OfS proposals could ‘discourage creative talent’

Proposed changes to how the Office for Students (OfS) evaluates degrees could disadvantage creative subjects, creative education experts say.

Plans to measure courses’ success by the percentage of students who start managerial or professional employment within 15 months of graduating are being considered through an open consultation.

The proposed thresholds include 75% for first-class postgraduate degree students, 60% for other postgraduates and first-class undergraduate students, and 45% for other undergraduates.

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Creative industry experts say the new metric may prove to undervalue the career paths of creative subject graduates, who typically take longer to establish themselves in the job market, often turning to part time and portfolio work in the interim.

The OfS’ plans would overlook the fact that creative graduates are as likely as their peers to be in graduate level work within three-and-a-half years, according to Sandra Booth, Director of Policy and External Relations for the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design.

She says the proposal risks destabilising the sector by disrupting the supply of young talent: “Government should seek to protect artists against the precarities, casualisation, and working conditions in the arts sector and not to counterintuitively discourage the creative talent pipeline from pursuing a creative career.”

An OfS spokesperson told ArtsProfessional the body will not assess every failure to meet targets but that a single numerical threshold would “take account of the performance across all subjects”.

University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson says measuring the success of a graduate against a blunt set of metrics serves neither graduates nor the UK economy.

“University creative arts provision is a vital piece of the levelling up formula, providing the facilities, investment and talent that our towns and cities need to become cultural, entrepreneurial and sustainable growth hubs.”

Other factors

The OfS says it will consider other factors when evaluating the success of degrees that fall under the graduate employment threshold.

The body does not plan to make benchmark adjustments based on social background or regional differences, but says external factors outside the provider’s control – such as the impact of the pandemic and localised employment trends – may be factored in.

For courses designed to access careers that aren’t considered managerial or professional, average earnings and the skills reported in graduate outcomes surveys may hold sway.  

The OfS has not specified which courses this will relate to, but a focus on earnings may be a red flag for arts degrees, with graduates often making below average salaries during the early years of their career.

Booth says creative graduates tend to not be solely motivated by money: “OfS should not define success or value in such narrow terms and should be more reflective of social, environmental and cultural returns on investment.”

Public data

Data on how degrees perform in relation to thresholds will be made public if proposals go ahead.

The OfS plans to publish the information via a dashboard on its website, alongside sector wide analysis and any action it takes to address a provider’s performance.

Publication is a matter of strong public interest and will help students decide what and where to study, the consultation says.

Any changes to the regulatory framework will come into force no earlier than September.

The consultation is open for responses until March 17.