Variety in Academic Fields within Institutions of Higher Learning
In a groundbreaking report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Creative Diversity has shed light on the diversity and social mobility issues in the UK's creative industries, particularly focusing on post-16 (after age 16) creative education.
The report, titled 'Making the Creative Majority', highlights significant underrepresentation and barriers faced by people from diverse ethnic, socioeconomic, and regional backgrounds in creative education and employment pathways. It identifies that the creative industries are concentrated in London, limiting access for many outside the capital, and that existing educational and training routes post-16 are insufficiently inclusive or supportive of marginalized groups, thus hindering social mobility.
The report's recommendations aim to establish a more equitable creative industry landscape by improving social mobility through inclusive education and training pathways after age 16. These recommendations include:
- Widening access to high-quality creative education and opportunities across all regions, not just concentrated in London.
- Investing in targeted outreach and support programs for underrepresented groups to improve diversity in creative fields.
- Reforming post-16 creative education curricula and funding to ensure they are inclusive and linked effectively to industry needs.
- Encouraging collaboration between educational institutions, industry, and government bodies to create more transparent and equitable progression routes.
- Promoting redistribution of resources to address regional and socioeconomic inequalities within the creative sector ecosystem.
The report also emphasizes the importance of higher education in the Arts, Culture, and Heritage sectors, with accredited qualifications considered important in journalism, as the occupation is included on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) list of Creative Occupations.
Meanwhile, Dr Ruoxi Wang and Bernard Hay are researching the creative self-employed workforce in England and Wales, while Professor Dave O'Brien, University of Manchester, along with Dr Peter Campbell and Dr Peter Campbell, are studying class inequalities in film funding.
The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is also discussing the implications of the 2025 Spending Review for the creative industries. The Global Creative Economy Council is conducting conversations between the Global North and South to unsettle and reorder the creative economy.
The report 'Making the Creative Majority' is available for download at www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/projects/creative-majority-education. Alice Kent serves as Head of Communications at Creative PEC.
[1] Source: Making the Creative Majority report, APPG for Creative Diversity.
- The report underscores the development of equitable creative industry landscapes by enhancing social mobility through inclusive education and training after age 16.
- Technology plays a crucial role in promoting redistribution of resources to address regional and socioeconomic inequalities within the creative sector.
- The strategy advocated in the report aims to widen access to high-quality creative education opportunities across all regions.
- Innovation is key in reforming post-16 creative education curricula and funding to ensure inclusivity and industry relevance.
- The findings emphasize the importance of education in arts, culture, and heritage sectors for journalism, given its inclusion on the DCMS's list of Creative Occupations.
- Ongoing research focuses on the creative self-employed workforce in England and Wales, while another study examines class inequalities in film funding.
- Data gathered by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC) is used to analyze the implications of the 2025 Spending Review for the creative industries.
- The Global Creative Economy Council aims to foster conversations between the Global North and South to reshape the creative economy.
- Creativity and skills development in education-and-self-development and learning pathways should prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in line with the recommendations from the 'Making the Creative Majority' report.
