Creating Prosperity: the role of higher education in ... - Universities UK

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy72.27 At the same time, higher education policy has become increasingly focused on impact, with emphasison the linked priorities of research excellence, knowledge exchange and closer alignment withindustry. Yet there has been limited reference to the creative economy within higher education policy,with an explicit, if not exclusive, emphasis on science and the promotion of STEM skills, areas thatbenefitted from additional investment under the previous government, and have also featured inrecent speeches by ministers in the Coalition Government (for example Vince Cable: Higher Education,15 July 2010).2.28 More recently, the Browne Review has proposed a radical overhaul of the way in which highereducation in England is funded. The Review acknowledges that there is a ‘strong case for additionaland targeted investment by the public in certain courses’, and that these may be courses that‘deliver significant social returns’, which could include subjects underpinning the creative industries.However, it goes on to identify two categories of programme that will attract investment: clinicaltraining programmes, such as medicine and veterinary science (Price Group A), and science andtechnology and healthcare programmes under Price Groups B and C. While not explicitly excludingarts and humanities and the social sciences, they are in fact excluded by implication.2.29 The CSR also outlined this strong policy focus on science. The science budget emerged relativelyunscathed, and future public funding for university teaching will be directed, as recommendedby Browne, at clinical training and STEM, as well as languages. Again, while not making explicitstatements about many of the disciplines that contribute to the creative economy (which includeSTEM subjects), they are excluded by their omission.p Student art project at the University of Bolton.2.0 The context