“Through our people, our education and our research, we empower change and create impact that is both transformative and collaborative”
Ambition
Our Impact Study sets out our role as an anchor institution within Glasgow, Scotland, and the UK’s higher education, creative and cultural ecosystem, while also seeking to redefine it. Today, The Glasgow School of Art is a magnet institution, attracting, retaining and concentrating cultural, creative talent to support Glasgow’s creative and cultural sectors, as well as the city’s innovation and wider knowledge economy both locally and nationally.
Throughout this evidence-based impact study you will see how we make that happen. Our economic value is positioned alongside our social, cultural, educational, civic and rural impact and our people. We are rooted in Glasgow and Scotland but, as an institution that values partnership and is open to new ideas – with a questioning, radical and independent spirit – we are globally engaged and internationally recognised. These values are reflected in our graduates, many who remain in Glasgow, natural global collaborators, central to the continued vitality of the city and Scotland’s cultural and creative future.
Professor Penny Macbeth
Director and Principal
The Glasgow School of Art
Introduction
Education in the arts has been part of Glasgow’s educational offer from the middle of the 18th century.
Context for the study
The creative industries are key drivers of innovation, economic growth and employment. This is recognised at the UK level, including Scotland: a range of initiatives and policy developments have underlined a commitment to the sector. ‘Building a business case for Scotland’ highlights the creative industries as one of the key elements of the nation’s brand and recognises their potential for growth.1 Nowhere is this more true than in the city of Glasgow, whose unique position in the cultural and creative economy has been recognised by the OECD.2 The Glasgow Economic Leadership body and the new Glasgow Culture Strategy have re-affirmed Glasgow’s commitment to remaining a cultural and creative leader.
At the same time, recent years have seen a re-emergence in the civic university concept, and the roles that higher education institutions play as anchor institutions for their places, as economic, social and placemaking assets.
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) intersects these agendas in a range of distinctive and impactful ways. As a leading specialist cultural and creative higher education institution of international acclaim, it delivers a range of socio-economic and cultural benefits to the city of Glasgow, Scotland and the wider UK. The GSA supported the city’s creative-led regeneration in the 1980s and was instrumental in cementing Glasgow’s brand as a contemporary city of culture. The GSA is equipped to support the next phase of the city’s regeneration, as one of the key stakeholders driving the growth of its creative industries through an ecosystem based model based on interdisciplinary partnerships and innovation.
This report examines these contributions, placing them into their wider strategic context, quantifying them where possible, and articulates their impact with case studies.
The Impact Report is an independent study commissioned from Hatch by The Glasgow School of Art, 2025.
About The Glasgow School of Art
Education in the arts has been part of Glasgow’s educational offer from the middle of the 18th century. The Foulis Academy, a precursor institution to The Glasgow School of Art, was established in 1753 during The Scottish Enlightenment, to deliver a European style art education. In 1845, The Glasgow School of Art was established as one of the first Government Schools of Design, which were set up across the UK to support industry with design. Today, in addition to its Glasgow campus, which is located at the heart of the city centre, the GSA’s presence extends to the Scottish Highlands.
The GSA comprises four specialist schools:
Mackintosh School of Architecture
School of Design
School of Fine Art
School of Innovation and Technology.
The commitment of the GSA to affect impactful change by leveraging its expertise is captured in the GSA Strategic Plan 2022-273 ambition and values.
The GSA’s history, global reach and continued commitment to being a driver of change make it an invaluable resource in Scotland’s and the UK’s cultural and creative innovation ecosystem.
The socio-economic role of the creative industries and creative economy
The GSA’s history, global reach and continued commitment to being a driver of change make it an invaluable resource in Scotland’s and the UK’s cultural and creative innovation ecosystem.
The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) estimates suggest that the creative industries generated £125bn in GVA in 2022 and the cultural sector supported £35bn in GVA.4 Their research highlights the overlap between the cultural sector and the creative industries, driven by activity in areas such as radio and television broadcasting and the performing arts.5
The Scottish Government industry statistics suggest that Scotland’s creative industries generated £4.4bn GVA in 2021. Glasgow accounted for a fifth (21%) of Scotland’s creative industry GVA and it is home to the largest cluster of creative talent, which employed 25,060 people in 2022.6 This highlights its strength across a range of subsectors – such as design and architecture, screen production and broadcasting, an internationally acclaimed visual arts community and vibrant music scene – which has been supported by the city’s rich cultural ecosystem, consisting of a diverse range of key organisations and institutions, including its specialist higher education sector.7
However, the size of the creative economy extends beyond that captured by official statistics, as a wide range of creatives are employed in traditionally non-creative sectors, and hence the value of their activities is not captured by statistical definitions of the sector.8
Furthermore, there is increasing recognition that art, culture and creativity contribute to economic prosperity, but also individual health and wellbeing and the fabric of communities.9 A recent McKinsey report highlights the ways in which the arts impact on the economy, on individuals and on communities.10
Scope of the study
This study seeks to capture the range of socio-economic and cultural contributions that the GSA makes at the level of Glasgow, Scotland and the UK. The GSA is a civic actor and a place-maker: the cultural weight and global recognition of the GSA acts as a magnet for talent, and its retention within the city’s creative ecosystem and wider economy, whilst it is also a driver of urban regeneration though its estates developments both in Glasgow and Altyre. It is a driver of economic activity through its own economic footprint, but also by supporting the creative and cultural ecosystem in the city, graduate retention and creative skills development, enterprise, research and innovation. Moreover, its contribution to making visual arts and creative education and participation accessible, supports health and wellbeing and wider social and civic benefits.
This report brings together evidence on the socio-economic contribution of the GSA, quantifying the various contributions where possible, following a thematic approach. Figure 1.4 summarises the socio-economic impact framework that underpins the study. The assessment is informed by a bespoke data request to the GSA, published data from HESA and other sources, consultations with key contacts within the School and externally, and a set of case studies. The technical appendix provides details of the methodology used to assess socio-economic impact.
£4.4bn
GVA in 2021
25,060
people employed in 2022
02
Civic and Place-making Contributions
Why is it important?
Cities are engines of economic growth and regeneration. City regions like Glasgow have the opportunity to shape their future by maximising their competitive advantages as ‘magnet cities’.11 In this context, higher education institutions are among the most valuable civic and cultural assets that cities possess. By opening up their campus and promoting the exchange of knowledge and ideas, higher education institutions can fuel creative and innovative clusters that help cities cement their brand, identify and attract talent to grow their economies. The importance of higher education institutions as civic actors that drive positive change in their locales has received increasing emphasis in the UK since the publication of the Civic University Commission’s final report.12 Centrally located campuses are also physical landmarks that act as drivers of urban vitality and regeneration.
Glasgow’s unique and vibrant cultural scene and creative industries have been a cornerstone of its post-industrial regeneration, and an important pull for international talent. In 1990, Glasgow gained international recognition as the first British city to be awarded the European Capital of Culture, underscoring its distinctiveness as a place that leverages its culture assets to produce compelling work. Glasgow remains a hub of cultural production, enabled by the range of small and large production facilities, such as the Glasgow Print Studio and the Glasgow Sculpture Studios. It is also a hub of cultural consumption. Pre-pandemic research revealed that an overwhelming 53% of overnight leisure visitors to Glasgow named culture and cultural events as the motivation for their trip. This is significantly higher than the Scottish average (33%).13
The Glasgow School of Art, which attracts creative talent and visitors from across the globe, has been and can continue to be an integral part of the city’s regeneration as a centre for creative and cultural production and cultural consumption.
‘Magnetic Experience’ is part of the vision outlined in the Glasgow City Centre Strategy 2024-30.14 The strategy aims to deliver against this objective through a range of priority actions, including developing its cultural and heritage assets and promoting its visitor and evening and night-time economy. The Glasgow Tourism Action Plan 2024-26 reflects the emphasis on supporting thriving places across the city by “creating new reasons for residents and visitors to visit the city centre more frequently”.15
The central location of the GSA Glasgow campus puts it at the epicentre of the flurry of regeneration and urban renewal activity that supports the city’s aspiration for a ‘Magnetic Experience’. For example, the Golden Z Project is focused on improving the public realm of the Z-shaped corridor that connects Sauchiehall Street to Argyle Street.16 Concurrently, the £115m Avenues Programme aims to deliver an integrated network of cycle and pedestrian routes across the city17 and thereby connect the distributed networks of creative production and cultural venues. Meanwhile, Glasgow Life has unveiled plans to develop a new vision for Sauchiehall Street as a Culture and Heritage district, including portions of Bath Street and Renfrew Street18, which would further embed the GSA into the urban fabric and next stages of regeneration of Glasgow.
As documented below, with the opening of the GSA Highlands and Islands campus, the GSA’s remit as a place-maker has expanded outside the urban realm. Rural areas in Scotland face challenges relating to staff recruitment and retention, digital connectivity, ageing population and access to services. There is an impetus to support rural Scotland, as reflected by the establishment of the Rural Delivery Plan: Ministerial Working Group in June 2023.19 The creative industries are one of the regional transformational opportunities recognised in the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) Strategy (2023-28).20 The Strategy notes that digital skills and technology adoption, greater collaboration with international creative and innovation networks and cross-sectoral working (including tourism, health and wellbeing and community wealth building) are some of the actions needed to realise this transformational opportunity.
The Glasgow School of Art’s approach
The Glasgow School of Art is an integral part of the history of the City of Glasgow. The diverse facets of the GSA as a world-leading creative institution and a cultural and architectural asset at the heart of the city speak to different aspects of Glasgow’s story as a place, as highlighted in Figure 2.1.
53%
of overnight leisure visitors to Glasgow named culture and cultural events as the motivation for their trip.
“The majority of artists working in our Glasgow studios have come through The Glasgow school of Art, either directly or indirectly.”
of Glasgow city’s identity, and The Glasgow School of Art plays an important role in that space.”
Susan Deighan, Chief Executive, Glasgow Life, (2022 – 2025)
The Glasgow School of Art as an integral part of the history of the city of Glasgow
The UK Government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan identifies the sector as a priority growth area, aiming to increase business investment from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035, while strengthening regional creative clusters across the UK, including the Creative Clyde cluster in Glasgow.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2025;
Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, 2023.
Cementing Glasgow’s brand as a contemporary city of culture
The origins of the GSA can be traced to the foundation of the Foulis Academy, which brought European style art education to the UK. The Foulis Academy was founded in 1753, fifteen years before the establishment of the Royal Academy of Art in London.21 At the turn of the 20th century, the creative alliance between Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his group of artists, which became known as ‘The Four’, defined the ‘Glasgow Style’ – the UK’s response to the Art Nouveau movement – sparking the artistic revival of the city.22
In the mid-1980s, as the City entered its cultural and creative-led regeneration, the GSA introduced Environmental Art and a Master of Fine Art programme within the School of Fine Art.23
The establishment of these programmes within the School of Fine Art’s core disciplines, has been influential in the development of Scotland’s contemporary art movement24, and it has helped cement Glasgow’s brand as a city of culture. The GSA has educated 11 Turner Prize winners, and a further 12 nominees, which is a testament to the long-standing spirit of creative innovation fostered by the School. The 2014 GENERATION: 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland exhibition, which celebrated contemporary art in Scotland, was dominated by graduates of the GSA, as has Scotland’s presence at the La Biennale di Venezia.
Powering Glasgow’s industry
By the time the Foulis Academy was founded, Glasgow was already considered Scotland’s second city and a thriving, global hub of trade and commerce.25 In the early 19th century, the industrial revolution accelerated the growth of Glasgow, as it became one of UK’s industrial and manufacturing centres.
As such, it is no coincidence that the formal establishment of the GSA took place in 1845. The GSA was formally established as one of the UK’s first Government Schools of Design, which were a consequence of the 1835-36 House of Commons Select Committee on Arts and their connection with Manufactures.26
The ‘Culture and the Creative Economy in Glasgow City Region, UK’ (OECD, 2022) report recognises that addressing skills gaps, entrepreneurship and innovation are key to the ongoing competitiveness and success of the sector. Glasgow’s specialist higher education institutions are a key feature of the city’s cultural infrastructure and are uniquely placed to support industry. As demonstrated in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, the design skills and expertise the GSA brings continue to be highly valued across a range of industries.
Contributing to the cultural vibrancy of the Garnethill community The GSA’s campus in Glasgow stretches across the Garnethill area, considered to be one of the city’s most artistic and multi-cultural districts, and it is now a conservation area.27 Overall, the immediate area is quite lively given its location along the arterial routes of the city centre, most notably the vibrant Sauchiehall Street. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s School of Art building (1897-1909) is adjacent to the GSA’s contemporary purpose-designed art school building, the Reid Building (2014). Designed by Steven Holl Architects, an American Institute of Architects Gold medal winner, the Reid Building added to the area’s architectural character. The GSA Board is committed to their responsibilities as custodians of the Mackintosh Building.
But the GSA’s contribution to the vibrancy of the area extends beyond its physical infrastructure. Its staff and students, and the broader community of practising artists, musicians and creatives that are drawn to the area around the School, are integral to the area’s distinctive identity that makes the Garnethill community attractive to locals and visitors alike.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Revitalising Glasgow’s city centre
The physical footprint of the GSA in Garnethill means that it has an important role to play as a driver of placemaking and community. Through the phased redevelopment of its campus, the GSA has helped shape the urban fabric of the area:
The GSA Reid Building development (2009-2014) represented a £50m capital investment in Glasgow’s city centre. Similar to the Mackintosh Building, it is a purpose-designed art school building and replaced the Foulis Building and Newbery Tower. Situated opposite the historic Mackintosh Building28 this piece of world-class architecture by Steven Holl Architects is ‘in complementary contrast to [its neighbour] forging a symbiotic relation in which each structure heightens the integral qualities of the other’.29 The Reid Building opened in 2014 and houses the studios of the GSA’s School of Design, major workshops and public spaces including an international-standard gallery and exhibition space and Window on Heritage, a public interface to the School’s extensive and nationally recognised archives and collections.
The refurbishment of the Stow Building represents a c.£25m capital investment, and a westwards expansion of the GSA campus. Acquired in 2016, the building is a gateway to Glasgow’s west end and home to active travel interventions such as the Underline Phase 1 project30, which is part of Glasgow City Council’s £115m UK and Scottish Government City Deal funded Avenues programme.31 The Stow Building brought together all programmes in the School of Fine Art in one building for the first time in over 50 years.32 The acquisition of the building also serves as an example of the GSA’s civic place-making and creative pull given the Stow Building’s proximity to the creative cluster around the Forth & Clyde Canal, which includes the Whisky Bond, Civic House, the National Theatre and Scottish Opera.
More broadly, the GSA is active in shaping the regeneration agenda of Garnethill. Its Estates Strategy published in 2022 considered the contribution the GSA could make, in partnership with the City Council and local community, to the urban environment and public realm within Garnethill and how the strategic disposal of buildings no longer fit for purpose or surplus to requirements could be positively redeveloped. For example, the GSA is an important stakeholder and contributor to Glasgow Life’s developing plans for heritage and cultural led regeneration of Sauchiehall Street.33 It recognises that beyond its role as a centre of education and research the GSA’s exhibition programme, built heritage, archives and collections are attractions that drive visitors to Glasgow. The importance of the Mackintosh Building to this is recognised and in 2024, Reiach and Hall, with Purcell, were appointed to identify an appropriate route for the building.
The Glasgow Urban Lab, a partnership between Glasgow City Council and the GSA’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, has generated world-class research on how Scotland’s principal cities, including Glasgow, can become urban leaders in the 21st century.
Infusing life into Glasgow’s city centre has become more important than ever post-pandemic. As shown in Figure 2.2, the GSA has a concentrated presence in the city centre’s landscape, with approximately 3500 students and staff on campus. Along with its exhibitions and events programme, as part of a wider cultural offer in the immediate area attracting visitors, the GSA drives footfall and expenditure that is crucial to supporting Glasgow’s city centre economy. In 2022/23, the GSA attracted over £25 million in staff, student and visitor expenditure to Glasgow.
The Reid and stow building developments represent a £75 million capital investment in Glasgow’s city centre.
Civic and Place-making Contributions
Glasgow is one of the most vibrant centres for contemporary art in the UK, outside of London. It has every level of artistic institution, including a dynamic studio, making and production scene, allowing artists to make work at scale. Glasgow’s studio, making and production spaces are uniquely located across the city, coalescing in clusters and creating critical mass of independent studios, workshops and collaborative spaces across the city.
The GSA maintains and feeds new talent to the network of creative organisations, collectives and individual practitioners that sustain the city’s studio scene. Studio, making and exhibitions spaces in the GSA Creative Network map includes significant numbers of GSA graduate initiated or connected spaces (Figure 2.3). The spread of Glasgow’s studios and making spaces reflects the cultural led regeneration journey of the city. The burgeoning studio culture of the city started in redundant and cheap spaces, wherever they could be found. The concentration of spaces around Merchant City was driven by Glasgow City Council’s decision to earmark the area, which mostly consisted of redundant warehouses, as prime for regeneration. Big anchor cultural projects, such City Halls, Trongate 103, South Block, Modern Institute and The Briggait, ensued. In recent years this activity and development of studio, making and exhibition spaces to support regeneration moving eastwards to Calton and Dennistoun including the Pipe Factory, Barras and WASPS at Hanson Street, south of the river including 5 Florence Street through to Govanhill and Victoria Road, and to the north of the city centre to the clustering around the Glue Factory and Whisky Bond.
The Glasgow Art Map is an online map and journal of contemporary art exhibitions happening in Glasgow. Through the mapping and archiving of contemporary art exhibitions it connects audiences to art in Glasgow and promotes organisations working within the city. For up to date exhibition listings see Glasgowartmap.com and @glasgow_art_map on Instagram.
Glasgow Art Map reflects Glasgow’s vibrant contemporary art scene and the importance of GSA’s Creative Network to the city’s permanent contemporary art spaces. Showcasing exhibitions and events that take place throughout the year, many of the places on the map were founded or are actually run by graduates of the GSA. Approximately 60% of the GSA’s graduates live and work in the city after graduating, where they continue to shape the city’s creative landscape. Glasgow Art Map is run by GSA graduates Emma Aars (MLitt Art Writing, 2023), Caitlin Merrett King (MLitt Art Writing, 2022), and Max Slaven (Fine Art Photography, 2009) at David Dale Gallery.
Placemaking and civic impacts: The Highlands & Islands campus
The GSA has been operating in the Highlands since 2010, initially at the Enterprise Park, Forres. To establish a more prominent presence in the region, it worked with Highlands and Islands Enterprise to establish its campus on the Altyre Estate near the town of Forres in the Moray district. The GSA Highlands & Islands campus opened in 2017. It initially comprised a small community of 10 members of GSA staff34 and 35 students35 who live and contribute to the local area. It is also supporting the local ecosystem of creatives and craftsmen through collaborations, such as the founding of the Moray Textile Network and its contributions to the Inverness-based Xpo North conference.
The GSA Highlands & Islands campus has become a catalyst and world-leader in research and innovation in the domain of digital health, fulfilling one of its early mandates to explore remote digital health solutions, being a base for the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI), a world-leading partnership initially between The Glasgow School of Art, the University of Edinburgh and NHS Scotland and now between The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde. DHI is now one of four Scottish Funding Council National Innovation Centres and secured a key role in the UK and Scottish Government £100m Moray Growth Deal with £5m investment for the Moray Rural Centre of Excellence, which is based at the GSA’s Highlands and Islands campus. The campus has also become the base for The Glasgow School of Art’s Rural Lab, one of two new strategic research labs being established as part of the GSA’s Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027 focusing on place-based research, innovation, knowledge exchange and partnership.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Influencing and supporting policy
GSA staff work with a diverse range of stakeholders to help shape the places where they work, including for example Glasgow City Council, Glasgow City Region and its economic workstreams, Glasgow Life and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The GSA also affects change at a more systemic level through its influence on shaping policy within Scottish Government which can have wider UK or international impact. For example, the work of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), a specialist research centre based within the GSA’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, has informed the Scottish Building Standards Directorate in updating regulations and building standards. Additionally, the GSA’s Deputy Director and Vice Principal (Research and Innovation) is a member of the Scotland CAN DO: Business Innovation Forum36 working regionally across both the Highlands and Islands and the South of Scotland and developing opportunities with South of Scotland Enterprise. South of Scotland Enterprise is the economic and community development agency for the South of Scotland and the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, building the GSA’s experience and delivery within the Highlands and Islands, its partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Moray Growth Deal.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Community engagement
Through its staff, students, graduates and creative spaces, the GSA undertakes a wide range of community engagement activities with the communities in Glasgow and the Highlands and Islands. These range from engagement with schools and schoolchildren through creative projects for example Garnetbank Primary School and Castlehead High School, to its work with community groups across a range of creative, environmental and capacity building projects.
03
The Economic Footprint of The Glasgow School of Art
The GSA is an important employer and purchaser of goods in the local and wider economy. As such, its presence brings significant flows of expenditure and economic multiplier effects to Glasgow City, Scotland and the UK. This chapter captures the economic impact of the GSA and puts it into its wider context. The analysis in this part of the report provides a snapshot of economic contributions in the 2022/23 academic year. It considers the following effects:
Direct – the activities taking place on campus
Indirect – the economic activity supported by the GSA’s supply chain spending
Induced – the further multiplier effects from staff spending
Student and visitor-related – the economic activity supported by students and visitors
These effects are measured in terms of employment and Gross Value Added (GVA).37 See the technical appendix for more details.
Direct impacts
In 2022/23, the GSA employed 615 staff, an increase of 37% since 2015/16. Adjusting for Full and Part Time staff, this translates to around 460 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.
430 staff were based in Scotland, of whom more than half (56%) resided in Glasgow City. There are also about 10 staff living in Moray, where the GSA Highlands & Islands campus is based.
In 2022/23, the GSA generated a total income of £47.1 million. This is broadly in line with the income growth experienced by specialist creative HEIs38 (24%) in the UK, and exceeds the growth seen across Scottish (9%) and UK (17%) higher education institutions.39 In 2022/23, the GSA generated £30 million in direct Gross Value Added (GVA).
Indirect impacts
In 2022/23, the GSA spent about £21.6 million with UK based suppliers on goods and services to support its operation and capital investments, of which about 74% was with suppliers based in Scotland and 36% was with Glasgow City based suppliers.
We estimate that, in total, the GSA’s supply chain expenditure in 2022/23 supported £5 million in GVA and 80 FTE jobs in Glasgow, and a total of £10 million in GVA and 190 FTE jobs in the UK.
Induced impacts
The GSA paid about £17 million40 in gross wages and salaries to staff living across the UK, of which 96% was paid to employees living in Scotland. GSA staff living in Glasgow earned £9 million, which is more than half (55%) of the gross wages paid to Scottish staff.
The consequence is significant expenditure injections into the local economy and beyond from the GSA employees, generating further multiplier effects. Combined with the spending of employees in the supply chain, this expenditure drives induced economic impacts.
We estimate that the expenditure of staff employed by the GSA, along with those in the supply chain, supported £5 million in GVA and 30 in FTE jobs in Glasgow, increasing to £25 million in GVA and 180 FTE jobs in Scotland.
Student impacts
Student population
In 2022/23, the GSA had a total of 2,605 students, an increase of 26% since 2015/16. For context, that makes the GSA’s student body larger than the London Business School (2,300) and comparable to that of the Royal College of Art (2,985). The proportion of GSA students studying towards art degrees41 (18%) is reflective of its reputation as one of the UK’s leading visual arts schools. The GSA ranks second42 among specialist creative HEIs in terms of its share of students studying art degrees, after the Royal College of Art (20%)43. It is also worth noting that these characterisations are derived from HESA definitions; the nature of “creative” higher education is not limited to what can be characterised as “creative” such as Architecture or Sculpture, but can include creative curricula in other fields such as Engineering or Product Design. This is to say that the actual number of students studying creative disciplines at the GSA is higher than 18%.
The majority of GSA students studied full-time (93%). Close to three quarters (73%) of the 2022/23 student cohort were enrolled in undergraduate courses, with the remaining 27% studying towards postgraduate degrees. Notably, the GSA has the fifth highest share of postgraduate students out of fourteen specialists creative HEIs in the UK.
In 2022/23, slightly less than two-thirds of GSA students (64%) were originally from the UK. Scottish students accounted for 45% of the GSA’s student body, including local students, with 14% of all students coming from Glasgow. At undergraduate level, the number of Scottish students is controlled by the Scottish Funding Council. The GSA is allocated 1,226.3 funded student places from the Scottish Funding Council for Scotland-domiciled students, approximately 1% of the total number of SFC funded places available.44
19% of GSA students originate from the rest of the UK, with notable concentrations coming from London (6%), the South East (3%) and North of England (5% combined across regions).
The GSA has consistently exceeded the Scottish Government’s Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) target for individual higher education institutions45 since 2013/14. In 2022/23, 22% of the GSA’s Scottish domiciled full-time first-degree entrants came from the 20% most deprived communities, making it the third highest ranked higher education institution in Scotland.46 See Chapter 7.
Over a third (36%) of students at the GSA came from abroad, which is the fifth highest share among Scottish higher education institutions and is significantly higher than the average among specialist creative HEIs (24%) where GSA ranks third after the Royal College of Art and University of the Arts London. In 2022/23, international students from 41 countries attended the GSA, reflecting the institution’s global reach and reputation. Figure 3.5 shows the top ten countries where GSA international students come from.
As shown, the proportion of GSA students from China is greatly overrepresented compared to the rest of UK institutions, however students from India are significantly underrepresented. Aside from that, the proportion of students from the top countries of origin of GSA’s international students is largely in line with the rest of the UK. However, across all UK HEIs, there is a high share of students from Nigeria (10%) and Pakistan (5%), whereas these nationalities are not significantly represented in the GSA’s student body.
The vast majority of GSA students (90%) lived in Scotland during term time. Notably, 69% of GSA’s lived in Glasgow, which highlights the contribution they make to the city’s vibrancy, creative clusters and economy.
Student expenditure impacts
Students make a sizable contribution to the economy of Glasgow, Forres and Scotland by bringing extra expenditure into these areas. Notably, the international students that the GSA attracts generate expenditure that might not have otherwise occurred both locally and UK wide.
By drawing on the National Student Income and Expenditure Survey47, which provides data on the expenditure patterns and amounts of students in the UK, we are able to estimate students’ expenditure whilst studying at the Art School, and the associated economic impacts.
In total, the expenditure of students at the GSA supports an estimated:
£10m in GVA and 250 FTE jobs in Glasgow. A significant portion this is driven by students who moved to Glasgow for their studies from elsewhere in the UK and abroad. Full-time students from outside Glasgow account for three quarters of this economic impact.
£25m GVA and 450 FTE jobs in Scotland, of which around half is driven by full-time students moving to the area from elsewhere in the UK and abroad.
£40m GVA and 570 FTE jobs in the wider UK economy, around 31% of which is driven by international students. That is, international students supported around £15m in GVA and 180 FTE jobs nationally.
The breakdown of student numbers by fee category in Table 3.4 shows a steady growth of student numbers at the GSA, with the total student body growing at approximately 3% annually. Driving a lot of this growth is the number of postgraduate students, rising from 466 in 2019/20 to 777 in 2024/25, which corresponds with an annual growth rate of approximately 11%.
Similarly, there has been a doubling in students paying postgraduate taught fees (140% increase) though students paying postgraduate research fees declined by 32%. Students paying undergraduate fees only increased by 0.5% annually, slower than the undergraduate student numbers. This is because some postgraduate students in the School of Architecture pay undergraduate fees, and in 2019/20 this totalled 145 students. Discounting these students increases the annual growth rate to 1%.
Visitor impacts
Students originating from outside Glasgow, Scotland and the UK receive visits from friends and family throughout the year for a range of reasons. Using conservative assumptions, we estimate that the expenditure associated with these visits supported a further £1m in GVA and 20 FTE jobs in Glasgow, which increases to £1.5m in GVA and 30 FTE jobs at the UK level.
The GSA’s cultural programme leverages its exhibitions programme, events, annual degree shows and rich Archives and Collections.
The GSA’s Archives and Collections, attracted 3,622 visitors to museum displays (August 2023 – April 2024). The collection holds c. 5000 individual items, 100 deposited archive collections and 25,000 items in the GSA institutional archive. It comprises one of the most comprehensive archives and collections for the creative disciplines. The GSA’s collection of works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh are of national significance.48
Moreover, the GSA collaborates with organisations such as BAFTA Scotland, Cryptic and Glasgow International to deliver city wide events. Through these activities, it enriches the city’s cultural and tourism offer. The expenditure of these visitors is an additional driver of economic activity locally. The GSA’s economic contribution stemming from its cultural programme and offer has not been quantified because it is hard to ascertain whether the main reason behind these visits was attending a GSA event, although its assets contribute to Glasgow’s overall unique offer. In 2022, Glasgow’s overall economic value from visitor spend was calculated at £1.58bn.49
Total economic footprint
Bringing all of the above effects together, in 2022/23, the GSA contributed £55m in GVA and 840 FTE jobs to Glasgow’s economy. Its contribution rises to around £115m in GVA and 1,510 FTE jobs at the UK level.
To put this into context:
The GSA directly supported c. £30m in GVA and 460 FTE jobs in Glasgow, which represents 3% and 2% of the GVA and employment supported by the city’s creative economy, respectively.50
For every direct FTE job supported at the GSA, a further job is supported in Glasgow through the multiplier effects generated by the art school.
At the level of Scotland and the UK, this increases to c. 2 jobs for every direct job at the GSA.
In 2022-23 the GSA contributed £55m in GVA and 840 FTE jobs to Glasgow’s economy rising to £115M in GVA and 1,610 FTE jobs at UK level.
the number of postgraduate students, rose from 466 in 2019/20 to 777 in 2024/25,
04
Creative Skills Development
In 2022, Glasgow City’s creative industries cluster employed 25,060 people
The GSA makes a critical contribution to the creative skills ecosystem in Glasgow, Highlands and Islands and the wider Scottish and UK economies. This section brings together the evidence on this contribution. We:
Set out the context on why creative skills development is so important
Outline the GSA’s strategic approach
Highlight evidence of impacts, focusing on the GSA’s role in generating a pipeline of talent for a range of sectors, its work boosting employability, and its support for students to launch their own practice.
Why is Creative Skills Development important?
The UK is widely recognised as a cultural powerhouse, with its arts sector alone estimated to support £49bn in GVA and 970,000 jobs in 2022.51 The continued vitality of the sector is dependent on the supply of talent equipped to exploit opportunities emerging from technological advancements and globalisation. The drive to go digital during the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore digital skills gaps across the sector, most notably in galleries, museums and theatres.52 More broadly, creative skills such as agility, communication, and self-efficacy are increasingly important for the workforce across sectors in the modern digital economy. Consequently, the intensifying symbiosis between the creative and digital industries is increasingly gaining traction as a driver of economic growth and innovation.53
Glasgow, therefore, as a national creative cluster has a unique opportunity to be a key driver of creative-driven growth. As recognised in an OECD report54, however, this places greater need for creative education institutions like the GSA to develop and maintain a robust talent pipeline to respond to the growing demand and need for creative skills in the Glasgow regional economy. This means that more graduates from creative disciplines and graduates with creative skills are needed not only in creative industries but also in the wider economy. Pivotal to achieving this within the Glasgow City Region is to support access into higher education and particularly in the creative disciplines ensuring both a highly skilled and diverse future workforce.
The importance of creative skills and the creative industries in the UK has been reflected at the national level, with the outgoing Conservative and recently elected Labour governments both placing great emphasis on creative education.55 56 Notably, in a speech at the Labour Creatives event in March 2024, Keir Starmer said: ‘a Labour government would put creativity at the heart of the curriculum’.57
The Scottish Government has also set out policies aimed at upskilling and cultivating creative skills in policy documents like the Future Skills: Action Plan, Entrepreneurial Campus, and the Creative Learning Plan. These documents outline a variety of policy aims and goals, including some points of convergence such as improved access to upskilling and retraining, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and support for student start-ups.
In 2022, Glasgow City’s creative industries cluster employed 25,060 people, making it the largest concentration of creatives across Scotland.58 The development of creative skills, but also entrepreneurial skills, will have a direct bearing on the growth of Glasgow’s digital creative industries, which is one of the five key clusters identified in the Glasgow City Region Innovation Action Plan.59 Education and cultural institutions such as the GSA play a vital role in creative skills development, as evidenced by the various initiatives and businesses its graduates have gone on to create.
The GSA’s approach to creative skills development
The studio-based ethos embraced across The Glasgow School of Art is reflected in its course design, with programmes tailored to facilitate theory and practice-based teaching and research. The GSA places emphasis on cultivating graduates that are expansive, experimental and collaborative, and as such live projects and external collaborations are an integral part of its creative education offer.
To support the professional development of its students, alongside supporting employability and graduate opportunities, the GSA leverages the power of its GSA Creative Network to bring together students, graduates, industry experts and employers, for example through the Working Space Programme.
The Primer Scotland partnership with Artquest and Creative Scotland exemplifies how the GSA convenes with other key stakeholders in the cultural and creative sectors to support aspiring artists launch their creative careers.
The GSA is committed to ensuring art education is available at all stages of life. Through the Open Studio, it offers day, weekend and evening courses to young people and adults interested in foraying into a creative hobby, improving existing skills or developing a portfolio for art school. The GSA also offers a range of online and in-person creative professional development courses.
The GSA produces a pipeline of highly skilled talent equipped with a unique blend of skills. In 2022/23, there were 920 graduates from the GSA. Figure 4.1 shows the range of skills these graduates bring. Over half (52%) of the 2022/23 graduates were awarded ‘Design, and Creative and Performing Arts’ degrees and 17% obtained ‘Architecture, Building and Planning’ degrees. Over time, the share of creative technologists graduating from the GSA has increased, as evident from the share of ‘Computing’ (5% vs 3% in 2019/20) and ‘Engineering and Technology’ (5% vs 1%) focused degrees awarded reflecting the growth and development in the GSA’s portfolio in technology and innovation based programmes.
It is important to note that these classifications of degrees by subject are based on HESA categorisations, and may not accurately represent the share of students of each course or programme offered by the GSA, rather it reflects the share of students within broad discipline groups. So in some subject areas, like “Architecture, building and planning”, the HESA data suggests that the number of degrees decreased by between 1-2%, but overall the number of students in the School of Architecture actually increased by 2%.
Nevertheless, some broad trends are still accurately captured. For example, the uptick in the proportion of students in “Engineering and technology” is reflected by a ~70% increase in students in the School of Innovation and Technology between 2019/20 and 2022/23.60 Similarly, the increase in “Computing” students is reflected by a large increase in students enrolled in programmes like BSc Immersive Systems Design (3D Modelling ~200% increase, Games and Virtual Reality ~300% increase). Similarly, the School of Design had a ~7% drop in students, in line with the drop off in Figure 4.2.
The high calibre of fine art graduates the GSA produces is evident in the number of GSA graduates nominated for and winning the Turner Prize, a coveted visual arts award. 12 alumni have been nominated and 11 have won the Turner Prize61, representing Scotland at major international exhibitions for example the Venice Biennale, and their work exhibited in and included in the collections of major national and international galleries and museums. The case study below highlights the impact of GSA graduates within the cultural sector.
Creative skills development impacts: Employability and talent retention
The GSA develops the employability of its students, while supporting its partners’ needs, by exploring opportunities for live projects, competitions, placements and internships, as highlighted in the case studies referenced on the following pages.
Glasgow’s cultural infrastructure – as one of the only cities outside London to offer every level of artistic institution from underground artist-led projects and start-up studio complexes to large publicly funded institutions – and the power of the GSA alumni network in helping graduates navigate the city’s creative landscape are the key reasons many GSA graduates can envision a career for themselves in Glasgow post-graduation.
Data from LinkedIn helps us ascertain the work location of GSA graduates62 (and use the platform). Of the 4,997 alumni identified on LinkedIn who graduated in the past 10 years63, over half (55%) were based in the Greater Glasgow Area.64
Industries and Top employers of GSA graduates, 2024
A recent survey conducted by the GSA highlights its role in attracting and retaining international talent in the UK. Moreover, stakeholder remarks highlighted the mobility of Glasgow’s creative community, and the pluralism of ideas brought by creatives who return to the city after spells of working abroad. The intermingling of local and international talent at the GSA contributes to the international outlook of Glasgow’s creatives, which enhances the local ecosystem’s dynamism.
Creative skills development impacts: Supporting students to launch their practice
By embedding enterprise and employability skills within the curriculum, the GSA supports its students and graduates to access creative enterprise programmes and funding competitions. As part of its commitment to developing entrepreneurial graduates, the GSA was a founding member of the SHIFT student and graduate creative enterprise programme, alongside the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Queen Margaret University. GSA has partnered with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Virgin Money and Deutsche Bank to develop graduate skills in business and entrepreneurship.
The GSA encourages its students to participate in business funding competitions, such as the Scottish EDGE, Scotland’s biggest business funding competition. Notably, when the Scottish EDGE wanted to update the design of its trophy, it approached the GSA. Together, they collaborated on a student competition, yielding exceptional results.
“I think what I was most impressed with was the level of engagement – it was beyond what we had imagined. Also, the quality of the designs submitted was really good – we got it down to about six that we could have run with.”
Evelyn McDonald, Chief Executive Officer, EDGE
Its graduates also participate in programmes like the Converge Challenge, which supports creative thinkers from Scottish higher education institutions to bring their business ideas to life.
The entrepreneurialism of the GSA’s graduates is evident in Graduate Outcomes data, which shows that 15% of its graduates were self-employed, freelancers or running their own business fifteen months after completing their studies, compared to 5% of graduates from Scottish and 6% of graduates from UK higher education institutions. Notably, over three quarters (77%) of these self-employed GSA graduates were based in Scotland, with about 15% in Glasgow.
05
Enterprise and Innovation
Enterprise and innovation are key drivers of productivity across the economy and are particularly important to the creative industries. This section spotlights the GSA’s role in stimulating enterprise and innovation, putting this into the context of the needs of the economy.
As a specialist HEI focusing on creative disciplines, technology and innovation, the GSA helps drive creative enterprise and innovation through its graduates, who go on to establish their own businesses (see Chapter 4) and have a profound influence in Glasgow’s dynamic studio scene and creative ecosystem (see Chapters 2 and 3). The design innovation capabilities of GSA and its graduates, as shown through the case studies in this chapter, are highly valued across a range of key industries identified in Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy, like Data and Digital Technology firms, but also by businesses in other sectors like management consulting, the wider creative industries and the heritage sector.
The GSA also maintains a number of industrial partnerships and engages in knowledge exchange activities that enable it to use its expertise to support small and medium-sized businesses, which account for c.56% of private sector employment and 99% of all private sector businesses in Scotland.65
At a systemic level, the GSA collaborates with key stakeholders across Scotland, including other universities and Enterprise Agencies, to shape its innovation ecosystem. The commitment made by the GSA to drive enterprise and innovation is driven by its Research Strategy and Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund Strategy.
Why is it important?
Innovation and entrepreneurialism are important levers for economic growth. At the UK level, enterprise and innovation play an important part in shaping the economic and innovation policies of the leading parties and individual government ministries. Since taking power, the new Labour government has built on its ‘Start-up, Scale-up’66 and ‘Creating Growth’67 position papers with Invest 203568 in October 2024. Invest 2035 highlights the symbiosis between creative skills and industries, as well as their role in driving economic growth in the UK. As mentioned in Chapter 4, the shortage of creative skills therefore places great impetus on supporting creative HEIs and institutions in creative clusters, such as Glasgow.
Within Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council’s Knowledge Exchange & Innovation (KE&I) Fund69 as well as other strategies such as the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET)70, National Innovation Strategy (NIS)71 and work by Scottish Enterprise72 are key policy documents and initiatives to drive innovation-led growth in the wider economy.
The NIS and NSET complement each other in that they identify the importance of placed-based innovation-clusters, but where the NSET places a greater focus on developing a “culture of development”, the NIS sets out further strategies on innovation priorities, clusters and investment within Scotland. Within both of these strategies, the importance of the creative industries and HEIs – and both in conjunction – is core in driving economic growth and realising Scotland’s ambition to become one of the most innovative small nations in the world. These are centred on developing “entrepreneurial learning” across the Scottish education and skills system (NSET) and building on HEIs’ technical products, patents and spin-outs across four innovation themes; Energy Transition, Health and Life Sciences, Data and Digital Technology and Advanced Manufacturing (NIS).
Similarly, within Scotland, the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (2022) aspires ‘to establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation’73. Building on that, the ‘Entrepreneurial Campus’ report highlights the role of the higher education system as a driving force for the entrepreneurial ecosystem.74 The importance of creativity for the Scottish economy (and the pivotal role Scottish HEIs like the GSA play in equipping the workforce with those skills) is also reflected by the growth priorities and policy goals of The National Innovation Strategy (2023)75 and Future Skills: Action Plan (2021).76 Scotland’s four innovation centres, which includes the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre founded by the GSA77, aim to create transformational partnerships between higher education institutions, colleges, and the public and private sector.
At a more systemic level, the GSA collaborates with key stakeholders, including other higher education institutions, to shape its innovation ecosystem. For example, it has been an active stakeholder in Innovation Centres; Scottish Funding Council’s long-term infrastructure investment programme aiming to create transformative collaborations between higher education institutions, the public and private sectors and colleges. In addition to being the founding and core partner of the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, GSA is working with the Built Environment Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Innovation Centre and has academic links with the Data Lab and Industrial Bio Innovation Centre.
Both the Glasgow City Council Economic Strategy 2022-203078 and the Glasgow City Region Economic Strategy79 recognise that the creative sector is a high growth sector capable of unlocking the potential of the region’s leading sectors including the Digital Economy, Fintech and Data, and Healthcare and Precision Medicine.
This is also reflected in the GCR’s Innovation Action Plan (2023), where the GSA and the wider creative sector in Glasgow are recognised as engines of innovation.
The GSA contributes to the development of specialist talent that goes on to shape Glasgow’s creative enterprise ecosystem. The importance of creative enterprise to Glasgow City is highlighted by the fact that it is home to 10% of Scotland’s registered businesses, but it accounts for 20% of the nation’s creative businesses, many established by GSA graduates, which employ 28% of Scotland’s creative industries workforce, as of December 2023.80
“I think what I was most impressed with was the level of engagement – it was beyond what we had imagined. Also, the quality of the designs submitted was really good – we got it down to about six that we could have run with.”
Evelyn McDonald, Chief Executive Officer
(2014 – present), on GSA student participation
in Scottish EDGE
“Without The Glasgow School of Art, the city would not be enriched by the wave of young people, and people of all ages, who contribute so much to the area by coming to learn, and who often choose to stay afterwards. By attracting the next generation of artists, designers, makers, and also critical minds, the GSA acts as the nucleus feeding the creative activity that becomes embedded in the city’s infrastructure.”
The GSA’s contribution to creative enterprise is multifaceted. The GSA drives creative enterprise through its graduates, who are about three times more likely to become self-employed or establish their own business than the average across Scottish higher education institutions81 (see Chapter 4). In turn, the GSA plays a key role in sustaining Glasgow’s vibrant studio scene. For example, over half of studio and making spaces identified in its GSA Creative Network map were based in Glasgow82 (see Chapter 2).
Through creative enterprise, GSA graduates and staff support Glasgow’s efforts to stay at the frontier of design and digital innovation across a range of industries, including healthcare, hospitality and advanced manufacturing, among others.
“Glasgow is A place that values making, so it is the natural home of an international design industry. Design, and Glasgow, have played key roles at times of creative upheaval and technological change. This is because design practice and design thinking are about identifying opportunities, solving problems and collaboration. you cannot be a designer without being entrepreneurial or collaborative. Our experience of employing GSA graduates over almost four decades shows that the mix of creative skills it instils in its students is utterly unique and perennially useful.”
Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE, Director, Graven (1985-present)
Their enterprising mindset is also evident in their efforts to drive social innovation through crafts, making and exhibitions, in spaces such as Strange Fields: The Pipe Factory and pop-up galleries. A testament to graduates’ out-of-the-box thinking was their initiative to hold alternative degree shows at venues across the city in 2021. COVID restrictions in Glasgow restricted access to university campuses but not to cultural venues who could continue to hold exhibitions. Working collaboratively and with partners such The Pipe Factory, Woodlands Community Garden, Mid-Wharf, the Briggait, Transmission, SWG3 and SaltSpace, School of Fine Art graduating students delivered their own exhibitions, supported by the GSA, between May and July comprising the Alternative Degree Show Part 1, the Interlude Film Festival and the Alternative Degree Show Part 2.
Furthermore, the entrepreneurial potential of the GSA graduates’ skillsets and mindsets are increasingly absorbed across a range of industries and firms, including the expanding digital, innovation and management consultancies. For example, there is increasing appreciation of the fact that the design thinking skills taught at the GSA can drive intracompany innovation, and as such, enterprise growth.
Enterprise and innovation impacts: Working with industry
The range of creative expertise that GSA students and staff bring creates value for businesses in industries that are, or have the potential to be, major drivers of economic growth. The case study below demonstrates the reach of the GSA’s industrial links.
The Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT), set up in 2000 with a £661,000 Research and Development Grant from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, is a prime example of the GSA leveraging its cutting-edge facilities to provide commercial support to businesses.
Enterprise and innovation impacts: Engaging with SMEs
The emphasis the GSA places on supporting enterprise is also reflected in its engagement with SME businesses. The value of consultancy services offered to Small or Medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has increased by 77% since 2015/16, compared to 8% across Scottish and 11% across UK higher education institutions.83
The GSA also engaged with Interface, a Scotland-wide service that links businesses with academic institutions. Between September 2021 and June 2023, the GSA undertook 20 collaborative projects with SMEs that received grant funding from the Interface Innovation Vouchers scheme. The diverse range of collaborations facilitated through the scheme is exemplified by the case study below.
“Glasgow has become a very strong start-up city — one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in Europe ... (GSA’s) design thinking is a powerful mechanism for product design and is valuable across multiple fields, including tech businesses.”
Mark Logan OBE, Visiting Professor of Innovation
at the Glasgow School of Art, (2022 – present)
“GSA creates graduates who are very connected, respectful and fluid in how they work — skills that feed directly into entrepreneurial ways of working.”
Claire Forsyth, Creative Director,
Glasgow Print Studio, (2018-present)
Moreover, the Head of the Department of Product Design Engineering is a member of the Advisory Board of Scotland’s Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC). STAC is Scotland’s first business accelerator, targeting start-ups in the growing internet of things sector,84 which by 2035 is expected to have an economic impact upwards of £6 billion across all industries.85 STAC was co-founded by Paul Wilson (CEO) and Gregor Aikman (COO),86 who is a GSA alumnus.
The value of consultancy services offered to Small or Medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has increased by 77% since 2015/16.
Enterprise and innovation: Collaborations supporting Scotland’s innovation infrastructure
Innovation Centres form part of the Scottish Government’s core-funded innovation infrastructure. The GSA has deep research expertise in the domain of health and care, focused on users’ experience of the healthcare ecosystem (see Chapter 6), which it has leveraged to co-found the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI). The GSA has been a core delivery partner of the DHI for over 10 years. The case study below highlights the contributions of the DHI, and its role in addressing the healthcare crisis facing the country.
STAC is Scotland’s first business accelerator, targeting start-ups in the growing internet of things sector1, which by 2035 is expected to have an economic impact upwards of £6 billion across all industries. 2
1 Scotland’s first ‘smart things’ accelerator launched | FutureScot
2 The Economic Impact of Robotics & Autonomous Systems Across UK Sectors
The GSA was also part of the network of higher education institutions, led by Edinburgh Napier University, that formally supported the bid for the Built Environment Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Innovation Centre (formerly known as Construction Scotland Innovation Centre). Although the GSA is not a core delivery partner, it has worked with housing sector partners on a range of individual projects involving funding from the BE-ST Innovation Centre.
06
Research Impact
The knowledge generated through research is a key driver of innovation that delivers social and economic impact. This section spotlights the GSA’s strategic approach to supporting knowledge creation in its areas of expertise, and how this translates into socio-economic impact.
Why is it important?
Arts and humanities research has intrinsic value in that it fosters discourse around our understanding of society and history, which shapes public perceptions and policy. As noted by Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair and UKRI Creative Industries Sector Champion, maintaining a vibrant arts and humanities community is vital ‘to address the challenge of complexity and engender open constructive debate, in our own subjects, across science and across communities.’87
Research in creative fields more generally is an instrumental component of the knowledge generation ecosystem, as it contributes towards effectively integrating scientific and technological developments into our economies and societies. The increasing emphasis on transdisciplinary research approaches is a testament to this. In its advice to the outgoing government, the Council for Science and Technology noted that with the right investment in R&D in the creative industries, the sector could contribute £132 billion in GVA and create 300,000 new jobs by 2025.88
The cross-cutting nature of creative industries research and innovation can help catalyse the growth of innovation priority sectors identified in Scotland’s Innovation Strategy, including the ‘Health and Life Sciences’, ‘Data & Digital Technology’, ‘Advanced Manufacturing’ and ‘Energy Transition’ sectors, thereby supporting its aspirations to close productivity and business investment gaps relative to international competitors.89
Similarly, creative research and innovation directly supports Glasgow City Region’s ‘Digital Creative Industries’ cluster, which is one of the key clusters informing its Regional Innovation Action Plan and Investment Zones, alongside ‘Health & Life Sciences’, ‘Energy & Net Zero’, ‘Advanced Manufacturing & Precision Engineering’ and ‘Digital and Enabling Technology and Services’. In so doing, it supports the growth objectives of the Glasgow City Economic Strategy around ‘Creative Economy and Screen’ and ‘Life Sciences and Precision Medicine’.90
the Council for Science and Technology noted that with the right investment in R&D in the creative industries, the sector could contribute£132 billion in GVA and create 300,000 new jobs by 20251
The GSA produces world-class research centred around creative practice, which generates distinctive cultural impact by exploring questions around contested socio-political narratives. Moreover, by drawing on archives and collections, including its own, researchers at the GSA uncover new insights through their creative exploration of history and heritage.
The GSA research portfolio focuses on four strategic themes: ‘Sustainable Environment and Economies’, ‘Cultural Landscape and Identity’, ‘History, Heritage, Archives and Collections’ and ‘Health and Care’. The GSA leverages its expertise in these areas to punch above its weight in terms of its research impact.
Research Impacts: Training the next generation of academic talent
The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) concluded that 82% of the GSA’s research was world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*).
In 2022/23, 50 postgraduate research students were enrolled at the GSA. That represents 1 in every 52 students at the GSA, as opposed to 1 in every 93 students at University of the Arts London. These students are part of one of the most vibrant research student communities in the UK, which counted 5,310 PhD students in 2022/23. The GSA Strategic Plan set a target of growing the GSA’s research student population to 85 by 2027.91
The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) concluded that 82% of the GSA’s research was world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*), while 75.5% of the submitted research outputs demonstrated outstanding (4*) or very considerable (3*) and 88% of research impact ranked 3* and 4*.92 In the Art and design: history, practice and theory unit of assessment, the GSA ranked 13th out of 86 higher education institutions in terms of its research power rank.93
Research at the GSA is propelled through partnerships that support its transdisciplinary efforts and leverage research funding. The GSA has worked on projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Innovation UK and Medical Research Council.
In 2022/23, the GSA secured c.£1.9m in research grants and contracts, the 4th highest among special creative higher education institutions. The main sources of research grants and contracts are outlined in Figure 6.1. The GSA Strategic Plan set a target of growing total research income to £3.5m by 2027.94
In 2022/23, the GSA secured c. £1.9m in research grants and contracts, the 4th highest among special creative higher education institutions.
RESEARCH IMPACT: INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
RESEARCH IMPACTS: HISTORY, HERITAGE, ARCHIVES + COLLECTIONS
RESEARCH IMPACT: CULTURAL LANDSCAPE + IDENTITY
Research impacts: Sustainable Environment and Economies
Researchers at the GSA have a strong track record in exploring questions around the design of sustainable and inclusive economies and communities, which responds to the demands and opportunities of the 21st century. The work of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), which was celebrated in the ‘30 Years of MEARU’ exhibition organised by the GSA in 202395, has been instrumental in this respect, including through its effect on policy (as discussed in Chapter 2). The case study (06) below highlights the GSA’s continued research contribution to this field.
Research impacts: Impact on Health and Care
As one of the co-founders and core deliverers of the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (see Chapter 5), the GSA’s approach to health and care research is fundamentally interdisciplinary and cross-cutting. The GSA has deep research expertise in the domain of health and care, and especially the design of healthcare ecosystems focused on the user experience, which is long-standing and wide-ranging.
07
Wellbeing and Societal Impacts
Beyond being drivers of economic activity, the cultural and creative sectors generate social value through their impact on health and wellbeing and on social cohesion more broadly. This section explores the avenues through which the GSA facilitates wider engagement with the arts and culture, and the social impact achieved through these activities.
Why is it important?
In 2019/20 there were 17.8 million visits to Scottish museums and galleries, which supported close to £900 million in gross spending.96 However, there
is increasing recognition the value that the arts and creative industries bring beyond their economic contribution.97
In recent years the body of evidence pointing to the public health and community well-being benefits of interacting with the arts points towards a multitude of benefits both at the societal and the individual level.
At the individual level, interacting with the arts and producing art has been correlated with reduced stress and anxiety for hospital in-patients.98 Research and government evidence also shows that engaging with the arts enhances prosocial behaviour in society-at-large, leading to improved social cohesion.99 In light of challenges in the post-Covid world, the culture and creativity fostered at institutions like the GSA are important community assets in promoting community wellbeing.
The cultural and creative sectors were placed at the forefront of Glasgow’s economic recovery from its post-industrial decline in the 1980s, and they have been key in shaping its identity as a vibrant place with a dynamic economy. The GSA supported Glasgow’s cultural and creative regeneration, including through its involvement with the Garden Festival (1988), European City of Culture (1990) and City of Architecture and Design (1999) and global events such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games, for which GSA staff designed and manufactured the commonwealth baton and medals. In this regard, the relationship between Glasgow and the GSA is a case study for the transformative impact and contribution of the cultural sector and creative industries.
The GSA’s approach to supporting wellbeing and societal impacts
People’s sense of pride in, and connectedness to, their community is among the factors influencing their health and wellbeing outcomes.100 The regeneration activity supported by the GSA’s wider estate plans around the Garnethill and Sauchiehall Street areas (see Chapter 2) is one of the levers through which the GSA is actively impacting the wellbeing of those in its vicinity.
The GSA also strives to make creative education accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. The avenues for achieving this extend beyond scholarships and bursaries. The GSA maintains formal and informal partnerships with Scotland’s college sector to support progression and articulation, as well as engaging in civic partnerships. More broadly, it offers day, weekend and evening courses to both adults and young people interested to engage in creative activities through Open Studio.
Inviting people to engage with and enjoy culture and creativity is integral to the GSA. It has a rich outreach programme through which it aims to make its Archives and Collections accessible to everyone. Through its well-curated exhibitions and active engagement with the city’s wider cultural and creative ecosystem, it thoughtfully presents works of art that expand audiences’ horizons. As a result of creating spaces where people can engage with culture, creativity and each other, the GSA supports individuals’ wellbeing and fosters community cohesion.
“Innovation is not a luxury it is a necessity, enabling the delivery of a sustainable future for us all.”
Professor George Crooks OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, (2013-present)
“As art unlocks its doors across the country, we know it also unlocks human potential, new ideas, health and wellbeing and investment in our communities. Art can make you feel good, or help you approach and understand what makes you feel bad. In our neighbourhoods creativity can be at the heart of community and help drive essential change.”
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Widening participation in tertiary creative education
The GSA has consistently met the Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) target for individual higher education institutions, which states that students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10% of full-time first-degree entrants to every individual Scottish universities by 2021. Notably, in 2022/23, 22% of Scottish domiciled full-time first-degree GSA entrants came from the 20% most deprived communities, the third highest share among Scottish higher education institutions. Figure 7.1 shows the increase in the percentage of Scottish domiciled first-degree full-time entrants at the GSA from 2013/14 to 2022/23. The data shows that this percentage has been increasing at the GSA, consistently placing the GSA within the top 3 Scottish higher education institutions since 2018/19. Figure 7.1 also shows that the GSA has consistently exceeded the Scottish average in the 10 academic years from 2013-14 to 2022-23, further underscoring the GSA’s role as an enabler for marginalised communities among HEIs in Scotland. The GSA offers portfolio preparation programmes in-person, but also digital programmes reaching the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Facilitating alternative pathways to tertiary creative education
Currently, the GSA has two formal articulation agreements, which include Associate Student Schemes that enable registered students to progress to the GSA after they complete their college course:
The Forth Valley College Associate Student Scheme, delivered by the GSA, helps prepare students on the HND Sound Production course, at the Stirling campus of Forth Valley College, for admission and progression to the GSA’s BDes (Hons) Sound for the Moving Image programme. The majority of entrants on this programme come from HND courses, as it begins in Year 3.
The Glasgow Clyde College Associate Student Scheme is a unique, long-standing agreement between the Glasgow Clyde College and the GSA. Eligible HNC Art & Design students at the College’s Langside campus have the opportunity to participate in the scheme delivered by the GSA to help them prepare for Year 2 entry to undergraduate programmes in the School of Fine Art and selected programmes in the School of Innovation and Technology and the School of Design.101
“After finishing a Saturday class in jewellery, then an NC course at City of Glasgow College and an HND, gradually university felt like an achievable goal for me. From here I had the college’s support with my application for GSA. GSA gave me the support and confidence to develop an artistic identity and confidently speak about myself and my practice.”
Sarah Louise McQuarrie (Silversmithing + Jewellery, 2022) Award-winning goldsmith, designer and maker.
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Civic partnerships
The partnership with the Castlehead High School in Paisley – Scotland’s first School of Creativity – highlights the impact of collaboration among education providers in supporting students to learn about and prepare for opportunities in creative fields.
“The Glasgow School of Art exhibition programme is world class. Its public-facing outputs benefit both the immediate community and Glasgow as a whole.”
Katrina Brown, Director, The Common Guild, (2006-2026)
Wellbeing and societal impacts: The contribution of the GSA to the city’s exhibition ecosystem
The GSA strives to make its Archives and Collections widely available. For example:
It is estimated that 5,581 items were in museum collections as of April 2024, a 57% increase since July 2019. The increase is in part due to a couple of large acquisitions to replenish the collections. There were 3,622 visitors to museum displays as of April 2024.
2,950 teaching and teaching support hours involving museum collections and/or staff were delivered between August 2023 and April 2024, a tripling since August 2018 – August 2019.
155 courses involving collections of museum staff were delivered between August 2023 and April 2024 that engaged 1,207 students.
By attracting visitors to its events, the GSA does not only contribute economically to Glasgow’s economy, it also supports the wellbeing of individual attendees. In 2022/23, it supported c. £280,000 of wellbeing value among the 5,428 people102 who attended its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow.103 Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow attracted 12,152 visitors104 and c. £620,000 in wellbeing impacts.105
The GSA’s successful exhibition programme is recognised for bringing together perspectives from international and local artists and highlighting the relevance of their work in the context of Glasgow and Scotland. The quality of GSA exhibitions foregrounds its research capacity, and it provides valuable opportunities to engage students in the curatorial process.
The embeddedness of the GSA in the exhibition and curator ecosystem locally, nationally and beyond amplifies its public engagement impact. The GSA has been a consistent partner on major cultural events, such as Glasgow International, a contemporary art festival. Moreover, GSA artists exhibit their work in galleries and venues across the city. Beagles & Ramsay’s NHOTB & RAD exhibition at GOMA is a recent example, among many (see Case Study: Glasgow’s Cultural Partnerships).
The following case studies highlight how GSA Exhibitions have the power to help their audience connect with their community and environment. They are also tangible examples of how interacts with other key stakeholders in the city’s vibrant creative ecosystem (see Chapter 2) and fuels its vitality.
Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow attracted 12,152 visitors1 and c. £620,000 in wellbeing impacts. 2
1 The Glasgow School of Art, 2024 2 At the UK level, this increases to c. £950,000 in wellbeing benefits among 18,566 attendees, including those attending Eureka in Somerset House, London in 2022/23.
Direct impacts refer to the employment and wealth creation resulting from GSA’s activities, measured in terms of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employment and Gross Value Added (GVA):
Employment numbers for 2022/23 have been sourced from HESA. Additionally, a snapshot provided by GSA’s HR department reflective of the 2021/22 academic year provided granular information on the number of positions filled by unique direct employees by mode (Full Time/Part Time), FTE, residential location and salary.
Gross Value Added (GVA) is the key measure of economic output at the level of a firm, sector or region. It can be measured in a number of ways and typically for a firm this is done using the income approach, as the sum of EBITDA and compensation of employees. These figures have been sourced from the Art School’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2022/23.
Indirect effects
Indirect impacts refer to the employment and GVA supported by GSA’s external expenditure (capital and revenue) on local suppliers. This expenditure creates employment and value added within GSA’s immediate suppliers and within all subsequent tiers of the supply chain, as GSA’s suppliers make purchases from their own suppliers, and so on.
The Glasgow School of Art holds a database of expenditure on external suppliers. This contains information for each supplier transaction including the location of the supplier106, the type of purchase and the total level of spend for 2021/22, which was inflated to 2022/23.
Using the type of purchase classification used in the database, we mapped the GSA’s spend onto the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) contained in Hatch Urban Solutions’ Input-output model for the UK and the regions, and used the postcode information to determine the location of each supplier.
The full economic impacts of this expenditure were then estimated using our input-output model. The model is based on data from the UK National Accounts and allows us to estimate the supply chain multiplier effects from an initial injection of expenditure in a particular sector.
Induced effects
Induced effects refer to the effects of spending by employees whose jobs are supported directly within the Art School and indirectly within its supply chain:
Impacts from expenditure by GSA’s employees have been estimated using data on wages and salaries from the Art School’s HR data, adjusting for income tax (PAYE), National Insurance contributions, pension contributions and saving rates. Different rates of leakage of expenditure are assumed for the different impact areas. Our input-output model has been used to estimate the economic impacts from this spending.
Impacts from expenditure by employees in the supply chain have been estimated using the Type 2 (indirect and induced) multipliers within our input-output model.
Student Impacts
Expenditure
Expenditure by GSA’s students is an important source of its economic contribution. The National Student Income and Expenditure Survey, published by BIS107, provides detailed data on the spending behaviour of students in UK universities, split by full time/part time students and the goods and services purchased (other breakdowns are also available). We have used the data from the latest survey (for 2021/22), along with data on the student population at The Glasgow School of Art, to estimate the economic impacts of this expenditure.
The approach is as follows:
Work out how many full time and part time students live in each impact area, split by those who live in accommodation owned by the Art School and those who live in other accommodation
Analyse how many of these originally came from outside the impact area before moving to study there – this includes both domestic and international students
Apply the average expenditure per student (split by full- and part-time students) to these breakdowns of the student population (excluding expenditure which represents a transfer to GSA’s, such as tuition fees and rents, for those living in Art School accommodation)
Allocate this expenditure to sectoral categories in our input-output model, using a best fit analysis of the categories in the Student Income and Expenditure Survey
Apply leakage rates for each of the impact areas, to each expenditure category
Estimate the economic impacts from this expenditure using our input-output model.
We have estimated the total economic impact from this expenditure, as well as the portion which comes from students who were originally from outside the impact area.
Visitor Impacts
The Glasgow School of Art generates visits in a number of ways. The challenge is to understand how many visits there are, how much these visitors spend in the local economy, what they spend their money on and what the consequent economic impacts are.
We have only estimated economic value generated by visits from friends and relatives of students. The process has been to:
Analyse the origin of all Full-Time students, including the country of origin of international students (using data from the GSA)
Analyse the total number of UK visits from outside Glasgow and Scotland, and associated expenditure (using data from the Great Britain Day Visits Survey)
Analyse the total number of international visits for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives, and associated expenditure, by country of origin (using data from the ONS International Passenger Survey)
Allocated this expenditure to sectoral categories in our input-output model, using UK Tourism Satellite Account
Estimate the economic impacts from this expenditure using out input-output model.
DISCLAIMER AND LIMITATIONS OF USE
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01
“Through our people, our education and our research, we empower change and create impact that is both transformative and collaborative”
Ambition Our Impact Study sets out our role as an anchor institution within Glasgow, Scotland, and the UK’s higher education, creative and cultural ecosystem, while also seeking to redefine it. Today, The Glasgow School of Art is a magnet institution, attracting, retaining and concentrating cultural, creative talent to support Glasgow’s creative and cultural sectors, as well as the city’s innovation and wider knowledge economy both locally and nationally.
Throughout this evidence-based impact study you will see how we make that happen. Our economic value is positioned alongside our social, cultural, educational, civic and rural impact and our people. We are rooted in Glasgow and Scotland but, as an institution that values partnership and is open to new ideas – with a questioning, radical and independent spirit – we are globally engaged and internationally recognised. These values are reflected in our graduates, many who remain in Glasgow, natural global collaborators, central to the continued vitality of the city and Scotland’s cultural and creative future.
Professor Penny Macbeth
Director and Principal
The Glasgow School of Art
Introduction
Education in the arts has been part of Glasgow’s educational offer from the middle of the 18th century.
Context for the study
The creative industries are key drivers of innovation, economic growth and employment. This is recognised at the UK level, including Scotland: a range of initiatives and policy developments have underlined a commitment to the sector. ‘Building a business case for Scotland’ highlights the creative industries as one of the key elements of the nation’s brand and recognises their potential for growth.1 Nowhere is this more true than in the city of Glasgow, whose unique position in the cultural and creative economy has been recognised by the OECD.2 The Glasgow Economic Leadership body and the new Glasgow Culture Strategy have re-affirmed Glasgow’s commitment to remaining a cultural and creative leader.
At the same time, recent years have seen a re-emergence in the civic university concept, and the roles that higher education institutions play as anchor institutions for their places, as economic, social and placemaking assets.
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) intersects these agendas in a range of distinctive and impactful ways. As a leading specialist cultural and creative higher education institution of international acclaim, it delivers a range of socio-economic and cultural benefits to the city of Glasgow, Scotland and the wider UK. The GSA supported the city’s creative-led regeneration in the 1980s and was instrumental in cementing Glasgow’s brand as a contemporary city of culture. The GSA is equipped to support the next phase of the city’s regeneration, as one of the key stakeholders driving the growth of its creative industries through an ecosystem based model based on interdisciplinary partnerships and innovation.
This report examines these contributions, placing them into their wider strategic context, quantifying them where possible, and articulates their impact with case studies.
The Impact Report is an independent study commissioned from Hatch by The Glasgow School of Art, 2025.
About The Glasgow School of Art
Education in the arts has been part of Glasgow’s educational offer from the middle of the 18th century. The Foulis Academy, a precursor institution to The Glasgow School of Art, was established in 1753 during The Scottish Enlightenment, to deliver a European style art education. In 1845, The Glasgow School of Art was established as one of the first Government Schools of Design, which were set up across the UK to support industry with design. Today, in addition to its Glasgow campus, which is located at the heart of the city centre, the GSA’s presence extends to the Scottish Highlands.
The GSA comprises four specialist schools:
Mackintosh School of Architecture
School of Design
School of Fine Art
School of Innovation and Technology.
The commitment of the GSA to affect impactful change by leveraging its expertise is captured in the GSA Strategic Plan 2022-273 ambition and values.
The GSA’s history, global reach and continued commitment to being a driver of change make it an invaluable resource in Scotland’s and the UK’s cultural and creative innovation ecosystem.
The socio-economic role of the creative industries and creative economy
The GSA’s history, global reach and continued commitment to being a driver of change make it an invaluable resource in Scotland’s and the UK’s cultural and creative innovation ecosystem.
The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) estimates suggest that the creative industries generated £125bn in GVA in 2022 and the cultural sector supported £35bn in GVA.4 Their research highlights the overlap between the cultural sector and the creative industries, driven by activity in areas such as radio and television broadcasting and the performing arts.5
The Scottish Government industry statistics suggest that Scotland’s creative industries generated £4.4bn GVA in 2021. Glasgow accounted for a fifth (21%) of Scotland’s creative industry GVA and it is home to the largest cluster of creative talent, which employed 25,060 people in 2022.6 This highlights its strength across a range of subsectors – such as design and architecture, screen production and broadcasting, an internationally acclaimed visual arts community and vibrant music scene – which has been supported by the city’s rich cultural ecosystem, consisting of a diverse range of key organisations and institutions, including its specialist higher education sector.7
However, the size of the creative economy extends beyond that captured by official statistics, as a wide range of creatives are employed in traditionally non-creative sectors, and hence the value of their activities is not captured by statistical definitions of the sector.8
Furthermore, there is increasing recognition that art, culture and creativity contribute to economic prosperity, but also individual health and wellbeing and the fabric of communities.9 A recent McKinsey report highlights the ways in which the arts impact on the economy, on individuals and on communities.10
Scope of the study
This study seeks to capture the range of socio-economic and cultural contributions that the GSA makes at the level of Glasgow, Scotland and the UK. The GSA is a civic actor and a place-maker: the cultural weight and global recognition of the GSA acts as a magnet for talent, and its retention within the city’s creative ecosystem and wider economy, whilst it is also a driver of urban regeneration though its estates developments both in Glasgow and Altyre. It is a driver of economic activity through its own economic footprint, but also by supporting the creative and cultural ecosystem in the city, graduate retention and creative skills development, enterprise, research and innovation. Moreover, its contribution to making visual arts and creative education and participation accessible, supports health and wellbeing and wider social and civic benefits.
This report brings together evidence on the socio-economic contribution of the GSA, quantifying the various contributions where possible, following a thematic approach. Figure 1.4 summarises the socio-economic impact framework that underpins the study. The assessment is informed by a bespoke data request to the GSA, published data from HESA and other sources, consultations with key contacts within the School and externally, and a set of case studies. The technical appendix provides details of the methodology used to assess socio-economic impact.
£4.4bn
GVA in 2021
25,060
people employed in 2022
02
Civic and Place-making Contributions
53%
of overnight leisure visitors to Glasgow named culture and cultural events as the motivation for their trip.
Why is it important?
Cities are engines of economic growth and regeneration. City regions like Glasgow have the opportunity to shape their future by maximising their competitive advantages as ‘magnet cities’.11 In this context, higher education institutions are among the most valuable civic and cultural assets that cities possess. By opening up their campus and promoting the exchange of knowledge and ideas, higher education institutions can fuel creative and innovative clusters that help cities cement their brand, identify and attract talent to grow their economies. The importance of higher education institutions as civic actors that drive positive change in their locales has received increasing emphasis in the UK since the publication of the Civic University Commission’s final report.12 Centrally located campuses are also physical landmarks that act as drivers of urban vitality and regeneration.
Glasgow’s unique and vibrant cultural scene and creative industries have been a cornerstone of its post-industrial regeneration, and an important pull for international talent. In 1990, Glasgow gained international recognition as the first British city to be awarded the European Capital of Culture, underscoring its distinctiveness as a place that leverages its culture assets to produce compelling work. Glasgow remains a hub of cultural production, enabled by the range of small and large production facilities, such as the Glasgow Print Studio and the Glasgow Sculpture Studios. It is also a hub of cultural consumption. Pre-pandemic research revealed that an overwhelming 53% of overnight leisure visitors to Glasgow named culture and cultural events as the motivation for their trip. This is significantly higher than the Scottish average (33%).13
The Glasgow School of Art, which attracts creative talent and visitors from across the globe, has been and can continue to be an integral part of the city’s regeneration as a centre for creative and cultural production and cultural consumption.
‘Magnetic Experience’ is part of the vision outlined in the Glasgow City Centre Strategy 2024-30.14 The strategy aims to deliver against this objective through a range of priority actions, including developing its cultural and heritage assets and promoting its visitor and evening and night-time economy. The Glasgow Tourism Action Plan 2024-26 reflects the emphasis on supporting thriving places across the city by “creating new reasons for residents and visitors to visit the city centre more frequently”.15
The central location of the GSA Glasgow campus puts it at the epicentre of the flurry of regeneration and urban renewal activity that supports the city’s aspiration for a ‘Magnetic Experience’. For example, the Golden Z Project is focused on improving the public realm of the Z-shaped corridor that connects Sauchiehall Street to Argyle Street.16 Concurrently, the £115m Avenues Programme aims to deliver an integrated network of cycle and pedestrian routes across the city17 and thereby connect the distributed networks of creative production and cultural venues. Meanwhile, Glasgow Life has unveiled plans to develop a new vision for Sauchiehall Street as a Culture and Heritage district, including portions of Bath Street and Renfrew Street18, which would further embed the GSA into the urban fabric and next stages of regeneration of Glasgow.
As documented below, with the opening of the GSA Highlands and Islands campus, the GSA’s remit as a place-maker has expanded outside the urban realm. Rural areas in Scotland face challenges relating to staff recruitment and retention, digital connectivity, ageing population and access to services. There is an impetus to support rural Scotland, as reflected by the establishment of the Rural Delivery Plan: Ministerial Working Group in June 2023.19 The creative industries are one of the regional transformational opportunities recognised in the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) Strategy (2023-28).20 The Strategy notes that digital skills and technology adoption, greater collaboration with international creative and innovation networks and cross-sectoral working (including tourism, health and wellbeing and community wealth building) are some of the actions needed to realise this transformational opportunity.
The Glasgow School of Art’s approach
The Glasgow School of Art is an integral part of the history of the City of Glasgow. The diverse facets of the GSA as a world-leading creative institution and a cultural and architectural asset at the heart of the city speak to different aspects of Glasgow’s story as a place, as highlighted in Figure 2.1.
“The majority of artists working in our Glasgow studios have come through The Glasgow school of Art, either directly or indirectly.”
of Glasgow city’s identity, and The Glasgow School of Art plays an important role in that space.”
Susan Deighan, Chief Executive, Glasgow Life, (2022 – 2025)
Fig 2.1
The Glasgow School of Art
as an integral part of the history of the city of Glasgow
The UK Government’s Creative Industries Sector Plan identifies the sector as a priority growth area, aiming to increase business investment from £17 billion to £31 billion by 2035, while strengthening regional creative clusters across the UK, including the Creative Clyde cluster in Glasgow.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2025;
Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, 2023.
Cementing Glasgow’s brand as a contemporary city of culture
The origins of the GSA can be traced to the foundation of the Foulis Academy, which brought European style art education to the UK. The Foulis Academy was founded in 1753, fifteen years before the establishment of the Royal Academy of Art in London.21 At the turn of the 20th century, the creative alliance between Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his group of artists, which became known as ‘The Four’, defined the ‘Glasgow Style’ – the UK’s response to the Art Nouveau movement – sparking the artistic revival of the city.22
In the mid-1980s, as the City entered its cultural and creative-led regeneration, the GSA introduced Environmental Art and a Master of Fine Art programme within the School of Fine Art.23
The establishment of these programmes within the School of Fine Art’s core disciplines, has been influential in the development of Scotland’s contemporary art movement24, and it has helped cement Glasgow’s brand as a city of culture. The GSA has educated 11 Turner Prize winners, and a further 12 nominees, which is a testament to the long-standing spirit of creative innovation fostered by the School. The 2014 GENERATION: 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland exhibition, which celebrated contemporary art in Scotland, was dominated by graduates of the GSA, as has Scotland’s presence at the La Biennale di Venezia.
Powering Glasgow’s industry
By the time the Foulis Academy was founded, Glasgow was already considered Scotland’s second city and a thriving, global hub of trade and commerce.25 In the early 19th century, the industrial revolution accelerated the growth of Glasgow, as it became one of UK’s industrial and manufacturing centres.
As such, it is no coincidence that the formal establishment of the GSA took place in 1845. The GSA was formally established as one of the UK’s first Government Schools of Design, which were a consequence of the 1835-36 House of Commons Select Committee on Arts and their connection with Manufactures.26
The ‘Culture and the Creative Economy in Glasgow City Region, UK’ (OECD, 2022) report recognises that addressing skills gaps, entrepreneurship and innovation are key to the ongoing competitiveness and success of the sector. Glasgow’s specialist higher education institutions are a key feature of the city’s cultural infrastructure and are uniquely placed to support industry. As demonstrated in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, the design skills and expertise the GSA brings continue to be highly valued across a range of industries.
Contributing to the cultural vibrancy of the Garnethill community
The GSA’s campus in Glasgow stretches across the Garnethill area, considered to be one of the city’s most artistic and multi-cultural districts, and it is now a conservation area.27 Overall, the immediate area is quite lively given its location along the arterial routes of the city centre, most notably the vibrant Sauchiehall Street. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s School of Art building (1897-1909) is adjacent to the GSA’s contemporary purpose-designed art school building, the Reid Building (2014). Designed by Steven Holl Architects, an American Institute of Architects Gold medal winner, the Reid Building added to the area’s architectural character. The GSA Board is committed to their responsibilities as custodians of the Mackintosh Building.
But the GSA’s contribution to the vibrancy of the area extends beyond its physical infrastructure. Its staff and students, and the broader community of practising artists, musicians and creatives that are drawn to the area around the School, are integral to the area’s distinctive identity that makes the Garnethill community attractive to locals and visitors alike.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Revitalising Glasgow’s city centre
The physical footprint of the GSA in Garnethill means that it has an important role to play as a driver of placemaking and community. Through the phased redevelopment of its campus, the GSA has helped shape the urban fabric of the area:
The GSA Reid Building development (2009-2014) represented a £50m capital investment in Glasgow’s city centre. Similar to the Mackintosh Building, it is a purpose-designed art school building and replaced the Foulis Building and Newbery Tower. Situated opposite the historic Mackintosh Building28 this piece of world-class architecture by Steven Holl Architects is ‘in complementary contrast to [its neighbour] forging a symbiotic relation in which each structure heightens the integral qualities of the other’.29 The Reid Building opened in 2014 and houses the studios of the GSA’s School of Design, major workshops and public spaces including an international-standard gallery and exhibition space and Window on Heritage, a public interface to the School’s extensive and nationally recognised archives and collections.
The refurbishment of the Stow Building represents a c.£25m capital investment, and a westwards expansion of the GSA campus. Acquired in 2016, the building is a gateway to Glasgow’s west end and home to active travel interventions such as the Underline Phase 1 project30, which is part of Glasgow City Council’s £115m UK and Scottish Government City Deal funded Avenues programme.31 The Stow Building brought together all programmes in the School of Fine Art in one building for the first time in over 50 years.32 The acquisition of the building also serves as an example of the GSA’s civic place-making and creative pull given the Stow Building’s proximity to the creative cluster around the Forth & Clyde Canal, which includes the Whisky Bond, Civic House, the National Theatre and Scottish Opera.
More broadly, the GSA is active in shaping the regeneration agenda of Garnethill. Its Estates Strategy published in 2022 considered the contribution the GSA could make, in partnership with the City Council and local community, to the urban environment and public realm within Garnethill and how the strategic disposal of buildings no longer fit for purpose or surplus to requirements could be positively redeveloped. For example, the GSA is an important stakeholder and contributor to Glasgow Life’s developing plans for heritage and cultural led regeneration of Sauchiehall Street.33 It recognises that beyond its role as a centre of education and research the GSA’s exhibition programme, built heritage, archives and collections are attractions that drive visitors to Glasgow. The importance of the Mackintosh Building to this is recognised and in 2024, Reiach and Hall, with Purcell, were appointed to identify an appropriate route for the building.
The Glasgow Urban Lab, a partnership between Glasgow City Council and the GSA’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, has generated world-class research on how Scotland’s principal cities, including Glasgow, can become urban leaders in the 21st century.
Infusing life into Glasgow’s city centre has become more important than ever post-pandemic. As shown in Figure 2.2, the GSA has a concentrated presence in the city centre’s landscape, with approximately 3500 students and staff on campus. Along with its exhibitions and events programme, as part of a wider cultural offer in the immediate area attracting visitors, the GSA drives footfall and expenditure that is crucial to supporting Glasgow’s city centre economy. In 2022/23, the GSA attracted over £25 million in staff, student and visitor expenditure to Glasgow.
The Reid and stow building developments represent a £75 million capital investment in Glasgow’s city centre.
Civic and Place-making Contributions
Glasgow is one of the most vibrant centres for contemporary art in the UK, outside of London. It has every level of artistic institution, including a dynamic studio, making and production scene, allowing artists to make work at scale. Glasgow’s studio, making and production spaces are uniquely located across the city, coalescing in clusters and creating critical mass of independent studios, workshops and collaborative spaces across the city.
The GSA maintains and feeds new talent to the network of creative organisations, collectives and individual practitioners that sustain the city’s studio scene. Studio, making and exhibitions spaces in the GSA Creative Network map includes significant numbers of GSA graduate initiated or connected spaces (Figure 2.3). The spread of Glasgow’s studios and making spaces reflects the cultural led regeneration journey of the city. The burgeoning studio culture of the city started in redundant and cheap spaces, wherever they could be found. The concentration of spaces around Merchant City was driven by Glasgow City Council’s decision to earmark the area, which mostly consisted of redundant warehouses, as prime for regeneration. Big anchor cultural projects, such City Halls, Trongate 103, South Block, Modern Institute and The Briggait, ensued. In recent years this activity and development of studio, making and exhibition spaces to support regeneration moving eastwards to Calton and Dennistoun including the Pipe Factory, Barras and WASPS at Hanson Street, south of the river including 5 Florence Street through to Govanhill and Victoria Road, and to the north of the city centre to the clustering around the Glue Factory and Whisky Bond.
The Glasgow Art Map is an online map and journal of contemporary art exhibitions happening in Glasgow. Through the mapping and archiving of contemporary art exhibitions it connects audiences to art in Glasgow and promotes organisations working within the city. For up to date exhibition listings see Glasgowartmap.com and @glasgow_art_map on Instagram.
Glasgow Art Map reflects Glasgow’s vibrant contemporary art scene and the importance of GSA’s Creative Network to the city’s permanent contemporary art spaces. Showcasing exhibitions and events that take place throughout the year, many of the places on the map were founded or are actually run by graduates of the GSA. Approximately 60% of the GSA’s graduates live and work in the city after graduating, where they continue to shape the city’s creative landscape. Glasgow Art Map is run by GSA graduates Emma Aars (MLitt Art Writing, 2023), Caitlin Merrett King (MLitt Art Writing, 2022), and Max Slaven (Fine Art Photography, 2009) at David Dale Gallery.
Placemaking and civic impacts: The Highlands & Islands campus
The GSA has been operating in the Highlands since 2010, initially at the Enterprise Park, Forres. To establish a more prominent presence in the region, it worked with Highlands and Islands Enterprise to establish its campus on the Altyre Estate near the town of Forres in the Moray district. The GSA Highlands & Islands campus opened in 2017. It initially comprised a small community of 10 members of GSA staff34 and 35 students35 who live and contribute to the local area. It is also supporting the local ecosystem of creatives and craftsmen through collaborations, such as the founding of the Moray Textile Network and its contributions to the Inverness-based Xpo North conference.
The GSA Highlands & Islands campus has become a catalyst and world-leader in research and innovation in the domain of digital health, fulfilling one of its early mandates to explore remote digital health solutions, being a base for the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI), a world-leading partnership initially between The Glasgow School of Art, the University of Edinburgh and NHS Scotland and now between The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde. DHI is now one of four Scottish Funding Council National Innovation Centres and secured a key role in the UK and Scottish Government £100m Moray Growth Deal with £5m investment for the Moray Rural Centre of Excellence, which is based at the GSA’s Highlands and Islands campus. The campus has also become the base for The Glasgow School of Art’s Rural Lab, one of two new strategic research labs being established as part of the GSA’s Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027 focusing on place-based research, innovation, knowledge exchange and partnership.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Influencing and supporting policy
GSA staff work with a diverse range of stakeholders to help shape the places where they work, including for example Glasgow City Council, Glasgow City Region and its economic workstreams, Glasgow Life and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The GSA also affects change at a more systemic level through its influence on shaping policy within Scottish Government which can have wider UK or international impact. For example, the work of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), a specialist research centre based within the GSA’s Mackintosh School of Architecture, has informed the Scottish Building Standards Directorate in updating regulations and building standards. Additionally, the GSA’s Deputy Director and Vice Principal (Research and Innovation) is a member of the Scotland CAN DO: Business Innovation Forum36 working regionally across both the Highlands and Islands and the South of Scotland and developing opportunities with South of Scotland Enterprise. South of Scotland Enterprise is the economic and community development agency for the South of Scotland and the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, building the GSA’s experience and delivery within the Highlands and Islands, its partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Moray Growth Deal.
Placemaking and civic impacts: Community engagement
Through its staff, students, graduates and creative spaces, the GSA undertakes a wide range of community engagement activities with the communities in Glasgow and the Highlands and Islands. These range from engagement with schools and schoolchildren through creative projects for example Garnetbank Primary School and Castlehead High School, to its work with community groups across a range of creative, environmental and capacity building projects.
03
The Economic Footprint of The Glasgow School of Art
The GSA is an important employer and purchaser of goods in the local and wider economy. As such, its presence brings significant flows of expenditure and economic multiplier effects to Glasgow City, Scotland and the UK. This chapter captures the economic impact of the GSA and puts it into its wider context. The analysis in this part of the report provides a snapshot of economic contributions in the 2022/23 academic year. It considers the following effects:
Direct – the activities taking place on campus
Indirect – the economic activity supported by the GSA’s supply chain spending
Induced – the further multiplier effects from staff spending
Student and visitor-related – the economic activity supported by students and visitors
These effects are measured in terms of employment and Gross Value Added (GVA).37 See the technical appendix for more details.
Direct impacts
In 2022/23, the GSA employed 615 staff, an increase of 37% since 2015/16. Adjusting for Full and Part Time staff, this translates to around 460 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs.
430 staff were based in Scotland, of whom more than half (56%) resided in Glasgow City. There are also about 10 staff living in Moray, where the GSA Highlands & Islands campus is based.
In 2022/23, the GSA generated a total income of £47.1 million. This is broadly in line with the income growth experienced by specialist creative HEIs38 (24%) in the UK, and exceeds the growth seen across Scottish (9%) and UK (17%) higher education institutions.39 In 2022/23, the GSA generated £30 million in direct Gross Value Added (GVA).
Indirect impacts
In 2022/23, the GSA spent about £21.6 million with UK based suppliers on goods and services to support its operation and capital investments, of which about 74% was with suppliers based in Scotland and 36% was with Glasgow City based suppliers.
We estimate that, in total, the GSA’s supply chain expenditure in 2022/23 supported £5 million in GVA and 80 FTE jobs in Glasgow, and a total of £10 million in GVA and 190 FTE jobs in the UK.
Induced impacts
The GSA paid about £17 million40 in gross wages and salaries to staff living across the UK, of which 96% was paid to employees living in Scotland. GSA staff living in Glasgow earned £9 million, which is more than half (55%) of the gross wages paid to Scottish staff.
The consequence is significant expenditure injections into the local economy and beyond from the GSA employees, generating further multiplier effects. Combined with the spending of employees in the supply chain, this expenditure drives induced economic impacts.
We estimate that the expenditure of staff employed by the GSA, along with those in the supply chain, supported £5 million in GVA and 30 in FTE jobs in Glasgow, increasing to £25 million in GVA and 180 FTE jobs in Scotland.
Student impacts
Student population
In 2022/23, the GSA had a total of 2,605 students, an increase of 26% since 2015/16. For context, that makes the GSA’s student body larger than the London Business School (2,300) and comparable to that of the Royal College of Art (2,985). The proportion of GSA students studying towards art degrees41 (18%) is reflective of its reputation as one of the UK’s leading visual arts schools. The GSA ranks second42 among specialist creative HEIs in terms of its share of students studying art degrees, after the Royal College of Art (20%)43. It is also worth noting that these characterisations are derived from HESA definitions; the nature of “creative” higher education is not limited to what can be characterised as “creative” such as Architecture or Sculpture, but can include creative curricula in other fields such as Engineering or Product Design. This is to say that the actual number of students studying creative disciplines at the GSA is higher than 18%.
The majority of GSA students studied full-time (93%). Close to three quarters (73%) of the 2022/23 student cohort were enrolled in undergraduate courses, with the remaining 27% studying towards postgraduate degrees. Notably, the GSA has the fifth highest share of postgraduate students out of fourteen specialists creative HEIs in the UK.
In 2022/23, slightly less than two-thirds of GSA students (64%) were originally from the UK. Scottish students accounted for 45% of the GSA’s student body, including local students, with 14% of all students coming from Glasgow. At undergraduate level, the number of Scottish students is controlled by the Scottish Funding Council. The GSA is allocated 1,226.3 funded student places from the Scottish Funding Council for Scotland-domiciled students, approximately 1% of the total number of SFC funded places available.44
19% of GSA students originate from the rest of the UK, with notable concentrations coming from London (6%), the South East (3%) and North of England (5% combined across regions).
The GSA has consistently exceeded the Scottish Government’s Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) target for individual higher education institutions45 since 2013/14. In 2022/23, 22% of the GSA’s Scottish domiciled full-time first-degree entrants came from the 20% most deprived communities, making it the third highest ranked higher education institution in Scotland.46 See Chapter 7.
Over a third (36%) of students at the GSA came from abroad, which is the fifth highest share among Scottish higher education institutions and is significantly higher than the average among specialist creative HEIs (24%) where GSA ranks third after the Royal College of Art and University of the Arts London. In 2022/23, international students from 41 countries attended the GSA, reflecting the institution’s global reach and reputation. Figure 3.5 shows the top ten countries where GSA international students come from.
As shown, the proportion of GSA students from China is greatly overrepresented compared to the rest of UK institutions, however students from India are significantly underrepresented. Aside from that, the proportion of students from the top countries of origin of GSA’s international students is largely in line with the rest of the UK. However, across all UK HEIs, there is a high share of students from Nigeria (10%) and Pakistan (5%), whereas these nationalities are not significantly represented in the GSA’s student body.
The vast majority of GSA students (90%) lived in Scotland during term time. Notably, 69% of GSA’s lived in Glasgow, which highlights the contribution they make to the city’s vibrancy, creative clusters and economy.
Student expenditure impacts
Students make a sizable contribution to the economy of Glasgow, Forres and Scotland by bringing extra expenditure into these areas. Notably, the international students that the GSA attracts generate expenditure that might not have otherwise occurred both locally and UK wide.
By drawing on the National Student Income and Expenditure Survey47, which provides data on the expenditure patterns and amounts of students in the UK, we are able to estimate students’ expenditure whilst studying at the Art School, and the associated economic impacts.
In total, the expenditure of students at the GSA supports an estimated:
£10m in GVA and 250 FTE jobs in Glasgow. A significant portion this is driven by students who moved to Glasgow for their studies from elsewhere in the UK and abroad. Full-time students from outside Glasgow account for three quarters of this economic impact.
£25m GVA and 450 FTE jobs in Scotland, of which around half is driven by full-time students moving to the area from elsewhere in the UK and abroad.
£40m GVA and 570 FTE jobs in the wider UK economy, around 31% of which is driven by international students. That is, international students supported around £15m in GVA and 180 FTE jobs nationally.
The breakdown of student numbers by fee category in Table 3.4 shows a steady growth of student numbers at the GSA, with the total student body growing at approximately 3% annually. Driving a lot of this growth is the number of postgraduate students, rising from 466 in 2019/20 to 777 in 2024/25, which corresponds with an annual growth rate of approximately 11%.
Similarly, there has been a doubling in students paying postgraduate taught fees (140% increase) though students paying postgraduate research fees declined by 32%. Students paying undergraduate fees only increased by 0.5% annually, slower than the undergraduate student numbers. This is because some postgraduate students in the School of Architecture pay undergraduate fees, and in 2019/20 this totalled 145 students. Discounting these students increases the annual growth rate to 1%.
Visitor impacts
Students originating from outside Glasgow, Scotland and the UK receive visits from friends and family throughout the year for a range of reasons. Using conservative assumptions, we estimate that the expenditure associated with these visits supported a further £1m in GVA and 20 FTE jobs in Glasgow, which increases to £1.5m in GVA and 30 FTE jobs at the UK level.
The GSA’s cultural programme leverages its exhibitions programme, events, annual degree shows and rich Archives and Collections.
The GSA’s Archives and Collections, attracted 3,622 visitors to museum displays (August 2023 – April 2024). The collection holds c. 5000 individual items, 100 deposited archive collections and 25,000 items in the GSA institutional archive. It comprises one of the most comprehensive archives and collections for the creative disciplines. The GSA’s collection of works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh are of national significance.48
Moreover, the GSA collaborates with organisations such as BAFTA Scotland, Cryptic and Glasgow International to deliver city wide events. Through these activities, it enriches the city’s cultural and tourism offer. The expenditure of these visitors is an additional driver of economic activity locally. The GSA’s economic contribution stemming from its cultural programme and offer has not been quantified because it is hard to ascertain whether the main reason behind these visits was attending a GSA event, although its assets contribute to Glasgow’s overall unique offer. In 2022, Glasgow’s overall economic value from visitor spend was calculated at £1.58bn.49
In 2022-23 the GSA contributed £55m in GVA and 840 FTE jobs to Glasgow’s economy rising to £115M in GVA and 1,610 FTE jobs at UK level.
the number of postgraduate students, rose from 466 in 2019/20 to 777 in 2024/25,
Total economic footprint
Bringing all of the above effects together, in 2022/23, the GSA contributed £55m in GVA and 840 FTE jobs to Glasgow’s economy. Its contribution rises to around £115m in GVA and 1,510 FTE jobs at the UK level.
To put this into context:
The GSA directly supported c. £30m in GVA and 460 FTE jobs in Glasgow, which represents 3% and 2% of the GVA and employment supported by the city’s creative economy, respectively.50
For every direct FTE job supported at the GSA, a further job is supported in Glasgow through the multiplier effects generated by the art school.
At the level of Scotland and the UK, this increases to c. 2 jobs for every direct job at the GSA.
04
Creative Skills Development
In 2022, Glasgow City’s
creative industries
cluster employed 25,060 people
The GSA makes a critical contribution to the creative skills ecosystem in Glasgow, Highlands and Islands and the wider Scottish and UK economies. This section brings together the evidence on this contribution. We:
Set out the context on why creative skills development is so important
Outline the GSA’s strategic approach
Highlight evidence of impacts, focusing on the GSA’s role in generating a pipeline of talent for a range of sectors, its work boosting employability, and its support for students to launch their own practice.
Why is Creative Skills Development important?
The UK is widely recognised as a cultural powerhouse, with its arts sector alone estimated to support £49bn in GVA and 970,000 jobs in 2022.51 The continued vitality of the sector is dependent on the supply of talent equipped to exploit opportunities emerging from technological advancements and globalisation. The drive to go digital during the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore digital skills gaps across the sector, most notably in galleries, museums and theatres.52 More broadly, creative skills such as agility, communication, and self-efficacy are increasingly important for the workforce across sectors in the modern digital economy. Consequently, the intensifying symbiosis between the creative and digital industries is increasingly gaining traction as a driver of economic growth and innovation.53
Glasgow, therefore, as a national creative cluster has a unique opportunity to be a key driver of creative-driven growth. As recognised in an OECD report54, however, this places greater need for creative education institutions like the GSA to develop and maintain a robust talent pipeline to respond to the growing demand and need for creative skills in the Glasgow regional economy. This means that more graduates from creative disciplines and graduates with creative skills are needed not only in creative industries but also in the wider economy. Pivotal to achieving this within the Glasgow City Region is to support access into higher education and particularly in the creative disciplines ensuring both a highly skilled and diverse future workforce.
The importance of creative skills and the creative industries in the UK has been reflected at the national level, with the outgoing Conservative and recently elected Labour governments both placing great emphasis on creative education.55 56 Notably, in a speech at the Labour Creatives event in March 2024, Keir Starmer said: ‘a Labour government would put creativity at the heart of the curriculum’.57
The Scottish Government has also set out policies aimed at upskilling and cultivating creative skills in policy documents like the Future Skills: Action Plan, Entrepreneurial Campus, and the Creative Learning Plan. These documents outline a variety of policy aims and goals, including some points of convergence such as improved access to upskilling and retraining, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and support for student start-ups.
In 2022, Glasgow City’s creative industries cluster employed 25,060 people, making it the largest concentration of creatives across Scotland.58 The development of creative skills, but also entrepreneurial skills, will have a direct bearing on the growth of Glasgow’s digital creative industries, which is one of the five key clusters identified in the Glasgow City Region Innovation Action Plan.59 Education and cultural institutions such as the GSA play a vital role in creative skills development, as evidenced by the various initiatives and businesses its graduates have gone on to create.
The GSA’s approach to creative skills development
The studio-based ethos embraced across The Glasgow School of Art is reflected in its course design, with programmes tailored to facilitate theory and practice-based teaching and research. The GSA places emphasis on cultivating graduates that are expansive, experimental and collaborative, and as such live projects and external collaborations are an integral part of its creative education offer.
To support the professional development of its students, alongside supporting employability and graduate opportunities, the GSA leverages the power of its GSA Creative Network to bring together students, graduates, industry experts and employers, for example through the Working Space Programme.
The Primer Scotland partnership with Artquest and Creative Scotland exemplifies how the GSA convenes with other key stakeholders in the cultural and creative sectors to support aspiring artists launch their creative careers.
The GSA is committed to ensuring art education is available at all stages of life. Through the Open Studio, it offers day, weekend and evening courses to young people and adults interested in foraying into a creative hobby, improving existing skills or developing a portfolio for art school. The GSA also offers a range of online and in-person creative professional development courses.
The GSA produces a pipeline of highly skilled talent equipped with a unique blend of skills. In 2022/23, there were 920 graduates from the GSA. Figure 4.1 shows the range of skills these graduates bring. Over half (52%) of the 2022/23 graduates were awarded ‘Design, and Creative and Performing Arts’ degrees and 17% obtained ‘Architecture, Building and Planning’ degrees. Over time, the share of creative technologists graduating from the GSA has increased, as evident from the share of ‘Computing’ (5% vs 3% in 2019/20) and ‘Engineering and Technology’ (5% vs 1%) focused degrees awarded reflecting the growth and development in the GSA’s portfolio in technology and innovation based programmes.
It is important to note that these classifications of degrees by subject are based on HESA categorisations, and may not accurately represent the share of students of each course or programme offered by the GSA, rather it reflects the share of students within broad discipline groups. So in some subject areas, like “Architecture, building and planning”, the HESA data suggests that the number of degrees decreased by between 1-2%, but overall the number of students in the School of Architecture actually increased by 2%.
Nevertheless, some broad trends are still accurately captured. For example, the uptick in the proportion of students in “Engineering and technology” is reflected by a ~70% increase in students in the School of Innovation and Technology between 2019/20 and 2022/23.60 Similarly, the increase in “Computing” students is reflected by a large increase in students enrolled in programmes like BSc Immersive Systems Design (3D Modelling ~200% increase, Games and Virtual Reality ~300% increase). Similarly, the School of Design had a ~7% drop in students, in line with the drop off in Figure 4.2.
The high calibre of fine art graduates the GSA produces is evident in the number of GSA graduates nominated for and winning the Turner Prize, a coveted visual arts award. 12 alumni have been nominated and 11 have won the Turner Prize61, representing Scotland at major international exhibitions for example the Venice Biennale, and their work exhibited in and included in the collections of major national and international galleries and museums. The case study below highlights the impact of GSA graduates within the cultural sector.
Creative skills development impacts: Employability and talent retention
The GSA develops the employability of its students, while supporting its partners’ needs, by exploring opportunities for live projects, competitions, placements and internships, as highlighted in the case studies referenced on the following pages.
Glasgow’s cultural infrastructure – as one of the only cities outside London to offer every level of artistic institution from underground artist-led projects and start-up studio complexes to large publicly funded institutions – and the power of the GSA alumni network in helping graduates navigate the city’s creative landscape are the key reasons many GSA graduates can envision a career for themselves in Glasgow post-graduation.
Data from LinkedIn helps us ascertain the work location of GSA graduates62 (and use the platform). Of the 4,997 alumni identified on LinkedIn who graduated in the past 10 years63, over half (55%) were based in the Greater Glasgow Area.64
Industries and Top employers of GSA graduates, 2024
A recent survey conducted by the GSA highlights its role in attracting and retaining international talent in the UK. Moreover, stakeholder remarks highlighted the mobility of Glasgow’s creative community, and the pluralism of ideas brought by creatives who return to the city after spells of working abroad. The intermingling of local and international talent at the GSA contributes to the international outlook of Glasgow’s creatives, which enhances the local ecosystem’s dynamism.
Creative skills development impacts: Supporting students to launch their practice
By embedding enterprise and employability skills within the curriculum, the GSA supports its students and graduates to access creative enterprise programmes and funding competitions. As part of its commitment to developing entrepreneurial graduates, the GSA was a founding member of the SHIFT student and graduate creative enterprise programme, alongside the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Queen Margaret University. GSA has partnered with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Virgin Money and Deutsche Bank to develop graduate skills in business and entrepreneurship.
The GSA encourages its students to participate in business funding competitions, such as the Scottish EDGE, Scotland’s biggest business funding competition. Notably, when the Scottish EDGE wanted to update the design of its trophy, it approached the GSA. Together, they collaborated on a student competition, yielding exceptional results.
“I think what I was most impressed with was the level of engagement – it was beyond what we had imagined. Also, the quality of the designs submitted was really good – we got it down to about six that we could have run with.”
Evelyn McDonald, Chief Executive Officer, EDGE
Its graduates also participate in programmes like the Converge Challenge, which supports creative thinkers from Scottish higher education institutions to bring their business ideas to life.
The entrepreneurialism of the GSA’s graduates is evident in Graduate Outcomes data, which shows that 15% of its graduates were self-employed, freelancers or running their own business fifteen months after completing their studies, compared to 5% of graduates from Scottish and 6% of graduates from UK higher education institutions. Notably, over three quarters (77%) of these self-employed GSA graduates were based in Scotland, with about 15% in Glasgow.
05
Enterprise and innovation are key drivers of productivity across the economy and are particularly important to the creative industries. This section spotlights the GSA’s role in stimulating enterprise and innovation, putting this into the context of the needs of the economy.
Enterprise and Innovation
As a specialist HEI focusing on creative disciplines, technology and innovation, the GSA helps drive creative enterprise and innovation through its graduates, who go on to establish their own businesses (see Chapter 4) and have a profound influence in Glasgow’s dynamic studio scene and creative ecosystem (see Chapters 2 and 3). The design innovation capabilities of GSA and its graduates, as shown through the case studies in this chapter, are highly valued across a range of key industries identified in Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy, like Data and Digital Technology firms, but also by businesses in other sectors like management consulting, the wider creative industries and the heritage sector.
The GSA also maintains a number of industrial partnerships and engages in knowledge exchange activities that enable it to use its expertise to support small and medium-sized businesses, which account for c.56% of private sector employment and 99% of all private sector businesses in Scotland.65
At a systemic level, the GSA collaborates with key stakeholders across Scotland, including other universities and Enterprise Agencies, to shape its innovation ecosystem. The commitment made by the GSA to drive enterprise and innovation is driven by its Research Strategy and Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund Strategy.
Why is it important?
Innovation and entrepreneurialism are important levers for economic growth. At the UK level, enterprise and innovation play an important part in shaping the economic and innovation policies of the leading parties and individual government ministries. Since taking power, the new Labour government has built on its ‘Start-up, Scale-up’66 and ‘Creating Growth’67 position papers with Invest 203568 in October 2024. Invest 2035 highlights the symbiosis between creative skills and industries, as well as their role in driving economic growth in the UK. As mentioned in Chapter 4, the shortage of creative skills therefore places great impetus on supporting creative HEIs and institutions in creative clusters, such as Glasgow.
Within Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council’s Knowledge Exchange & Innovation (KE&I) Fund69 as well as other strategies such as the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET)70, National Innovation Strategy (NIS)71 and work by Scottish Enterprise72 are key policy documents and initiatives to drive innovation-led growth in the wider economy.
The NIS and NSET complement each other in that they identify the importance of placed-based innovation-clusters, but where the NSET places a greater focus on developing a “culture of development”, the NIS sets out further strategies on innovation priorities, clusters and investment within Scotland. Within both of these strategies, the importance of the creative industries and HEIs – and both in conjunction – is core in driving economic growth and realising Scotland’s ambition to become one of the most innovative small nations in the world. These are centred on developing “entrepreneurial learning” across the Scottish education and skills system (NSET) and building on HEIs’ technical products, patents and spin-outs across four innovation themes; Energy Transition, Health and Life Sciences, Data and Digital Technology and Advanced Manufacturing (NIS).
Similarly, within Scotland, the National Strategy for Economic Transformation (2022) aspires ‘to establish Scotland as a world-class entrepreneurial nation’73. Building on that, the ‘Entrepreneurial Campus’ report highlights the role of the higher education system as a driving force for the entrepreneurial ecosystem.74 The importance of creativity for the Scottish economy (and the pivotal role Scottish HEIs like the GSA play in equipping the workforce with those skills) is also reflected by the growth priorities and policy goals of The National Innovation Strategy (2023)75 and Future Skills: Action Plan (2021).76 Scotland’s four innovation centres, which includes the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre founded by the GSA77, aim to create transformational partnerships between higher education institutions, colleges, and the public and private sector.
At a more systemic level, the GSA collaborates with key stakeholders, including other higher education institutions, to shape its innovation ecosystem. For example, it has been an active stakeholder in Innovation Centres; Scottish Funding Council’s long-term infrastructure investment programme aiming to create transformative collaborations between higher education institutions, the public and private sectors and colleges. In addition to being the founding and core partner of the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, GSA is working with the Built Environment Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Innovation Centre and has academic links with the Data Lab and Industrial Bio Innovation Centre.
Both the Glasgow City Council Economic Strategy 2022-203078 and the Glasgow City Region Economic Strategy79 recognise that the creative sector is a high growth sector capable of unlocking the potential of the region’s leading sectors including the Digital Economy, Fintech and Data, and Healthcare and Precision Medicine.
This is also reflected in the GCR’s Innovation Action Plan (2023), where the GSA and the wider creative sector in Glasgow are recognised as engines of innovation.
The GSA contributes to the development of specialist talent that goes on to shape Glasgow’s creative enterprise ecosystem. The importance of creative enterprise to Glasgow City is highlighted by the fact that it is home to 10% of Scotland’s registered businesses, but it accounts for 20% of the nation’s creative businesses, many established by GSA graduates, which employ 28% of Scotland’s creative industries workforce, as of December 2023.80
“I think what I was most impressed with was the level of engagement –
it was beyond what we had imagined. Also, the quality of the designs submitted was really good – we got it down
to about six that we could have run with.”
Evelyn McDonald, Chief Executive Officer
(2014 – present), on GSA student participation
in Scottish EDGE
“Without The Glasgow School of Art, the city would not be enriched by the wave of young people, and people of all ages, who contribute so much to the area by coming to learn, and who often choose to stay afterwards. By attracting the next generation of artists, designers, makers, and also critical minds, the GSA acts as the nucleus feeding the creative activity that becomes embedded in the city’s infrastructure.”
“Glasgow is A place that values making, so it is the natural home of an international design industry. Design, and Glasgow, have played key roles at times of creative upheaval and technological change. This is because design practice and design thinking are about identifying opportunities, solving problems and collaboration. you cannot be a designer without being entrepreneurial or collaborative. Our experience of employing GSA graduates over almost four decades shows that the mix of creative skills it instils in its students is utterly unique and perennially useful.”
Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE, Director, Graven (1985-present)
The GSA’s contribution to creative enterprise is multifaceted. The GSA drives creative enterprise through its graduates, who are about three times more likely to become self-employed or establish their own business than the average across Scottish higher education institutions81 (see Chapter 4). In turn, the GSA plays a key role in sustaining Glasgow’s vibrant studio scene. For example, over half of studio and making spaces identified in its GSA Creative Network map were based in Glasgow82 (see Chapter 2).
Through creative enterprise, GSA graduates and staff support Glasgow’s efforts to stay at the frontier of design and digital innovation across a range of industries, including healthcare, hospitality and advanced manufacturing, among others.
Their enterprising mindset is also evident in their efforts to drive social innovation through crafts, making and exhibitions, in spaces such as Strange Fields: The Pipe Factory and pop-up galleries. A testament to graduates’ out-of-the-box thinking was their initiative to hold alternative degree shows at venues across the city in 2021. COVID restrictions in Glasgow restricted access to university campuses but not to cultural venues who could continue to hold exhibitions. Working collaboratively and with partners such The Pipe Factory, Woodlands Community Garden, Mid-Wharf, the Briggait, Transmission, SWG3 and SaltSpace, School of Fine Art graduating students delivered their own exhibitions, supported by the GSA, between May and July comprising the Alternative Degree Show Part 1, the Interlude Film Festival and the Alternative Degree Show Part 2.
Furthermore, the entrepreneurial potential of the GSA graduates’ skillsets and mindsets are increasingly absorbed across a range of industries and firms, including the expanding digital, innovation and management consultancies. For example, there is increasing appreciation of the fact that the design thinking skills taught at the GSA can drive intracompany innovation, and as such, enterprise growth.
Enterprise and innovation impacts: Working with industry
The range of creative expertise that GSA students and staff bring creates value for businesses in industries that are, or have the potential to be, major drivers of economic growth. The case study below demonstrates the reach of the GSA’s industrial links.
The Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT), set up in 2000 with a £661,000 Research and Development Grant from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, is a prime example of the GSA leveraging its cutting-edge facilities to provide commercial support to businesses.
Enterprise and innovation impacts: Engaging with SMEs
The emphasis the GSA places on supporting enterprise is also reflected in its engagement with SME businesses. The value of consultancy services offered to Small or Medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has increased by 77% since 2015/16, compared to 8% across Scottish and 11% across UK higher education institutions.83
The GSA also engaged with Interface, a Scotland-wide service that links businesses with academic institutions. Between September 2021 and June 2023, the GSA undertook 20 collaborative projects with SMEs that received grant funding from the Interface Innovation Vouchers scheme. The diverse range of collaborations facilitated through the scheme is exemplified by the case study below.
“Glasgow has become a very strong start-up city — one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in Europe ... (GSA’s) design thinking is a powerful mechanism for product design and is valuable across multiple fields, including tech businesses.”
Mark Logan OBE, Visiting Professor of Innovation
at the Glasgow School of Art, (2022 – present)
“GSA creates graduates who are very connected, respectful and fluid in how they work — skills that feed directly into entrepreneurial ways
of working.”
Claire Forsyth, Creative Director,
Glasgow Print Studio, (2018-present)
Moreover, the Head of the Department of Product Design Engineering is a member of the Advisory Board of Scotland’s Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC). STAC is Scotland’s first business accelerator, targeting start-ups in the growing internet of things sector,84 which by 2035 is expected to have an economic impact upwards of £6 billion across all industries.85 STAC was co-founded by Paul Wilson (CEO) and Gregor Aikman (COO),86 who is a GSA alumnus.
The value of consultancy services offered to Small or Medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has increased by 77% since 2015/16.
Enterprise and innovation: Collaborations supporting Scotland’s innovation infrastructure
Innovation Centres form part of the Scottish Government’s core-funded innovation infrastructure. The GSA has deep research expertise in the domain of health and care, focused on users’ experience of the healthcare ecosystem (see Chapter 6), which it has leveraged to co-found the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI). The GSA has been a core delivery partner of the DHI for over 10 years. The case study below highlights the contributions of the DHI, and its role in addressing the healthcare crisis facing the country.
The GSA was also part of the network of higher education institutions, led by Edinburgh Napier University, that formally supported the bid for the Built Environment Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Innovation Centre (formerly known as Construction Scotland Innovation Centre). Although the GSA is not a core delivery partner, it has worked with housing sector partners on a range of individual projects involving funding from the BE-ST Innovation Centre.
STAC is Scotland’s first business accelerator, targeting start-ups in the growing internet of things sector1, which by 2035 is expected to have an economic impact upwards of £6 billion across all industries. 2
1 Scotland’s first ‘smart things’ accelerator launched | FutureScot
2 The Economic Impact of Robotics & Autonomous Systems Across UK Sectors
06
Research Impact
The knowledge generated through research is a key driver of innovation that delivers social and economic impact. This section spotlights the GSA’s strategic approach to supporting knowledge creation in its areas of expertise, and how this translates into socio-economic impact.
Why is it important?
Arts and humanities research has intrinsic value in that it fosters discourse around our understanding of society and history, which shapes public perceptions and policy. As noted by Christopher Smith, AHRC Executive Chair and UKRI Creative Industries Sector Champion, maintaining a vibrant arts and humanities community is vital ‘to address the challenge of complexity and engender open constructive debate, in our own subjects, across science and across communities.’87
Research in creative fields more generally is an instrumental component of the knowledge generation ecosystem, as it contributes towards effectively integrating scientific and technological developments into our economies and societies. The increasing emphasis on transdisciplinary research approaches is a testament to this. In its advice to the outgoing government, the Council for Science and Technology noted that with the right investment in R&D in the creative industries, the sector could contribute £132 billion in GVA and create 300,000 new jobs by 2025.88
The cross-cutting nature of creative industries research and innovation can help catalyse the growth of innovation priority sectors identified in Scotland’s Innovation Strategy, including the ‘Health and Life Sciences’, ‘Data & Digital Technology’, ‘Advanced Manufacturing’ and ‘Energy Transition’ sectors, thereby supporting its aspirations to close productivity and business investment gaps relative to international competitors.89
Similarly, creative research and innovation directly supports Glasgow City Region’s ‘Digital Creative Industries’ cluster, which is one of the key clusters informing its Regional Innovation Action Plan and Investment Zones, alongside ‘Health & Life Sciences’, ‘Energy & Net Zero’, ‘Advanced Manufacturing & Precision Engineering’ and ‘Digital and Enabling Technology and Services’. In so doing, it supports the growth objectives of the Glasgow City Economic Strategy around ‘Creative Economy and Screen’ and ‘Life Sciences and Precision Medicine’.90
the Council for Science and Technology noted that with the right investment in R&D in the creative industries, the sector could contribute£132 billion in GVA and create 300,000 new jobs by 20251
The GSA produces world-class research centred around creative practice, which generates distinctive cultural impact by exploring questions around contested socio-political narratives. Moreover, by drawing on archives and collections, including its own, researchers at the GSA uncover new insights through their creative exploration of history and heritage.
The GSA research portfolio focuses on four strategic themes: ‘Sustainable Environment and Economies’, ‘Cultural Landscape and Identity’, ‘History, Heritage, Archives and Collections’ and ‘Health and Care’. The GSA leverages its expertise in these areas to punch above its weight in terms of its research impact.
Research Impacts: Training the next generation of academic talent
The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) concluded that 82% of the GSA’s research was world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*).
In 2022/23, 50 postgraduate research students were enrolled at the GSA. That represents 1 in every 52 students at the GSA, as opposed to 1 in every 93 students at University of the Arts London. These students are part of one of the most vibrant research student communities in the UK, which counted 5,310 PhD students in 2022/23. The GSA Strategic Plan set a target of growing the GSA’s research student population to 85 by 2027.91
The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) concluded that 82% of the GSA’s research was world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*), while 75.5% of the submitted research outputs demonstrated outstanding (4*) or very considerable (3*) and 88% of research impact ranked 3* and 4*.92 In the Art and design: history, practice and theory unit of assessment, the GSA ranked 13th out of 86 higher education institutions in terms of its research power rank.93
Research at the GSA is propelled through partnerships that support its transdisciplinary efforts and leverage research funding. The GSA has worked on projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Innovation UK and Medical Research Council.
In 2022/23, the GSA secured c.£1.9m in research grants and contracts, the 4th highest among special creative higher education institutions. The main sources of research grants and contracts are outlined in Figure 6.1. The GSA Strategic Plan set a target of growing total research income to £3.5m by 2027.94
In 2022/23, the GSA secured c. £1.9m in research grants and contracts, the 4th highest among special creative higher education institutions.
RESEARCH IMPACT: INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
RESEARCH IMPACTS: HISTORY, HERITAGE, ARCHIVES + COLLECTIONS
RESEARCH IMPACT: CULTURAL LANDSCAPE + IDENTITY
Research impacts: Sustainable Environment and Economies
Researchers at the GSA have a strong track record in exploring questions around the design of sustainable and inclusive economies and communities, which responds to the demands and opportunities of the 21st century. The work of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), which was celebrated in the ‘30 Years of MEARU’ exhibition organised by the GSA in 202395, has been instrumental in this respect, including through its effect on policy (as discussed in Chapter 2). The case study (06) below highlights the GSA’s continued research contribution to this field.
Research impacts: Impact on Health and Care
As one of the co-founders and core deliverers of the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (see Chapter 5), the GSA’s approach to health and care research is fundamentally interdisciplinary and cross-cutting. The GSA has deep research expertise in the domain of health and care, and especially the design of healthcare ecosystems focused on the user experience, which is long-standing and wide-ranging.
07
Wellbeing and Societal Impacts
Beyond being drivers of economic activity, the cultural and creative sectors generate social value through their impact on health and wellbeing and on social cohesion more broadly. This section explores the avenues through which the GSA facilitates wider engagement with the arts and culture, and the social impact achieved through these activities.
Why is it important?
In 2019/20 there were 17.8 million visits to Scottish museums and galleries, which supported close to £900 million in gross spending.96 However, there
is increasing recognition the value that the arts and creative industries bring beyond their economic contribution.97
In recent years the body of evidence pointing to the public health and community well-being benefits of interacting with the arts points towards a multitude of benefits both at the societal and the individual level.
At the individual level, interacting with the arts and producing art has been correlated with reduced stress and anxiety for hospital in-patients.98 Research and government evidence also shows that engaging with the arts enhances prosocial behaviour in society-at-large, leading to improved social cohesion.99 In light of challenges in the post-Covid world, the culture and creativity fostered at institutions like the GSA are important community assets in promoting community wellbeing.
The cultural and creative sectors were placed at the forefront of Glasgow’s economic recovery from its post-industrial decline in the 1980s, and they have been key in shaping its identity as a vibrant place with a dynamic economy. The GSA supported Glasgow’s cultural and creative regeneration, including through its involvement with the Garden Festival (1988), European City of Culture (1990) and City of Architecture and Design (1999) and global events such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games, for which GSA staff designed and manufactured the commonwealth baton and medals. In this regard, the relationship between Glasgow and the GSA is a case study for the transformative impact and contribution of the cultural sector and creative industries.
The GSA’s approach to supporting wellbeing and societal impacts
People’s sense of pride in, and connectedness to, their community is among the factors influencing their health and wellbeing outcomes.100 The regeneration activity supported by the GSA’s wider estate plans around the Garnethill and Sauchiehall Street areas (see Chapter 2) is one of the levers through which the GSA is actively impacting the wellbeing of those in its vicinity.
The GSA also strives to make creative education accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. The avenues for achieving this extend beyond scholarships and bursaries. The GSA maintains formal and informal partnerships with Scotland’s college sector to support progression and articulation, as well as engaging in civic partnerships. More broadly, it offers day, weekend and evening courses to both adults and young people interested to engage in creative activities through Open Studio.
Inviting people to engage with and enjoy culture and creativity is integral to the GSA. It has a rich outreach programme through which it aims to make its Archives and Collections accessible to everyone. Through its well-curated exhibitions and active engagement with the city’s wider cultural and creative ecosystem, it thoughtfully presents works of art that expand audiences’ horizons. As a result of creating spaces where people can engage with culture, creativity and each other, the GSA supports individuals’ wellbeing and fosters community cohesion.
“As art unlocks its doors across the country, we know it also unlocks human potential, new ideas, health and wellbeing and investment in our communities. Art can make you feel good, or help you approach and understand what makes you feel bad. In our neighbourhoods creativity can be at the heart of community and help drive essential change.”
“Innovation is not a luxury it is a necessity, enabling the delivery of a sustainable future for us all.”
Professor George Crooks OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, (2013-present)
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Widening participation in tertiary creative education
“After finishing a Saturday class in jewellery, then an NC course at City of Glasgow College and an HND, gradually university felt like an achievable goal for me. From here I had the college’s support with my application for GSA. GSA gave me the support and confidence to develop an artistic identity and confidently speak about myself and my practice.”
Sarah Louise McQuarrie (Silversmithing + Jewellery, 2022) Award-winning goldsmith, designer and maker.
The GSA has consistently met the Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) target for individual higher education institutions, which states that students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10% of full-time first-degree entrants to every individual Scottish universities by 2021. Notably, in 2022/23, 22% of Scottish domiciled full-time first-degree GSA entrants came from the 20% most deprived communities, the third highest share among Scottish higher education institutions. Figure 7.1 shows the increase in the percentage of Scottish domiciled first-degree full-time entrants at the GSA from 2013/14 to 2022/23. The data shows that this percentage has been increasing at the GSA, consistently placing the GSA within the top 3 Scottish higher education institutions since 2018/19. Figure 7.1 also shows that the GSA has consistently exceeded the Scottish average in the 10 academic years from 2013-14 to 2022-23, further underscoring the GSA’s role as an enabler for marginalised communities among HEIs in Scotland. The GSA offers portfolio preparation programmes in-person, but also digital programmes reaching the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Facilitating alternative pathways to tertiary creative education
Currently, the GSA has two formal articulation agreements, which include Associate Student Schemes that enable registered students to progress to the GSA after they complete their college course:
The Forth Valley College Associate Student Scheme, delivered by the GSA, helps prepare students on the HND Sound Production course, at the Stirling campus of Forth Valley College, for admission and progression to the GSA’s BDes (Hons) Sound for the Moving Image programme. The majority of entrants on this programme come from HND courses, as it begins in Year 3.
The Glasgow Clyde College Associate Student Scheme is a unique, long-standing agreement between the Glasgow Clyde College and the GSA. Eligible HNC Art & Design students at the College’s Langside campus have the opportunity to participate in the scheme delivered by the GSA to help them prepare for Year 2 entry to undergraduate programmes in the School of Fine Art and selected programmes in the School of Innovation and Technology and the School of Design.101
Wellbeing and societal impacts: Civic partnerships
The partnership with the Castlehead High School in Paisley – Scotland’s first School of Creativity – highlights the impact of collaboration among education providers in supporting students to learn about and prepare for opportunities in creative fields.
“The Glasgow School of Art exhibition programme is world class. Its public-facing outputs benefit both the immediate community and Glasgow as a whole.”
Katrina Brown, Director, The Common Guild, (2006-2026)
Wellbeing and societal impacts: The contribution of the GSA to the city’s exhibition ecosystem
The GSA strives to make its Archives and Collections widely available. For example:
It is estimated that 5,581 items were in museum collections as of April 2024, a 57% increase since July 2019. The increase is in part due to a couple of large acquisitions to replenish the collections. There were 3,622 visitors to museum displays as of April 2024.
2,950 teaching and teaching support hours involving museum collections and/or staff were delivered between August 2023 and April 2024, a tripling since August 2018 – August 2019.
155 courses involving collections of museum staff were delivered between August 2023 and April 2024 that engaged 1,207 students.
By attracting visitors to its events, the GSA does not only contribute economically to Glasgow’s economy, it also supports the wellbeing of individual attendees. In 2022/23, it supported c. £280,000 of wellbeing value among the 5,428 people102 who attended its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow.103 Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow attracted 12,152 visitors104 and c. £620,000 in wellbeing impacts.105
The GSA’s successful exhibition programme is recognised for bringing together perspectives from international and local artists and highlighting the relevance of their work in the context of Glasgow and Scotland. The quality of GSA exhibitions foregrounds its research capacity, and it provides valuable opportunities to engage students in the curatorial process.
The embeddedness of the GSA in the exhibition and curator ecosystem locally, nationally and beyond amplifies its public engagement impact. The GSA has been a consistent partner on major cultural events, such as Glasgow International, a contemporary art festival. Moreover, GSA artists exhibit their work in galleries and venues across the city. Beagles & Ramsay’s NHOTB & RAD exhibition at GOMA is a recent example, among many (see Case Study: Glasgow’s Cultural Partnerships).
The following case studies highlight how GSA Exhibitions have the power to help their audience connect with their community and environment. They are also tangible examples of how interacts with other key stakeholders in the city’s vibrant creative ecosystem (see Chapter 2) and fuels its vitality.
Between 2020/21 and 2022/23, its exhibitions, public lectures and museum education events in Glasgow attracted 12,152 visitors1 and c. £620,000 in wellbeing impacts. 2
1 The Glasgow School of Art, 2024 2 At the UK level, this increases to c. £950,000 in wellbeing benefits among 18,566 attendees, including those attending Eureka in Somerset House, London in 2022/23.
Direct impacts refer to the employment and wealth creation resulting from GSA’s activities, measured in terms of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employment and Gross Value Added (GVA):
Employment numbers for 2022/23 have been sourced from HESA. Additionally, a snapshot provided by GSA’s HR department reflective of the 2021/22 academic year provided granular information on the number of positions filled by unique direct employees by mode (Full Time/Part Time), FTE, residential location and salary.
Gross Value Added (GVA) is the key measure of economic output at the level of a firm, sector or region. It can be measured in a number of ways and typically for a firm this is done using the income approach, as the sum of EBITDA and compensation of employees. These figures have been sourced from the Art School’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2022/23.
Indirect effects
Indirect impacts refer to the employment and GVA supported by GSA’s external expenditure (capital and revenue) on local suppliers. This expenditure creates employment and value added within GSA’s immediate suppliers and within all subsequent tiers of the supply chain, as GSA’s suppliers make purchases from their own suppliers, and so on.
The Glasgow School of Art holds a database of expenditure on external suppliers. This contains information for each supplier transaction including the location of the supplier106, the type of purchase and the total level of spend for 2021/22, which was inflated to 2022/23.
Using the type of purchase classification used in the database, we mapped the GSA’s spend onto the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) contained in Hatch Urban Solutions’ Input-output model for the UK and the regions, and used the postcode information to determine the location of each supplier.
The full economic impacts of this expenditure were then estimated using our input-output model. The model is based on data from the UK National Accounts and allows us to estimate the supply chain multiplier effects from an initial injection of expenditure in a particular sector.
Induced effects
Induced effects refer to the effects of spending by employees whose jobs are supported directly within the Art School and indirectly within its supply chain:
Impacts from expenditure by GSA’s employees have been estimated using data on wages and salaries from the Art School’s HR data, adjusting for income tax (PAYE), National Insurance contributions, pension contributions and saving rates. Different rates of leakage of expenditure are assumed for the different impact areas. Our input-output model has been used to estimate the economic impacts from this spending.
Impacts from expenditure by employees in the supply chain have been estimated using the Type 2 (indirect and induced) multipliers within our input-output model.
Student Impacts
Expenditure
Expenditure by GSA’s students is an important source of its economic contribution. The National Student Income and Expenditure Survey, published by BIS107, provides detailed data on the spending behaviour of students in UK universities, split by full time/part time students and the goods and services purchased (other breakdowns are also available). We have used the data from the latest survey (for 2021/22), along with data on the student population at The Glasgow School of Art, to estimate the economic impacts of this expenditure.
The approach is as follows:
Work out how many full time and part time students live in each impact area, split by those who live in accommodation owned by the Art School and those who live in other accommodation
Analyse how many of these originally came from outside the impact area before moving to study there – this includes both domestic and international students
Apply the average expenditure per student (split by full- and part-time students) to these breakdowns of the student population (excluding expenditure which represents a transfer to GSA’s, such as tuition fees and rents, for those living in Art School accommodation)
Allocate this expenditure to sectoral categories in our input-output model, using a best fit analysis of the categories in the Student Income and Expenditure Survey
Apply leakage rates for each of the impact areas, to each expenditure category
Estimate the economic impacts from this expenditure using our input-output model.
We have estimated the total economic impact from this expenditure, as well as the portion which comes from students who were originally from outside the impact area.
Visitor Impacts
The Glasgow School of Art generates visits in a number of ways. The challenge is to understand how many visits there are, how much these visitors spend in the local economy, what they spend their money on and what the consequent economic impacts are.
We have only estimated economic value generated by visits from friends and relatives of students. The process has been to:
Analyse the origin of all Full-Time students, including the country of origin of international students (using data from the GSA)
Analyse the total number of UK visits from outside Glasgow and Scotland, and associated expenditure (using data from the Great Britain Day Visits Survey)
Analyse the total number of international visits for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives, and associated expenditure, by country of origin (using data from the ONS International Passenger Survey)
Allocated this expenditure to sectoral categories in our input-output model, using UK Tourism Satellite Account
Estimate the economic impacts from this expenditure using out input-output model.
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