Dear Dawn,
I appreciated your column about the future of photographic education in the
9th July issue and would like to make some comments myself. You were
clearly attempting to bring sense to what has become an acrimonious exchange
of views. I am chair of the APHE (Association for Photography in Higher
Education), the advisory board of Seeing the Light (which runs Rhubarb) and
Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Photography at Nottingham Trent University.
In my opinion there is not a crisis in photographic education - there are
some local situations which appear to deserve to be called that - I know of
a few places with ridiculously high student to staff ratios for example -
and some courses appear not to deliver what they promise. But, in the audit conscious age in which we live, we should have confidence - the entire
art and design sector has been thoroughly scrutinised, with the results
published and anyone not meeting standards found and dealt with.
I agree with you that there is a widespread misunderstanding of what
photographic education is now and that there is a big difference between
education and training. Training programmes to bridge the gap between
industry and education are a very good idea and the number and variety has
steadily risen. Portfolio reviews (pioneered by Seeing the Light and the
BJP) are another.
It might have been true a decade ago that a staggering number of graduates
were not given marketing and promotional advice before they left college but
it certainly isn't true now. I know of only one major university where
undergraduate photography students are not given such advice but it isn't
through ignorance but the result of a clearly thought out rationale about
what they are offering - and that is not training... Most of the graduates
who complain about the lack of information about professional practice are
likely to have missed it (in the sense of failed to appreciate it) when it
happened. The average age of photography students has dropped in the past
few years and the age at which young people can be described as 'mature' has
risen. I find that it is very difficult to get the majority of students to
engage with any aspect of personal career development. Indeed, it is widely
perceived to be the case that the very best that can be achieved is to
encourage students' creativity, their confidence and ability to communicate.
I certainly do not think that education is failing current students. It is,
to be sure, mass education. The majority of graduates will not become
commercial photographers but will go on to work in the very rapidly growing
creative industries. They will work in every area where pictures are made,
bought, sold and used. If the 100 or so full-time photography courses all
delivered the rather narrow training for work that some of your
correspondents appear to want it would be disastrous - there is no capacity
for the graduates in 'the industry' if you take that too narrowly and
only focus on the people who take the pictures.
Regarding women, the disabled and people from ethnic minorities in
photography. Information is collected by UCAS and is publicly available.
At Nottingham Trent, in common with most, we have had slightly more women
than men students for the past few years. The Disability legislation coming into force will literally transform the possibilities for applicants. There are too few students from ethnic minorities and it is hoped that the government's Widening Participation strategies will eventually improve the situation, although it appears to be rooted in cultural differences that will take time to change.
I doubt that a unified working practice is possible, even if it were
desirable. I don't think it is. In the UK we offer a very wide range of
photography courses and they are all gradually adapting and changing in
response to new technologies, different needs and working practices. The
diversity is a strength. To make best use of it we need better information
about what is on offer and where; something the APHE is concerned with. The
BJP Where to Study website is an invaluable tool for this purpose. If it
were possible to get more students a better match between them and their
courses, graduates would be less likely to feel that the system has failed
them. The difficulty, as I said above, is the relative immaturity of the
students when they go into HE - too many have only a vague idea of what they
want to do, which makes it nigh on impossible to meet their aspirations!
The differences of opinion about photographic education that have
been simmering away have largely arisen because photography courses, on the
whole, are now so very different to what they were. We are misunderstood and I frequently think 'How unfair' when I read some letters. Some working respect between professionals - photographers and lecturers - would be a nice change.
Cary Welling
Chair APHE and Programme Leader for BA Honours Photography and Photography in Europe
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