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 âhigh costâ subjects by 50 per cent.
Cocker said the plans were âastoundingâ 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: âI think it will really just put off people from a certain background and thatâs a pity because itâs about mixing with people with different ideas, and then you get this cross pollination of stuff that makes things happen.â
It comes after the Musiciansâ Union called the plans âcatastrophicâ and said they would affect âour membersâ work, the financial viability of music courses, and training for the next generation of musicians and music professionalsâ when they were first announced.
It noted that music brought ÂŁ5.8billion to the UK economy in 2019, much of which âdepend[ed] on properly funded HE provisionâ. It criticised the notice given as âfar too short to enable HE institutions to plan for Septemberâ and said the UKâs higher education music provision âcould 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 â itâs boring seeing the same things and the same faces. Faces who probably resemble those in the Government,” she wrote.
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