Reports and publications

To help advance and inform our policy priorities, we publish research on creative education, higher education and the creative industries.

We commission experts in the creative and education sectors and use our internal expertise to build our evidence base for engaging with policymakers.

Who Gets To Be An Artist?

Date published: 20 October 2025
Organisation: UAL and Artquest
Authors: Esme Trevelyan, Jenny Haigh, Nicholas Kaplony, Russell Martin

This report looks at who gets to be an artist in the UK today, using survey data from the ongoing Applied data partnership to consider whether access to a career in this vital industry is equitable and accessible.

Understanding Creative Education: A case study of the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Date published: 24 September 2025
Organisation: UAL
Authors: Dr Roni Brown and Ruby Nightingale

This report provides a deep dive into the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (FAD) and suggests learnings from the FAD that can be adopted by policymakers to improve creative education.

Securing a future for technical and professional apprenticeships and skills in the creative sector

Date published: 1 September 2025
Organisation: UAL and Birmingham City University
Authors: Professor David Mba, Professor Zey Suka-Bill, Dr Caroline Sudworth

This report with Birmingham City University explores how to make apprenticeships work better for the creative industries and support the government's sector growth plan.

Creating Connections: The role of arts in bridging divides and bringing communities together

Date published: 11 December 2024
Organisation: British Future
Authors: Jake Puddle and Zulfi Heydon

Creating Connections highlights a strong interest in the creative arts among Britons. The findings suggest that increasing community involvement in arts and creativity could play a pivotal role in bridging societal divides.

Apprenticeships in the Creative Sector

Date published: July 2024
Organisation: Birmingham City University
Authors: Professor David Mba, Zey Suka-Bill and Dr Caroline D Sudworth

This report with Birmingham City University highlights the contribution that the creative industries make to the UK economy and the potential for apprenticeships to increase this by tackling skills shortages.

Keeping the UK’s creative industries globally competitive: a playbook to protect our future prosperity and security

Date published: 16 May 2024
Organisation: Erskine Analysis
Author: Eliza Easton

This report highlights the critical role of the UK's creative industries as an economic powerhouse and identifies challenges that threaten the UK's global leadership in this sector.

Creativity and Pathways to Wellbeing: A Rapid Scoping Review for The What Works Centre for Wellbeing

Date published: February 2024
Organisation: What Works Centre for Wellbeing and Brunel University London
Authors: Professor Louise Mansfield, Professor Norma Daykin, Dr Caroline Di Bernardi Luft, Dr Daniel Bailey, Dr Garcia Ashdown-Franks, Dr Robyn Smith, Jake Gifford, Dr Koji Koizumi

As part of a wider project on creativity and wellbeing with What Works Wellbeing, Brunel University London, researchers conducted a rapid scoping review to improve understanding of the relationships between creativity and subjective wellbeing and to identify pathways that lead to wellbeing outcomes.

The benefits and costs of international Arts and Design students to the UK economy

Date published: 12 September 2023
Organisation: London Economics
Authors: James Cannings, Maike Halterbeck and Dr Gavan Conlon

This report explores the economic impact of international Arts and Design students and finds 2021/22 first-year international Arts and Design students at UK universities had a net economic impact of £2.25 billion.

Higher education fees and funding: Assessing potential alternatives to the Department for Education’s response to the Augar Review

Date published: 13 December 2022
Organisation: London Economics
Authors: Dr Gavan Conlon and Maike Halterbeck

This report presents a range of models on how the higher education funding system could be reformed to be fairer and more sustainable.