‘This will attract a new type of student’: how Goldsmiths’ digital-first degrees will help people supercharge their careers

Goldsmiths’ new online courses offer flexibility to students who might not have had the opportunity to study before. Photograph: SolStock/Getty Images

A cursory glance at Goldsmiths’ alumni list goes some way in explaining its reputation as one of the world’s leading creative universities. Nearly a quarter of Turner prize winners have passed through its doors, from Steve McQueen to Damien Hirst, and Antony Gormley to Charlotte Prodger. Blur formed here (in the French department, if you believe Alex James). Sam Taylor-Johnson credits Goldsmiths with giving her the “power to think for myself”, while Linton Kwesi Johnson, James Blake and Katy B all burnished their artistic spurs at the London New Cross campus.

This summer, Goldsmiths will continue that tradition by launching five new fully online courses spanning tech, psychology and children’s literature. One of these programmes, the MSc AI and Creative Practice, is believed to be among the first postgraduate degrees globally to merge artificial intelligence with the arts. It might just produce the first Turner prize (or even Brit or Booker) winner to create work using AI.