Britain has always been at the forefront of culture and art in the world, with establishments such as the Royal Academy of Art, and the number one university to study art in the world, Oxford University. England itself has always seemed to pride itself on the accomplishments of art, and holds some of the most renowned pieces of historic art in its museums.
But recently, the UK government seems not to care much about art and future artists themselves.
- In this post, I’m going to go over the facts and figures in the first part.
- Then we’ll talk about my views on it, and ways it could be solved in the second part.
UK Government Cutting Art Funding by 50%
In January of 2021, the government announced that it would be cutting the higher education art funding by 50%, and by July, they had decided to go ahead with this art funding cut.
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This art fund cut applies to higher education fund cuts for the art programs, such as fine art, drama, design, music, dance, media studies and journalism.
In effect, this means that the subsidy for each full-time student on an arts course will be cut from £243 to £121.50 in the next academic year (2021/22).
This fund cut will mean that many art institutions within England will be forced to stop the education of the arts.
A spokesman for the University of the Arts London says that in the long term, creative education in the UK as a whole will suffer a decline in quality as a result of these cuts. “This undermines the government’s commitment to the creative industries. Vulnerable institutions are therefore likely to be forced to reduce investment in high-cost technology and technical support. This will affect student preparedness for the workplace,” he adds. (Source from the Art Newspaper.)
This cut in funding for the arts will give STEM subjects an extra £20 Million, as they hold a higher return value the government claims.
In the long run though, this cut will greatly damage the arts as a whole, and make it much harder for artists to be able to get an education.
UK Government Limiting How Many Can Learn Art at Higher Education
Art funding isn’t the only thing the government is trying to cut though; they are also talking about putting a limit on how many people will be able to attend university to study art programs.
They say they want to implement this strategy into lower-income degrees (the arts) as they claim it will reduce the number of people who aren’t paying back their student loans.
With outstanding student loans reaching £140bn last year, the Treasury is understood to be keen to reduce the number of students in England studying courses producing lower salaries and therefore less likely to pay back their loans.
Sources say the Department for Education’s (DfE) review of post-18 education, promised alongside the spending review, is considering ways to limit numbers. There is speculation that they could use new minimum A-level grade requirements to raise the entry bar for some courses and therefore reduce numbers, especially in newer universities.
One source close to the government said: “They would like to control numbers in specific subjects. The Treasury is particularly obsessed with negative return in creative arts subjects.”
(Source from The Guardian.)
My Views on the UK Government Cutting Art Funding by 50%, Now Limiting How Many People Can Learn Art & How We Can Fix It
I myself am an artist, I have studied Art at a BTEC Level (with D*D*D* being my grade), and have become an award-winning artist, I also plan on studying Fine Art as a degree at university, and then also earning a Master’s degree in the subject. I have also created my own art platform to help benefit art students in every way shape and form that is ever-developing (Carter Art.)
England has always been a highlight point in the world for the arts, and houses some of the top educational institutions to learn art in the world.
This is the only time in history that the arts have been under severe threat to be cancelled as a whole. The limit and cut to learning art would be a tragic impact on not only Britain’s culture, but the world.
At my college I am very aware of what the funding impacts are even before the current state with the 50% cut. We are basically told that if we are to use paints, if we have any left after use that’s not mixed, to put it back in the tubes. My Fine Art department also doesn’t have enough materials to allow all the students to experiment in what they want; so much so, that my fine art teacher brings in her own art supplies to help the students. We have a single box of colouring pencils that the students have to share, and the box isn’t even full. We are basically already told that if we want extra materials, we need to buy them ourselves. I have a million and one examples of how much pressure the £243 subsidy funding budget puts on us, and the teachers.
Two years ago, the drama department had to close down, and nothing has taken its spot, we now have an empty theatre hall in the college, and that was without these cuts.
This year, as I entered into my second year at college, I had planned to possibly continue my studies there by attending the foundation year; but to my shocking surprise, the foundation department has been closed down completely.
The government states that they want more people to attend high-value degree courses, and so want to enable a limit on the number of students who can actually attend an arts degree course as students are less likely to repay their student loans by becoming artists.
It’s no secret that artists are not renowned for their high salaries, but why should that prevent people from having the opportunity to learn and progress within art.
The government basically wants to increase the number of STEM students, as they are more likely to repay their loans, and give back to the economy.
This, however, is not the case!
I know of a girl who went to study English Literature at a Degree level, and when asked about her student loans, she said she wasn’t worried about it, as she said she’ll never earn enough to pay back her debts.
In short, she is limiting herself and her life goals, as she doesn’t want to pay back her loans.
Now I know that Literature isn’t a STEM, subject, but it can lead to high-income jobs if people have the drive. Just as if artists have a good drive and motivation to earn money, they can.
It has never been easier to sell art and be an artist in this modern world we live in, especially with the introduction of NFT’s.
Quite literally anyone can be an artist, and earn a high amount of money.
It also seems to me that many people are scared off from university by the student loans they will have to repay, and this is because students are not actually ever fully educated on the matter; they believe that these student loans will follow them around for the rest of their lives, and they will have to live in near poverty due to the amounts they will have to pay back.
(This is a true case study from a student in my class.)
The easiest way to explain how these students debts are repaid is that once you leave your university course, you’ll only start repaying your debt once your income has reached the repayment threshold level. The current UK threshold is £28,000 a year, or £2,333 a month, and once your income reaches this level, you will begin to repay your loans by having to pay back £5 a month, that’s £60 a year.
That £60 a year to pay off your student loan is actually less than you would pay for a tv licence (which is £160 a year).
So that £5 a month out of your £2,333 salary is quite literally a negligible amount.
So What Does All This Mean Then?
It’s not a fact that art students aren’t paying back their loans, in fact, it’s remarkably far from the truth.
The average UK working salary in any sector is £26,000, which just scrapes under the amount you need to earn to pay back your loans.
Whereas, the average UK artist earns an average £30,000 a year, reaching up to £55,000 a year as a more experienced artist; which is over the amount you need to earn to pay back your loans.
It seems that the government just doesn’t seem to have a very big appreciation for the arts anymore, and don’t pride themselves on the English legacy of culture and art, but instead are looking for new ways to cut back on funding, and put more money into other sectors of education. But who is really to say that art is not a valuable subject to be able to learn.
It could be argued that the Government are just trying to find an excuse to stop the arts; but I do believe that continuing the teach the arts and keep funding will greatly benefit not only the UK, but also the world, so this should be in the Governments interest.
How Can We Solve the Government Limiting How Many People Can Learn Art?
It seems to me, that the only two ways to solve this is for the national average salary to rise above the £28,000 mark, or for them to lower to the threshold for the student loans to be repaid.
We all know that higher salaries aren’t going to happen, as everything in price goes up except the amount of money people earn.
So it seems that the only way to really solve this issue is for them to lower the threshold for loans to be paid back.
I have set up a petition, calling for the Government to ‘Reinstate the 50% Art Funding Cuts, and Don’t Limit Art Student Degree Numbers.’ You can sign it by clicking HERE.
Summary of the UK Government Cut Art Funding by 50%, Now Limiting How Many People Can Learn Art & How We Can Fix It
- The government is trying to limit how many people can attend art courses at a higher education level because they claim that artists are not paying back their student loans.
- The average UK worker salary is £26,000.
- The average UK artist salary is £30,000.
- You don’t need to repay your student loans unless you earn £28,000 or more.
- If you earn £28,000 you only need to pay back £5 a month.
- You pay back £60 a year to your student loans, £100 less than the yearly price of a TV licence.
- This could be solved by raising salaries, or by decreasing the threshold of student loans to be repaid.
- I have set up a petition, calling for the Government to ‘Reinstate the 50% Art Funding Cuts, and Don’t Limit Art Student Degree Numbers.’ You can sign it by clicking HERE.
