and for which subjects. 

Conclusion 

The conditions are there to join up the creative skills pipeline, offer quality education opportunities and enhanced careers advice. This would add value to the economy and enrich all our lives.  

 

Jenny Scannell, GHWY Project Manager and Officer