Letter: The price of art

Sir: The article by Lucy Hodges would seem to belie the negative headline ("Art students `have no chance of getting jobs' ", 4 December).

Recent research, titled Destinations and Reflections, initiated by 14 higher education institutions, illustrates the diversity for employment outcomes by arts, craft and design graduates. With the greatly increased graduate population, there is no longer a simple set of vocational outcomes but a complex set of opportunities, many of which are created by the enterprise and imagination of graduates themselves.

Businesses increasingly recognise that innovation and creative thinking are personal skills that have a high market value. Art, craft and design graduates will continue to flourish, as Vaughan Grylls points out, particularly when set against the perspective of the knowledge-driven economy.

Professor NORMAN TAYLOR

Director, Surrey Institute of Art and Design

Farnham, Surrey