The importance of writing as a material practice for art and design students: A contemporary rereading of the Coldstream Reports

This paper suggests that strong beliefs about the recommendation of academic writing for practitioners in the Coldstream Reports remain in teaching and management positions across the current Higher Education (HE) sector. However, an intensive re-reading of the reports establishes these beliefs are unfounded. This article posits that upholding these institutional assumptions may have an impact on how writing is used as a component of examination and therefore aligned with the need for academic parity across the HE sector, rather than as a tool for understanding and articulating practice. As a result, this article calls for the reinstatement of a unified HE art and design curriculum to be filled with a diversity of pedagogical approaches, including writing practices, that are complementary to and inform the purposes of creative practice.