‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees label was economic madness amid film boom, says Nandy
Labelling arts courses “Mickey Mouse” degrees was “economic madness” during a UK film and TV boom, the Culture Secretary has said.
Speaking ahead of a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare’s birthplace, Lisa Nandy said targeted support for the arts and culture sector will help create jobs and achieve economic growth throughout the country.
She described the past decade under the previous Conservative government as “disastrous” for the sector, and claimed that culture was “erased from our classrooms and our communities”.
Targeted support
Ms Nandy is set to announce new funding packages on her visit to Warwickshire on Thursday, including a 5% budget increase for all national museums and art galleries and a new £85 million Creative Foundations Fund to support urgent capital works to keep venues across the country open.
She told Sky News: “This is one of the fastest growing industries in the United Kingdom, a great source of jobs and growth whether it’s film, music, TV, literature.
“We export to the rest of the world and we have companies clamouring to come and invest here.
“And with the right sort of targeted support, we can make sure that we create those jobs, we get that growth, and we unlock those opportunities, and most of all that we allow every part of our country to enjoy the arts and to be able to tell their own storytellers to become the next storytellers for the next generation.
“We think every child growing up in Britain deserves that right. We think it’s in the interests of the economy and the country.”
“Disastrous”
The Cabinet minister later added: “The last decade has been disastrous for the arts.
“We’ve seen culture erased from our classrooms and our communities.
“We’ve seen a narrowing of the curriculum, government ministers branding arts subjects ‘Mickey Mouse’ subjects, the number of students taking arts GCSEs has dropped by nearly 50%, and at a time when the likes of Warner Bros, Amazon, Disney are clamouring to invest more in the United Kingdom, when the film industry is taking off in places like Sunderland at the Crown Works Studios, it’s economic madness, but it’s also taking from a generation what is theirs by birthright – the chance to live richer, larger lives and to access the arts.”
The previous Conservative government promised a crackdown on “rip-off degree courses that have high drop-out rites”, with a limit on the number of students universities can recruit to these courses.
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“We’ve seen culture erased from our classrooms and our communities” sic. This is the party and government that cancelled & expelled Ken Loach, one, if not the, most respected British film maker and director of the past sixty years. All as part of Starmer’s phony narrative to power and personal career trajectory. Loach, in the work he created and inspired will be around far far longer than this ugly menagerie of Z list political nonentities and charlatans. And as for Mickey Mouse creations, I’d be very careful mouthing that in the presence of the fantasist Rachel Reeves and her somewhere… Read more »
The creative industries are not borne on the back of these degrees, these degrees are launched on the back of enterprising creatives. It’s a non graduate job. Universities have become a meat grinder. A numbers game $$$
If Ms Nandy feels so strongly about “mickey mouse” degrees perhaps she can inform us as to what proportion of “mickey mouse” graduates ended up having worthwhile careers in the creative sector.
The reference to “Mickey mouse” degrees is a pathetic right wing narrative. Students studying for a degree in art related subjects can contribute in multiple ways to many different industries. Studying art doesn’t mean you have to work in art. Going to university opens your mind to different ways of thinking, different ways of solving business problems, different ways to create innovative products and services that could make Cymru a world leader. Going the university is NOT training for a particular job. It can if students are on an Accounting, Law, or Engineering etc degree course help get a job,… Read more »
“mickey mouse” degrees were Ms Nandy’s words in the original N.C report. It’s very difficult to isolate a precise definition of the term these days as there is a great deal of criticism of the content and delivery methods of an array of courses including those at the so called prestigious Russell Group.
Judging by the low quality of governance its grads have gifted the UK over many decades, the real “Mickey Mouse” degree is the Oxford PPE.
There was an interesting expose, possibly in the Guardian, of what one needs to do to get a high rated PPE undergraduate degree from Oxford. If my memory serves me right the key element was successfully gaming the examination system, not becoming expert in the three subjects. Right wing politicians hate degrees like “Media Studies” simply because they teach student how to critically evaluate what various media are trying to do and separate out the lies from the truth. The other key point to remember is that the ‘quality’ of these ‘Micky Mouse’ courses is rigorously examined by External Examiners… Read more »