This article first appeared in Student Magazine Nexus,
Arts students are no strangers to being mocked. The BA, commonly
referred to as the Bugger All degree or the Bachelor of Alcohol, is considered
by many (mostly management students) as an easy ride with no discernible job
prospects. And our old friend Steven Joyce would have you believe that an arts
degree is about as much use as a dildo in the face (but then, he is a dickhead).
But contrary to what the National Goons would have you believe, rather
than being a ticket to a career asking “would you like fries with that?”, an
arts degree opens up a whole world of opportunity. While teaching grads are
prepared to be teachers, and engineering grads are prepared to be engineers,
arts graduates are prepared not just for one career but for any career. And the
huge benefit of that is, when teaching jobs are impossible to find unless you
want to relocate to Tapanui (hint: you don’t) arts graduates will be laughing
their versatile little buns off all the way to their interesting and hugely
varied jobs.
In my first ten years post-uni, I worked as a freelance stage manager,
theatre manager, retail sales assistant, children's party entertainer, learning
support assistant in a hospital school, outdoor education instructor and as an
administrative temp in the private, public and not-for profit sectors. This
gave me a great opportunity to try all kinds of employment before settling onto
a career track. In all of my employment, what has helped me to succeed has been
the intrinsic skills of an arts education.
An arts graduate, no matter which subject area they majored in, will
have skills in critical thought and analysis, written and oral (shush) communication,
curiosity, creativity, and the ability to think on their feet, and those skills
match pretty closely with the top attributes required by employers. All jobs
will have specific skills and knowledge you need to gain and employers won’t
expect you to know how to do everything. But the skills they need you to
already have include the capacity to pick up new skills fast, learn and
understand processes, and come up with improvements. And “excellent
communication” is cited as a must-have in most job ads.
In the news
The much-maligned arts degree has been in the news recently, with areport from Universities New Zealand on the value of a university degree
stating that ninety percent of arts graduates are employed in degree-relevant
roles and that the average arts graduate is earning above the national median
for salary and wage earners.
The New Zealand Herald even took a break from licking Jonkey’s arse and
rehashing BuzzFeed articles, and wrote one of their own about the value of a degree. Writer Danielle Wright notes that training for specific jobs can even
be counter-productive, as many of the jobs that will exist in 10 years’ time,
don’t exist now. She also notes that “A British Council survey showed that more
than 50 per cent of 1700 leaders in both private and public organisations
across 30 countries had degrees in the social sciences and humanities,
testament to the transferrable skills acquired in the more general degree
programmes.”
Independent researcher Hannah August, currently undertaking a summer
residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre also thinks that arts grads have
an unfair public perception. She is carrying out research on the way New
Zealanders value the arts and humanities, and why we have a perception of the
BA as “bugger all” use. The data, she says, doesn’t match this perception.
Hannah’s research points to arts degrees providing both economic return to the
individual graduate, but also wider returns in terms of personal development,
heightened self-awareness, and a shift in the way they engage with society. One
survey respondent said simply that “it made me a better person”. The majority
of the respondents also said that although they thought their tertiary
education was too expensive, and their student loan took a long time to repay,
they had no regrets about going to university or taking an arts degree.
Global Culcha
Unlike Marmageddon, this is not a uniquely Kiwi problem. Spiralling
student fees the world over, and increasing pressure from governments to ensure
universities can demonstrate the value of their degrees by producing high
tax-paying citizens, have led to more students (and parents) questioning “what
job will I get?” rather than “what will I learn and will I enjoy the experience?”
Julie Farrell of Trinity News (Ireland’s
oldest student newspaper) writes that worldwide there is a growing perception
that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) and Business
qualifications are the sensible option; opting for a degree in ancient history
or sociology is perceived as self-indulgent and meaningless. This appears to be
linked with a global decline in the public’s willingness to pay for “culture”
when there is so much freely available (or pirateable) online.
In any case, the research suggests that a
degree is worth the money and time you spend to get it, regardless of
the discipline area. What seems to be most important is that students choose to
study something they enjoy and for the experience of learning, not solely the
size of the pay check at the end. As the great philosopher Macklemore said “Don't
try to change the world, find something that you love/And do it every day/Do
that for the rest of your life/And eventually, the world will change.”
So arts students: hold your heads high and
cast off the mockings of your less enlightened peers. And at graduation, when
you are proudly clutching your mortar board and degree certificate, and Uncle
Bruce says, sneeringly, “So, what are you going to do with that?” you
have permission to smack him in the face. Preferably with a dildo.
