Creative Arts: How hard is it to get into, and do graduates get jobs?

Courses in Creative Arts encompass everything from visual arts, music and theatre, design, graphic arts, media and photography.  

You may already be aware that courses in the field of Creative Arts require some of the lowest ATAR scores of any field. The Good Universities Guide calculated an average ATAR requirement of 72 for Creative Arts, and 12 courses had ATAR cut-off of below 55. However, it’s important to note that a low ATAR cut-off doesn’t make a course automatically easy to get into — many have other entry requirements, such as auditions and portfolios. 

What can I do with a Creative Arts degree? 

With rapid growth in the digital space, more graduates are working in corporations as well as in studios, with many working outside specialist creative organisations. This also reflects a new appreciation of the arts as a potential export industry, following the high-profile growth of Australia’s popularity as a film production entity and the internationally renowned success of many Australian artists, including actors, animators and authors. 

Is it hard to get a job in creative arts? 

Graduates of Creative Arts courses are also some of the least employed in the country, when we compare to national averages. Just 53% of students reported having full-time employment four months after graduating — this is the lowest employment figure of any field of study. 

While it’s common to link a course with a low ATAR cut-off to a poor graduate outcome — as the above figures indicate — it’s important to look a little deeper. When you look at individual universities, many have outperformed the national average for graduate employment.  

Take Charles Sturt University for example: graduates recorded an average employment rate of 66.7%, which is actually 13 points ahead of the national average. It’s also higher than the national average for graduates of Science (62%) and Psychology (63%).