The University of the Arts London (UAL) generates and inspires the creativity the world needs for a better future. It is ranked second in the world for Art and Design and is formed of 6 Colleges based in London: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts. On the UAL website the university describes itself as:
“We are a community of makers, thinkers, pioneers and storytellers redesigning the future.”
The UAL recognises and embraces their role in giving its students the education they need to flourish in a changing world and this includes the acceptance of Artificial Intelligence as a rapidly emerging feature of that world. Art and design teachers in schools might do well to look to the UAL for emerging models of professional practice for their own sector of art and design education.
Would that this were so. However, it remains the case that, in England, students of art and design in both Key Stages 4 and 5 are, in effect, prohibited from engaging with AI because the examination system does not accept anything generated by AI as evidence of a student’s independent and personal response and, therefore, cannot be awarded marks.
The reasons for this have nothing to do with art and design education but arise from the need to protect the educational integrity of the examination system itself and traditional educational inertia. Students are further discouraged from engaging with AI because they will be deemed to be cheating if they use AI and fail to acknowledge it. Thus, there is a serious risk of significant penalties and moral approbation attached to any use of AI in the school art and design curriculum. We have written about this in greater detail on the Exams Rules and Options pages.
It is salutory to compare the defensive inertia of the school sector, which seeks to protect students from AI, with the enlightened approach to future creativity of the Strategy published by UAL.
Click here for the full online UAL Position Statement.
Click here to download a PDF of the UAL Strategy – a commitment to creativity in a rapidly changing world.
UAL Position statement
Our strategy pledges to give its students the education they need to flourish in a changing world.
The rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into workplaces, education and wider society, and the skillsets required to use AI well, provides an opportunity to refresh the ways in which we approach the use of AI technologies in student learning, through our teaching, assessment and research practices.
Students and staff need exposure to widely used tools to remain competitive and literate in the digital economy. At the same time, we recognise that providing access to AI tools, including those developed by large technology companies, raises important questions about environmental impact, equity, and justice.
These concerns sit alongside our commitments to climate action, social purpose, and decolonial practice. Rather than ignoring these tensions, we aim to engage with them critically and transparently. We will strive to use AI in ways that align as closely as possible with our values, while equipping our community to question, challenge, and shape the future of these technologies”
The UAL Strategy was redeveloped in January 2026. In England the Department for Education published a policy paper in August 2025. ‘Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in Education.‘ It was generic and led by IT expertise. It did not take into account of art and design education and contained only passing references to industrial professional practices. The writers began to create it in 2024. So it is probably not too much of an exaggeration to suggest that this Policy Paper is based on the AI landscape as it was understood in 2024 (so already out of date). It appears focused on protecting children and school networks from early AI and does not go beyond lip service to the needs of students studying art and design in Key Stages 4 and 5 to become educated in the use of AI, which will inform the rest of their working lives.
The UAL Strategy consist of 3 delivery phases. Phase 2 (2026 -2028) talks of strategic alliances: “We’ll focus on building strategic alliances that help us deliver the strategy. We’ll reposition ourselves at the global, national and local level. We’ll have to be both ambitious and flexible to adapt to geopolitical changes and the national policy landscape.”
It would be comforting to think that a strategic alliance at ‘national and local level’ might include a conversation about art and design education in schools. But it is hard to see how this could be fruitful until the inertia and negativity surrounding AI is resolved. Perhaps a first step would be to identify AI champions to talk to.