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

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy424.94 The long-term success of the UK’s creative industries will depend on a steady supply of creativeand innovative people that can work across disciplines, develop new solutions and add value in newways. Higher education is the essential vehicle for developing this talent, both in specific disciplinesof relevance to the creative economy and through growing multidisciplinary provision. It is cruciallyimportant that this is recognised, particularly in light of the threat posed by the Browne Review bothto individual disciplines relevant to the creative economy and to the multidisciplinary educationthat is increasingly important to future growth.Proposition 5.Employability and enterprise are areas of growing focus for higher education.• Universities are increasingly embedding opportunities for practical learning within courses asa way of improving students’ employability.• Many of the skills inherent in entrepreneurship are also intrinsic to the practice-based andexperiential learning methods of a creative education.• Evidence suggests that entrepreneurship education is still uneven across the higher educationsector, and there is a lack of common standards.• Universities are well placed to support graduate enterprise with incubation, access toknowledge and facilities, and business support, and have been actively pursuing modelsbased on partnership with industry where all parties stand to benefit.• On-campus incubators provide physical space that can support the collaborative workingpractices that characterise the creative economy.• There are challenges for higher education in this area, not least in engaging with a fragmentedindustry and in ensuring (and assessing) a standard quality of educational experience inwork placements.• Although the extent of this activity in relation to the creative industries is unknown, thereare examples of good practice.4.95 As noted earlier, evidence suggests that a ‘creative’ education is more valued for the way in whichit develops creative thinking and the capacity to learn and to be innovative than solely for its abilityto train occupational skills. The hands-on problem solving approach of creative subjects equipsgraduates well by producing flexible and adaptable employees and entrepreneurs. These are highlytransferrable skills, relevant both within and beyond the creative industries. Graduates in a recentsurvey reported that many of the attributes required for employment, including creativity, problemsolving, independence, innovation and collaborative working, were inherent in a creative education(Ball et al, 2010).4.96 Beyond specific initiatives such as the Media Academies, and the development of industry-relevantcourses, the challenge may be to integrate employability-related projects with other learning andteaching initiatives. This includes integrating employability skills into the curriculum and encouragingextra-curricular activities such as work experience, volunteering and personal development planningwhile at university.4.97 Evidence also suggests that creative graduates have a greater inclination towards enterprise thanthose in other disciplines (DCMS, 2006), and it is important that higher education provides appropriatesupport. The HE Academy particularly noted the need to support the preparation for business start-upthrough CPD, incubation units and access to graduate bursaries and apprenticeships, for examplethrough regional development funding from HEIF (HEA, 2007).4.0 Higher education’s contribution