In reaction to the criticism passed on creative degree courses qualified as “Mickey Mouse” subjects, Les Ebdon, head of Bedfordshire University and chairman of Million+, a grouping of 28 newer universities, told The Times that such courses generated better returns than many traditional academic disciplines. He was responding to a report which claims that careers such as advertising, fashion and designing computer games contribute £60 billion a year to the economy, plus exports worth £10.3 billion.

The sector is growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy, the report says. It was commissioned by Million+, research was done by the Centre for Creative and Cultural Industries at Napier University in Edinburgh.

“We put a lot of money in this country into science and maths subjects. Shouldn’t we be doing the same to build on our creative economy?”, Professor Ebdon says. “Figures show how important it is to build on this industry, yet a lot of people tend to belittle these activities. Britain is number one in the world in the computer games industry. I absolutely believe more funding is needed for arts and creative industries. They make more money for this country than British Aerospace.”

Professor Ebdon said that government ministers had read the report and were “taking it very seriously”. The report states: “In recent years, policies and funding strategies have been deployed to raise the importance and relevance of science and engineering to the economy and society. Government has a major opportunity similarly to develop an overarching strategy to promote the importance of the creative industries to the economy.”

It adds: “The UK has the largest creative sector in the EU. The creative industries account for 7.3 per cent of the economy. Innovation-active universities have played a major role in contributing to the success of the creative industries, by providing graduate-level education.”

Source: The Times online, August 18^th 2008