The 181-year-old institution’s first ever commissioned impact report reveals in numbers its worth for Glasgow, Scotland and the UK.
In 2022/23, GSA employed 615 staff, an increase of 37% since 2015/16, translating to around 460 FTE jobs.
A total of 430 staff were based in Scotland, of whom more than half (56%) resided in the city of Glasgow. There are also about 10 staff living in Moray, where the Highlands & Islands campus is based.
With around 3500 students and staff on campus, in 2022/23, GSA attracted more than £25 million in staff, student and visitor expenditure to Glasgow.
GSA has a high retention rate of international students (Image: Newsquest)
The redevelopments of the The Reid and Stow buildings represented a £75 million capital investment in Glasgow’s city centre.
The report estimates that the expenditure of staff employed by the GSA, along with those in the supply chain, supported £5 million in GVA and 30 jobs in Glasgow, increasing to £25 million in GVA and 180 FTE jobs in Scotland.
Glasgow is recognised as one of the most vibrant centres for contemporary art in the UK, outside of London.
GSA has educated 11 Turner Prize winners, and a further 12 nominees.
The history of GSA starts with the Foulis Academy, which was established in 1753 during the Scottish Enlightenment, to deliver a European style art education.
In 1845, GSA was established as one of the first government schools of design, which were set up across the UK to support industry with design.
GSA was established in 1845 (Image: Newsquest)
Today, in addition to its Glasgow campus, which is located at the heart of the city centre, GSA’s presence extends to the Scottish Highlands.
It has four specialist schools: Mackintosh School of Architecture, School of Design, School of Fine Art and School of Innovation and Technology.
In 2022/23, GSA had a total of 2,605 students, an increase of 26% since 2015/16.
For context, that makes GSA’s student body comparable to that of the Royal College of Art (2,985).
The number of postgraduate students, rose from 466 in 2019/20 to 777 in 2024/25.
Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon is among the notable GSA alumni (Image: Robert Perry/Shutterstock)
GSA ranks second among specialist creative HIE in terms of its share of students studying art degrees, after the Royal College of Art (20%).
It has the fifth highest share of postgraduate students out of fourteen specialists creative HEIs in the UK.
Scottish students accounted for 45% of the GSA’s student body, including local students, with 14% of all students coming from Glasgow.
In 2022/23, 22% of GSA’s Scottish domiciled full-time first-degree entrants came from the 20% most deprived communities, making it the third highest ranked higher education institution in Scotland.
More than a third (36%) of students at the GSA came from abroad,
The report states that “the proportion of GSA students from China is greatly overrepresented compared to the rest of UK institutions.”
The vast majority of GSA students (90%) lived in Scotland during term time, with 69% staying in Glasgow “which highlights the contribution they make to the city’s vibrancy, creative clusters and economy”.
In total, the expenditure of students at the GSA supports an estimated £10m in GVA and 250 FTE jobs in Glasgow.
Data shows that 15% of its graduates were self-employed, freelancers or running their own business fifteen months after completing their studies, compared to 5% of graduates from Scottish and 6% of graduates from UK higher education institutions.
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GSA has a high graduate retention rate. Surveys of international alumni from 2020-2024 show that 54% remained in the UK with two thirds choosing to stay in Glasgow.
More than half stayed through UK visas.
Graduates entered diverse fields with 47% in design, 27% in fine art, 16% in innovation and technology and 11% in architecture.
The GSA’s Archives and Collections, attracted 3,622 visitors to museum displays from August 2023 to April 2024.
Commenting on the impact report Professor Penny Macbeth, Director and Principal of GSA said: “It was quite a passion project for me.
Professor Penny Macbeth, Director and Principal of GSA (Image: Newsquest)
“When I worked in Manchester we did of a lot of this type of work.
“I was very aware that it’s important, particularly for the smaller specialists, to really state the case for why they are important.
“That’s just an ongoing battle for us all and it doesn’t matter whether we are in a region or a major city like Glasgow, or even a cluster in London.
“We all need to state what is special about us, what’s brilliant about us and where our impact lies.
“We contribute massively to the GVA of the UK economy but significantly to Scotland and Glasgow.
“Therefore we are creating economic benefit but also social benefit.
“We create jobs but we also create really creative, inquisitive and curious students who are entrepreneurial and create new businesses or new intellectual property.
“So all of those things are so hugely important to understand, alongside everything that everyone assumes that we contribute in creative and cultural benefit.”
Prof Macbeth said she was particularly proud of the institution’s high graduate retention rate.
GSA leaders have said they remain committed to a full rebuild of the celebrated Mackintosh building, following two catastrophic fires.
The project is currently awaiting the outcome of a confidential insurance arbitration hearing to finalize funding.