The Office for Students (OfS) is the regulator for Higher Education (HE) in England. On 20 Jan it launched three consultations on new policies which have significant implications for Arts degrees.
If the proposals go ahead all degrees will need to have at least 60% of students go on to managerial or professional employment within 15 months.
Creative industries degrees, where graduate employment often includes part time work and portfolio careers as people establish themselves, will be at risk. HE institutions that cannot meet the targets will either have to risk fines, cuts in funding and ultimately de-regulation, or decide to cut courses.
There will be no benchmarking of the 60% target at individual institutions to take account of variations in social backgrounds of students or in regional labour markets.
The deadline to respond to the consultations is 17 March.
The Cultural Learning Alliance have prepared a response and are asking as many people as possible to have their say here.
Read the proposals here.