HEFCE review of SIVS
Crafts Council response.
The Crafts Council wrote to the Higher Education Funding Council for England detailing our position that craft should be treated as a SIV (strategically important and vulnerable subject), because of the socio-economic contribution of the sector and recent policy changes impacting craft education.
Introduction:
The Crafts Council welcomes HEFCE’s support of SIVS, and the results of the recent evaluation indicating that this has contributed to the continuing provision of SIVS in Higher Education (HE), whilst enhancing their research capacity and value for money.
The Crafts Council’s own research demonstrates the significant socio-economic contributions and potential of the craft sector. Our research also indicates that, whilst the picture remains mixed, there have been a number of craft course closures in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and recent education policies pose significant threats to the provision of craft throughout the education system.
The Crafts Council wrote to the Higher Education Funding Council for England detailing our position that craft should be treated as a SIV (strategically important and vulnerable subject), because of the socio-economic contribution of the sector and recent policy changes impacting craft education.
The Crafts Council believes that craft should be treated as a SIV, and below we set out a number of arguments outlining the specific value of craft and current threats to craft education.
Craft in Higher Education:
There is wide-spread concern about craft in Higher Education (HE). In February 2010, the Crafts Council remarked on at least nine notable crafts course closures since 1993. In a second HE briefing published in November 2010, we identified further closures; included the MA in Textile Cultures at Norwich University College of Art, the weaving option within the Textiles BA at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, and the Ceramics and Glass BA at Buckinghamshire New University.
Craft in Further and Higher Education is also caught between two divergent currents of political opinion. Ministers from the Department of Business have repeatedly called for greater parity of esteem between academic and vocational qualifications and acknowledged the socio-economic significance of the craft sector and craft skills. Whilst recent HE funding changes, based on recommendations in the Browne Report, have resulted in the withdrawal of Government funding from non-priority subjects, including arts and humanities subjects, through the transfer of funding for teaching courses from government to students, making these courses dependent on the market. Craft should not be seen as a purely practical subject, rather as a hybrid of practical, technical and intellectual skills, best summed up as intelligent making.
Whilst the Crafts Council strongly agrees with the need for ‘quality of teaching’, ‘widening participation’, and ‘sustainable funding’, identified in the Browne Report, we are concerned about the narrow definition of ‘priority’ subjects as medicine, technology, science and engineering, and some strategically important languages. These changes send a powerful message to students and universities about the relative value of arts and humanities subjects and fail to recognise the significant contribution, including economic, made by these sectors. Craft courses – with their need for space and equipment, relatively small student numbers and low graduate earnings more – are more vulnerable than ever. This is exacerbated by the lack of craft teaching in schools, which serves as a supply chain to the sector, showing pupils that craft is a viable career and subject for further study at HE.
In 2010, prior to the Browne Report and the Spending Review, the Crafts Council compared undergraduate craft courses listed on the UCAS database for 2009-10 and 2010-11. This analysis showed that over 30 craft courses closed between 2009/10 and 2010/11, but 200 courses were listed for 2010/11 that were not offered in 2009/10.
It was clear that this apparent growth in provision needed to be treated with caution, as in some cases it could be explained by new variations on existing joint honours courses. In particular, there seemed to be a substantial growth in courses related to textile design: only three of the reported course closures were for textile courses and 119 of the new courses were textiles (or include a textiles element).
Ceramics has been the focus of particular concern since the University of Westminster closed its course and here the picture was less positive. Almost one in three of the 32 course closures were for ceramics courses (or courses which included a ceramics element), whilst only one in ten of the new courses were ceramics courses (or included a ceramics element).
Amongst the new courses, a significant number of interdisciplinary BAs offered pathways that combined craft disciplines with a wide variety of other creative subjects. The trend for interdisciplinary courses is apparent across all subject areas and craft is no exception. At other HEls, craft courses had been combined or replaced with more industry-focused courses.
However, specialist courses are under threat, and it is through these courses that makers conventionally enter the sector and which offer immersion in a single material specialism, providing the deep skills required to excel in craft making. The cost of facilities and equipment, combined with low demand and mixed perceptions of craft in academe make it very difficult to make the case for craft in institutions that are judging success by student numbers and net cost.
Whilst the Crafts Council is encouraged by the growth in interdisciplinary courses including a craft element, we also believe that it is vital that the craft HE sector retains a critical mass of specialist teaching capacity delivering the levels of knowledge and skill that lead to success as a maker.
The craft sector is part of a vibrant cultural and creative sector in the UK and craft education throughout the education system plays a crucial role in unlocking the sector’s economic and social impacts.
The Crafts Council has long advocated the reintroduction of craft to the curriculum and worked to underline the importance of craft in schools. Promoting the value of craft to the learner in schools contributes towards the development of the next generation of makers and audiences for craft as well as those who become designers, architects and artists. Coupled with this is the need to ensure that teachers have the confidence to teach craft and are aware of the opportunities and resources to support them in this. We are actively addressing this through our national programmes Firing Up and Craft Club and through our online Craft Action Network alongside other organisations’ programmes such as Craftspace’s Craft=Skills for Life.
We also take every opportunity to highlight the importance of craft teaching in HE, and the wider value of craft, to policy makers, government ministers and to higher education.
Value of Craft:
Craft has significant educational value; its practice in schools can aid cognitive development and foster cross-curricular benefits. As discussed in the Crafts Council’s recent submission to the Henley Review of Cultural Education. Craft practice also has important well-being and social inclusion potential, both in schools and for learners beyond the classroom.
Craft practice encourages creative thinking and innovative learning; research shows that developing haptic skills aids cognitive development (Benefits to the Learner of 21st Century Craft, Nicholas Houghton, 2005 London: Crafts Council). Craft skills also provide children with a firmer grasp of the 3-D world, allowing them to gain an understanding of materials and processes and to make informed judgments about abstract concepts. Craft learning contributes to learners’ sense of personal agency as well as creating links between home and school.
In schools, engagement with materials and the development of associated skills can also engender important cross-curricular learning benefits and feeds into a number of other disciplines, including STEM subjects. This is one of the key principles of the Crafts Council’s programme Firing-Up. In the case of science for example, observing firing processes and glazes on clay can assist understandings of chemical changes in everyday situations.
Social Contribution and Potential:
Looking beyond the classroom, craft can facilitate the inclusion of hard-to-reach learners. For example, in the British Ceramics Biennial, the Graffiti*d project, profiled in recent Crafts Council research, saw a group of 13-16 year old boys working with ceramicist Cj O’Neill to develop public graffiti pieces. The boys, who were excluded from school, used the graffiti to transform ceramic plates into installations which commented on the closure of the Ainsley Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. In the process, they gained a voice on local issues within their community through media coverage, whilst developing pride in their work and enthusiasm for work opportunities in the creative industries.
The Graffiti*d project is just one example of craft’s well-being potential which is examined in Craft and Wellbeing, a recent briefing note from the Crafts Council. The briefing argues that developing craft skills can build the confidence that strengthens social interaction and ultimately well-being and cites research which suggests that social connectedness is perhaps the single most important factor in distinguishing happy people from those who are merely ‘getting by.’
Finally, the enormous popularity of craft is evidenced in the Taking Part research, which showed that 18 per cent of the UK adult population took part in a craft activity in 2009/10. (Taking Part: England’s Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, an ongoing survey originally commissioned by DCMS/ACE/SE/MLA in 2005).
Economic contribution and potential:
The craft sector makes significant contributions to the economy, with teh whole craft sector generating £3bn each year, and is part of a vibrant cultural and creative sector in the UK, which contributed 5.6% of the UK’s GVA in 2008 (source: DCMS). Largely made up of self-employed makers and owners of SMEs, the contemporary sector employs nearly 35,000 people, and in 2009/10 was growing more rapidly by employment than any other creative sector.
Craft graduates leave university with technical and entrepreneurial skills, which they apply in a range of commercial and social contexts.
Recent research by the Crafts Council Crafting Futures, commissioned as part of the wider Creative Graduates, Creative Futures survey, found that craft graduates are adept at working independently in the landscape of micro-businesses and freelance work that characterises the craft sector. Findings also showed that in the early years of their careers more than one in three craft makers have worked freelance and one in five run a business, with double this proportion aiming to run a business as their careers progress. And craft graduates were also found to be exceptionally socially mobile with a high percentage stating that they were the first family member to enter HE and with no difference in their success after graduation compared to those from more privileged backgrounds.
Investing in craft has also has significant spill-over effects, and the skills and materials knowledge developed through craft practice feed into a range of subjects and professions in other creative industries and beyond. The recent Crafts Council report Making Value: Craft and the economic and social contribution of makers shows craft makers contributing to sectors from film and fashion to health and architecture and partnering manufacturers in new commercial products. This is examined in the context of digital technology in a recent Crafts Council briefing note, Craft and the Digital, which demonstrates how makers are harnessing digital tools ranging from rapid prototyping and Quick Response (QR) codes to Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and augmented reality.
Crafts Council objectives for the future of Craft in HE
Our view, supported by research conducted in the period 2009 – 2011, is that:
- Craft practice has significant social benefits, for example enhancing well-being and contributing to social inclusion.
- The craft sector makes important contributions to the economy and is part of a vibrant cultural and creative sector in the UK, which is a significant economic driver.
- To harness the important learning and socio-economic benefits of craft practice, there must be provision for craft teaching throughout the education system.
- There is wide-spread and very valid concern for the future of craft in Higher Education (HE) following the recommendations of the Browne Report and subsequent decisions on Government funding for arts and humanities tuition in HE.
- Craft should be treated as a SIV because of its socio-economic impacts and because of current threats to the provision of craft in HE.
