Unless you have stumbled across this by accident you expect me to ramble on about painting but today I need to rant…and whilst it connects to the subject, feel free to ignore!

I recently spent some time listening to a report on job losses at a Midlands University (it will remain unnamed).  Quite a few others also seem to be at it.  Swansea staff just issued a vote of no confidence in their VC and Leicester staff just managed to get their bosses to ‘fess’ up on £11 million staffing costs in the offing.  Dundee have voted for further action over likely cuts to reduce their reported £35 million deficit.  Teeside have problems as do both Sheffield Uni’s and there are quite a few more who obviously have better PR management (a department that any sensible VC will not cut!) or we would be more aware of other cutbacks.  Although before I got around to posting this my last employer, Derby, just announced 200 redundancies – 87 of them academics.

In a good deal of the ‘new’ Universities Art & Design has been a good earner in the past and Fine Art often the stand out centrepiece.  As a subject it was rolled into Universities way back in the 70’s & 80’s or to be precise Art Schools were pitched into Polytechnics that were then rebranded as Universities (a very few avoided this but have, in the main, become such subsequently.  For what its worth most of the latter seem not to have been fingered in the current wave (perhaps they have better PR).  

Of course more ‘trad’ A&D has been having a harder time of it in recent years.  The ‘what’s the point of HE’ brigade, the introduction of fees and subsequent commodification of the subject, and the general idiocy of much contemporary art practice (cast adrift from its craft bases and intellectual heft) have made it a tougher choice – especially for those without deep parental pockets and without basic ‘traditional’ subject qualifications.  Working class kids often with poor academic attainment but with the vital spark of creativity were the backbone of the art school explosion in the 50’s 60’s & 70’s that led to the ‘creative industries’ (see how the politicians & academics appropriated that latter word) that even the far right politicos trumpet the success of.

But now the HE sector is under colossal pressure.  Of course this has been clear for years – remember Sue Gray who was drafted into Labour ahead of the 2024 election and named it – some six months ahead of it’s achieving power – as one of the incoming Government’s biggest threats?  And much like the Government’s other plans, it’s been ignored (and of course she was jettisoned too!).  

And what did all these Universities do over the past – lets say – 3 years?  Well of course they had prudently projected ahead; the consequences of COVID, continued economic uncertainty, increasing levels of xenophobia and extreme nationalism leading to lowered international recruitments, declining numbers coming through all factored in.  On the other hand expansionist plans for grand infrastructure projects reined in, no expensive (and often ludicrous) rebranding exercises, careful attention to the core purpose (educating students in case we’ve forgotten), serious streamlining of administrative projects and consequent staffing reductions, and increased focus on maintenance of existing campus provision all put in place…

Or perhaps not!  It’s bizarre that – to take one random example – an institution is now cutting back (again) teaching staff on ‘products’ (their word not mine) that are deemed to be ‘underperforming’ and ratcheting up ever higher SSRs putting more pressure on existing staff as well as leaving many courses (my word not theirs) perilously close to closure, or in some cases stripped out altogether.  

And all this taking place against a backdrop of recent adventures in virtually every one of the activities identified above.  Shiny new buildings whilst existing estate is either left to rot or at best patched up inadequately, woeful miscommunication between depts. over the vital business of student recruitment, rebranding without properly costing or planning, trotting off to places new (in some cases overseas or to the capital where one inevitably struggles to compete in a crowded environment).  And so on, you couldn’t make it up really you couldn’t.

The intellectual, educational, economic, social and creative capital that existed in many of the old Art Schools has been squandered in these (mostly) ‘new’ (i.e. post 1992) Universities that are now struggling badly.  Goodness knows this Labour Government has struggled badly too but they at least have the excuse that the seeds of destruction were planted by Thatcher, cultivated by the ‘Austerity’ boys and fertilised by the ‘gang of four’ who stumbled around post Brexit. They might have been forgiven had they not proved so incompetent themselves and of course one of their mistakes has been not addressing this issue.  If you take a look around many of the worst basket cases are crucial pillars of their local economy that should they fail will put the UK even deeper in the shit.  Its long been the contention of most right thinking artists that it would have been far better if those Art Schools had been left well alone to get on with the job of continuing to foster creative education, turn out fully rounded and fulfilled individuals from every section of society, and also properly power that sector of our economy that is the ‘creative industries’.