Publishing Company Blog | Is a creative writing degree worth the money?

Some people say you'll never get a job with a creative writing degree, but they teach valuable transferable skills

When the University of East Anglia offered the first British MA in creative writing almost 35 years ago, it caused academic scandal. According to Malcolm Bradbury, the writer who helped set it up, "some thought writing couldn't be taught. Some thought, if it could be, it shouldn't be."

Despite this opposition there are now hundreds of creative writing courses, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. So are they worth the money?

A search on the Ucas website shows seventy eight institutions offer creative writing as an undergraduate subject, and course options get even wider at post-graduate level, with even Oxbridge getting in on the act. But the Cambridge MA, will set you back £10,000; double that figure if you are an overseas student.

Many suspect that degree courses cash in on the hopes and dreams of aspiring writers, or that such an apparently woolly subject fails to prepare students for the world of employment. In practice, course prospectuses carefully avoid setting up false expectations, and emphasise the transferable skills you acquire as a student of writing.

Julia Bell, novelist and tutor in creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, argues that graduates of its programme "should have the critical and rhetorical skills to get a job in the creative industries, in education, editing, copywriting and so on".

But do employers feel the same way? Ellie Pike, HR adviser at Penguin, is keen to stress that applications are assessed on an individual basis. She says: "For positions in marketing and publicity as well as to some extent, editorial, the skills that come from creative writing degrees can be very valuable".

Jon Elsom, executive creative director of Bray Leino, a marketing and advertising company, is himself a graduate of the MA at Birkbeck. Although Jon speaks highly of his course he, like Pike, places more emphasis on the individual applicant:

"Academic background is less important than evidence of creative flair in a portfolio. It's never been the case that your academic qualifications are as important. That's why creative departments are such melting pots, because they're full of people from all sorts of different backgrounds."

But what of the experience itself? And will it really make you a better writer? Actor Sophie Ward decided to diversify her career and has now graduated from the National Academy of Writing.

She says: "Taking a creative writing course absolutely improved my writing. Taking part in workshops and being critical of my writing helped me not only to write better but also to understand the process of editing and rewriting."

Charlotte Barnes, currently studying a creative writing MA at Birmingham University, says: "The course has encouraged me to write, whether I feel like it or not. I've got out of this cliché of 'waiting for a muse', so if nothing else it's helped me to become a more prolific writer and student.

"It's also improved the quality of my writing by pushing me to try new things, or perhaps write familiar things but in different and experimental ways."

The reality is that publishing success may only come to a minority of creative writing graduates, but the most noted writers do often come from MA writing programmes.

Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Nathan Filer, the latest Costa book prize winner, are just some examples. Maybe you don't need to do a degree or a master's to be a successful writer, but the training you'll get could help you on your way.

• What do you think? Are you studying a creative writing degree? Share your experiences in the comment section below.