On Tuesday 30 September GuildHE kicks off the new Creative Higher Education Strategy Project with a launch event at member institution the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). Creative higher education is a powerful force and our launch event showcases its unique strengths and contributions to the government's priority skills and economic growth agenda. The event will bring together leaders from higher education, the creative industries, and regional stakeholders to explore how creative higher education can drive growth, skills development, and regeneration across the UK.

This exciting new initiative is dedicated to shaping how creative higher education can support a thriving ecosystem of knowledge, skills, research, innovation and place-based benefits for the creative industry and wider society. This is the start of a vital conversation about the future of creative higher education. The project will deliver a Creative Higher Education Strategy that provides a single, clear, and unified vision for this crucial sector, due to be published in Autumn 2026. 

The project builds on the findings of GuildHE's 2024 report The Value of Creative Graduates, which evidences how creative graduates contribute not just culturally but also to innovation, productivity, and local economic renewal. 

Dr Brooke Storer-Church, Chief Executive Officer of GuildHE, said: 

"Creative higher education provision cultivates the skills needed for our creative industries. But not only those — our creative graduates and institutions also drive productivity across all high-growth industries. This project is about identifying good practice we can build on, and also recommending ways in which our approaches could and should evolve to magnify value. Join us as we start this journey to build a roadmap for securing the pipeline of creative talent into the future.”

 

Notes to Editors

  1. For further information or to arrange an interview contact [email protected]
  2. GuildHE offers a unique perspective on UK higher education. Over 70 diverse institutions, universities, colleges and specialists, call us home. We champion vocational and technical education, professional programmes and specialist providers. From healthcare and agriculture to business, the creative arts and more, our members' expertise informs our influential voice. As one of the original 3 higher education representative bodies, we're a key government advisor, working directly with government and regulators to shape policy that reflects the need of a diverse sector.
  3. GuildHE Creative is our policy platform and consortium dedicated to advocating for the value and utility of creative higher education. Through GuildHE Creative, we bring a wide range of more than 30 institutions together to shape and future-proof the creative higher education ecosystem.