'I'll leave university with TV and film connections'

Students have defended creative arts degrees after they were criticised for being "dead-end" courses.

Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said that the Conservative Party wants to "stop the government funding dead-end university courses".

Television and film student Ava Payne Spellman, 21, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, told BBC Politics East that coming from a single parent family she would never have got the industry contacts without the help of the University of Northampton.

Samuel Birch, 29, of Northampton, studying creative film television and digital media, said it was clear when he was in the workplace there was a "ceiling" to how much he could earn without a degree.

Trott said a 2020 report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies found up to 30% of young people going to university have negative returns.

She said she would like to close 100,000 university places to alleviate debt and fund apprenticeships.

Pressed about which courses would be forced to close, Trott provided the example of creative arts.

Some 75% of loans for these courses, she said, were "not paid back".

The shadow education secretary acknowledged that these were "difficult" decisions but said they were the right ones to be making to help young people secure work.

She added: "We'd have to look at the effect on the whole system, but I refuse to keep funding degree courses which are not delivering for young people."

University of Northampton student Ava Payne Spellman said: "I come from a single parent household. I wouldn't have had the connections to get into the media industry.

"I'm very confident now that I am going to leave university this year with different connnections in TV and film.

"I don't think I'd have been able to get where I am now without being able to do a course like this at university."

Student Samuel Birch said: "When I looked at leaving my previous job, all the jobs I looked at had a very, very clear ceiling.

"It was 'you can get to here, you can earn this much, but if you don't get a degree you're not going to go beyond that'.

"I think these sorts of courses are crucial."

The Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Northampton Alice Wilby said she supported the call for more apprenticeships by the Conservative Party.

She said: "I would welcome apprenticeships and more higher degree apprenticeships.

"It's a fantastic way students can get real world experience and a degree at the same time, so that is a brilliant thing.

"But I would be concerned if that were at the expense of more traditional degrees because they still have a really valuable place and the vast majority of students do go on to earn substantially more than they would have done if they hadn't gone to university."

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday 22 March at 10:00 GMT on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

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