Updates from the Policy Team 

• We are extending the deadline on In the Room, our Access to Workshops and Studios Survey. The survey will now close on the 8^th April to help us reach our target number of responses. Get involved by 8th April.

• The Office for Students (OfS) recently announced that it is seeking powers to regulate students’ union in relation to free speech matters. Gathering feedback from across the SU, our Senior Policy and Research Officer compiled a response to the OfS’s consultation on free speech on behalf of Arts SU. You can read the response now.  

HE news 

• English universities face a tight deadline to address free speech issues before the Office for Students' new scheme takes effect, potentially leading to a prioritisation of these grievances over others, warn sector leaders. The Universities Alliance highlights the complexity of such complaints, suggesting more time is needed for thorough investigation. Learn more.

• Graduates on just £25,000 face a 40% marginal tax rate as a result of tuition fee loan debt. The real life impact this has on the spending power of graduates, who should be assets in their local economies, is the economic elephant British politics ignores. Read more.

• The Sutton Trust charity is calling on political parties to reform the student maintenance system in England. Research carried out for the Sutton Trust estimates that poorer students could graduate with £60,100 of debt – which is £16,500 more than the £43,600 for those from wealthier families. The charity is calling for an increase in the overall amount of maintenance available to students in England to better reflect the living costs they face, as well as the reintroduction of maintenance grants for poorer students, which were abolished in England in September 2016. Read more.

Photo: Emily Waters

Arts / Creative Industries news 

• The British Museum was the UK's most-visited attraction for the first time since before the Covid pandemic, according to a tourism industry body. Figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) showed there were 5,820,860 visits to the central London museum in 2023, a 42% increase on 2022. The museum put the rise in part down to its China's hidden century exhibition. Read more.

• Ryan Gander, Anya Gallaccio, Harold Offeh, Shahpour Pouyan, and Diana Puntar have been named as the five shortlisted artists to design London’s very first permanent HIV/AIDS memorial. The public monument will be located near Middlesex Hospital, where Princess Diana opened the U.K.’s first AIDS unit in 1987. It will be unveiled in 2026. Read more.