CreativeEducationfor aChanging World
Founded in 1856 as Plymouth Drawing School, Arts University Plymouth offers a range of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Pre-Degree study across Art, Design and Digital Media. The University campus is home to our creative studios, workspaces and laboratories, our public gallery MIRROR, Fab Lab Plymouth, and Plymouth Arts Cinema. Making Futures is the University’s flagship international research platform.
In an age defined by increasing alienation from the natural world, our research and expertise in materials is the creative knowledge we can apply to support the health and wellbeing of the planet and society.
Artist Oliver Beer’s work, on display in MIRROR at Arts University Plymouth as part of British Art Show 9, 2022. Image: ©Lloyd Russell
StrategicVision
Our vision for Arts University Plymouth is a new kind of arts university for the 21st century, preparing graduates who are uniquely placed to provide creative solutions to the complex global challenges of our times.
We will champion our people, place and pedagogy at the heart of our mission, delivering sustainable growth and impactful change in terms of creative economies, civic engagement and cultural ambition in Plymouth and the wider region.
We will enhance our reputation as a catalyst for individual, societal and ecological transformation, delivering innovative and distinctive learning, teaching and research through our interdisciplinary ecosystem of materials, processes, technologies and knowledge exchange.
Image created by BA (Hons) Fashion Media & Marketing graduate Corey Hyne using MidJourney, for ‘Riot’, part of an exploration of the ethical considerations and ground breaking possibilities of AI in the creative industries.
BY 2030WE WILL
Establish arts university plymouth as a leading UK arts university
Achieve sustained growth in student numbers and an outstanding student experience
Evidence the impact of our research, innovation and knowledge exchange
Extend creative opportunities through partnership and research degree provision
Deliver annual surpluses to reinvest in our students, staff and campuses
WE WILL ACHIEVE SUSTAINED GROWTH IN STUDENT NUMBERS AND AN OUTSTANDING STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Technical Demonstrator Russell Cleave leading a sound and film workshop during an Open Day event. Image: ©Arts University Plymouth.
Work by BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts student Bethany Antliff at London Design Fair 2018. Image: ©Sarah Packer
CREATIVEENDEAVOUR
Arts University Plymouth is an independent specialist arts university, with creativity at the heart of everything we do.
Through our portfolio, the University will flourish as a dynamic centre of creative production and innovation within Plymouth, Britain’s Ocean City.
We will deliver excellence in learning, teaching and research through our distinctive ecosystem of materials, processes, technologies and knowledge exchange.
The University will be recognised as a catalyst for individual, societal and ecological transformation.
At the heart of our offer will be a portfolio rich in practice-based enquiry and research, harnessing the unique environment of a traditional art school alongside the opportunities afforded by new technologies and creative pedagogy.
We will remain a teaching-focused university, albeit with a burgeoning research culture and growth in impactful knowledge exchange.
BA (Hons) Commercial Photography student Matthew Marshall's picture of Tinside Lido, winner in the Single Image category of the EIZO UK Student Awards 2023. Image © Matthew Marshall
We will extend creative opportunities through partnership and research degree provision
Screenshot of ‘Ashnihilation’, an augmented reality Microsoft HoloLens project by Postgraduate Studies Course Leader and Senior Lecturer Tom Milnes, 2022. Image: ©Tom Milnes.
We will establishArts University Plymouth asA leading UKArts university
People &Place
In a resource-rich organisation, the principal asset of the University remains its people.
The strategy will create a framework to recognise, grow and develop our people.
We will enhance efforts to position the University as an employer of choice, and increase the reach, quality and diversity of applicants applying to work with us.
We will create more autonomy and space for informed local decision-making that enhances the whole organisation.
The University will embed a long-term vision in its estate planning, seeking to future-proof developments for the growth of student and staff numbers.
We will develop purposeful relationships across the city, to increase our potential to utilise or acquire resources that support our portfolio ambitions.
Our studio and workshop spaces will continually evolve, with physical, digital and virtual environments supporting professional contexts for study and knowledge exchange.
We will align the ecological and environmental aspirations of our campus with that of our curriculum. Arts University Plymouth will adopt a solution-focused approach to deliver carbon, energy and sustainability targets across the University.
Work by BA (Hons) Fashion Media Marketing graduate Harry Langford 2023. Image ©Harry Langford
We Will Evidence The Impact Of Our Research, Innovation And Knowledge Exchange
Work by BA (Hons) Photography graduate Nathan Kavanagh, 2017. Image: ©Nathan Kavanagh.
SustainableFutures
The financial environment of Higher Education is ever more challenging, predicated on delivery models and structures that sit atypically alongside those of the creative industries.
Our university will:
Retain its distinctive approach to creative learning, through careful consideration of our structures, processes and procedures to promote strong fiscal management, whilst further devolving budget responsibility to those who can best ensure it makes a positive impact for our future.
Deliver measured growth in student numbers over the period to 2030. We will adopt strategies to optimise our revenue through meaningful partnerships, value added from our physical and intellectual assets, and through new commercial and innovation opportunities.
Extend the support it offers to students and alumni by providing greater opportunities for work placements, access to incubation space, enhanced services for graduates to develop their practice into burgeoning businesses so they return to inspire and employ new generations of entrepreneurial students.
Detail from poster for ‘Of the Ground’, a Knowledge Exchange initiative supported by Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Funding for Smaller Providers. Natural dyes by Emma Gribble, design by Sam Rowe, photography by Kathryn Hays and Neil Jones, 2023. Image: ©Arts University Plymouth.
We Will Deliver Annual Surpluses To Reinvest In Our Students, Staff And Campuses
MA Ceramics student Maia Walton working in the studio in our £8m Craft, Design and Fabrication workshops, 2022. Image: ©Arts University Plymouth.
An Embedded Approach
Creative Education for a Changing World
Arts University Plymouth will set a vision towards 2030 based upon sustainable growth, solution focused teaching and research, and a commitment to impactful social justice and ecological change through its people, culture and place. Our strategy, Creative Education for a Changing World, will ensure that our work is energised and designed to meet the ambitions of students and staff while acknowledging the shifting realm of creativity through new technologies and the workplaces of tomorrow.
Our strategy is built upon three pillars, Creative Endeavour, Sustainable Futures, and People & Place. Through this, we have set a critical path towards a holistic and embedded pedagogical approach under the title Teaching for our Time, that will guide all of our creative endeavours. We believe that authenticity, fulfilment and kindness are indexical qualities in the process of thinking, making and living.
Arts University Plymouth, 2023. Image: ©Tim Gundry.