Telling their stories: Students’ experiences with creativity

In December 2008 we were awarded funding by the Creativity Fellowship to carry out interviews and facilitate a creative workshop with students on the Illustration Degree Course and with students studying Creative Writing in the School of Language, Literature and Communication. Supporting students with their creative process can help to enhance their assessed work and also provide them with life skills that they can take into the work place but while the University of Brighton and the broader HE academy can see the intrinsic value of supporting and encouraging creativity, do students understand their creativity and how it can impact on their studies and also, their personal development? Enabling students to make links between their sources for inspiration and the development of their creative practice can sometimes be difficult, we hope to identify barriers and motivators with the creative process and encourage students to explore and share their creative process to produce academic work. We will identify strategies that will enhance creativity in students across the curriculum and make recommendations for inspiring students with their creative processes.