JONWAYSTAN

Lately, I’ve been diving deep into the state of postgraduate art studies. As I look around at the industry and the academic world, I can’t help but ask: Have we lost the plot?

Many of us go into a Master’s program hoping to deepen our craft and find our voice. But increasingly, it feels like we are stepping into a spreadsheet instead of a studio. I did some research on this (yes, actual research!), and what I found confirms a lot of the suspicions floating around the creative community.

Here is what is happening to our art degrees.

1. The “Bologna” Trap 🍝

No, not the pasta. The Bologna Process.

Back in 1999, Europe decided to standardize higher education to make degrees comparable across countries. It sounds great on paper—easy mobility, clear standards. But for art? It’s been a bit of a disaster.

The system was designed for scientists and lawyers, not painters and digital artists. It forced the messy, chaotic, beautiful process of art-making into neat little boxes called “modules” and “credits”. Instead of open-ended studio time where you can fail and experiment, we now have “learning outcomes.”

We are essentially trying to measure the unmeasurable. And when you try to measure art like you measure engineering, something vital gets lost.

2. The “Science-Envy” of Art Schools 🔬

There is a huge pressure now for art to look “scientific” to be taken seriously by universities. The research points to a phenomenon called “Science-Envy”.

• The Quantitative Problem: Universities love metrics. They want to know “how much” and “how many.” But art is qualitative. It’s about “how” and “why.”
• The Business of Art: We are seeing more curriculums obsessed with UX Design, “Creative Business,” and “Design Thinking”. Don’t get me wrong, those are useful skills. But when a Fine Art degree focuses more on optimizing a product than provoking a thought, are we really studying art? Or are we just training to be employees?

We are reaching a point where students are creating work just to generate data for a thesis, rather than creating work that actually has a soul.

3. Is There a Future? (The Good News) 🚀

Okay, enough doom and gloom. Is there a way out?

The research suggests we need a Radical Rethinking. We need to stop apologizing for being artists and start embracing the things that make art unique—ambiguity, friction, and tacit knowledge (thinking through making).

There are already some cool models breaking the mold:

• The “Critical Studio” Model: Schools like Goldsmiths and RCA are rejecting the module-heavy approach. They focus on the “Crit”—intense, qualitative feedback loops where the art is the center of the universe, not the paperwork.
• Alternative Schools: There is a rising wave of unaccredited, peer-led schools like the School of the Damned in the UK. They operate on “mutual aid” rather than tuition fees, proving you don’t need a university stamp to have a rigorous artistic community.

My Takeaway: We need to reclaim the studio. Whether you are in a formal institution or learning on your own, don’t let the “metrics” kill your vibe. Art isn’t about solving a problem efficiently; sometimes, it’s about creating a problem beautifully.

What do you think? Is an Art Master’s still worth it in 2025, or should we be looking at these alternative paths?

Cheers,
Jon