Education

The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film & Television (The SI) has been announced as the new name for Scotland's MGA Academy of Performing Arts.

The renaming was instigated by the school's new owners, Irish production house Silver Rock Studios. Funding for the school has been secured from West Lothian Council, Creative Scotland, and the Scottish Government.

The institute, Scotland's only school accredited by the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT), is now based in a campus in Livingston and will be open to international students for the first time.

President and CEO of The SI, Andy Egan, said: “It is an honour to introduce The Scottish Institute and open our brand new campus to our wonderful students, staff and visitors.

"The institute is built on the academy’s reputation and our roots in Edinburgh. This pivotal expansion further marks our commitment to fostering an environment where creativity, learning and profession development take centre stage."

He added: "As we invite our students to our new, state-of-the-art Livingston campus we aspire to nurture a hub that champions creativity, entrepreneurship and learning to inspire the next generation of talent.”

University museums and collections from 21 higher education institutes will receive a share of £14m of Higher Education Museums, Galleries, and Collections funding each year until 2029/2030.

The funding from Research England - part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation - has been raised from £11.7m and will go to 40 higher education museums, galleries, and collections, compared to 33 in previous rounds.

Among those receiving the multi-year grants are nine museums and collections at Cambridge University, which will share more than £2.9m, and four at Oxford, splitting more than £4m.

Three Birmingham University collections will share £400,000, while the Royal College of Music Museum and The Courtauld Institute of Art will get over £221,000 and £696,000, respectively.

Dr Liz Hide, Director of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University, which has been awarded £210,000 a year, said the funding would go toward “[ensuring] researchers can fully utilise our new Collections Research Centre, and enabling our outstanding collections to inspire many new avenues of research across both the sciences and the humanities.”

Staffordshire University has teamed up with the Gatehouse Theatre in Stafford to give students a chance to get involved in productions on and off stage.

The BBC reports that under the scheme, drama students will be guaranteed an audition for the theatre's annual Shakespeare production.

In addition, students on other creative industry courses will be encouraged to try out backstage and technical roles.

Deborah Sanderson, Head of Strategic Marketing at Staffordshire University, said the scheme has the potential to "open doors" for students and graduates to get experience of the backstage environment and meet the people behind productions.

Working class children are being denied the same opportunities to become actors or musicians that private school pupils are afforded, Labour Leader Keir Starmer has said.

The Independent reports that analysis conducted by the Labour Party found that although 94% of children go to state schools, just 60% of British actors, directors and musicians nominated in the last decade for major film, TV and music awards were state-educated.

“It is short-sighted and frankly immoral, to allow arts and culture to become the domain of a few privileged pupils," Starmer said.

“Britain is a world leader in music and film, but we are holding back masses of potential because the Conservatives’ creativity crisis is shutting kids out.”

Starmer's comments follow on from a speech made by Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire last week in which she said creative education would be at the heart of the school curriculum under a Labour government.