The Dispatch

The announcement may have attracted outrage from outside the university sector, but for those within the industry, it probably didn’t come as such a big surprise. Because when universities announce cuts, as they seem to be doing with increasing regularity nowadays, creative subjects like music are often first on the chopping board.

"There's a perception that programmes like these just don’t make any money,” says Joe O’Connell, a lecturer in music at Cardiff University. "There's also that classic attitude of: a music degree, what are you going to do with that?”

As it turns out, students doing creative degrees go on to do plenty of worthwhile things. Over 90 percent of O’Connell’s students move into graduate-level employment or further. Research carried out by The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (The Creative PEC) also found that arts and culture graduates are more likely to be using what they learned during their studies in their current work than graduates of other subjects. Graduates of several creative degrees, including music, were also more likely to agree that their work is meaningful and important to them.

Though Yip is a success story, that doesn’t mean creative degrees aren’t facing challenges. "Each school has a target for the percentage of their budget, which will be returned to the university for basic services beyond teaching and researching,” O’Connell explains. “So, each school will have a target that they need to hit. And music has struggled with that, because our student numbers haven't been so high."

However, O’Connell argues that a programme like music is only ever going to attract a small cohort. “Typically for the last couple of years, our full-time equivalent has been 40 students on entry at the beginning of each year for the last two years. Historically, we've been able to get 60, maybe 70, but we are never going to top 100 for a year group."

For the people behind these programmes, the battle is largely about challenging perceptions. "A big part of what was lost in terms of the threat to cut us in the beginning was the added value that we have for the university,” O’Connell explains. “And I think that's something that again, has historically not been recognised.”

O’Connell points out that the music school runs around 10 different ensembles in everything from wind symphony to jazz. And they’re not limited to music students. About 20 percent of ensemble members aren’t music students. If the School of Music goes, so does the chance for hundreds of students to play music alongside their studies. O’Connell adds that creative programmes are also vital pathways for arts organisations in Wales, and an important feeder for the continuation of the arts generally. “People might rubbish that, but everybody accesses the arts on a weekly basis.”

Eventually, these lines of argument seemed to turn the heads of university administrators. In May 2025 it was announced that Cardiff University was backtracking on its plans to cut its music programme, albeit, with some changes. The school will now offer a single Bachelor of Music (BMus) with a reduced number of modules, with plans in the works for a modified Bachelor of Art (BA) that will combine music with other disciplines from the newly-formed School of Global Humanities. "We've won certain arguments and we've kept ourselves in there, but then there's still a lot of work to do,” says O’Connell.

The music programme at Cardiff may have been saved, but it doesn’t change the fact that creative degrees are being lost at an alarming rate, and similar battles are being fought across the country. Last year, it was reported that at least 14 UK universities were ‘implementing redundancy programmes affecting arts degrees or closing creative courses’, while UK government funding for grants to cover the costs of delivering creative programmes was also frozen.

Yet the impact of these cuts goes way beyond higher education. “Cuts to creative degrees would narrow the already limited pathways into the creative workforce for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,” explains Emily Hopkins, a policy advisor at The Creative PEC.

“With the workforce already dominated by those from managerial and professional households, making up 60 percent of the working population in subsectors like film, TV and photography, removing one of the main routes into the sector would further entrench inequalities. Not only would this create an increasingly unrepresentative and exclusive workforce, but it would also limit the opportunity to broaden participation and engagement with the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.”

There are a few reasons for this class imbalance. The first is financial. Many entry-level creative roles are low-paid, freelance or even voluntary, meaning those who can afford to go unpaid for longer periods are much more likely to break into the industry. And because average salaries are typically lower in the creative industries, they don’t provide the financial stability that someone from a disadvantaged background may prioritise.

Cultural factors are at play here as well. Hopkins says that hiring practices in the creative industries are often informal and network-driven, benefiting those who already know people in the industry. And even those who do break through could face “ongoing challenges and discrimination” in the workforce.

The responsibility to reverse this imbalance may lie, at least in part, with higher ed providers. “There’s a need to focus on opportunities to gain professional experience whilst also addressing barriers of inequality,” says Hopkins. “For example, higher education providers could expand their career development opportunities alongside cultural and creative industry partners, with a specific focus on supporting underrepresented and lower income students into paid internships and placements.”

Governments also play a role in this. Apprenticeships could help to lighten the financial load on working class students, while unlocking funding for creative degree providers will ensure crucial pathways aren’t blocked off for working class students.

But for Yip, these proposed cuts to creative degrees aren’t just about numbers or pathways or skills. They’re symbolic of education’s wider move away from its original mission. That doesn’t just affect universities, it could negatively impact wider society, too.

"When universities were first founded and it didn't cost anything to study, music was always going to be on the curriculum because higher education was about pursuing your passions and pursuing further learning,” she says. “But now it has become this machine of how to get a well-paid job. And I wonder when society suddenly made that turn, to believe that education has to equate to money rather than education being the pursuit of knowledge - which is what it had always been."

Given the massive role that music and other creative pursuits play in our lives, Yip will never understand the argument for cutting them. “To say that they are meaningless, worthless or something you could afford to lose is just nonsense. It's utter nonsense."