Asked by
The
To ask His Majesty's Government, following recent announcements
of proposed university staff cuts, what steps they are taking to
support the study of the arts and humanities in higher
education.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we recognise the importance of the creative and
performing arts to our economy. While some higher education
providers have seen decreases in arts and humanities staff,
academic staff numbers across England rose by 1.9% between
2019-20 and 2022-23 to 21,640.
The (CB)
My Lords, Gillian Keegan's freezing of further funding for
creative arts courses at universities, which has occurred since I
tabled this Question, is surely pouring oil on already extremely
troubled waters. We have a Government who seem wilfully blind to
both the current threat to the arts at universities and the
strategic importance of that pipeline. Will they reconsider that
funding decision and take steps to protect the jobs and
departments at Goldsmiths, Middlesex, Kent and elsewhere that are
so necessary for the creative and economic future of this
country?
(Con)
We absolutely agree with the noble Earl that high-quality
provision across a range of subjects in the arts and humanities
is critical both for our cultural enrichment as a society and for
our workforce. That is why we require the Office for Students to
at least maintain funding for those high-cost subjects at the
current level of £16.7 million. As the noble Earl is also aware,
we have dedicated funding for both our world-leading cultural
institutions and other performing arts institutions.
(Lab)
My Lords, the cap on student fees has meant that funding for
students is at its lowest level in over 25 years. There is a £1
billion hole in domestic teaching funding, which will inevitably
mean some very difficult decisions, as my noble friend indicated.
Does the Minister agree that arts and humanities graduates have
the creative and critical thinking essential for problem solving,
which will be crucial to support businesses to get the most out
of AI tools?
(Con)
As the noble Baroness knows, the Government strive to create a
sustainable student finance system that both remains responsive
to the needs of the wider economy and of the labour market, which
she referred to, and is fair to students and taxpayers. As she
remarked, those with creative and critical-thinking skills in
relation to AI are of course important, but so are students with
STEM skills.
(Con)
My Lords, ahead of the local and mayoral elections tomorrow,
would my noble friend the Minister say what the impact of
slashing the graduate route will be on arts and humanities
provision, as well as on the levelling- up agenda? I am thinking
specifically about towns such as Middlesbrough and Darlington,
where every intake of international students at Teesside
University brings £240 million of benefits each year to the local
economy.
(Con)
My noble friend is aware that we remain absolutely committed to
our international education strategy, which has been extremely
successful in terms of both the number of students who study in
this country and their contribution to the economy. I cannot
comment on the specifics of individual towns, but we absolutely
recognise the value that those students bring.
(LD)
My Lords, the Minister quite rightly pointed out the importance
of the arts to our cultural and creative industries, but they are
also important to soft power. We are seeing 15 universities
making job cuts in their arts and humanities departments and 35
others considering it. I do not need to go through the individual
universities, but drama, film, music, dance and entire theatre
departments are at risk. Two problems need to be addressed. The
first is funding, if we want to keep these creative and
humanities subjects at such a high level. The second is the
pipeflow. We have talked about the EBacc before, but would the
Minister now care to consider what damage it is doing and the
danger it poses to the pipeflow to our university and FE
sector?
(Con)
With the greatest respect to the noble Lord, I really do not
follow the logic of how the EBacc is damaging the flow to our
universities. Humanities and modern foreign languages are
absolutely central and at the heart of the EBacc, but we are
building on that with our higher technical qualifications and
T-levels in areas such art and design, which will be introduced
this year. I remind the House that bursaries and scholarships
for, say, modern foreign language teachers are at the same level
as for physics teachers.
(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it would be crazy to
restrict entry from overseas students to particular universities
or particular faculties or courses within those universities, not
least because it would say that all the rest were perfectly okay
for our daughters and sons but were not good enough for overseas
students?
(Con)
I am not aware that that plan has currently been proposed. Where
we have concerns about quality, they are about courses rather
than subject areas at individual institutions, where the outcomes
for those students, whether they are international or domestic,
are significantly poorer than for the same course at another
institution.
The Lord
My Lords, almost every armed conflict in the world at present has
a religious dimension, making informed and respectful dialogue
increasingly critical for international peace and security. In
that context, the steady decline in the numbers of those studying
religion, theology and ethics in our higher education
institutions is a cause for real concern. Given the dearth of
graduates in these subjects at present, can the Minister tell us
how the Government will nurture the necessary religious literacy
of our public life in the coming years?
(Con)
This is a very important subject and, I may say, goes wider in
terms of critical thinking and understanding the information that
we receive both in reality and online. I do not have the specific
figures for religious studies on their own, but historical,
philosophical and religious studies have declined over the last
three years, as the right reverend Prelate said, but only by 5%.
Multiple issues impact on that, but I think we also see young
people seeking debate, and the moves that we have made as a
Government on free speech within our universities are critical to
underpinning that.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Government indicated that they would publish a
cultural education plan by the end of last year, but they have
given no commitment on a date for publishing. If they are keen,
as we are, to put creativity at the heart of education, can they
now give us a timeline for the publication of the plan?
(Con)
I am unable to give the noble Baroness a precise timeline, but
the Government have already acted on cultural and creative
education, for example through our investment in the institutes
of technology: all 21 of these will be open by this autumn and
seven are already working directly with creative, film and
entertainment industries, addressing just the sort of cultural
and creative jobs that I know the noble Baroness aspires to.
(CB)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a graduate in classics, or
literae humaniores as they were called at Oxford. Studying
classics can open doors to a vast range of knowledge and
experience, including language learning; grammar and vocabulary;
literature and history; scientific, botanical and medical
terminology; arts, architecture and sculpture, so much of which
is based on classical themes and models, as is classical music;
and logical thinking, which is so important to digital
technologies and coding and to other fields of activity. So what
steps are the Government taking to promote and enhance continued
teaching of classical subjects at university?
(Con)
The noble Lord will be aware that the Government do not impose in
any way on universities what subjects they should teach. The
noble Lord has done a most marvellous marketing pitch for
classics; I expect to see applications rise in response this
autumn. But it is up to individual universities to decide. In
schools, we have been encouraging the greater teaching of Latin,
and certainly that is much appreciated by those students who
benefit.
