Edinburgh Uni principle addresses ‘negative rhetoric’ undermining arts degrees

Edinburgh University’s principal has challenged what he called a “depressing, negative and polarising rhetoric” that surrounds arts degrees.

Around 60 per cent of the 18,000 new students this year have been matriculated within the college for arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS), making it “by far the university’s most populous college”, according to principal Peter Mathieson.

The AHSS contains schools such as the School of law, economics and the College of Art.

Addressing the opinion that the arts are lesser subjects, Mr Mathieson said that students from the arts and humanities have “contributed to some of the world’s most important intellectual movements”, with many notable Edinburgh alumni graduating with arts degrees.

Peter Mathieson wants to assure arts students that they have made a “sound choice”. Image via Google Maps.

Edinburgh has long been a hotbed for creative works with modern crime writer Ian Rankin graduating with an MA in English language and literature while classic authors Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott graduated within the AHSS after completing degrees in law.

However, he says that a divide fueled by negative rhetoric has been perpetuated by “factions of society and the media”.

Mathieson goes on to reassure arts students that “your choice remains a sound one”. This is in large part because “while 3 per cent science graduates become managers, directors or senior officials, the figure for non-science degrees is twice as high”.

However, he does not wish to “pit STEM and the arts against each other”, or “reduce the value of degrees to graduate earnings alone”, adding that “there are so many other benefits of a university degree that go beyond earnings potential.”.

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He highlights the immense cultural and financial attraction creatives industries in Edinburgh have helped to create, with Edinburgh’s Festivals generating an estimated £407 million per year for the city.

In 2024, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe saw 2.6 million tickets being sold during its month in the city.

He goes on to share Edinburgh’s rich  history in academia, saying that:  “During the Enlightenment, Edinburgh was described as a “hotbed of genius” and world-renowned writers such as Voltaire visited our great city to work with the leading academics of the day.

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