Working-class students will be worst hit by cuts to arts and humanities education, says author Kit de Waal, who believes the government is “presenting the subjects as second best”. The writer of bestseller My Name Is Leon says she is “appalled” that the government’s promotion of Stem subjects has coincided with, she believes, arts being viewed as “some sort of frippery”.
“It has been presented by this government as second best, as the soft subject. It’s not promoted, it’s not valued,” says De Waal from her office at the top of the Attenborough building at the University of Leicester, where she recently became the first Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence.
