Our policy priorities

Our policy priorities are underpinned by our guiding principles. They explain why we do what we do, and how we can best represent our staff and student community through our policy and advocacy work focused on engaging with parliamentarians and civil servants.

We believe that the world needs creativity – and that starts with creative education. An education system that values creativity as much as it does science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and humanities. This is key to:

• securing the talent pipeline to the UK’s world leading creative industries
• training the workforce of the future
• making sure that everyone can access the joy and the opportunities that come from creativity, whatever their background.

Creative further education is also an important part of the ecosystem. It is a crucial route for learners to develop the creative and wider skills they need to progress into the creative industry and other industries.

What UAL is calling for

Back creative teaching in every school

All children and young people to have access to a broad and balanced curriculum, which includes creative opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.

The government should:

• guarantee a creative arts entitlement through to key stage 3 and make sure students have access to continued creative opportunities and activities at all educational stages
• invest in arts teacher recruitment and retention, by reinstating teacher training bursaries in creative subjects and making sure these are backed by consistent, multi-year funding
• make sure that teacher training and leadership programmes includes clear evidence of how creative arts education benefits learners, using the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education programme
• open more, flexible pathways into arts teaching.

Better creative careers advice

The government should improve understanding of creative careers by clearly showing the roles available and the pathways from creative education into work. This includes using the National Centre for Arts and Music Education, and the new creative careers advice programme.

Protect pathways into creative higher education

In creative further education:

• A range of creative qualification types at all sizes and levels should be kept by the government. This includes vocationally related qualifications like those awarded by UAL Awarding Body and delivered by specialist UK providers like The Brit School, London Screen Academy and Global Academy. They should be part of the main education offer alongside A-levels, T-levels and apprenticeships, so learners from all backgrounds have more options and better support.
• Pre-degree creative courses should be assessed in the same way as industry and higher education, using project work and portfolios rather than exams.

High study costs is a major barrier for many young people, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.

Government funding should support people’s access to higher education, making sure that high costs don’t prevent students from applying to university. This financial support for students is important for fairness and equity in higher education. It can also help the sector to support students who are experiencing financial difficulties.

Students rely on maintenance loans, but these are not keeping up with rising costs and often don’t cover essentials like rent, food and bills. The threshold on household income for maintenance loans hasn’t been updated since 2008, making it harder for students to get the support they need.

The reintroduction of maintenance grants for lower income students is a positive and important step towards improving access and participation. To avoid damaging social mobility and access to certain disciplines, it is vital that grants are available to lower income students in all subject areas. Students should be able to access the financial support they need to study, whatever their chosen subject.

What UAL is calling for

• Maintenance grants should be reintroduced  for students from lower income backgrounds for all degree courses. These grants would help to address financial barriers to entering higher education for those from under-represented backgrounds.The reintroduction of maintenance grants for all subjects would also create a fairer overall system, rebalancing the debt burden away from students from the lowest income homes.
• Maintenance loans should be set at a level that reflects the real cost of living, to make sure that all students are able to meet their essential costs.
• The household income threshold at which students are eligible for maintenance support should be increased. This would make sure that more students who need the financial support would become eligible, providing essential support for these students.

Creative skills power growth and culture

The importance of creative skills cannot be underestimated. They drive the creative industries, their economic and cultural value, and the jobs of the future across the economy.

Not only do they prop up our powerhouse creative industries, underpinning  their £120 billion economic contribution as well as the social and cultural benefits these sectors bring the nation, but they are also key to the jobs of the future, across the whole economy.

Employers want creative thinkers

The World Economic Forum has consistently identified creative thinking as one of the top skills needed for the future of work. Employers already consider creative thinking as a leading priority for recruitment.

As societal and technological change continues to shape the job market, critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, and resilience are creative skills that are ever more essential. But action is needed to make sure that everyone has the chance to develop creative skills throughout their life course – addressing roadblocks and expanding access for all.

Recognising higher education’s role in creative skills

Higher education is often left out of the conversation on skills, but it’s important that the government recognise that it has a key role to play. This is particularly for the IS-8, which largely depend on graduates and highly skilled workers.

Skills interventions also often focus on the early stages of the talent pipeline, but addressing skills gaps and shortages requires support for mid-career and senior professionals too. Universities have a role to play here too, offering pathways to develop high level skills through routes such as short courses and postgraduate qualifications.

Building better creative apprenticeship routes

Apprenticeships are another key piece of the skills puzzle but making them work for the creative industries has been a challenge. This is mostly due to the inflexibility of work placement requirements being unsuitable for an industry where many work on freelance contracts and on short-term projects.

Many businesses are also small or micro enterprises with limited capacity and resource to engage with the apprenticeship system. Addressing these issues is key to opening this skills pathway to the creative sector more consistently.

Access to creative skills development

Access to creative skills development should not depend on where you live or what your background is. But research has shown that perceptions about creative education and career options are shaped by where you live and your socioeconomic background.

It’s important that we understand where there are ‘cold spots’ for creative skills to properly address them – so that everyone, everywhere, can develop these vital  skills.

If the government wants to achieve the ambitions set out in its Industrial Strategy and Creative Industries Sector Plan, it needs to take action to safeguard creative skill development at every stage of life.

What UAL is calling for

• Recognition of the importance of creative skills to the entire workforce, particularly the IS-8, now and in the future.
• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Skills England must recognise the importance of higher education to the skills system. The DWP should engage with universities in their ongoing work.
• The government should work in partnership with both employers and universities to forge routes for:
  • upskilling
  • lifelong learning
  • mid and senior career continuous personal development (CPD).
• The Creative Sector Skills Forum and Creative Industries Council Skills Audits should be used to map and consequently address creative skills cold spots.
• Government, employers and the education sector should work together to make sure that apprenticeships work for the creative industries – and for those working in them.

Why this sector matters

The UK’s world-leading fashion and textiles sector is an innovative, influential, and hugely valuable national asset.

The fashion and textiles sector:

• contributes £62 billon to the UK economy – the equivalent of £1 in every £34 of our total gross value added (GVA)
• supports 1.3 million jobs
• raises over £23 billion in tax revenues
• produces more than £9 billion worth of exports.

Where creativity meets innovation

From award winning fashion globally acclaimed fashion collections and pioneering circular business models, to high-growth applications in medical, performance and technical textiles for healthcare, space and automotive industries, the UK’s fashion and textiles sector is at the forefront of innovation.

It shows cross-collaboration, connecting the arts with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to drive developments across material science, bio-design, engineering, sports performance and beyond.

Reputation, heritage and talent

This world-leading sector is also central to the UK’s reputation and cultural heritage. London remains a global fashion capital. The UK is home to the best fashion universities in the world, including UAL’s own London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins.

Our designers and houses such as Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood are so internationally reclaimed that British fashion is even more globally revered than the Royal Family, according to the British Brand Index.

Achieving national goals

There has been encouraging progress in recognising both fashion’s standalone value and its critical role in other high-growth sectors such as healthcare and technology, including in the government’s focus on Createch.

The new Industrial Strategy is right to prioritise the Creative Industries as a key growth area. With sustained government focus and investment, the fashion industry can be a fundamental cornerstone in realising the ambitions of the Creative Industries Sector Plan.

Ending fast fashion

While the industry is a powerful driver of prosperity, its current practices carry significant costs. The sector’s reliance on finite, non-renewable resources means textiles production now contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined.

The fast fashion model, build on overproduction and weekly trend-driven micro-seasons, drives a cycle of overconsumption – making clothing and footwear responsible for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Towards a circular economy

This linear ‘buy, wear, throw’ model depletes resources, generates waste, pollutes eco-systems and harms both human and planetary wellbeing. Fashion is critical to the UK’s growth agenda, but its current global practices are fundamentally unsustainable and threaten the industry’s own long-term future.

The forthcoming Circular Economy Strategy, which rightly identifies textiles as one of its 6 priority areas, presents a crucial opportunity. It must incentivise a new era of fair, regenerative business models that enable economic growth whilst supporting people and planet alike.

What UAL is calling for

The government should:

• continue recognising the fashion and textiles industry as a key driver of UK prosperity, innovation and global influence
• embed the sector’s contribution within the delivery of the Industrial Strategy and the Creative Industries Sector Plan, reflecting its role in advancing cross-cutting priorities including green growth, productivity and skills
• use the forthcoming Circular Economy Strategy to introduce policy instruments that end fashion’s extractive and exploitative practices
• incentivise the transition towards equitable, regenerative business models that support both people and planet.

Create a clear pathway to a circular textiles economy

• Implement a Textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (tEPR) framework built around 3 core principles:
  • Mandatory participation across all fashion and textiles producers.
  • Eco-modulated fees that reward sustainable practices and penalise environmental harm,
  • Ring-fenced reinvestment of funds into circular fashion and textiles innovation, skills and infrastructure.
• Legally require eco-design standards, covering durability, disassembly, recyclability and repairability.

Incentivise repair and reuse services

Develop and implement incentives for repair and reuse services helps encourages consumers to keep garments in use for longer.

Introduce stronger controls on harmful fashion practices

Enforce restrictions on destructive practices such as the incineration of unsold stock and the export of poor-quality textiles to the global south.

Protect workers and communities in fashion supply chains

Take action to tackle the widespread human rights and environmental violations embedded across the fashion industry’s global supply chains by implementing a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.

Celebrating creative work

The UK is a creative nation, and talent runs through its veins. Our thriving, world-renowned creative industries play such a big role in the UK’s joy, wellbeing, economy, and sense of self.

Working in these industries can be hugely rewarding, dynamic, and exciting – yet the sector at present is rife with precarious and exploitative working practices that can make creative careers difficult to sustain.

The creative industries are characterised by high levels of self-starting, entrepreneurial, and freelance work. 28% of creative workers are freelancers, double that of the wider UK economy – and in some sub-sectors the figure is even higher.

Self-employment can provide flexibility and creative freedom and hiring freelancers can allow creative businesses to be more ambitious in the projects they take.

The challenges facing freelancers

Freelancing has significant downsides including:

• income instability
• lack of legal employment protections
• limited access to employment benefits
• limited access to affordable advice on issues around intellectual property or the tax system
• access to important continuing professional development and upskilling opportunities can be difficult.

These issues are compounded by deep-rooted cultures of unpaid labour, late or low pay, reliance on industry connections, and the persistent expectation to work ‘for exposure’ or out of goodwill.

Nearly 9 of out of 10 creatives have worked for free in some way during their career. As technology continues to develop rapidly, creatives have also voiced concern about the future of their incomes and fair pay for use of their work.

Together, these issues create working conditions that are precarious,  exclusionary and, often, exploitative, hitting those from marginalised backgrounds the hardest. Without financial safety nets, industry connections, or the ability to juggle multiple jobs at once, they’re less able to navigate periods of low or no pay or access key opportunities.

The creative industries don’t reflect the diversity of the UK, and without action, inequalities based on background rather than talent will continue to deepen.

The need for action

Addressing these challenges requires action, both from policymakers and from the sector itself. Policy change can make headway, but a culture shift is key – challenging the notions of ‘this is how it’s always been done’ and paying your dues.

Fair, inclusive and equal access to arts careers needs more than giving people a way in – it demands real changes to the working environment.

What UAL is calling for

Make sure creatives are paid a living wage

• Creative labour should be fairly remunerated – opportunities should be paid at least the regional living wage, and industry standard rates and benchmarks adhered to
• Making sure the new Fair Payment Code properly addresses the issues of late or withheld payments, with stronger enforcement mechanisms to reduce burdens on freelancers.
• As technology advances, creatives should be fairly paid for their intellectual property and supported to follow licensing and other opportunities.

Tackling unpaid work

• A tightening of the law around unpaid work, particularly internships, with improved enforcement action and the closing of loopholes.
• The impact of unpaid placements as part of an educational or training course, currently excluded from the unpaid internship ban, should be considered.
• Recruitment practices must be fair, and all opportunities should be openly advertised to better support the inclusion of underrepresented groups.

Protect freelancers

• The Freelancer Champion must be given appropriate power and scope to make a real difference to the experience of freelancers. The government should listen to calls from the sector to make sure the role has impact and addresses the key challenges faced.
• There should be industry-wide adherence to best practice guidelines and benchmarks, such as the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority. The government should work with the sector to uphold standards and encourage buy-in.
• Targeted support for freelancers to access CPD and upskilling opportunities throughout their career.

Creativity powers innovation

Innovation is vital to the future – to addressing the many global challenges we face, as well as to helping economies grow and thrive. But there is no innovation without creativity – thinking outside the box, generating ideas and iterations – regardless of the sector or discipline where innovation is taking place, creativity sits at its heart.

Creative research and development's potential

Creative research and development (R&D) is  expansive and a vital part of the research landscape, pushing boundaries and challenging the false dichotomy of art vs science. At UAL, our academics are at the frontier of exciting, cross-sector research that merges creativity with science, technology, engineering, and maths.

Creative R&D is also going further, addressing social and cultural questions and searching for solutions to societal challenges. UAL has produced pioneering research that brings a creative lens to the climate crisis, the health and social care system, migration and asylum, the criminal justice system, decolonisation, public services, and beyond.

Backing future growth

As natural incubators for innovation, universities are major contributors to the UK’s start-up landscape too. University start-ups are drivers of economic growth and job creation – estimated to be turning over £10 billion and employing 100,000 people by 2028, with UAL leading the charge and producing more than any other university.

Given its importance now and in the future, this work needs long-term support and funding. The creative industries make up 6% of the UK economy, but funding for creative R&D has languished at around 1% of overall spend, and the government’s R&D tax incentives use an outdated definition of research that excludes most creative disciplines, as well as humanities and social sciences.

Most creative businesses are small, medium, or even micro enterprises, which can struggle to navigate the R&D system due to limited capacity and resources. For university start-ups and spinouts, targeted support, including around business management and intellectual property, and funding is key to making the most of their potential for growth.

To meet the ambitions of government and the needs of society at large, we need a well-rounded R&D system that supports a wide range of disciplines to innovate and push forward, and recognises the broad value of creative R&D, as well as supportive environment for innovative university start-ups to thrive in.

What UAL is calling for

• A well-funded and supported R&D system that values all types of creative research and encourages interdisciplinary innovation, including support to convene interdisciplinary consortia.
• An expansion of the R&D definition used by HM Revenue & Customs for tax reliefs to include the arts, humanities, and social sciences, in line with other OECD countries.
• Support for small businesses to engage with R&D.
• Targeted support for university spin-outs and start-ups, particularly those in IS-8 sectors.