The Stage

CDS in call to establish single funding system

Published Friday 30 April 2004 at 09:20 by Ruth Gillespie

The Conference of Drama Schools has called on the government to consolidate its funding schemes for vocational acting and stage management courses into one system.

In an interim review of funding for higher education dance and drama institutions the CDS welcomed recent financial support from the Department for Education and Skills, the Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales and the National Funding Council for Scotland. But a spokesperson for the CDS said that it would be preferable to have just one allocation scheme applicable to every course.

Saul Hyman, executive secretary of the CDS, said: “We seek simplification of the system whereby all vocational studies for acting and stage management are funded equally while recognising the high cost of delivery of vocational training.”

Government reforms introduced early last year forced schools receiving funding to choose whether they wanted further education status in order to continue with the popular Dance and Drama Awards or higher education status in order to share the funds that go to universities.

In the past there had been a clear definition between the two sectors. Further education offered vocational and skills-based training, while the higher education sector offered degrees and more academic training.

However, this became blurred over the years. An important difference is that the DaDA scheme funds individual students, while subsidy in the higher education sector goes to the institution.

Those choosing higher education status had to decide either to become a department of a university, merge with other organisations to form a conservatoire or become a higher education institution in their own right. At the time principals from some of the country’s leading dance and drama schools feared that the changes would leave them without enough income to continue teaching at a high standard and could force them to close completely.

There will be a further review in 2006 of the recent funding allocations which saw the Birmingham School of Acting, the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Bristol Old Vic, the Conservatoire of Dance and Drama and the GSA Conservatoire receive financial support for 2004/5.