Inside The Kiln: UAL Student Experiences of Creative Burnout (2026)
Inside the Kiln is a new research report from Arts SU, exploring how students at University of the Arts London (UAL) experience creative burnout during their studies.
Based on qualitative research with UAL students across disciplines, the report examines how creative burnout affects students’ ability to generate ideas, experiment, take creative risks, and stay connected to their practice.
The report highlights the structural factors that can contribute to creative burnout, including assessment design, deadline clustering, expectations around originality, access to resources, critique culture, and the pressures of preparing for the creative industries. It also sets out recommendations for how UAL and Arts SU can better support sustainable creative practice.
You can read the report here
You can also read a PDF copy of the report here.