24 Sep 2024

This blog was written by Hrefna Bragadottir, a Lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth, and a PgCert student from the 2023/2024 cohort, as part of the Higher Education in Practice: Personal reflections on your discipline and the wider context of higher education submission. Please note - images used in the illustration are sourced from Adobe stock photos.

Hrefna 1

Issue: There are currently some disparities in how financial support is distributed in universities across the UK. (Comunian et al, 2023). Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and minority groups are less likely to receive it. Prestigious universities are better funded and can therefore offer more financial support to their students. Furthermore, Arts and cultural programs that generate less revenue, may receive less government funding compared to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields and programmes (Comunian et al, 2023). 

The rising cost of living is having a significant impact on student participation and academic engagement (Wyld, 2024), with around half of UK students reporting financial difficulties (Johnston and Westwood, 2023) and an increased uptake of part-time work (Adams, 2023).  “University students in England are left with the equivalent of 50p a week to live on from their loans after paying for accommodation, the cost of which has soared by nearly 15% over the last two years...” (Weale. 2023). 

The OfS has acted by redistributing £261 million of its government funding to tackle hardship as well as access and participation (Office for Students, 2023). Despite this, ministers are cutting funding for performing and creative arts courses, as well as Uni-Connect (Adams, 2024) which aims to widen access to higher education for marginalised communities.  

Universities are already under financial pressures due to several factors, including: 

  • Rising running costs 
  • Fees for domestic students being frozen and capped at £9,250 and not updated since 2017. 
  • Slowdown in funding from grants 
  • More reliance on international student funding, but no increase in international student uptake. 

These pressures are adding to redundancies and restructuring plans which further threatens arts and design courses. (Williams, 2024) 

Personal reflection: The illustration above portrays UK Creative arts Higher Education as ‘balancing scales’ that are constantly tipping in response to political climate, educational policy changes and distribution of HE funds. The ‘wooden hand’ represents the current political climate adding extra pressures on the ‘cost of living’ crisis and the efforts made to make education more accessible. These extra pressures are threatening equal opportunities and widening participation in the creative arts, especially for minority groups and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. (Comunian et al. 2023). ‘The spinning wheel of financial support’ represents the disparities, complexities and varied awareness of financial arrangements & support available, and some student reluctance to seek help due to the stigma attached to it. (Wyld, L. 2024) 

Solutions: The rising cost of living is a complex political issue. According to the ‘Making the Creative Majority’ Report, improving widening participation in both creative education and creative industries requires policy makers to revise their current creative and cultural provisions. It suggests that the DCMS and DfE jointly establish a task force to enhance the government's upcoming review of creative education. The report also recommends “...HEIs and the Office for Students (OfS) to develop a targeted widening participation framework for creative higher education”. (Comunian et al, 2023: 85), 

I have witnessed some of these hardships first hand, with some students falling behind on their work due to financial pressures and work commitments. I therefore realise the negative impacts this issue can have on student mental health and engagement with their studies. It is also worth noting how this might be impacting academic staff facing financial pressures, who might be questioning their job security in these challenging times (Williams, 2024). But what are the implications of these issues on my teaching role?  

Through my experience on the PGCert course, I believe creating a safe and supportive learning environment that builds on trust and mutual respect between teacher and student, helps set the foundations for deep and meaningful learning, aiding students to stay motivated and feel valued. This can be achieved by adopting Inclusive & compassionate pedagogies (Hao, 2011), which include: 

  • Cultural awareness, empathy and understanding with the wider context of education in mind. 
  • Holistic approach (Looking beyond academic achievements). 
  • Inclusive practises within the classroom environment 
  • Positive reinforcement that recognises student efforts and achievements, helping to build confidence and motivation. 
  • Building a community of practise through peer learning and group work. 
  • Modelling self-care for both students and colleagues, to be better equipped to create positive learning and working environments. 

This also involves designing an inclusive curriculum that incorporates flexible strategies. For example: 

  • Coursework broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks that are formatively assessed throughout the term (Slevin, 2021). This helps students avoid unhealthy study behaviours and surface learning strategies when they are juggling other responsibilities like part-time work. 
  • Adjust timetabling, so that days are clear of classes and classes are less spread throughout the week. Thus, keeping travel costs down and making study time more flexible (Dickinson, 2024).  
  • More flexible attendance arrangement, allowing students to miss a number of classes per term without consequences (Watermark Insights (2024).  
  • Give students access to timetables in suitable time to help them plan around other commitments (Dickinson, 2024). 
  • Design course materials that are inclusive of diverse learners and made available online for easier access. 
  • Offering multiple forms of assessment (written, visual, audio, video) to make it more inclusive. 
  • Direct students to (and make them aware of) student support available and communicate effectively with staff in those departments (Advance HE, 2020) 
  • Provide essential materials needed to complete set tasks from the course budget, so that students do not have to buy them separately. 

Embedding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the curriculum requires a collective effort from educators, policy makers and the HE sector as a whole: 

“Critical compassionate pedagogy (Hao, 2011) embodies a commitment to open critique of institutionalised policies and practices, engagement in self-reflexivity, and locates compassion as a means of reshaping HE, our communities, our students, and ourselves” (Waddington and Bonaparte, 2022). 

 

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