A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION
and the London Film School, is prohibitively
expensive for the vast majority of people.
Universities offering one-year Masters
courses are now attempting to deliver a
‘film school experience’ without film school
prices although, even with the existence of
the BAFTA scholarship programme and the
government’s postgraduate loan scheme,
they remain a route that is not universally
accessible.
However, given that the Masters degrees have
become a more recognised unit for media
teaching and training, we now need to think
of innovative ways of increasing funding
opportunities and of opening up these
programmes to a wider range of groups:
for example those who do not live near a
campus, those with young families, and those
who need to balance study with continued
working. We believe that the industry could
still do more to help underwrite the costs of
high-quality Masters provision given the value
it receives from the many writers, directors,
producers and crew who enter its ranks from
higher education. We also believe that higher
education institutions themselves could
also do more to make their programmes
accessible to those from non-traditional
backgrounds. 504
There are many reasons why the university
sector has inherited the mantle of film and
television teaching and training, and many
benefits in terms of its links to related fields
of study like visual arts and theatre, its
commitment to a critical, reflective practice
and its encouragement of innovative thinking.
While most postgraduate programmes have
highly-qualified staff with relevant industry
experience and a curriculum that focuses
both on established genres and formats
as well as more critical and experimental
approaches, there is now increasing pressure
on Masters courses to deliver more narrowlydefined
training, to provide regular access to
the latest equipment and skills, and to impose
nigh-on constant production scenarios.
There is a danger that, under-funded by a
government that appears determined to treat
tertiary education as a service industry, many
of these Masters courses will become cheap
training schools that simply tick boxes and
do not innovate or hothouse vital new talent
from diverse sectors and backgrounds.
Just as it is crucial for HE programmes to
engage with industry, it is equally crucial
that industry collaborates with academia
in a mutually supportive and constructively
critical way – through joint research and
projects – so that screen programmes
are in constant dialogue with all parts of
the industry. If the government wishes
to expand the creative industries in the
UK, then it ought to address the need for
additional mechanisms by which the industry
can facilitate such relationships and best
contribute to the teaching and training that is
required to take these vital industries forward.
In conclusion, at a time of enormous change
and volatility within the television ecology, we
need more than ever an overarching strategy
504
For example, the retreat-based MA screenwriting programme at Royal Holloway, University of London which, by allowing part-time block
attendance, was able to raise the application rate of older students, students already working in the media industries seeking to re-train, those with
families, and those from more diverse class and ethnic backgrounds.
150