Union calls for end to ‘dangerous assault’ on arts degrees

The Government’s “reductive agenda” is encouraging universities to launch a “dangerous assault” on arts and humanities subjects, University and College Union (UCU) General Secretary Jo Grady has said.

In a letter addressed to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, Grady called for the planned 50% reduction in funding for creative degrees to be stopped.

Assaults on “low value” courses and plans to restrict access to courses that do not meet “arbitrary graduate outcomes data” must also end, she added.

The letter follows recent losses of creative degrees at De Montfort University, Roehampton University and Wolverhampton University.

“If [these] proposals are repeated, as our union fears they may be, the future of the arts and humanities could be under grave threat, resulting in disaster in vital areas including the public sector and the creative industries, as well as impoverishing our culture,” the letter reads.