Recent data has revealed that arts subjects have dropped dramatically at Advanced Level (A-level), with art and design entries shrinking to their smallest share ever recorded at 4.7%, according to advocacy organisation Campaign for the Arts. Meanwhile, there has been a significant decline at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level in the share of arts subjects to nearly half since 2010; this decrease has plateaued in the last few years. A-level results were announced on 13 August while GCSE grades were revealed on 20 August.
Data analysis by Campaign for the Arts indicates that the total share of arts A-level entries—including art and design, film and television, music and dance—has dropped by more than a third in the last sixteen years, now accounting for only 10% of total entries.
“In 2010, roughly one in every six-and-a-half A-level entries was in an arts subject. In 2026, it is one in ten,” says a Campaign for the Arts statement. Art and design entries accounted for 5.4% in 2010, falling to 4.7% in 2026.
Meanwhile, arts subjects made up only 7% of the total number of GCSE entries this year, compared to 13.4% in 2010. However, GCSE art and design entries rose slightly from 3.35% of overall share in 2025 to 3.41% this year (the figure in 2010 was 3.5%), an increase of just under 5000 students.
Jack Gamble, the director of the Campaign for the Arts, told Arts Professional: “The arts’ share of GCSE entries is at a devastatingly low point, having shrunk by almost half since 2010. This year that share stayed the same, but stagnation is not recovery.
“The government has pledged to revitalise arts education and to rethink the policies that got us here. It is vital they keep that promise and start to turn this around. Arts education matters.”
The State of the Arts report, published by Campaign for the Arts and the University of Warwick in 2024, stated that funding pressures and school performance measures such as the English Baccalaureate (EBacc, introduced in 2010) and Progress 8 (introduced in 2016), have “contributed to a widespread marginalisation of the arts in English state-funded secondary schools”. The EBacc, for example, scores students in core subjects such as English and mathematics, but excludes arts subjects. Progress 8, which tracks a pupil’s progress from the age of 11 to 16, also places emphasis on English and maths. The Labour government announced plans to scrap the EBacc late last year, and to reform Progress 8 to place more value on other subjects including the arts.
Alison Cole, the director of The Cultural Policy Unit (and former editor of The Art Newspaper), says: “A broad and balanced education, which fully encompasses arts and humanity subjects, will be even more important in the age of AI where creative and critical thinking skills will be at a premium.”