Jarvis Cocker has criticised the government’s plans to halve funding for music in higher education.
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The Pulp singer is the latest to hit out at the cuts after the Office for Students (OfS) and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson proposed to cut funding for āhigh costā subjects by 50 per cent.
Cocker said the plans were āastoundingā and would put off those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and leave arts subjects as the preserve of wealthy domestic and foreign students.
He told The Guardian: āI think it will really just put off people from a certain background and thatās a pity because itās about mixing with people with different ideas, and then you get this cross pollination of stuff that makes things happen.ā
It comes after the Musiciansā Union called the plans ācatastrophicā and said they would affect āour membersā work, the financial viability of music courses, and training for the next generation of musicians and music professionalsā when they were first announced.
It noted that music brought Ā£5.8billion to the UK economy in 2019, much of which ādepend[ed] on properly funded HE provisionā. It criticised the notice given as āfar too short to enable HE institutions to plan for Septemberā and said the UKās higher education music provision ācould lose its world-leading status” as a result of a cut of such a size.
The deadline for responses was due today (May 6) for the plans which are set to come into force in the autumn.
Meanwhile, NME writer Alexandra Haddow also criticised the plans earlier today.
“When you cut funding to those studying the arts, who need funding, you essentially create a bottle-neck for those whose stories get to be heard. Not only that ā itās boring seeing the same things and the same faces. Faces who probably resemble those in the Government,” she wrote.
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