Australia’s arts and creative sectors are facing a mounting education crisis, with new research warning of a widening gap between national cultural policy rhetoric and the reality of shrinking arts education pathways in schools and universities.

A comprehensive review of national data shows a steady decline in arts subject enrolments at senior secondary level and a parallel contraction of creative arts degree courses in higher education since 2018.

The downturn has accelerated following the introduction of the federal Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) policy in 2020, which significantly increased student fees for arts, humanities and creative courses while subsidising disciplines deemed more “job-ready”.

The findings sit uneasily alongside Australia’s National Cultural Policy, Revive: a place for every story, a story for every...