Universities are key to boosting the creative economy

 

Applying the capability approach (CA) to an understanding of the sustainability of the local cultural and creative ecosystems provides a lens to consider both the available resources that connect higher education institutions to cultural and creative institutions (and vice versa) and the freedoms and opportunities that agents have to make use of those connections. This approach argues for the need to shift away from narrow material dimensions of economic growth to include resources relating to freedom and agency in relation to individuals’ autonomous control of their own lives. Through this framework we can consider the various opportunities, resources and functions, aka capabilities, that are either available or absent.

 

In addition, the CA enables a consideration of the robustness of resources in relation to external shocks. The impact of COVID-19, for example, can be understood as an external shock that tests the resilience of conversion factors in the relation to sustainable cultural and creative ecosystems.

 

 

This paper is based on research findings developed from two independent projects, Developing Inclusive and Sustainable Creative Economies’ (DISCE) and the Dundee Cultural Recovery (DCR) project. DISCE examined the creative economy within 10 European small-medium sized cities with Chatham and Dundee chosen as the two UK cities. One interesting finding from the DISCE research was the number of participants who occupied multiple roles within the creative economy. Examples included creative higher education workers who also worked as cultural and creative workers, or charity youth workers who contributed to creative higher education.

 

Dundee (population 147,700) is a small city situated on the East Coast of Scotland on the banks of the River Tay. Chatham (population 76,983) is one of the five towns that make up the Medway, a unitary authority in Kent located in the South-East of England. Both Dundee and Chatham have histories of industrial decline, notably across sectors such as textiles and shipping, which have caused significant socio-economic inequality and widespread unemployment amongst local populations. 

 

Since the late 1990s, both Chatham and Dundee have utilised local investment in higher education and the creative economy as a specific policy drive for urban regeneration. Chatham hosts five higher education institution satellite campuses – the University of Greenwich (Chatham), University of Kent (Chatham), Canterbury Christ Church University (Medway campus) and University of the Creative Arts (UCA) (Rochester) – and a Further Education college – Mid-Kent College (Gillingham). In addition, significant investment has been placed in regenerating the Historic Dockyard, closed as a functioning dock in 1984, for both tourism and local creative and cultural business. 

 

 

Dundee’s local authority has taken a targeted culture-led approach to urban regeneration and tourism which included the development of the Cultural Quarter in the 1990s and culminated with the development of a major design museum, the V&A Dundee situated as part of the waterfront development in 2019. Dundee has a high student population and hosts two main universities, The University of Dundee, which includes the Duncan and Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), and Abertay University, alongside the Duncan and Angus Further Education College.

 

Both Chatham and Dundee experience stark social and economic divisions. They both score highly on the relative English and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD/SIMD), with issues linked to unemployment, youth migration, high drug dependency and poverty levels. Dundee has been described as ‘a tale of two cities’ to signify the division between the celebratory culture-led growth concentrated around the Waterfront development and the increasing levels of deprivation in the wider communities on the periphery of the city.

 

There have been multiple attempts to gain international recognition for its cultural offering; the city’s local authority put in an unsuccessful bid to become UK City of Culture in 2013 and was part of the unsuccessful Tay Cities 2025 bid, however, in 2014 it became the UK’s first (and still only) UK UNESCO City of Design.

 

There is a cognitive recognition within some quarters of local government of the need to develop a more inclusive creative economy to address the wider social and economic issues for long term sustainable development. Chatham, according to official data, scores in the highest decimal on the English Index of Multiple Deprivation, with the neighbouring town of Rochester, also part of the Medway unitary authority, scoring in the lower deciles, indicating the stark locally situated inequality evident in a dense urban population.

 

 

In 2019 Medway Council appointed a Head of Culture who implemented a series of policy initiatives in connection to regional development through the creative economy. This includes the Medway Cultural Strategy 2020–2030, which adopted a targeted consultative approach to engage as many local stakeholders as possible, and Medway’s unsuccessful bid to UK City of Culture (2025).

 

Despite this new direction and the promise of local creative growth, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on local development specifically higher education sustainability; UCA Rochester announced in May 2021 that Medway campus would close from 2023 (BBC News Online, 2021), with further plans to cut departments in other locally based Higher education institutions.

 

 

Our analysis has produced findings on the value of connected higher education institutions and cultural and creative institutions focusing on their capability to develop platforms and networks that contribute to sustainable development.

 

There are 3 key (interconnected) capabilities of cities in relation to the creative economy:

1. Attracting creative human capital

2. Retaining students/workers/start-ups and 

3. Enhancing the life of local citizens and communities.

 

These capabilities are dependent on conversion factors that enabled the resources available to operate as valuable functioning for individuals and organisations in the city. A key enabling factor is in the connectivity between higher education and the local creative economy, as these enable sustainable cultural and creative ecosystems to emerge. 

 

There are differences in the cultural development strategies and trajectories of our two case sites. There are also shared challenges – the impact of COVID-19 on engagement and strategy development; implications of profit driven cultural development; and a lack of affordable space. There is a need for higher education institutions to be part of an ecological leadership model for sustainable ecosystems and institutions development – and for the time taken to develop effective partnerships and strong connections/embedded higher education institution engagement to be recognised.

 

1.    Attracting creative human capital

Higher education institutions have potential to bring creative talent into the city, directly as employees but also through temporary events and projects/fellowships. Temporary employment opportunities and ‘visiting’ positions were seen as one way in which knowledge from outside of the university could be brought in and shared with the HEI and its students but also the wider creative community through engagement events. Meanwhile, the attraction of creative human capital longer term, through higher education recruitment (of teaching and research staff) was seen to generate benefits for the wider city, by attracting researchers and educators whose work and engagement activities would contribute to the local area.

 

 

The reputation of the university as a ‘leader’ and ‘centre of excellence’ was seen to bolster student recruitment and ostensibly raise the profile of the city by association. It was also understood as key to being sought out for opportunities, some of which would be taken forward by higher education institutions (sometimes in collaboration with local creative partners) while others would be signposted to other local companies with capacity/specialist skills. Higher education institutions in this position can, therefore, act as a distributor of creative opportunities and commissions that can be ‘filtered’ through to the wider cultural and creative ecosystems.

 

 

In Chatham, despite our research uncovering significant creative-led economic investment, the lack of connected facilities has had a negative impact of on the local cultural and creative ecosystems. Below, a local higher education/creative worker who lives in the area reflects on their support for the decision to move the campus to Canterbury, a more recognised regional cultural hub.

 

 

The DISCE research uncovered a clear desire from Creative higher education practitioners in Chatham to develop opportunities in the local area for students, but the absence of accessible creative and cultural resources created a structural barrier in their capability to do so. It was noted that a lack of investment in performance spaces and campus infrastructure for student entertainment had a negative impact on student experience. Much of this was exacerbated by COVID-19.

 

 

Here is it noted that while there are cultural infrastructure/higher education facilities in Chatham, with noted heritage, this was disconnected from the local area and there was a lack of wider cultural activity and infrastructure to foster and sustain a creative ecosystem. As discussed in the next section, this also has implications for the professional opportunities generated for students and graduates.

 

2. Creating opportunities for students and graduates

A significant benefit of higher education institution embeddedness within local cultural and creative ecosystems is that it creates networks that generate opportunities for students and graduates. In both cities, there was interest at the local policy and institutional level in developing both local and international relationships, enhancing students’ wider engagement with cultural and creative institutions and developing the higher education institutions’ international reputation/status.

 

Interconnectedness between the local cultural and creative ecosystems and higher education is also important in relation to attracting students to the area and offering them valuable creative and cultural opportunities and experiences.

 

In Dundee, higher education institution representatives reflected on their role as champions for cultural and creative institutions and how that could contribute to students’ career development and graduate retention. Through this type of engagement, the higher education institutions have potential to develop wider networks and impact that can support the longer term development and sustainability of local cultural and creative institutions that are also connected beyond the city.

 

 

Graduates from Dundee’s universities highlighted the role of higher education staff in facilitating engagement with industry. Creative HE staff are understood to be key network mediators for students (and graduates), supporting their professional development and understanding of different career paths by leveraging their connections (England, 2022). This also highlights the role of creative higher education staff as key contributors to the local cultural and creative ecosystems through their own professional practice and work with industry – independently or through research practices.

 

 

However, educators also supported student engagement with non-local networks. This was particularly prominent in Chatham where educators tended not to reside in the city and had therefore formed non-local connections, and where a lack of local opportunities/networks made this a necessity.

 

 

On leaving university, graduates in Dundee were noted as making use of local cultural and creative ecosystem infrastructure such as co-working and performance spaces and city networks. The space referenced in the following extract however had subsequently closed. As discussed further in the next section, this highlights the need for wider cultural and creative ecosystem infrastructure to sustain and foster graduate practices and ensure that they can develop their entrepreneurial and creative activities within the city.

 

 

As well as taking advantage of higher education and cultural and creative ecosystems connections during their degree (such as graduate support schemes/incubation programmes), graduates can also develop entrepreneurial activities and creative practices that benefit the city and its wider cultural creative ecosystem. This highlights the reciprocal relationship and contribution of graduates to the local cultural and creative ecosystems.

 

One of the key recognised conversion factors for retaining creative higher education graduates in the area was the accessibility of cheap studio space. A local fashion designer who had graduated from the University of the Creative Arts based in the area cited affordability as an enabling factor that supported career development:

 

 

While it was recognised that resources such as empty buildings/affordable space alongside the proximity and good transport links to London could provide opportunities for local creative higher education students, graduates and practitioners, not enough was being done at the policy level to convert these resources to actual capabilities. That said, interviews with local creative practitioners recognised the potential for developing more spaces and opportunities for local creative higher education students.

 

 

In Dundee, both university-initiated and managed incubation spaces and graduate-run spaces were identified as key support infrastructure.

 

 

 

However, it was noted that – in Dundee – a lack of affordable space, and the often-itinerant existence of urban creative organisations and creatives was connected to profit driven cultural development. This phenomenon is documented in literature critiquing creative city development.

 

 

As highlighted above, while an individual actor can kick-start interesting project and opportunities to facilitate retention, their sustainability needs long-term cultural and creative ecosystems thinking and policy.

 

3.    Shared cultural opportunities and patterns of community exclusion

Beyond opportunities and professional exposure and employment, opportunities for cultural consumption can also be created. Here, higher education embeddedness/connections with the local creative economy provide opportunities for strategic relationships and collaborations with cultural institutions that can contribute to local/regional development. For example, The University of Dundee has been a founding partner in two of the city’s cultural institutions and higher education actors were seen as feeding into strategic vision for the city, acting as a key intermediary/broker.

 

Here there was an emphasis on providing cultural access for everyone in the city, with strong connection to the social justice and cultural democracy agenda in Dundee’s cultural strategy.

 

 

Chatham, as part of the broader Medway area, has also been included in a number of policy-driven interventions whose purpose is to foster partnerships between education, local businesses and government including the Thames Estuary Production Corridor (TEPC) – an ambitious programme aspiring to unite East London, the North Kent Coast and South Essex to create a major centre for creative and cultural production along the estuary and the Creative Estuary project based around the Medway River (Kim et al., 2022).

 

The role of higher education institutions and the creation of opportunities for local students have been cited as key aspects towards the planned development of Chatham as a hub for both creative and digital activity. One proposal, the creation of a new creative digital hub, The Docking Station, which would be owned by the University of Kent and housed in one of the unused listed buildings in the Historic Dockyard of Chatham, has been developed as a result of the embeddedness of local HEI stakeholders within these larger policy consortiums who have pressed the need for further opportunities for Creative HE students in the local economy.

 

 

However, it was noted that despite the recognised potential of cultural and creative ecosystems, it has not been realised. Instead, Chatham has invested in high-end housing as part of its waterfront development. What is lacking is a capability for students to access these opportunities, and a lack of investment in connectivity, which has resulted in the university studios becoming an isolated environment. As highlighted below, the disconnect with local audiences and inability to engage local communities can be challenging for HE and for local students trying to gain experiences and opportunities.

 

 

Local higher education staff in Chatham, whilst recognising the strategic level of local planning, provided more grounded accounts of an absence of creative and cultural activity. It was recognised that money had been spent on capital projects, but not enough invested in local community arts and cultural activities and this had an impact on student opportunities in the area.

 

 

Connections and inclusions of the local population also have wider implications both for higher education and cultural and creative institutions. In relation to higher education institutions, specifically in regions and small city contexts, it is important to consider processes of widening participation that allow young (and older) people from the local communities – especially those from disadvantaged background – to have the possibility to access courses with their local higher education institutions. 

 

This also applies to cultural and creative institutions; while many products and services reach beyond the city in global digital markets, the support of local communities as customers, audiences and promoters is key to the success of cultural and creative institutions working in the city.

 

Sustainable creative and cultural ecosystems

Beyond what higher education institutions and cultural and creative institutions can bring to local development,  their sustainability depends on connecting them within cultural and creative ecosystems. While a lot can be done by individual actors across institutions, organisations, businesses and venues, the capability to bring them together and create reinforcing mechanisms needs to be considered.

 

It is important to recognise the value of developing relationships between local higher education institutions, cultural and creative institutions and the wider local community – including co-working spaces, charities and hospitality – in strengthening the sustainability of the wider local economy. It is also important to consider which platforms are put in place to bridge and connect institutions and agendas.

 

Our research highlighted the importance of strong, well-maintained connections with local policy makers to obtain and sustain local ‘buy-in’. In Dundee, sustained engagement between policy makers, higher education institutions and cultural and creative institutions was positioned as key to developing sustainable cultural and creative ecosystems.

 

It was noted that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic the needs of creative and cultural organisations were not taken into account and that cultural and creative institutions were expected to create their own opportunities (i.e. occupy high street spaces as meanwhile spaces to deliver creative interventions) without support from the local government.

 

 

It is also important that truly diverse creative and cultural stakeholders engage in development discussions and that their voices are heard. In both Dundee and Chatham, there was reflection on the benefits that came from more inclusive engagement in developing their cultural strategy, including COVID-19 recovery strategy.

 

In Dundee there was an emphasis on being more than a ‘sum of parts’. Importantly, this goes beyond gathering input from established institutional partners represented in industry/sector groups (such as the Dundee Cultural Partnership group) to gather truly inclusive and often more radical ideas for sustainable cultural and creative ecosystems development.

 

 

It is important to consider how capabilities can change over time. Our research highlighted the evolution in the role of Higher education institutions in both cities, but particularly Dundee. It was noted that the benefits of higher education institutions and cultural and creative instiutions co-location and integration described above – attraction of human capital, retention and creation and dissemination of opportunities and partnerships for communities – do not happen overnight.

 

This is a key consideration for other cities, such as Chatham, where impacts may be expected to be measurable as a return on investment too soon, or where there is a lack of long-term strategy for sustainable cultural and creative ecosystem development.

 

 

 

In considering the evolution of resources, it is of course necessary to reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic crisis. Higher education institutions experienced a loss of resources (in finance and staffing) during the initial stages of the pandemic. This created an institutional (management) focus inwards and a shift towards core business which poses a risk to proper integration and collaboration with external partners in the immediate future and potentially longer term as Higher education institutions are also (at the time of writing) contending with further market uncertainty and rising costs (inflation and energy).

 

While acknowledging the ramifications of such events on higher education institution capacity, it is important to note the relative robustness of higher education institutions compared to other parts of the cultural and creative sector. This highlights the importance of considering differential capabilities within an ecosystem, as well as across different city ecosystems to understand how different dynamics and trajectories emerge. The following extract from an interview with an higher education worker in Dundee demonstrates their cognisant relationship to the local creative sector and the value that an established institution can provide to locally based atypical workers;

 

 

Higher education institutions and cultural and creative institutions play a key role in local development and contribute to enhancing a city capability to attract creative human capital, retain students and enhance the local community participation individually. However, only a dialogue and coordination between cultural and creative institutions and higher education within local planning and policy networks can develop opportunities for sustainable long-term developments.

 

Chatham and Dundee demonstrate a local policy recognition of the need to foster partnerships and collaborations and desire from both higher education institutions and cultural and creative practitioners to strengthen the ties between them, but without sufficient investment not only towards capital spend, but on resources and opportunities that enable the development of the wider ecosystem, the local creative economy is vulnerable to external shocks.

 

We can learn from the case of Chatham, that in order to generate benefits from graduate retention and local cultural and creative ecosystem engagement it is important to foster a foundation of ecosystem activity which higher education can connect with.

 

The case of Dundee also highlights the challenges of absent opportunities for employment and local cultural and creative ecosystem engagement and the need for mechanisms to enable graduate engagement with other local ecosystem actors once they have left the university.

 

 

Creative higher education students contribute to a local economy as both consumers and producers of creative and cultural opportunities, but they cannot flourish within a higher education institution based in a geographic location which operates as a silo; the higher education institution needs to be embedded within the local creative and cultural ecology which builds on wider community access.

 

The previous focus on creative placemaking/creative/cultural ‘megaevents’, planning and development around cultural tourism which drove much of local government cultural policy prior to the COVID-19 pandemic can in fact alienate both students and members of the wider local population through a lack of attention on sustaining an accessible creative/cultural scene and investment in strengthening the relationships between higher education and the cultural and creative institutions.

 

Although not discussed in this research, there is also a need to consider how Brexit will impact UK higher education institutions and culture in the immediate future and longer term, particularly regarding the capabilities in attracting international human capital and accessing opportunities and funding from Europe.

 

Within the institutions considered for this paper, certain courses/individual higher education workers tutors made a conscious effort to foster relationships with the local creative and cultural community. This was in part due to a high number occupying roles as both higher education institution practitioners and creative/cultural workers. However local infrastructure was important to foster those connections; if it did not exist it was challenging for an individual to counter the lack of connectivity.

 

We argue that interconnected cultural and creative ecosystems and platforms for collaboration and shared leadership are key to bring together multiple stakeholders for sustainable cultural/creative development and benefit students, graduates and local communities.

 

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An excerpt of an article by Tamsyn Dent, Lauren England, Roberta Comunian: “The challenges of developing sustainable cultural and creative ecosystems and the role of higher education institutions: Lessons from Dundee and Chatham, UK.” First published in Industry and Higher Education, 38(1), 40-50, 2024. Published here under Creative Commons license. Read the unabridged article with citations