Following the coalition government announcement of its intention to increase University tuition fees, 2010 graduates of Art and Design were surveyed by Skills Online Group in order to elicit their opinions on fee increases and the quality of the university tuition, advice and preparation for employment.

Key findings include:

• 9.3 % of recent UK University Art & Design graduates found a job in their chosen career

• 51.3% had no option but to take a job outside of their field of study

• 77.6% of graduates say, with hindsight, they would have considered alternative forms of study had they graduated with the newly proposed student debt

Skills Online Group designed an online survey containing 13 simple multiple choice questions each containing a open-ended comments field. The survey was emailed to approximately 900 UK Creative Arts students who were student exhibitors at the 2009 and 2010 Free Range Art & Design Show held at the Old Truman Brewery in London.

The range of students emailed and those responded were across the Creative Arts spectrum and included all exhibiting Colleges and Universities from the 2009 and 2010 Free Rnage shows.

The objectives of the research were to assess the attitudes and opinions of recent art and design graduates towards the proposed UK University tuition fee increases and to gain insight into graduate experiences when job seeking in the UK creative industry; launching as freelancers or setting up their first company as well as to assess UK Universities integration of blended education activities.

Download the research report here: www.skillsonlinegroup.com/graduate-employability-research

"The findings made evident by this research suggests that the majority of UK Universities are failing to adapt to significant changes in the creative industry and therefore they're not adequately preparing creative graduates for active employment. Something is very wrong if more than half of 2009 and 2010 creative arts graduates were forced to find employment outside their field of study. Technology and the economy have changed the employment landscape. The phenomonenal growth of creative freelancing in the UK is testament to this, yet Universities don't seem to be gearing graduates for freelancing upon graduation."

Fraser Black, author of the research and Managing Director or Skills Online Group.

These findings add to a body of evidence that some will no doubt find alarming. However, when we consider that most institutions only focus on current student feedback perhaps it becomes less surprising. Evaluating opinions that are formed after graduation have always made much more sense to me and, as this research amplifies, creativity has to be supported by enterprise know how; otherwise students will not be equipped to deal with the contract based / freelance environment that they will undoubtedly have to engage with."

Dr. Andy Penaluna – Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship / Chair – Enterprise Educators UK

For comments and further details, please contact Fraser Black.

Should you wish to publish the results of the research, please include source credit as follows:

Author: Fraser Black, Managing Director, Skills Online Group © Fraser Black all rights reserved. Please notify Author of publication date, publication title and provide voucher copy or online link. Anchor link text as follows: graduate employability research

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed by participating students are not necessarily the views of the Author.