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

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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
Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy434.98 We found evidence of widespread efforts to embed employability and industry experience withincourses. Many of our case studies (three of which are Skillset Media Academies) include someor all of the following within their course provision:• work placements with creative businesses• students working on live industry briefs and problems• opportunities for students to work in a freelance capacity within industry4.99 All of these approaches help to develop industry awareness and the kinds of skills that areincreasingly in demand in the creative economy, as well as delivering benefits to participatingbusinesses. However, they are not without issues.4.100 The scale and capacity of the creative industries limits the availability of work placement opportunities(in 2008 there were 390,000 students and 157,400 creative enterprises), making other collaborativeopportunities, such as live project work, increasingly important (see Glasgow School of Artexample, below).13. CASE STUDYWork-related learning atThe Glasgow School of ArtThe Glasgow School of Art (GSA) aims toprovide an opportunity for every student toengage with relevant professional practiceactivities during their programme of studies.Placements are an extremely valuablecomponent of work-related learning (WRL) butare not always possible for practical reasons,and there is a need to think innovatively aboutalternative and additional ways to deliverWRL to suit the context. At the GSA, therefore,WRL includes a wide range of approaches,including live projects, developing and usingcase studies, exploring and designing onlineapproaches, simulated and virtual workexperiences, facilitating workplace visits,organising talks, and mentoring opportunitiesby GSA graduates and employers.Across the GSA there are many examplesof sustained and productive WRL activityoperating within and between departments.The case study below represents one examplewhich involved partnering with a nationalskills development agency in Scotland.The Glasgow School of Art product design(PD) department has collaborated with SkillsDevelopment Scotland (SDS) since 2007.The collaboration originated with an SDScommissionedLive Project that asked Year 3students to examine aspects of their publicservice offering, and has since evolved intoa partnership of mutual benefit.The students have been given liveproject experience with ‘real’ clients; haveenhanced their graduate attributes; have hadfunded internship and postgraduate studyopportunities; have had a tangible impactupon both the private and public sectors;and have, directly and indirectly, foundrelated employment.For the PD department there have beenopportunities to develop and refine pertinentelements of the course; to undertake practicebasedresearch; to create and sustain linkswith industry beyond SDS; and to developstrong knowledge transfer partnerships.SDS have developed and implemented ideasgenerated through the Live Projects; havegiven briefs to service design consultanciesbased on project outcomes; and haverecognised the collaboration as a sourceof CPD.Importantly, this has evolved into a sustainablerelationship rather than the more fragmented,ad hoc interactions that have existed inthe past. It is the creation of these kinds of‘win-win’ partnerships that can help buildrelationships of mutual benefit betweenhigher education and external partners.4.0 Higher education’s contribution
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